Talk Like A Pirate and Rock Your School

September 19th, was Talk Like A Pirate Day and Rock Your School!  When my students came to school today, they found Mrs. Wanke dressed like a pirate and a treasure chest locked up!  The treasure box had three kinds of locks securing it.  One was a number code, another was a litter code, and the last one was a key lock.  We wanted to know what we had to do to see what was inside the treasure box. 

I explained that they would have to do a series of challenges to learn the codes and earn the key!  They were SO ready and motivated to complete these tasks!

Share with consent from parents.

Share with consent from parents.

First we listened to a couple of stories to set the tone for the day and to grow our scheme of pirates. 

I explained our for our first challenge we were going to create our very own buried treasure map.  We had to follow specific directions to create this map.  (This fit nicely since we have been working on following directions and working on maps with our story from last week.)

These are the directions that students had to follow.  I printed them on the back of the map so parents could see the activity, but I read them aloud to my students. 

Sharing with consent from parents. 

After this challenge we earned a the letter K.  There would be two more challenges to earn the letters E and Y to spell the word KEY. Once they spelled the word KEY, they would get the key to open the lock. 

Our next challenge was a STEM challenge. Students had to work with our partner to create a pirate ship that could actually float and sail across our ocean (kid pool)  carrying 3 pennies.  

They were only given certain materials.  Aluminum foil, 3 strips of masking tape, a small ball of clay, a coffee filter, and a straw.  

I was so proud, they worked really hard and cooperatively with their partners. They developed a plan and worked together to problem solve when things did not go as planned.  

Sharing with consent from parents. 

Sharing with consent from parents. 

We had SO much fun creating these and watching them sail across the ocean.  My students would jump and hug their partners when their ships sailed across! 

Here is just a video of one of our ships sailing across the ocean!

After completing this challenge, they earned the letter E!  

After lunch we came back and were ready to get that treasure box unlocked!  We had several activities to do during math!  The first one was to create, as a team, a giant 100's chart with gold coins! 

Sharing with consent from parents. 

Sharing with consent from parents. 

Sharing with consent from parents. 

This was a VERY difficult challenge!  They worked so hard and persevered!  Students erupted into cheers when we got our last letter Y!  We finally got one of the locks open!

The next math challenge was to find the missing number in the number bonds. Each correct answer gave students a letter for the code below.  The secret code spelled out the three number for the combination lock.  

  

Once again, I was SO impressed with how hard we worked to complete this challenge. 

Sharing with consent from parents. 

All this hard work paid off and students learned the combination and opened our second lock!

The final challenge of the day had to deal with our spelling! I gave students a sheet of paper to write words that had the spelling pattern we have been working on. On this page four spaces were circled.  If we successfully spelled the words, the circled spaces would reveal the letter combination for our final lock!  

Well...guess what?  WE DID IT!  We got the final lock opened.  Students could barely contain themselves when I opened the treasure box.  Inside was GOLD OREO cookies!

Painted with Wilton Gold Color Mist

You can get it at Walmart, Amazon, or Party City.  Walmart had the best price!

Shell Advetures

I just got back from GYTO in Orlando.  We live in a small rural community 2 hours north of Chicago. So a warm weather getaway is just what my teach heart needed.  I attended with a great group of teacher that I am blessed to work with every day.  We decided to leave early and drive to St. Petersberg.  We spent a day on the beach.   

While walking on the beach one day, we saw SO many shells. We decided to collect shells to bring back for our students.  When I returned, I told my students that I  brought something back for each of them.  I had them play 20 questions to infer what I had brought back.  The students had some really good questions and they used the information they gained from my answers to drive their next questions.  By the end of the game, they figured out that I brought back shells. 

Next, I had my students buddy up and write adjectives that described their shells. 

While I was at the beach I also saw these adorable tiny shell creatures that would bury themselves into the sand after the waves would wash it away.  This reminded me of the Disney short film titled, Piper.  This is an adorable film of a little bird tries to get shells that bury themselves in the sand.   I showed this short video to my students then showed them my real life video.  We talked about how movie makers and writers use real life experiences to get ideas.  

Lastly, I showed my students a shell I found that had been broken.  We talked about what could have happened to this shell.  We visualized it what it might have looked like before it was broken.  I had my students write about the adventures the shell had been on to become broken and washed up on the beach.  Click the picture below for you FREE copy of this fun writing activity. 

