Life Cycle of A Frog

Wahoo!!  I have been on spring break since Friday and I don't have to go back to school until the 2nd of May!!  

Anyway, I am sure you're starting to catch a pattern in my posts.  Can you tell I LOVE science, project based learning and nature???  I promise it's not all I teach, just my favorite to blog about right now.  Our math curriculum is Saxon and reading is Houghton Mifflin and even though I add fun extra ideas to those lessons, science is where I really get to be creative in my teaching.  

Part of second grade core in Utah is life cycles. I know the life cycle of a frog is very popular to teach. Since I already have several animals that I take care of and was not willing to take on another this is what I did.  

I bought these cute little life cycle sets from Oriental Trading.  You get the frog and the butterfly set for only $5.99.  Click here to order them.        

Then as a class we read this book.  I put it up on the projector with my Elmo document camera and we read it together as a class.  Click on the picture to order it from Amazon.  

Then as a class we made an extra desk in our class look like a pond.  We used paper, some fabric that looks like water, rubber frogs, fake flowers, and a plastic bowl.  This was the first day. My students kept adding to it for the next couple of weeks.  They really loved creating this habitat.

So then over the next week and a half to two weeks I switch out the life cycle pieces so the students can see it change. The life cycle set from Oriental Trading doesn't come with a frog egg so I just use a marble.  It's a lot bigger then an actual frog egg but it's what I had laying on my desk.   They loved it and can you believe it Mrs. Matsuda had no idea that they were switched.  They were actually growing and changing.  I was just as surprised as they were!!!  ;)

There you have it folks.  Our adult frog.  He has come out of the water.  My kiddos were so surprised when they came back from lunch one day to find the pond empty and an adult frog on the edge of the water.  

Is this something you might try in your classroom?  What other fun activities do you do with the frog life cycle?  

Earth Day Bulletin Board Idea Featuring The Lorax!

Happy Earth Day week everyone!  Here is a bulletin board idea. Read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.  Talk about all the mistakes the Once-Ler made and how it effected the environment.  

*This is a great story to show cause and effect.

I used blue butcher paper for the sky, green for the rolling hills.  I used brown butcher paper for the trunks and red, purple and orange for the tufts of the truffula trees.  In each truffula tree I put a tip on how to be green.  

You can download the green tips for free here.

Then I made the Lorax out of construction paper.

We talked about the three r's.  Reduce, reuse and recycle!  We listed examples of each "r".  Then we used Rachelle's Lorax worksheet from whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com here is the link for the earth day unit that has the Lorax writing sheet.  Thanks Rachelle!

At the top of the display I have a poster that I bought from smilemakers.com last year.  

You can make your own banner though.  It has the famous quote from The Lorax:

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better it's not!"

On Friday I am going to give each student a walnut.  I will tell them that it is a truffula tree seed.  (In the end of the Lorax the Once-Ler gives the little boy the last truffula tree seed.) The walnut will symbolize their dedication to being green.

Rain Forest

Wow, the last few weeks have been CRAZY BUSY!!!  Here are some pictures of the "rainforest" we created in our classroom.  We watched this brainpopjr.com video...

We also love this book.  Click here to order it.

 

...and then made this rain forest complete with rubber frogs, ants and flies:

Can you see the flies dangling in the air?  I hot glued fishing line to the wings and then tied them to the branches.  It's just the perfect touch!

Then my students filled out this writing extension that I made and want to share with you!  Just let me know if you download it :)

Class Pets Venn Diagram

This week for our comprehension skill we are reviewing how to compare and contrast. On Mondays and Thursdays we have Reading Lab which is an intervention that we have put in place for our struggling readers.  During that time block, I keep my students that don't need reading interventions and I do extension activities with them.  This is what we did today.  

Meet our class guinea pigs!!  Their names are Spike and Rose.  This is the second year that I've had them and my students just LOVE them!  They take turns feeding and watering them with our jobs chart (I'll post later). 

I have their cage in a plastic storage bin which completely gets rid of the mess factor!

I printed little guinea pigs and gave them to my students.  They wrote adjectives about our piggies and then we posted them on our venn diagram door.  

Do you have class pets?  How do you incorporate them into the curriculum?

Cute Recycled "Buckets"

I wanted to share this idea that I have for cute CHEEP and GREEN containers/buckets.  So far I have used these little babies for Valentines Day and for my "bucket filling system" (an idea I got from Rachelle!).  They are super easy and SOOO cute, plus my students LOVE making them!!!

First of all I have to thank our fabulous lunch lady extraordinaire Teddi.  She saved and rinsed the big cans from peaches and pears from the kids lunches.  

We turned them into these:

Also, I have to give my fabulous husband a shout out because he has been saving dog food cans for the past year and half.  If I let him he would save everything, he is just that resourceful!!  He was saving them to recycle but our cute little town is not equipped with a recycling service that takes tin as of yet, sad I know!! 

We turned them into these: 

So are you dying to know how to make them yet???

You will need:

~ Cans the size you want them

                                                     ~White duct tape

                                                     ~Paper

                                                     ~Super cute ribbon of your choice

                                                     ~Hot glue gun

                                                     ~Paint

Clean the cans and remove any label.        

Cover the opening edges with white duct tape (I got mine at Wal-Mart in the painting section).

Hot glue the ribbon near the edges.  

 Cut paper to the size of the can and glue with the hot glue gun.  

Then let students decorate. 

Is this something you'll use in your classroom?  What other ways can you think to use them?

What I Be

I love integrating character education into the curriculum.  I think that having good character is one of the most important things we can teach our students.  This lesson combines five of my greatest loves... childrens books + Michael Franti's music + character education+ creative writing + art!!!  This super cute story is one of Michael Franti's songs turned into a childrens book.  If you don't know about Michael Franti today is your lucky day!  He has been such an inspiration to me since I first saw him in concert in 2003.  I have seen him six times in concert in three different states and he always puts on an ROCKIN' show!  I even got to meet him in 2007 :)  He recently performed at NAACP awards and on Jay Leno!   

(This is me and my cute husband at Solar Festival in Taos, New Mexico last summer.)

 (This is Michael Franti at the end of the show when he calls all of the kids on stage.)

Go to www.spearheadvibrations.com to learn more about Michael Franti and Spearhead.

 This book has BEAUTIFUL illustrations and very creative music.  It comes with a CD too!  The song is the words in the book so you can play the CD right along as you look at the book.  The music is a combination of Michael Franti, Youssoupha Sidibe who does vocals and plays the Kora a traditional West African Harp, and Ade Franti-Rye Michael's son.  It is also great to have in a center!!  My students LOVE it, they dance and sing a long as they listen and read it!!!

Click on the picture above for the link to purchase this book.

Here is a peek at the book...

This is from the back of the book:  What I Be, is a visual and musical journey about self acceptance.  It's okay to be just who you are and strive to be the best you can be, by embodying the most inspiring characteristic of nature.  Be as radiant as the sun, as healing as the rain or as generous as a tree.  


(For upper grades this book would be a great example for metaphors.) 

In the back of the book there is this page for students to do some creative writing, I have each student create their own part of the book.

Then they get to illustrate their page.  Here are some student examples:

"If I could be a deer I would dance and make people happy!"

 "If I could be a tree I would grow food for the whole world!"

 "If I could be a slide I would be so, so, so slippery.  So the kids can have fun!"

 "If I could be fishes, I would set earths peace by being glimmery and shiny!"

 "If I could be a tree I would grow a house!"

 "If I could be a lion I would save people from a robber!"

 "If I could be the dirt I would let people grow trees in me!"

"If I could be a butterfly I would fly so high in the sky!"