Another Awesome Day!

Today was another awesome day in the classroom! Hallelujah! I am sooo excited about how much my friends have grown this year. Their writing is awesome and amazing (my favorite words lately). :)

Check out these photos!

Here are some photos from the "What's Hatching, Chick?" unit I bought and blogged about yesterday.... At the top, we have Chicks & Salsa with a tri-fold review. Next, under the chick's legs is our Egg-Hatching Observation Journal. Finally, at the bottom is a Chicks tree map which supported my students in writing three (count 'em...1, 2, 3!!) paragraphs! YIPPEEE!!

Here is Amelia Bedelia. I traced her using the Promethean board, and then brought her home and colored her in with my darling hubby. Next, I hung her in the hallway outside our EIP teacher's door. She shares her wall space with us! :) Finally, I gave my teamies a different color of sticky note to write "multiple meaning words" on with explanations of how Amelia Bedelia gets everything balled up. We had a blast reading about Amelia Bedelia. You should read her if you teach second grade in Georgia with multiple meaning words as a standard. The children will laugh & learn! :D

Here is my Contraction Surgery activity posted in the hallway. I had some really cool band-aid stickers. I hope I can find some more for next year. Be looking, friends, and if you find some please let me know where you found them. They were cute and engaging for my students! ;)

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!

†~Melly~†

Stickers & S'mores

Stickers                             S'mores
Saltines                             Graham Crackers
Cheese                              2 Hershey's chocolate rectangles
 (1/4 slice)                           (from a chocolate bar)Marshmallows                Marshmallows

Background Info: A family treat that we enjoyed growing up is called Stickers. Similar to S'mores, Stickers have a saltine cracker topped by a slice of cheese and a marshmallow. Sound yuk? Well, it's actually pretty tasty!

According to my dad, you must use Nabisco Premium Saltines, Kraft Real American Cheese slices (non of that "oily" junk!), and Jet-Puffed marshmallows. Premium goods produce the best stickers! :)

 As a beginning of the year graph activity, we make Stickers for morning snack and S'mores for afternoon snack. I usually try to do this on a Friday. I enlist the help of a parent volunteer to man the toaster oven while I teach small groups. Students know that we go down the list from the leader to make our treats, so they understand their turn is coming and they must be working or their turn will be postponed to the end of the line. It usually only takes one student's turn being postponed during the first week of school for everyone to settle down to work.

"It's the only way we can do the fun stuff," I say.

 Then, we create a pictograph of our classmates' choices. Students are given a blank paper Sticker/S'more which they color to show their favorite. This is followed by students creating a bar graph individually or in pairs which we use to discuss horizontal and vertical bar graphs. These are posted on a big piece of butcher paper to create the pictograph. Students use the pictograph to create a bar graph. I provide only paper to see how creative the students can get...you'd be surprised! :)

I have used plain and strawberry marshmallows on the S'mores to offer 3 choices. One year, a student said they had Sticky Crackers as a treat at his home. Sticky Crackers have peanut butter instead of the cheese, but are toasted in the oven just as Stickers and S'mores. These were very messy and added an extra day to our cooking which was not good regarding time management .


I'll scan and post a copy of the blank Sticker/Smore sheet for coloring soon. It has 8 or 12 blank Sticker/Smores per sheet which are easily cut apart using a paper cutter.

To incorporate writing, my students write the recipe for Stickers or S'mores. Of course I model, model, model before they begin writing. They must write the ingredients, the utensils needed, and the steps necessary to make at least one of the treats. High achieving students often prefer to do both. At the bottom of the recipe page, students write a meaty sentence telling which treat they liked best and why. A meaty sentence must include the answer to five of the following six: who, what, why, where, how, and an action. This is an assessment which shows me how well my students write and gives me a springboard from which to begin their writing mini-lessons. I'll post pictures when we do this in August.