Veterans Day

Since we had school today, we spent a good amount of our time learning about Veterans Day. Today's mini unit was perfect timing, considering that we just finished up our Symbols of America unit last week. Today we learned what a Veteran is and even shared about people that we know who have served in the past. We brainstormed character traits of those who serve in our military. We watched short video segments explaining why we have Veterans Day and then listened to a song honoring our Veterans. At 11:11 A.M. we took a moment of silence to thank God for those who have served and to protect those who currently serve. We learned important vocabulary related to Veterans, and we put them in ABC order and looked for them in a word search. At the end of the day we wrote letters of thanks so someone we know that is in the military or who has served in the past.

Here is a video of the song we listened to in class. (Posting because several kids asked so they could watch and learn it at home.)

Pumpkin Studies, Part 2

Here a some pictures from our pumpkin investigation. The kids had the best time making various predictions about our pumpkin and then seeing how close they were to the actual measurements. Predictions included the pumpkin's height, weight, number of ribs, number of seeds, and whether the pumpkin would sink or float in water. The kids' favorite part of our investigation was seeing the pumpkin float in water! I was as shocked as they were when the pumpkin floated. Pulling seeds out of the pumpkin's wet, sticky flesh was a popular activity as well. Can you believe we counted more than 300 seeds from our small pumpkin?

Trying to estimate how much the pumpkin weighs.



The class worked in pairs to separate the pumpkin seeds from the stringy, mushy flesh.

After separating seeds from the flesh, the kids counted their seeds.
One pair had only 22 seeds. Another pair counted 54.

After we cleaned up our pumpkin the mess from our investigation, the kids estimated how many pumpkin candies were in our estimation jar. Three kids came pretty close. They estimated that there were 50 pumpkin candies, and there were 58 in the container.

Daily Five in Full Swing

I have to admit, I have a really great group this year. They will seriously sit and read and read and read . . . and when time is up, some of them will groan and beg (yes, beg!) for MORE independent reading time. I love it!!!

Introducing each part of the Daily Five was a breeze, mostly because I looped nine students from 1st into 2nd grade this year. I am definitely seeing (and reaping!) the benefits of teaching in a multi-grade classroom.

Here are some photos showing each of the rotations of the Daily Five. The only rotation that I didn't get a picture of is Teacher Time when I do guided reading with groups or when I'm working with kids on an individual basis. Teacher Time isn't formally a rotation of the Daily Five anyways.

Read to Self
There are a lot of fun places to sit in the room for Read to Self, but the loft is definitely THE most popular one of all.

Work on Writing
The Writing Center is very popular this year, particularly with the first grade girls!

Read to Someone
The kids have been practicing their fluency skills when reading with a partner.
They also ask questions to check for understanding (comprehension). 

Word Work
We have 14 word work stations for practicing spelling and sight words. These stations don't change.
However, we do have about a dozen language/grammar stations that change each month according to seasons/themes.

Listen to Reading on computers using www.raz-kids.com
Word Work on computers using www.spellingcity.com

Listen to Reading with books on cassettes or CDs at the Listening Station

Listen to Reading on iPads

 For anyone interested in learning more about the Daily Five, please visit The Daily Café by the 2Sisters, Gaily Boushey and Joan Moser. If you're an educator, I highly recommend their books and their workshop. 

School Spirit Week

Last week was School Spirit Week. What a great time we had dressing up! Here's what our week looked like:

•  Monday - Pajama Day
• Tuesday - Sports Day
• Wednesday - Book Character Day
• Thursday - Crazy Hair/Tacky Day
• Friday - Decades Day

Our class won first place for best participation all week! The kids earned themselves a pizza party. As you can imagine, they are over the moon excited. Principal Herr said that this year's Spirit Week was the most participation he has seen from the entire student body in all the years he has been here.

My favorite day was Book Character Day. Here are pictures of me and all the kids.

The Lorax and The Cat in the Hat | Dr. Seuss

Fly Guy | Tedd Arnold
This cutie won best costume for Book Character Day. Some of you might remember
him dressed up as the Pigeon during our end of year book character parade
 last school year. Check out his costume from last year HERE.

