Art Project-Piet Mondrian

This activity came from the book Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn Kohl and Kim Solga. Mondrian grew up in Holland. He studied to be an artist. At first he painted landscapes and portraits. But after a visit to Paris in 1910, he began creating abstract art...geometric designs. He hoped his pictures would express thoughts and feelings.

I modified the directions from Discovering Great Artists just a bit. Here is how I did it.

I cut strips of black construction paper in advance.

Then I read aloud a little bit about Piet Mondrian to my class and showed some samples of his work on my smartboard. I then put a white piece of art paper on the white board and modeled the project. I glued strips of construction paper onto my paper to make a geometric design. Then I showed them how to color small sections to add visual interest. (We used markers, not paint.)

Then I had students return to their seats and create their own geometric designs after the style of Mondrian.

Here are some photos of their artwork. I think they turned out quite nicely.

Make Ten Go Fish

Here's another game to play with number cards or face cards with the J,Q, K and Joker removed.

Game can be played with 2-4 players.

Deal 5 cards to each person. Place the rest of the deck face down.

Each person sets down any pairs that add up to ten. (For example, 1 and 9, or 0 and 10). Then add enough cards to again have 5 cards in hand.

First person asks another player if they have a card (that will add up to 10 with one of the cards in their hand). If the other player has that card, then they hand it over and the first player places the pair down.

If the other player does not have the requested card, they say "go fish" and the first player draws a card. If it makes a match that equals ten, they place it down.

Then it becomes player 2's turn. They draw one card from the pile. Then they ask for a card from another player. Play continues until all cards are gone.

The person with the most matches/pairs is the winner.

Math Games: Addition and Subtraction War

I am hoping to update each week with an easy math game that can be played at home to practice and improve math skills. Most of the games can be played with number cards (cards labeled with 0-9 and a dot pattern) or with a deck of face cards with the King, Queen, Jack and Joker removed.

Addition War:
Divide the cards into 2 piles. Each person flips over the top two cards and adds them together. Then the person with the highest sum or total gets all 4 cards. For example, player 1 gets 5 + 7 = 12. Player 2 gets 3 + 6 = 9. So player 1 takes all 4 cards and sets them aside. If there is a tie, both players flip over their next two cards and the winner of that round takes all 8 cards.

Keep playing until cards in your pile are gone. Then count how many cards each person collected. The person with the most cards wins.

Subtraction War:
Divide the cards into 2 piles. Each person flips over the top two cards and subtracts the smaller number from the bigger number. Then the person with the highest answer gets all 4 cards. For example, player 1 gets 7 - 5 = 2. Player 2 gets 6-3 = 3. So player 2 takes all 4 cards and sets them aside. If there is a tie, both players flip over their next two cards and the winner of that round takes all 8 cards.
Keep playing until cards in your pile are gone. Then count how many cards each person collected. The person with the most cards wins.

Make Ten Concentration

Use number cards 0-10 (or face cards with J, Q, K and Joker removed). Place cards face down. Turn two cards over. If the numbers add to make ten, you keep the pair. If not, flip them face down again. The second person then goes, trying to make ten. Continue playing until all the pairs of ten have been matched up and all cards are gone. The winner is the player with the most cards.

Family Literacy Night Notes

I helped plan and run a family literacy night at our school last week. It was a great success and a lot of fun. We had classes for families, a "book walk" (like a cake walk but the winners got free books) and a library open house. There were free cookies to decorate at the end. It was a great celebration.

Here are the notes from the class I taught about reading aloud to your children and shared reading. There is a lot more I could have said, but this is a good summary:
Benefits of reading: (Why read aloud?)
In a research article, titled What Reading Does for the Mind, the following benefits were found for reading:
*You become a better reader.
*You have a larger vocabulary.
*It usually improves your spelling.
*It increases your knowledge about the world and your practical knowledge (day to day living).
*It improves your ability to speak and communicate.
*It increases reading comprehension.
*It can improve IQ and make you smarter.
*It slows the process of aging and decreases memory loss.
Plus, reading is FUN!!! And reading together with your child helps them be more successful in school but also strengthens your relationship with your child.


