Category: 2nd

33 Resources for Read Across America Day

2 Comments

Many people in the United States, particularly students, parents and teachers, join forces on Read Across America Day, annually held on March 2. This nationwide observance coincides with the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Here are some great reading websites for students K-5 (check here for an updated list):

Hour of Code Lesson Plans by Grade

This December will again host the Hour of Code, a one-hour introduction to programming designed to demystify the subject and show that anyone can be a maker, a creator, and an innovator. Last year, almost 300,000 students (age 4-104) participated from over 180 countries and wrote almost 20 billion lines of code. The 200,000+ teachers involved came away believing that, of all their education tools, coding was the best at teaching children to think. It’s easy to see why when you look at fundamental programming concepts:

abstraction and symbolism – variables are common in math, but also in education. Tools, toolbars, icons, images all represent something bigger
creativity – think outside the box
if-then thinking – actions have consequences
debugging – write-edit-rewrite; try, fail, try again. When you make a mistake, don’t give up or call an expert. Fix it.
logic – go through a problem from A to Z
sequencing – know what happens when

If you’re planning to participate in Hour of Code, here are activities by grade that will kickstart your effort. They can be done individually or in small groups.

(more…)

39 Resources for Read Across America Day

5 Comments

Here are some great reading websites for students K-5:

15 Easter Sites For Students

4 Comments

Many Christians celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. The date depends on the ecclesiastical approximation of the March equinox. This year, it’s April 16, 2017.

Here are some websites your students will love:

Easter color-me (for Kindergarten/first grade)
Easter Color Me to print or import to drawing program
Easter games II
Easter games III
Easter games IV
Easter poems and songs (to play online)
Easter Puppies–video
Easter puzzles and games
Easter songs for kids
Easter story--the Easter Egg–video
Easter Word hunt (Starfall)

Here are four sites that work well with iPads:

(more…)

17 Sites About Coin Counting

Primary schoolers learn about money. The only way to really ‘get it’ is by repetition. Here’s a list of websites to provide redundancy for each type of learner:

Brain Pop Learn about Money
Cash Out
Cashtivity
Coin Counting
Coin games—from US Mint
Count Money
Counting Money
Face on money
Face on money–from Lunapic; lots of options
Make change
Money—counting
Moneyville
Money Flashcards–APlus Math
Mr. Bouncy’s Money collection–lots of websites
US Mint virtual tour (a slideshow)

If you have iPads, here are two you’ll love:

(more…)

11 Easter Sites For Students

Many Christians celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. The Easter date depends on the ecclesiastical approximation of the March equinox. This year, it’s March 31st. Here are some websites your students will love:

Easter color-me (for Kindergarten/first grade)
Easter Color Me to print or import to drawing program
Easter games II
Easter games III
Easter games IV
Easter poems and songs (to play online)
Easter Puppies–video
Easter puzzles and games
Easter songs for kids
Easter story--the Easter Egg–video
Easter Word hunt (Starfall)

(more…)

52 Resources for Read Across America Day

3 Comments

Many people in the United States, particularly students, parents and teachers, join forces on Read Across America Day, annually held on March 2. This nationwide observance coincides with the birthday of Dr Seuss.

Here are some great reading websites for students K-5:

(more…)

A Holiday Card in Publisher

1 Comment

Greeting cards are easy enough for second graders–even early readers. Using MS Publisher, pick a template, add a picture to personalize, add their name–and they’re done. It takes about 15 minutes. Kids always feel great about creating these greeting cards: (more…)

Dear Otto: How do I Teach Keyboarding in My Limited Class Time?

7 Comments

Here’s Melanie’s question about teaching keyboarding effectively:

My problem is that I only see each group of students (PK – 4th grade) once a week for 30min. I see 1st and 2nd grade two times a week. How do I successfully teach keyboarding AND my regular tech curriculum with next to no time to do both? I’ve thought about doing keyboarding for the first half of the year and then my curriculum the next half.. but I’m just not sure.

I often get a version of this question–how can students learn to keyboard when there’s so little time allotted to teaching it? Surprisingly, it’s not as difficult as it sounds when you use a scaffolded approach. Start with pre-keyboarding in Kindergarten and first grade, move to good keyboarding habits that encourage speed and accuracy, and then blend it all into grade-level inquiry.

Here’s my answer:

PK, K, 1 are all about pre-keyboarding skills. Students need to understand the purpose of a keyboard, the mouse, tools and toolbars, basic digital citizenship safety, rudimentary problem solving. That can be done within the timeframe you’ve indicated. In fact, I lay it out in the K-1 curriculum that I publish. It’s easier than it sounds: Know what grade-level inquiry you can support and weave the tech skills into those.

2nd grade: This year is quite similar to the approach you use in PK-1 but you address more specific keyboarding goals–like using more fingers. It can still be easily done in your available time frame.

(more…)

32 Websites to Support Math Automaticity in K-5

Here’s along list of websites that focus on math automaticity for the K-5 classroom. I’ve broken it down by grade level, but you can decide if your second graders are precocious enough to try the websites for grades 3-5: