Brain Builders

A big focus of mine over the past few weeks has been to come up with a little something special for my "high" kids to do once they've completed zoomed through their work.  It amazes me how quickly they can finish their things!  I feel like I need to be assigning these firsties a research project!  **Which isn't a bad idea for our penguin unit!! 

I found this brilliant idea on Pinterest (where else!)  and got straight to work on my Brain Builders bulletin board.  **The blog the post comes from is Sunny Days in Second Grade.  Here you'll find a good explanation of what Brain Builder is all about.

 I got my Brain Builder board up and running in a weeks time.  I spent long hours at home and at school creating, printing, laminating, and cutting these fun little cards out. 

Here's what my new and improved bulletin board looks like:

**I only have 4 sets of cards up in this picture but I keep 8 up at one time.

With the task cards there is a quiz sheet that the students take once they've studied the cards enough and feel like they're ready for a quiz. You could run this as a buddy test or with an aide.   At this point in the year my littles are independent enough to work with a partner.   Upon completion and a score of 100%, the students will earn a "Brain Bead."  ** You can find a picture of the Brain Bead Braclets at Sunny Day's in Second Grade.  In my room, since space is an issue, I give students a Brain Bead Braclet & their first bead once they've completed their first test.

Although everyone is welcome to participate, this is geared towards my high kids.  I include task cards that are geared for both first grade and second grade. 

Here are a few of the task cards that I've created:

Click here to download Word Wizzard's -- Suffixes

Click here to download Math Magician's -- Clocks

Click here to download Sentence Sleuth's -- Sentence Types

I spent quite a long time "Google-ing" various sites to find pre-created task cards.  I found quite a few useful resources.  I'm type-A and recreate my my own versions of them and tweak them for my own liking but it would definitely be a time saver to use them as is!  Here are a few sites that I've found useful:

Cape 2nd Grade

Mrs. Ziruolo's Second Grade Class

Cape.k12.mo.us

Lastly, here's the answer sheet and directions found at Sunny Days in Second Grade. 

What do you do to challenge your advanced kiddos? 

The Daily 5

I use The Daily 5 as a classroom managment tool during our 90 Minute Reading Block and OhMyWord do my littles love it!  It took a ton of time and dedication to be where we're at now but it's all been so worth it!

We started the year out doing these stamina graphs to track our progress.  I had no idea how much this would motivate my students but they meant business when it was time to get started.  They thourghouly enjoyed seeing their progress and workd super hard to beat it the next day.  They encouraged eachother along the way and used teamwork to reach our goal of 20 minutes. 

       

You can download the various graphs here:

Read to Self Stamina Graph

Listen to Read Stamina Graph

Work on Words Stamina Graph

Work on Writing Stamina Graph

Read to Someone Stamina Graph

I've tried a few different ways of organizing the picking of stations and here a few pictures of what has worked best for my class this year...

This is where my kids choose their choices for the day.  We don't follow the D5 to a tee... I picked and chose what worked best for us.  We have 2 guided reading groups a day so they get 2 choices.  (Each group is broken up with a small mini-lesson as the Sisters suggest in the book.) They pick picture cards of me or my aide when they meet with us and are alllowed to free pick their 2nd choice.  If they don't meet with me or our aide, they are required to choose Read to Self at least once.  This ensures that they're getting at least 20 minutes of independent reading time. 

I organize my choice cards in different colored buckets that I purchased form Target's Dollar Spot.  Gotta love that place!! On the front of each bucket, I secured an enlarged choice card so that my kiddos could easily see card each bucket held.  **This pic was taken before I put mine and my aides cards on the front!

Each student has his/her own name with space for 2 choice cards.  They know that any card with a "2" on it means it has to be completed during the second choice.  I have 8 computers in my classroom so I have 8 choice cards with nothing on them, and 8 choice cards with a number 2.  This ensures that they over-pick a specific choice.   **I hope that makes sense :)

**Freebies**

Download small managment cards here

Download large managment bucket signs here

Here is where they keep their book bins.  I have a library check out schedule that we follow and students are allowed to get between 3 & 5 books.  These book bins also hold their poetry journals and any unfinished Work on Words papers.  

The plastic drawers hold various activitites that they must complete before getting their Word on Words drawer.  I don't have a picture of those but I'll get one uploadad.  Currently the drawer holds their current spelling list, playdough & a golf tee to write out their words, stamps, a pack of glitter crayons/pens or markers, dry erase board, magic slate, and wiki-sticks.  Once they complete the activity from the drawer they can choose an activity from within their Work Drawer.  It's really a nice way to keep everyone they need in one place. 

Here's a few *freebies* of my kids' favorite recording pages that I created for my Work on Words station:

Click here to download Rainbow Words

For Rainbow Words, the kids use different colored sparkle pens, twistable or glitter crayons, or markers to write their spelling words or themed words for the month. 

Click here to download Stamp It

Stamp It is used when the students choose to stamp their words.  Again, they can do their spelling words or themed words for this activity.

Do you use Daily 5? What's your best D5 tip?

 Back to my lazy Sunday **Which hasn't been very lazy :(!!!  Hope there was something useful for you here! 

A Little New Year Fun

So it is definitely looking a LOT like Winter around here! I'm anxiously desperately awaiting a call informing me of a 2-hour delay... boy could I use a couple extra zzz's tomorrow. 28 little (yes... 28!) sure do wear a girl a out.

Here are a few things we did our first couple of days back to school...


We did this adorable New Year's Resolution writing that I got from Cara Carrol's blog.





This little guy made a goal to be good at school! So darn cute! I wonder how long that will last?! **My classroom has been a zoo this week so maybe they'll start their resolutions next week??

We've been researching and learning all about penguins. During our day of Emperor penguins we created a life-size penguin and put him up on our door. The text bubble says "Emperor Penguins can stand up to 4 feet tall.... How do you measure up? The kiddos absolutely LOVE this. Whenever we leave/enter the room they're sizing themselves up against it!  



 Our calendar for the month is dedicated to many different penguins we'll learn about throughout January. 

And this is a cute little bulletin board I came up with for the month. Later on in the month we'll be doing some penguin craftivities and I'll post more about those when we get there!



We also did quite a few things from a FREE (yes, free!) New Years Unit from Cara Carrol's blog. Thanks Cara!!

I purchased 2 TPT units on penguins from Deanna Jump and Made For First Grade. I re-vamped my math tubs using various activities from these units and LOVE them! (pictures to come).



We're learning SNOW much about penguins!! What theme/unit are you using for January?