How do I read aloud?
**Read in your native language.
**Have your child sit close to you.
**Choose a book that you’ll both enjoy (perhaps take turns picking.)
**Stop after a few pages to talk about the book:
*What is happening? Who are the characters?
*What’s your favorite part so far?
*Talk about words your child doesn’t know.
*Would you act like that character?
*Could that/would that happen in real life?
*Has anything like this happened to you?
**Kids are never too old to be read to.
**Picture books are valuable even for older kids who can already read.
**Make it fun! You can use voices. You can act out a favorite part. But most importantly, don’t try too hard to make it educational… Enjoy being with your child sharing a book. The learning will happen naturally.



What is shared reading?
Shared reading is when an adult and child read out loud together. This most often occurs when reading a favorite book that you have read together many times. Young children will often naturally begin to chime in the parts they know.

Why do shared reading?
Shared reading is fun!
Shared reading can help your child understand what they are reading. If they are not working too hard to sound out the words, it allows them to focus more on what the story or poem means.
Shared reading is also a great way to lend support to your child if they are trying to read a book that is just a little bit hard for them. You read along with them and provide help.
Shared reading is also a good tool to work on building fluency. As you read aloud together, your child will try to read at the same speed that you are. You will need to slow down a little and read in chunks (3 or 4 words at a time). Model for them what good reading sounds like and they will try to copy you.

Examples of shared reading:
*Reading a poem or nursery rhyme aloud together.
*Having your child chime in on a repeated line in a story. For example, in the Three Little Pigs, they might read along with you the lines: “Little Pig, little pig, let me come in.” “Not by the hair of my chinny-chin, chin.”
*If your child checks out a book from the library or brings home a book that is just a little bit difficult, you could read aloud a paragraph or page and then have then share read it with you.
*On homework papers, you might share read the directions.

“You don’t have to read every day—only on the days you eat.” --Proverb

100th Day of School

Our 100th day of school was January 27, 2011. We had fun celebrating.

We practiced counting to 100 by 5 and 10. We talked about how many dimes, pennies, nickels and quarters equal 100 cents.

Kids found different ways to group objects into 100. For example, they made 10 groups of 10 blocks and 2 groups of 50 paperclips. They put teddy bear counters into 5 groups of 20 and beans into 4 groups of 25.

Students also wrote a story about what they thought they would look, act and feel like when they are 100. We turned these into a darling, funny class book!

In addition, we made a class book of 100 things we are grateful for. There are 24 kids +1 teacher = 25 people. So each of us wrote 4 things we are thankful for.

We also looked for words that equal 100 cents if A = 1 cent, B = 2 cents and so on.

We read a couple of great books including: 100 Hungry Ants by Bonnie MacKain and Elinor Pinczes and 100 Days Of School by Trudy Harris and Beth Griffis Johnson.

Some other ideas that we didn't have time to do this year were:

to do 10 jumping jacks, 10 sit ups, 10 jumpropes, 10 spins, and so on until we had done 10 different activities.

Have a list of items that students could buy that cost $2, $5, $10, $20, and $25 and let students create a list of what they would buy for exactly $100.

Practice reading our 100 second grade high frequency words.

Measure to find things that are 100 centimeters (1 meter) long.

Measure to find things that are 100 paper clips long.

Turn the number 100 into a work of art (using collage to create the number or by writing the number 100 and then drawing designs to turn it into a picture).

Series of Chapter Books

As per a parent request, here is a list of chapter book series that many second graders can read and enjoy. Of course, there are many other books that your child may like and not all second graders are ready for chapter books (which is okay).

Early Chapter Books
Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
Mr. Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant
Magic School Bus Chapter Books by Eva Moore and Ted Enik
Arthur Chapter books by Marc Brown



A little harder chapter books:
Horrible Harry by Suzy Kline
Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park
Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osbourne
Jigsaw Jones by James Preller and R. W. Alley
A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy and John Steven Gurney