Today's post is brought to you by second grade teacher, Ms. Rodriguez. If you would like to guest blog, please email me at primarytechie@gmail.com! Nobody knows teachers better than teachers!
I love a bright and cheerful classroom where the walls are filled with student’s work and fun projects. My second-grade classroom is just that, and when October rolls around the fun projects are never ending. October is just a great month to do so many fun activities with my students. We kicked off the month with bringing back “Pumpkin Jack”. I did this activity ten years ago when I started teaching and when Pinterest was my go-to for all the fun and creative learning activities. My first-grade students loved it, and I knew my second graders would too. I was very excited that Scholastic News had an article about how a decomposing pumpkin could help new plants grow. After reviewing the lifecycle of a pumpkin, which my littles where quick to tell me they had already learned about in first grade, we jumped right into the Scholastic News article. My students loved the article and were amazed by the ways an old jack-o-lantern can be used rather than thrown away. They also loved the online activities which included a dance break! We are all about the dance and brain breaks in second grade. We then got all the materials ready and prepared Jack’s new home. An empty clear jar of cheese puffs, soil, water, and a small carved pumpkin is all that is needed. I filled the jar with some soil, watered it, and then forcibly placed the pumpkin inside the jar. The pumpkin was not budging at first but when it finally did, the kids let out a loud cheer letting me know that the fun was just beginning. We then read about the process of decomposition in our pumpkin journals, which I had prepped ahead of time. We identified the parts of a pumpkin, labeled each step of the pumpkin life cycle, and predicted how many days it would take before we started seeing mold on Pumpkin Jack.
We drew pictures and recorded our observations for day one. We continued our observations at least once a week until we went on break, and good old Jack gave us tons to write about, because at around day 5 we started noticing mold around his stem. I can’t wait until we return from Fall break because Pumpkin Jack has undergone a complete transformation and I know my littles are going to be blown away by it. (Check out
Kelly’s Classroom Online: Pumpkin Life Cycle Stem Activity for complete instructions about this project).
Another fun activity that I decided to bring back during the month of October was pumpkin character book reports. I had done this activity before covid, and well after covid we were all trying to catch up on things, so there was just never enough time. First, I had the kids complete a book report in class; because the pumpkin character would be a home project, I had to make sure they knew what to do. I used a free book report flip chart that I found on TpT, and that looked pretty similar to the one they would be doing at home. I couldn’t believe how eager they were to write! They did such a great job that I decided to let them add an illustration of their book cover or the main character so we could display them in our classroom. I assigned the pumpkin character book reports and gave them a little over a week to complete them. They had to read a book at home, complete the book report which focused on the main character, and turn a small pumpkin into the book character. They brought their pumpkins in just in time for Halloween, which made our classroom look very festive! They were so proud of their projects and couldn’t wait to present. Before they took them home, I invited both kindergarten classes to come visit our classroom so they could check out the pumpkin characters. This was a huge deal for my kids because they love seeing their former teachers. This was so much fun, and I was so proud of my kids’ work that I know I will for sure be doing this activity again next year. You can also use an app called ChatterPix which allows you to take a picture of the pumpkins, record the kids' voices, and puts a moving mouth on the pumpkin to make this activity even more fun! We unfortunately ran out of time to do this. If you plan to do this activity, my only suggestion would be to tell students not to carve the pumpkins when making their book character because they will not last an entire week in the classroom (Check out
Thompson’s Teachings - Pumpkin Pals Book Report on TpT).
In October, second grade always does a unit on spiders that culminates with our Spider Spectacular on Halloween where we make “spider treats”. Since it is not based on Halloween, all students can participate. However, this year we had to administer a test for the gifted and talented to all second graders which completely threw our schedule off. Think State testing on the busiest and most fun month ever! Luckily, only one little asked me about it because I had her brother in my class many years ago, and the rest didn’t even know about it. We kicked off our spider unit making spelling chains which turn into the legs of the big spider that hangs from the middle of the room. I love doing this activity because they practice their spelling words, have no clue why they are making these spelling chains, and then they come in the next day and are in awe of the big spider hanging above them. After reading and learning about spiders, we compare arachnids and insects with the use of Venn diagrams that we draw on butcher paper. This is always a fun activity that allows students to work in groups and share their knowledge. By the end of the unit, we have read and learned about different types of spiders, so we always do a bit of writing and a super cute spider craft. (Check out
Amy Lemons' Fall Reading Activities for all things spiders).
We end October with Halloween and some wonderful resources from the Primary Techie! This year our school allowed students to wear costumes the Friday before Halloween so that Monday, the actual day of Halloween, wouldn’t be crazy. So, on Halloween, I had the kids color this cute crown that the Primary Techie made for us many years ago. We had a normal day, got all our work done, but decided to have some fun in the afternoon: it was Halloween after all! My kids love, love, love the
Primary Techie’s 7 Minute Videos. We have been doing them throughout the month because I signed up for her
weekly free videos which are sent to me via email. If you haven’t signed up,
click here and do it! I gotta tell you, 7 Minute videos are great for brain breaks, to review skills, and I also use them as rewards. They are so uch fun! My kids loved them, and they loved the
Halloween themed videos! One of their
favorites was the ghost letters where they have to listen to a word, copy it on their white board, and draw a ghost around the letter that is silent. Another favorite was the werewolf homonyms where they listen to a word and have to draw the two meanings of the word. This one was a hit, and they absolutely loved howling with the werewolf. Seriously, 7 Minute videos are a lifesaver for us. I want my students to work hard and complete their work, but I also want them to have fun. My favorite part about these videos is to hear and see their excitement when their answers are correct. They are learning and having so much fun! Now my school has a three week Fall break, so I only have the first week of November to do anything Thanksgiving related. I already received this week’s free Thanksgiving 7 Minute video and purchased the
Math ELA Review Thanksgiving Edition so that when we return to school after Thanksgiving, we are ready to go! (Check out the
Primary Techie on TpT and
Facebook for lots of wonderful resources).
Before I go, in the craziness that is the month of October, I squeezed in some writing with my favorite craftivity, Turkey Stories! Right before our break, my students turn into turkeys, and they must write a persuasive letter to Farmer Jake to convince them not to eat them. After discussing what makes a good and a bad turkey, we get right to work and start writing. I love the things the kids come up with and some of these stories are just so funny! Writing is a struggle for some, but when there is a cute craft to go with their writing, they seem more motivated to write. I send them home with a cute Thanksgiving craft and a funny story to share with their families (Check out
the Applelicious Teacher - Turkey Writing).
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