Construction Day

Our room and teacher were briefly transformed for the day! 

We have been really struggling to understand nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  Something we need to have solid for second grade.  So today, we were second graders under construction.

One of my student's dad works for a construction company and let us borrow some supplies to transform our room. 

To start the lesson off, I pulled out my "tools."  Students had to name the tool that I held up. That was our noun.  Then, students had to list things that the tool could do. These were our verbs.  Lastly, students had to describe the tool.  These were our adjectives.  We did this activity whole group for three different tools. (saw, tape measure, and a hammer)

Next, I had giant bricks with either nouns, verbs, or adjectives written on them.  Together as a class we sorted these brinks and build 3 different walls.  A noun wall, a verb wall, and and adjective wall. 

Next, it was time for our centers.

At the first center students had to color code their blue prints. I printed these on larger paper and rolled them for a more authentic look. ;)  Students had to color code the nouns, verbs, and adjectives in the sentences. 

At the second center, students had a pile of real rocks with words written on them.  They had to sort the rocks next to the correct construction vehicle. (Noun, Verb, or Adjective. Sensing a theme here?) Of course we had to wear our helmets!

The last center students had to BUILD sentences with nouns, verbs, and adjectives. I wrote nouns, verbs, and adjectives on large Duplo blocks.  I also color coded the nouns, verbs, and adjectives to make it easier to sentence building. 

Students had to pick one of each. Then, they would place the words on the floor and write the sentence directly on the floor with a Vis-a-Vis marker.  We call this floor graffiti. Students love it!  I had students wear safety vests at this center. 

My students had a blast during our construction day!  Most importantly they were engaged and the learning was tied to a memory. I am confident now that my students have a good grasp of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Bring on second grade.    

3 Cheers for Dr. Seuss

I love Read Across America week honoring Dr. Seuss.  This year I decided to transform the entrance of my room for the week.  What do you think?

I think my students will love walking through the Truffula forest before entering our room! Super excited for the week.  Check back soon to see what fun we are going to have!

Spring Break Trivia

How do you use Remind 101? Like most of us to send reminders to your student and/or parents.  Well as I was sitting and enjoying my morning coffee on the first day of Spring Break, I thought I wish I could do a trivia contest with my students while on break.  Then it hit me….Remind 101 Spring Break Trivia contest.

Here is how it works.

I sent a Remind 101 text out to my second graders (their parents get the text) explaining that every day I will send one or two questions.  They need to log into their Google account and Google Chat the answer to me.  The first person with the correct answer gets the point.  The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will get a prize when we return.

The best think with Remind 101 is I was able to schedule out all of my questions for the week!  NO EXTRA work and NO REMEMBERING to do the trivia each day!

The kids have been having so much fun with this.  Parents have been giving me some real positive feedback too!

Tonight at 6:00 I am sending out a text with a Kahoot code.  We will start a Kahoot quiz, that I designed with 3 questions, at 6:10.  I think this will be  a lot of fun!

Best Summer EVER!

This summer has been the best ever as I  have spent my time with my AH-MAZ-ING 3 year old daughter.

We have spent time swinging, playing outside, learning our alphabet, swimming and of course...

playing with HER pet duck!

Yes, you heard my correct.  We have a pet duck.  It all happened when we were hatching duck eggs in our classrooms last year. One of my dear teacher friends was getting ready on her wedding day.  Ashley and I stopped by to check on her eggs and to our amazement, a duck was hatching right before our eyes.   The duck, now known as MR. Peeps, even though I am pretty sure he is a MISS, came home with us for the long weekend. Well, he/she has been with us ever since.

Mr. Peeps thinks Ashley is his mother.  He will literally hug her back, sit in her lap, and "cry" when she walks away.  He is also developing a GREAT friendship with our 11 year old Lab Drake.

Drake and Peeps in the Kennel.  Mr. Peeps is hard to see, but he is to the right of Drake.

I have not blogged lately about anything school or really done anything other than pinning...SORRY! This year it is my goal to grow my blog and make it more of a priority.  Like, I said earlier thought, I have been working with Ashley on letter recognition.  I made a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree in our living room.  

Each night we put an empty coconut in her room. 

When we wake up there are letters inside.

We identify the old letters we know.  Then, we add the new letters.  

After the letters are done we have been singing the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom song as we point to the letters.

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