What we've been up to in 2nd Grade...plus a classroom management FREEBIE!

Happy Friday!! Woohoo, it's March which means spring will be here soon and spring break season is upon us!  I only have 10 days between me and 2 weeks of spring track-out.  Lots to do between now and then, but it'll be here before I know it!
So, we've been up to a lot since I was on my little blog here last.  If you follow me on Instagram, you have seen we have gone full flexible seating in our room.  I'll have to dedicate a whole blog post just to that.
First up, this quarter I started having STEM Friday's each Friday during our Excel time (intervention block) using Brooke Brown's year-long STEM pack. I'm not sure that they have yet learned anything about science, technology, engineering, or math, but if they can learn how to get along and work in a small group, I'll call it a success in the end.
This week we made wind-powered mazes.  I only gave each group 1 box of unifix cubes and they had to make a maze from that box of cubes.  Some struggled working together, and one group, when it came time to race their marbles, had a huge gap in the side of their maze - so they had to problem solve and fix that before they could navigate the maze.

I realized after school, I forgot to give the kids the straws to help them blow on the marbles - OOPS!  That would have probably helped this sweet one!

The past couple weeks we have been tackling money in math.  With St. Patrick's Day coming up, I made this fun activity to make a colorful bulletin board and get the kids using coins to make a specified amount of money.

Each kiddo got a cloud and they have to show me how they would make that amount of money by drawing the coins they would use.  Then they got to go get their coins (clipart) to cut out and put on their pot.

Easy differentiation - there are amounts above and below one dollar.  We hadn't yet done amounts over one dollar, so I gave a few kiddos a challenge - and they mastered it!

Now, I will tell you, I did the rainbow part for my kiddos.  Before we did the project, I layered the colored strips of paper and taped them so they looked like a fan.  Then, as the kiddos finished up their pots with the coins and cut out their clouds, they brought it to me and I put the rainbow part together.

I knew it would be a total disaster if I had my kiddos do that part and I would have pulled all my hair out, so I helped them with that part.

You can grab this activity {HERE} from my TPT store!

Now, for a a little classroom management FREEBIE!

I'm not sure if you have watched Teachers on TV Land or not (I wasn't a fan), but in one of the first episodes, one of the teachers got her kiddos attention by saying Quiet Coyote.  I thought it was a fun idea, so I started using it in my class too!

We even use Quiet Coyote when we are in line.  I ask them for my Quiet Coyote line and they all show me their coyotes on their hands.  Now, if you are in North Carolina, you will also know this as the NC State wolf...this may or may not have been even more reason that I use it - Go Pack!!

Then, I was listening to Ron Clark one day on the way home from school and he was talking about attention getters and getting your class to stop FAST!  So, we started to make it a game.  We practiced a few times and they kept getting faster, so then it was time to start keeping score!

When the kids stop moving and talking super fast, they earn a point.  When they are slow or keep talking, I earn a point.  This is similar to the smiley/frowny game that Whole Brain Teaching emphasizes.  At the end of the day, if the kids have more Quiet Coyote points than I do, they earn a whole class point on Class Dojo for a Quiet Coyote Class Win.

After a couple weeks of making my own little game board on my whiteboard each day, I made this cute little game board with coyote clipart from Melonheadz included!

Grab the freebie {HERE}

Hope you were able to grab a new idea and maybe even a new resource or two!

Have a wonderful weekend, sweet readers!