Blog - Page 62 of 63 - Tales from Outside the Classroom

Scientific Observation Journals

An important part of science in the primary grades is beginning to observe scientifically. Students learn to observe with more than just their eyes, and use their ears and measuring tools to record more precisely. I created these scientific observation journals to help kindergarten students record their observations during their classroom study on life cycles. Students recorded the life cycle stage, drew a picture,and wrote about what they saw. Because weather is the science unit

Read this post »

2nd Grade Common Core Math Standards

Oh. My. Goodness. Friday night I uploaded and blogged about my K/1 Common Core Math pack. I made it for my kindergarten team based on feedback from them, and didn’t really think many people would want it since it spanned two grades. I was wrong. Just plain wrong. I got lots of great, positive feedback both here and in my TpT store. And then I had requests for a second grade common core math review

Read this post »

Dolch Easter Egg Sight Words

Learning sight words takes a ton of repetition and practice for some students. I try to incorporate sight words in a variety of ways in my classroom: as our word wall words each week, as a reading center option, as a daily guided reading practice, and fun, independent practice and games throughout the year. These Dolch Sight Words Easter Egg color by word sheets have been a favorite of many teachers! They are simple and

Read this post »

St. Patrick’s Day Math

So today was one of those days that will go down in history as epic. Epic. Some of our students went absolutely and positively crazy. Cra hazy. There was a butter knife in one situation and a rock larger than my hand involved in the other. Everyone was safe and it sounds worse than it was, but it was crazy. But, my day ended much better. We were able to leave early instead of doing

Read this post »

working with functions in primary grades

Functions in Primary Math

Functions are such an important skill in algebra. It’s important to establish an understanding of function rules and how they work in the primary grades so students are accustomed to them and can apply functions in new ways. In first and second grades, functions typically take the form of cute robots named Function Machines. Rules are applied in input and output tables based on the Function Machine. Through continued practice students learn that a number

Read this post »