My Teaching Ideas

Read one of the following books to the class; Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levinson or Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington. They are both about the life cycle of pumpkins. These are short books, so the order of events should not be that difficult for the children to remember.

Type up a generic list of the events of the life cycle of a pumpkin. Mix up the entire list so that all of the events are out of order. Give each child the mixed-up list, a sentence strip, a sheet of green construction paper, a sheet of orange construction paper, a small square of yellow tissue, a pumpkin seed, and a di-cut or color sheet of a large pumpkin.

The children use all of their materials to glue the steps of the growth of the life cycle of a pumpkin in order, and “make” the process as they go along. They will start with the seed, then use the tissue paper to make the pumpkin flower, then use the construction paper to make a small green pumpkin and a small orange pumpkin, and finally use the di-cut or the color sheet for their final grown pumpkin. All of these things are glued on the strip in a sequence of events.

To inspire your young writers to “think out of the box”, pass out sticky notes to each child in your classroom. Tell them to think of an adjective to describe the season of autumn. Collect all the sticky notes and make a large, visible list for the children to see.

Read the book Autumn by Steven Schnur to the class:

After the story, tell the students that they are going to act like the author of this book and write their own acrostics. Create a class example using the word “Fall” so they know exactly what to do. Then, let each child write their own acrostics using some of the adjectives they all listed. Here’s an example:

Apples are yummy on a stick!
Usually, my family rakes colorful leaves together.
The best part of fall is going to the pumpkin farm.
Under stars we toast marshmallows by the fire.
My mom puts a scarecrow in the yard.
Nuts, acorns, and pine needles are all over the place!

After they write their acrostics, they can type them on the computer onto seasonal paper or they can re-write on large paper and illustrate their ideas.

“Pumpkin Cluster Chart”

This is a great way to check the children’s oral comprehension skills and abilities to summarize details. It’s also a fun fall/autumn/Halloween activity!

Before reading the The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons to the class, remind them that after hearing the story, they will be asked about what they remember. Also, remind them that they are going to have to remember specific details from the story to make a graphic organizer together.

Once the children have heard the story, ask them about four main parts of the story. (For example: growing a pumpkin, varieties of pumpkins, things to do with pumpkins, and so on…) Make a large cluster chart on the board or on a sheet of chart paper using their ideas. Once completed, give each child a sheet of chart paper so they can create their own cluster chart. After that is completed, they can illustrate all of their ideas with drawings to match the ideas.

“Sensing Fall”

To get your second grade students in the spirit for the season of fall/autumn, the following writing activity and craft usually is a lot of fun and it turns out really nice too! It’s definitely a colorful fall hallway display or bulletin board activity idea.

Begin the lesson by reading the following book to the class:

It’s Fall (Celebrate the Seasons)

After reading the book, make a list of the following senses on chart paper: see, hear, smell, touch, and taste.

Read the rest of this teaching idea »

Creative writing, whether written in a Writer’s Workshop style, in a journal, or in a basic writing assignment is a crucial part of the day for any second grade child. Whether this child is an emerging writer, becoming a more productive writer, or an established writer, including creative and interesting writing topics into your curriculum is very important and it can be SO much fun!

So many creative writing lessons can stem directly from a read-aloud.

1. Have your students become the character or another character in a story and tell a new point of view.
2. Let the children rewrite a new ending to the story that you just read.
3. Instruct the children to change the story into a play, write the play in groups, make puppets, and act out their play for the rest of the class. Visit www.janbrett.com for some great materials to use with her books!
4. Only read half of a book and let them write what they think will follow.
5. Put “Imagine if….”with just about anything! (Imagine if _____happened to you, imagine if the character did something different, imagine if it took place somewhere else, etc.)

Read the rest of this teaching idea »

I absolutely love making learning as fun as possible, so whenever I can include some sort of learning board game into my curriculum, I will. The following games are just a few that I really enjoy using!

Great Games For The Overhead: Math - This is such a fun way to include the entire class into various math games. This book comes with fun overhead transparencies and printables for the children to use during the game. SO much fun!

30 Wonderful Word Family Games - This book has a lot of fun games to play with students with teaching word families…

Read the rest of this teaching idea »

Teaching, especially for the first time, can be incredibly overwhelming and stressful if you let it. There are so many preparations that must be done prior to school, during school, and on a daily basis. The following is a list of tips and ideas made by someone who truly had a bad case of anxiety as a first year teacher.

My story: I was so excited about becoming a new second-grade teacher. I had planned for this day for what seemed like years. I had so many teaching materials, student manipulatives, resources, ideas, and so on prepared and ready to go. Well, let me just say that NOTHING could have prepared me for the weight of responsibility that hit my shoulders when 22 seven year-olds were all sitting there staring at me with that “What now?” look on their faces. I smiled, introduced myself, then excused myself, and went and lost my breakfast in the restroom! This continued on for the rest of that day, the rest of that week, and for a couple more weeks! I had experienced an entirely new feeling- anxiety! I loved my job, but I was so sick for a while that it really took a lot out of me. Once I got the hang of it that year, I felt much better. Then the second year came and the anxiety again returned for a couple of days. From my third year on, it hasn’t been as hard but I still get those “First Day Jitters”!

Read the rest of this teaching idea »

Once you’ve set down some rules and guideline in your classroom, there are so many fun things to do on that first day of second grade! Here is a list of ideas, suggestions, and books that can be used to get the year off to a great start!

1. Name Game: Sit everyone in a circle. The teacher begins with, “My name is ______, and I______”. The student to the right of the teacher repeats, “Her (the teacher) name is ______ and she______. My name is ___________ and I like to ___________.” The game continues with the person repeating what the individual before him/her just said, and then they introduce themselves. After the circle is complete, a review of names and likes is repeated together. This is a cute and easy way to get to know everyone’s names on the first day of second grade!

Read the rest of this teaching idea »

Okay, so it’s the first day of school and you have 25 precious little students staring at you…what are they thinking? What are YOU thinking? You are all probably thinking about how this whole new situation is going to work out. Children in the primary grades are usually silent upon entering, because this situation is new to them. It makes you think, “Wow! This is going to be a great group…look how sweet and quite and still they are being—and they are all getting along!” Well, this could very well be true, but before anyone gets too comfortable, it’s important to “lay down the law”. Now I’m not saying that you should wear your military uniform, I’m just encouraging you to establish authority through classroom management very early on. Here are some of my tips, tricks, and ideas for managing a classroom…

Read the rest of this teaching idea »

Writer’s Workshop for Primary or Elementary Students

Writers Workshop was something new that I implemented into my classroom this past year. I was sent to a workshop myself, in order to learn how to teach it. It was an extensive training, and I still do not feel that I am doing it exactly the way it was taught, but just as with everything else I do in the classroom, I tend to do it my own way! Doing it every single day was difficult at first, as it is definitely something the children have to learn how to do themselves, so we all learned it together at the same time! I have picked up a few books and tips that are extremely helpful in putting together lots of Writer’s Workshop activities. Here’s a brief synopsis of how I did Writer’s Workshop and tips for setting it up in the classroom!

Read the rest of this teaching idea »