Hundreds Chart Puzzles

As we start the year in Everyday Math, you can tell the spread of my 2nd graders abilities start to show.  Some are trying to master sequences on the hundreds chart while others are ready for a more challenging experience.  To try and enrich the students who are done early I created this word document in the style of hundreds chart puzzles found in our Everyday Math journals.  The students who are at a high level will have the opportunity to create puzzles for friends to solve and I, the teacher, can create puzzles for those students who need practice in certain areas.  Click here to get this document for free from my TPT store.

A Hippo Ate the Teacher

As I get ready for the school day tomorrow I needed to share my latest creation.  In second grade we start off with the story A Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher.  We read the first part of the book and then create a drawing of our ideal teacher.  We talk about things that good teachers do and what the kids want out of me this school year.  I think it is fun to see the ideas they come up with and the things they see that I don't always notice.  We then proceed to feed their drawn teachers to the hippo that I made.  Lastly we predict what is going to happen in the story after the teacher gets eaten and then finish the story.  At the end of the story the teacher gets burped up and comes out of the hippo so of course we then shake the teachers out.  The kids love it. 

Here is how I made our class hippo.

1- draw a hippo on a piece of tag board.  You could also use a trusty overhead if you don't feel like you could draw one well enough.  

2-color your hippo for your desired look.

3- cut out the mouth of the hippo and then lay your hippo on the bag and trace where you want the cutout of the mouth to be.

4-cut out the traced part of the paper bag and glue your hippo to the bag so the mouth fits over the hole you cut.  

You now have a perfect teacher eating hippo for your class to enjoy :) Happy teaching this year everyone! I plan to post more pictures of my classroom but still have yet to remember my camera.  I think I may just have to many other things on my mind at this point in the school year :)