Taking on Second : Task Cards

How I Survived the First Week of School

Well we have made it through our first week of school! I am loving my new kiddos! We had a super busy week working on procedures and building our Daily 5 stamina.

We played one game where we passed around toilet paper! This got so many laughs and giggles. They were supposed to take what they "needed" from the roll. The amount of squares they took were how many facts they had to tell us about themselves. Five squares=5 facts. This was the most they were allowed to take for my kids, I have some stinkers so it wouldn't have ended well if I didn't make a limit!

Students need to get to know their classmates as well as their new classroom. I have my kids become {Classroom Detectives}. This is kind of a scavenger hunt to locate items around the room, such as how many trash cans our classroom has. I set the timer for 8 minutes. This gives students a goal to work for. I make sure they understand the objective of the activity so they don't stress if they aren't totally done after the time limit. This also lets me know about their reading abilities.

We worked through our first set of task cards! It is always exciting to introduce them to task cards. They love that they are able to move around and skip around while doing their work. My {Beginning of the Year Task Cards} cover five different skills. (ABC order, word problems, place value, number order, and pronouns) Another easy assessment to give me some kind of indication of where they are in their abilities.

We also did the wrinkled heart activity from Pinterest! This was great! I had students draw things they loved in their heart. They thought I was totally kidding when I told them to wad it up!! It was so funny watching their faces, some were confused and others were just horrified at the thought at wrinkling up their artwork. (Even though they wouldn't have given a second thought if it would have been homework! LOL) I explained how words and actions can hurt us and cause a wrinkle in our hearts. Those wrinkles are hard to get out, and the hearts really drove the message!

I LOVE LOVE using {Scaredy Squirrel} to start our year. Scaredy Squirrel has so many fears, just like students do that first week of school. These books help us laugh at the silly things he is afraid of, and work through the things the students are afraid of. I love how this gal gave the "me" long curly hair, just like she has! So cute!

We also started to {Get Back in the Groove} with my beginning of the school year book. This book covers several math and reading skills BOY 2nd grade students should know. This helps bridge that summer gap and get their brains thinking again. We are only doing a few pages a day, so far so good!

This week we are diving into our reading series and starting to get our new routine down. It went really well today, even though we didn't quite get to our Daily groups today. I'm pretty flexible with our schedule, so we will try for Daily 5 tomorrow!

Task Card Crazy

My class went a little crazy this week, task card crazy that is! We had Parent/Teacher Conferences and fall break right on the horizon. I don't know how you get ready for conferences, but I HAVE to be on the floor with all my papers all around me. It is quite a sight:)

LOVE using the panorama function on my new phone!

We have been working on place value and using our hundred chart. Well I had found an awesome set of task cards where students had to do ten more or ten less than a number from 1-1000. Last year, I didn't introduce students to numbers above 100 for a while. This year, I want students to realize their skills do not stop at 100. They can use what they know for any number!

In my room, I use task cards ALL THE TIME! I make a lot of them but I also find a lot. I love Jamie's from Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher! Sometimes I print and laminate them, but a lot of times, I just print at school with no color. We use them scoot style, sometimes we use them in groups, sometimes I just walk around the room and put them on the floor. Students like this because they can just walk around and not lose their place in the circle.

This I put them on the floor. These cards need the hundred charts for numbers 1-1000. I put the task cards around the room with the charts in the middle for students to use for reference.

The best part about using task cards is that students can go at their own pace. They are able to walk around and move, not just stay at their seat.

I made a response sheet for students to just do ten task cards. They can pick and choose. They have to tell me what card number in the small box and their answer in the larger box. I think this tricks the kids into working quicker because they don't have to work soooo much, or so they think!

Fall break has officially started at my school. We are off all week! Too bad my husband has a list, a long list of things to do before we put the house up for sale. I guess it will be best to just get it over with!

Happy fall!

Vowel Task Cards

Do you use task cards in your classroom? My students LOVED them! They liked them ok last year, but this year, wow! It seemed like they were unstoppable! The first set we have tried was my Vowel Task Cards set.

This set has the option of doing long vowels or short vowels. If you wait long enough, you can use them for both in the same year! It has the word and the picture for younger students who can't read very well yet.

There are four cards per vowel, so twenty cards in all! It comes with a response sheet for searching for long vowels or short vowels. We did short vowels to review this week.

I scatter my cards around the floor in a circle. I remind the students to go in that circle so they don't skip one. This is only when we are doing it whole group, of course. If we are doing task cards in small groups, then I tape them up around the room.

This was a last minute activity, ( I know, first week of school and I am already working last minute...not a good way to start!) so the black and white cards worked perfectly! Head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to pick up your set for $3.00!

A Little Late Egg Hunt

The week of Easter, Aimee and I decided we would have an Egg Hunt. I had a high school helper stuff around 400 eggs with various task cards. The task cards covered many math topics we cover in second grade. I found many of the task cards on TPT by searching for task cards. There were also fun rewards in the eggs as well. The rewards consisted of free ipad app choice, take your shoes off in class, line jumper, purchase a drink or snack for class, homework pass, wear a hat in class, and homework pass. Of course all of the rewards were free. After my high school helper stuffed the eggs, I needed someone (or a bunch of someones to hide the eggs on our playground).

Who could I get to hide them? Of course, I called on the fifth grade to help. So the fifth grade teacher and I traded classes for about 15 minutes. I took his kids out the playground to hide the eggs. He watched my kids (well, they just drew in their notebooks). After hiding the eggs, it was time to find them. Each students was given a baggie and instructed to find only 9 eggs. This was fun!

We went back inside (because it was windy) to open our eggs. We then answered the task cards and enjoyed our rewards. The comments I got from the kiddos were amazing. They said "this is so much fun!" Having fun and learning! That is my daily goal for my students!