IT'S HERE!!!!!!!

SPRING BREAK!!! Aaaa, there have never been two more beautiful words for a teacher in mid-April.

 

The hubby & I are headed on lots of adventures for Easter weekend and our "quasi-honeymoon" this week.  But, before I get to all of that excitement {it's so hard to hold back though}, here's how we spent this last, short week before break.

 

1. Let's kick it off non-educationally, with these BREATHTAKING Cherry Blossoms!  We spent a bit of our absolutely gorgeous spring weekend site-seeing in DC and loving everything about these perfectly, pink-tinted flowers.  Thank goodness we went early in the morning - when we left in the afternoon, the city was crazy PACKED!

  

2.  We began learning about biographies and autobiographies.  I used a fabulous mini-lesson from Tanny McGregor's Genre Connections to introduce the two non-fiction text types to my kiddos.  I told all about myself while looking into a handheld mirror, then turned the mirror on one of my kiddos and told all about them.  After discussing what was similar and what was different about how each story was told, I introduced the two terms.  Tanny's mirror idea made it so concrete, that even my strugglers are already set on the two genres!  The mirror will also be a great segway into "artifacts" next week.

 

3.  Math Bins are one of our favorite times of the day.  Second graders go coo-coo for hands-on skill practice.  These Egg-y Math "Baskets" were the perfect way to review our math skills this week.  Read more about them {HERE}.

 

4. April is a poetry celebration month!  Even though we use Lucy Caulkin's Common Core Writing program, we are encouraged to use it more as a "guide" or "resource" for our Writer's Workshop.  With poetry, I use her unit as a guide for mini-lesson ideas, but incorporate them into more structured poetry types and prompts.  We've worked on Autobiography poems, Cinquains, and even tried our hand at these adorable shape poems.

  

5.  I've been super busy packing for our Easter and Savannah Adventures! So much to take, so little space!

 

 

I'll be back late next week to tell you all about our break! :)

 

 

What were you up to this week? Go link up with Doodle Bugs!