Erica Royer

You can use this to estimate things of many values. I mostly use it as a math center to estimate quantity. I take four baby food jars and fill them with various items. The kids estimate the amount in each jar, then open and count the actual amount.

Use this worksheet and the website: http://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/mainmap.htm to help your students learn more about recycling. This is a scavenger hunt designed to get them comfortable navigating a website while learning.

Really hone in on understanding all pieces to our 3D shapes with this activity. Students will use the worksheet to record their counts after creating 3D shapes with clay and toothpicks. As a challenge, have your early finishers use those shapes to create a castle. My students love this activity, and it's amazing to hear 2nd graders using such vocabulary correctly.

There is a page for each question: who, what, where, when, why and how. I printed them, backed them onto construction paper, and laminated them to make posters for my classroom. As I introduced each question, we would hang one up and try to find it throughout our speaking/discussions all week long. We spent one week on each question. You could also hang these as titles/headings for a literature word wall - adding details of classroom book studies to surround each poster. Don't forget the

Use the following worksheet to guide exploration of the 100s chart. You'll need a 100s chart either hanging in your room or at each student's desk. (The preview doesn't show this document correctly - when you download it, there is plenty of work space between each question.)

In creating a Recycling Club at our school, we've come across many items that can't be recycled in our community. This spurred the "Trash Art" idea of how we can utilize those items. You don't have to have a recycling club to try this lesson out - just start pulling CLEAN trash out of the bin and making something out of it. You'll teach more than just a lesson with this!

Use this worksheet for students to document their creations using pattern blocks during math centers or as a whole group lesson. Tie reading and writing into math centers for the ultimate cross-curricular connections. You may prompt students to require certain elements at various times through the year to touch on holidays or other thematic concepts. Must have set of pattern block manipulatives, or even a paper set, to accompany worksheet.

I love to use this worksheet when we have time off from school. I always hope this time away is spent with family members, and try to prompt them to get the communication rolling. This worksheet is an attempt at that. Give the students an example of one of your own family stories when explaining how to do this. They can fill it out in complete thoughts or sentence fragments, or use it as a guide to write a full story with paragraphs. This can be used throughout the year to develop writing s

This is a quick way to check in with students' comprehension. They need to answer the 6 questions: who, what, where, when, why and how. I left the space open so they can answer in short form or complete sentences. Useful for read aloud stories, guided reading time, or independent reading. You could even use this form after watching a video, reading a news clip/current event or local happening. Don't forget to print out the posters I made to hang up after teaching each piece of the worksh

This is a quick check in with students' comprehension, and can be used in many ways. Have students fill this out after they finish independent reading, reading as small groups or reading with the whole class. They may fill this out with complete sentence(s) or sentence fragments. They could even draw pictures in each box. Either way helps them build up to developing better retell skills.

I use this as a homework assignment to help on comprehension and public speaking. It was created for 2nd graders, but could be used for many ages. Students answer the essential questions (who, what, where . . . ) about a news article they've chosen. They can use a newspaper, a magazine, or an online article. I have a class website with kid friendly news links that kids can use. They bring the completed assignment with their news article to present to our morning meeting.

This is a simple book report for a variety of students to use. I created it for 2nd grade students, but quite a range of students could benefit. I use this as a homework assignment that kids really seem to get into, especially if they like public speaking. Whenever they complete a book report, they just bring it to morning meeting and share it. Each student has to do at least one per trimester. I hope it helps your students have more fun reading at home too :)

This is the only homework assignment I require on a weekly basis, and can be used at many levels. You can make this a completely independent assignment, or ask for parental support with it. I hope it helps get your students reading!