My Snowman Melted!

Well, I will be honest, here in Indiana we haven't had enough snow to even make a snowman yet...and with this year's weather, if the kids were able to make one, I'm sure it'd melt within a few days!

This quick project was inspired by this fun picture my daughter brought home from preschool. Isn't it adorable? At first, I assumed it was her version of a snowman...see the hole punched eyes and buttons, carrot nose, and arm? She informed me this was a MELTED snowman. So adorable!

I got to thinking, what could be done with 2nd graders (or just older than preschool kids!) So,  I just whipped up this fun writing template for students to tell how their snowman melted. My idea is to encourage them to think of a unique way that it melted... maybe he went to get his hair done at the salon and the hair dryer melted him!

 

I've added a small paper plate, turned over to the white side to make this a fun 3-D project. It kind of looks like a paper bowl, but it really is a plate. You could use a bowl too! Truly you could add the little construction paper pieces to the actual writing template without the paper plate if you wanted! Also, you could use crayons and markers instead of construction paper! I would just do it this way with the plates and construction paper to make it a little more engaging for my particular students! :) 

For the free template, click here, FOLLOW my TPT store by clicking FOLLOW ME, then download the freebie! I'd love your feedback! :) 

Winter Read Alouds

What are your favorite winter read alouds for 2nd grade? I asked this question on my Facebook page and I thought I would share some of the responses here, all in one place. I love asking these questions because I get tons of ideas and hear about books that I didn't even know about! It's nice to hear from other teachers who have already used them with their class!!


Pictures books suggested by my followers:

 Did you see my blog post about meeting Jan Brett??? Awesome!!

Also, here are some Jan Brett materials that I have used from Saddle Up for Second:
Click here

Chapter books suggested by my followers:

What do you love to read aloud to your students during the winter months?

Indiana Bloggers Dollar Sale!

My dollar items for today include these four fun products! Click each picture to go directly to the product in my store and purchase for ONLY $1 these two days ONLY!

See below for the other bloggers' $1 products!! Stock up now!

An InLinkz Link-up

Snow Day Folders

Stuckey in Second and Tales From the First Grade have teamed up to bring you a fun blog post about our SNOW DAY FOLDERS!

         

My teaching neighbor (Abbie from Tales From the First Grade) and I decided that after all of our snow days we have had in January, we would create some Snow Day Folders to send home with our kids for these (now) dreaded snow days! The first few snow days were fun, but now we are quickly realizing that we have had too many and our kids are experiencing that "after summer decline" in the middle of January!

Each of us are going to share how we made our folders. Allison's are for 2nd graders and Abbie's for first graders!

For 2nd grade, I decided to make the folders something "fun for them to open" by stuffing them full of learning goodies, then tying them shut with a ribbon. Maybe this will get them excited to actually open the folders and DO SOMETHING on their snow days?! Only time will tell....

   

 

I wanted to have a mixture of reading and math materials in my folders, so I dug out some of my favorites that I have recently purchased! I knew these items would be great practice for my second graders at home!

 

 

 

Here are links to some of the items that I filled my Snow Day Folders with:

Plural Nouns with Pablo the Penguin by Meet Miss Parker

 

Mighty Math Common Core Assessments by Angela Nerby

(I decided to use these as at home practice!)

 

Text Evidence Reading Passages by Miss DeCarbo

(I put the fall passages that I have in the folders, since I'm using the winter passages in my small groups right now in the classroom!)

 

 

 Here is what Abbie has to say about our Snow Day Folders:

We have had so many snow day it's scary!  After talking with  my friend Allison  we decided to make snow day folders!  These folders are for days we don't have school.  Inside the folders are packets of extra work, reading log, and coloring page.  I really pumped the kids up about the packets.  Explaining all students who completed a packet and returned it after a snow day would get a special prize.  To excite the students I made a fun snow day cover with the message "only open if we are closed!"  I made 5 packets for each child's folder.  Inside the packet I used work pages from Molly Lynch tpt store, a few pages from a coloring book, a reading passage, and a reading log ticket.  I am hoping this will help my kids keep up during this wild winter!  

Snow Many Freebies!

Well, we are all looking for something free. As I was going through my store yesterday trying to find which items to mark down for our $1 Snow Day Sale {that was Monday}, I thought, I should really make sure everyone gets all of my other freebies!!!

Here is the link that shows all of my free items in my store. Most are {in my opinion} average "freebies". But there are a few that I want to let you know about that are really BIG freebies!

First of all my Unit 1 Week 1 Treasures Resource packet. Huge. Even if you don't teach Treasures, I am confident that you can use some of the centers that are included. Just check it out and leave me some love!

 

 

Also, for a limited time {this week}, I have my newest Winter Literacy Centers as a freebie! This is in celebration of my TPT Milestone achievement. Again, if you download it, please follow my store {you'll want to for future products and more freebies!} and leave me some love!

 

 

Here are some other smaller freebies, that are just fun for January!

Penguin Two-Digit Addition/Subtraction Game

 

Penguin Doubles Game

 

 

 

Also, here are three sheets that I use in my literacy workstations every single week! They can be used with any book or set of words! To me, these are priceless sheets because I use them so often!

Read & Retell Accountability Sheet

 

Sight Word Accountability Sheet

 

Buddy Read Accountability Sheet

 

I hope you can use some of the freebies that I've listed and you'll share my goodies with some of your teaching friends! Be on the lookout for new things posted in my TPT store in the near future. I'm so full of ideas right now!!!