Happy Birthday Presidents Washington & Lincoln

In my last post, I talked about the Winter Art and Writing pack that I had bought from Reagan Tunstall over at TpT.  I used the pack again for President's Day and this is how they came out!

The pack doesn't include Lincoln, but I used the jacket from the Martin Luther King, Jr. project and added a simple stove-pipe hat and a beard (feather boa trim that I bought at a fabric store) to make Lincoln.  You can't see it very well, but below their face is a paragraph they wrote about the president they are depicting (we have been working on writing a paragraph).  They are so cute!  Thanks Reagan for the great ideas!!

Awesome TpT product!

I recently bought a product from Teachers Pay Teachers that was awesome.  It is a winter writing and art pack by Reagan Tunstall that includes activities for torn paper snowmen, Emperor penguins, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Tacky the Penguin, Froggy's First Kiss, and George Washington.  I bought it in time for Dr. King's birthday so that is what we did, and I think they came out beautifully.

I can't wait for President's Day; the George Washington activity is adorable!

Writing Goals Chart

I found an interesting chart over at Chart Chums: Creative Classroom Charts (click to see it) that I thought would be perfect for my class.  We have been hitting writing really hard this year.  Last year, we started using Thinking Maps in my school, and this year we have incorporated the writing component of Thinking Maps.  So, the second grade team has been working on getting kids to use the included rubric to guide their writing.  I used Chart Chums chart as a beginning and then modified it to fit the rubric that we use.  It came out super cute, and now the kids can focus their writing on one particular skill at a time without getting overwhelmed.  They put a tongue depressor with their name into the pocket that is labeled with the goal they are working on.  When they meet the goal and can do it consistently, they move on to another goal.  

Here's how it came out: