Teaching Authors Purpose with Scholastic Order Forms

Hey Ya'll! It's Marcy from Saddle Up For 2nd Grade! 

Classroom teachers always have old Scholastic reader order forms lying around. They either send way to many or you have stacks that just don't ever get sent out. Why not put them to good use?!? They are perfect for teaching and reviewing authors purpose.

After reviewing the three types of stories, I busted out some old scholastic reading order forms. They created a graphic organizer with drawing paper then they had to find 4 examples of each type and sort them onto their paper. 

They did really well with each type except for persuade. This was tricky for them because a lot of the stories in the order form they haven't heard before and I hadn't either. So we brainstormed a list of books that we have read as a class that fall under that category. While they were searching for inform and entertain, I printed off the covers of some of the books we came up with as a class. All of their "P" books are the same but everything else they did on their own. 

This activity was quick, easy, and required NO PREP! Even my lower learners were able to do this without much guidance. It is visual, hands on, and ENGAGING! 

So next time you get extra Scholastic order forms, don't throw them away! 

How to Earn FREE Scholastic Books

Hey Ya'll! It's Marcy from Saddle Up For 2nd Grade! 

As teachers we tend to have a fascination for children's books. We are always looking for a good deal. What if I told you that you could earn FREE Scholastic books by going grocery shopping? It's true!

When you are out grocery shopping look for marked Kellogg's products that have FREE BOOK  on them. 

Inside these boxes there is a 16 digit code. For every code you collect, you can earn a FREE book! How cool is that?!?

Here is what you need to do. Go to www.freebookoffer.com and create an account if you don't already have one. From there you can enter the 16 digit code found inside your Kellogg's product and start shopping from there! 

You can also use your codes to donate books to classrooms in need. I contacted some of my family and friends and had them send me their codes to use. I've been doing this the past few months and have gotten several great books for my classroom library. They are constantly getting new books so you can also save your codes to use for later. 

Now go check your pantry to see if you have a FREE book waiting for you! 

Math Fact Fluency Races

Hey ya'll! It's Marcy from Saddle Up For 2nd Grade and I'm super excited to be your guest blogger today. I'm going to share with you a fun, engaging way my students like to practice their math facts.

We all know how important is for kids to practice and know their math facts. I try to come up with fun ways to practice so the kids don't get burnt out. One of their favorite games to play is math fact races. This is a twist on the traditional, go to the board, write a math fact, and see how can solve it the fastest type game. Even though I play this with 2nd graders, it can easily be adapted for younger or upper grades.

Here is how it works. Split your class up into teams. I always have two but you can do more than that if you have space. Draw two large circles on your white board. Inside those circles write the numbers 0-10 all the way around. Leave space in the middle to write a larger number. 

*Don't hate on my circle drawing skills. :)

The number in the middle is the main number. They are to add the main number with a smaller number and solve for the sum around the outside of the circle. When I say go, the two teams race to complete adding numbers all the way around. The team complete their facts the fastest, and have them all correct is the winner. 

They do not have to complete the circle in order. For example, they can do 5+2 and write the sum of 7 on the outside of the circle. They pass the marker to the next person and they can do 5+9 and write the sum of 14 on the outside of the circle. The reason I don't have them go in order is for differentiation. I still have some students who struggle with adding higher numbers. This allows the ones to can answer 5+1 quickly to participate without feeling left out. 

After each round, that team gets a point and I change the number in the middle and the game starts over. 

We play this game once a week and they love it. I hope you can use it in your classroom too! It can easily be adapted for subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. 

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