Surfin' Through Second: Creatures of The Night

Well it is mid-week of my Fall break and I am slowly getting prepped for 2nd quarter. My lesson planner is ready with fresh pages and ideas.

I tend to base my planning on our Science and Social Studies Standards here in Hawaii. Our state standards mandate us to teach specific skills during certain quarters. I know some teachers switch it up to meet their needs. My second grade team sticks to the quarter goals and we do pretty well with it.

In Science it is all about interdependence between plants and animals in different environments. Social Studies is the study of Maps and Globes.

So with this I am going to spend October and November with the study of Nocturnal animals around the world. This is such a fun subject that it is was easy to find resources and make it appealing to my students. I have been toying with the idea of interactive Science notebooks, but I think I may begin next semester with them.

I just made a science workbook for my students to use. It has lots of items in it to help focus on each of these concepts. Everything in here is from my Creatures of The Night pack.

I also plan to use lots of non-fiction readers from Reading A-Z to match our theme.

I also have literacy centers and math center activities to help reinforce the concept. These are both in my Creatures of The Night Pack, but are also available separately if you don't want to purchase the whole pack. Click {HERE} for the separate bundle.

Some books that I have purchased include the following and my library at school is full of great books for my kids to dive into.

Scholastic News is also another fantastic resource that I use and this month they have a Night Creature issue. Click on the picture to take you to the digital issue.

Social studies will be easy to tie in as we travel around the world in search of nocturnal animals and discuss the location of different habitats. Our class is also involved in a postcard exchange which kicks off this month. We will be writing postcards to 49 classrooms across the US and they will be writing back to us. We have a map that we use and color in each state as we receive the post cards. My students last year loved this activity and were so excited to receive all of the post cards. They learned so much about each state.

I know October is such a fun and exciting month for all classrooms. How do you plan for the quarter?Do you have an overall theme, or do you plan week to week? I know every teacher and school is different in what is required. I would love to hear what themes or activities you have planned.

Aloha friends! I know it's not October yet, but it is one of my favorite months! So many fun activities and ideas with Halloween and Fall that it is hard what to decide to do.

In science our standards for 2nd quarter include teaching about habitats. The Hawaii State Standards include:

Content Area: Science

FINAL

Grade / Course: 2

Quarter: 2

The Benchmark Map is developed with the following premises:
· All benchmarks for the grade level/course will be achieved in a school year.
· Major understandings are the big generalizations for the topic/concept.
◊ Italicized benchmarks are taught and assessed in more than one quarter.

Big Idea(s) / Major Understanding(s): Students will understand that...

Different habitats support different organisms.

Habitats are part of an ecosystem.

Animals depend on plants and other animals as part of a process called a “food chain.” Food chains combine to form food.

HCPS III Benchmarks (Click the benchmark code for a recommended materials report) :

◊ 2.1.1	Scientific Inquiry Develop predictions based on observations
◊ 2.2.1	Unifying Concepts and Themes Describe changes that have occurred in society as a result of new technologies
· 2.3.1	Interdependence Describe how animals depend on plants and animals
· 2.5.1	Unity and Diversity Identify distinct environments and the different kinds of organisms each environment supports

I love teaching this concept and my kids love learning about animals. So last year I created a unit to include all of these skills and more. Click here to take you to the original post {HERE}

Students love learning about Nocturnal animals so I decided to put a twist on it. I created resources to teach about Nocturnal animals in a variety of habitats. I have covered desert, ocean, woodlands, rainforest and pond. For the last few weeks I have been updating this unit and it now includes all of this.

I also wanted to integrate into my Daily 5 and Math centers so I also added in the following centers.

Food Chains

Animal Classification Game

There is so much included now and I feel like have all my bases covered with this unit. There are 140 pages of ideas and resources. If you have already purchased this just download again to check out all the new items. I have also put this on sale this weekend in my TpT store.

If you are interested in winning a copy stop back tomorrow for a fun giveaway that I will be having with some of my wonderful Hawaiian Bloggy friends!