Teaching Predicate

Whoa is this the 3rd week of school already!
Our school has been getting out early for heat several times in the last two weeks. Although I don't mind getting off work early, it is hard to build a routine and get anything done. In this post I wanted to take some time to show how we are teaching predicate to our 2nd grade students.

Many 2nd graders have a hard time figuring out the different parts of a sentence and this method of teaching it has been very benificial and I feel worth the time to teach it.

1. Show them what a subject is get them to ask the question "Who?" or "What?" is this sentence about.
2. Circle the subject in red.
3. Next discuss verbs (stick with action for now if possible).
4. When you find the verb put a red squiggle line under it.
5. In front of the verb put a blue vertical line.
6. Underline the verb and the rest of the sentence in green. This is the predicate.
7. Spend time writing their own sentence (it took our class a 30 minute period to get it done).
8. Use the same method on their own sentences.

Here is what it looks like:

Just remember it is not one and done! You have to continue to work on it to keep it forever in their minds :) Good luck! All for now!

We're Back!

Here we are the 7th day of school for us! Wow where did the summer go!
I spent the entire summer doing anything but schoolwork, crazy right. I think it is because I felt really good about the way my classroom was set up and being the start of the 7th year in the same grade, I know my stuff.
However, that being said we definitely don't want to get too comfortable that it becomes blah, blah, blah to me either. My class last year was challenging to say the least and I needed to just relax and be ready for the new year too!
Now, about the first two weeks of school words of advice:
1. slowly introduce new things being careful to teach it the right way the first time- one time I taught the kids to use the smelly markers for word work during daily 5 by using their name instead of the spelling words "don't do it" the rest of the year I battled with kids thinking word work was their names "ugh"
2. have a go to when the students are done because I personally can't think on my feet in the moment- this year I went with a binder idea from teachers pay teachers (Rise and Shine Binder by Reagan Tunstall | Teachers Pay Teachers https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rise-and-Shine-Binder-762792) All I have to do daily is put up a number and a word of the day and away we go.
3. Have high expectations at all times and give lots of positives the first couple of weeks- the kids have had a long unstructured summer and they are in need of expectations, they also need reassurance that they can trust you to be fair and stay positive

Guess I better head off to school! I have had a hard time adjusting as well since I had an unstructured summer too!

Have a great day and a great year!
All for now!