Do you ever feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to finish each task with your students? This is how I felt my first few years of teaching. My building principal, Ms. Opperman, started the same year I did and she switched some schedules around from what they had been in the past. She really wanted to push more literacy into the day. At first, I was concerned that I wouldn’t have time to teach subjects like Social Studies and Science because Math, Reading, and Writing consumed most of the day. So I went and talked to Ms. Opperman and told her my concern. She told me to review how I was teaching Social Studies and Science and try to incorporate them within my literacy classes. At that moment I was thought to myself “well that sounds like a solution but will it be difficult to implement?” To be honest, it was a game changer for my classroom. My 2nd Grade team and I have steered into project-based learning with Social Studies and Science and the projects integrate through multiple subject areas.
A recent project my 2nd graders completed was a published habitat book. My students first learned about different habitats that I taught in Science class. The habitats that we went over were the Savanna, rainforest, arctic regions, and ocean. Next, the students used 21st century skills to look up an animal from their choosing to research. My class talked about plagiarizing and how it’s important to use their own words instead of copying information. Once the students finished their research they wrote their information on a fact sheet during writing class. Lastly, the students showed off their artistic skills by drawing their animal. Some used Youtube to help guide them with their drawings and some free-handed their drawings. The project was very successful and taught my students a lot about animals!
Below are some pictures of how our book turned out.
Guest Speaker: Ms. Opperman
Teaching in 2nd Grade 