2nd Graders Sculpt and Write

Friends~I made it through my first week of school.  It was fantastic:)  Below is our family Back to School picture.  Lily is going into 5th and Ian into 1st.  They were both so very excited!

I am also very happy to report I have a lovely bunch of little learners and I am amazed at how quickly they have picked up our routine.  We are already rotating in Daily 5.  I am really looking forward to getting my assessments done so that I can jump into my workshop models! 

Here are some of the fun back to school business we worked on last week!  I was assigning morning duty on the first day so I had to have something super fun for my students to keep them engaged until I got there.  I saw this on Pintrest but of course did not pin it or at least I can't find it in my boards.  So if this idea is from you please let me know so I can give you credit:)

I added a lump of play dough to each child's desk and this response sheet!

It was so simple and so fun!  The sheet asks the students to sculpt something out of play dough.  Do a quick sketch and then fill in the blanks below.  I arrived not long after they had started with the help of my assistant.  Many of the students were playing it safe until I started commenting on different student's sculptures. They went through many cycles of creating and recreating before they started to write.

 This activity was such a hit that I created a 30 page My Play Dough Draw and Write center book.  I am going to use it during my Daily Five Writing center.  I just know they are going to be super excited when they see this activity again.   Be sure to head over and preview it because you can download a free copy of the sheet I used for Back to School! Just click the image below to check it out!

We also counted up our gumballs from our estimation jar.  We could hardly believe that there were over 200 gumballs in our jar!  These trays came in very handy when we counted because those gumballs kept rolling away. 

We ended the week with the book Hooway for Wodney Wat 

by Helen Lester.  

It is a wonderful story to begin a discussion on bullying!   

My kiddos did an awesome job working in their BEE Books and answering the questions below.  I copied these question and mounted them on cardstock.  I grouped my students and had them work to respond to literature by answering their questions in their  Bee Books. 

There are 2 more sheets of questions included in my Back to School Bonanza unit.  You can preview my Back to School Bonanza and see some of the other fun filled activities that we worked on! 

Hope you all had a wonderful beginning of the year!  I am looking forward to sharing more in the coming months:)