Judy Moody and Stink | Megan McDonald

Biscuit and his owner | Alyssa Satin Capucilli 

Detective Zack | Jerry D. Thomas

 

Mary from the Bible

Lego Storm Trooper | Simon Beecroft

Fancy Nancy on the ends | Jane O'Connor ::  Pinkalicious in the middle |  Victoria Kann

Monster truck driver Dennis Anderson | Hot Wheel car

My Little Pony Starsong, the wolf from Peter and the Wolf, Lalaloopsy

Since I didn't get any photos of the class during any other days, I thought I'd share a few pictures of my own kids from Decades Day.

Kids from the 50s - my son, the Greaser and his cute classmate in her poodle skirt outfit

My daughter dressed up as a Flapper from the 20s with her classmates dressed up as Michael Jackson from the 80s.
(He won best costume for Decades Day!)

Had to share this one of my daughter. On Book Character Day she dressed up as Pippi Longstocking, one of my
favorite characters from childhood. She even has patches on her dress and "gold" coins in her apron pocket!

Pumpkin Studies, Part 1

We are in the middle of our pumpkin studies. I promised the kids I would post the videos that we watched to learn about pumpkins.



     

Here are a few photos of a pumpkin art project the kids worked on not too long ago.

 I found this fabulous "Pumpkin Investigation" unit on TpT full of activities that the kids have really been enjoying. Click HERE to purchase it. The teacher who created it has a wonderful blog full of resources and fantastic teaching ideas. Check out her blog Sunny Days in Second Grade HERE.

***I know it's been awhile since I last posted. My youngest had surgery ten days ago, and with fall now in full swing with Thanksgiving on the horizon things have been crazy busy! I will try my best to put up photos over the next few days of all the things we've been up to in the classroom.

Reading and Writing Anchor Charts

Here are a few anchor charts that we have been using in the classroom. Both inspired by pins I found on Pinterest. If I remember correctly, both are ideas from THIS teacher blogger over at The Inspired Apple.


We have been referring to this anchor chart each day during our reading block.
The typos have been fixed. (Haha.) Here's the pin that inspired this - CLICK HERE.

Here's an anchor chart that I drew during a writing lesson on labeling. Pin that inspired this one is HERE.
This cat has really short front legs. Poor kitty!

After the kids labeled the cat on the anchor chart, they got to label me with sticky notes!
As you can imagine, there was an awful lot of giggling during this part of the lesson.

Apple Unit

The kids learned an awful lot about apples last week. Thursday was Johnny Appleseed's birthday. Sadly, I had to miss out because I was in Orlando attending a meeting at the conference office. However, I made sure that our sub kept the kids busy with plenty of Johnny Appleseed activities. Ms. Lisa was even kind enough to bring Honeycrisp apples for the kids to enjoy, fresh from her family's recent trip to Washington state. Thank you, Ms. Lisa!

 Friday's apple activities were definitely the most popular ones of the week. In the morning the class participated in an apple tasting party. We sampled various products made from apples. The kids recorded whether or not they liked each food. At the end of our tasting party, each child voted for their favorite apple product on a pictograph.

 In the afternoon we all had fun with this Johnny Appleseed craftivity, inspired by an activity I found on Pinterest. I think the kids did an awesome job! I love how each creation turned out so differently.

 

Writing Anchor Charts

Thought I'd share some of the ideas the kids have brainstormed during our writing workshop kickoff. It's amazing how intelligent 1st and 2nd graders are. The kids came up with so many ideas, I actually ran out of room on the bottom two anchor charts. Sidenote: If I could, I would create anchor charts all day so long as I was armed with a box of 48 Crayola Crayons, Mr. Sketch markers, and a pad of white easel paper!

First Lost Tooth, First Superstar of the Week, and First Birthday of the Year!

In all the years I've taught, a student has never lost a tooth in class this early into the school year. Exciting! This 2nd grader lost his tooth after having his lunch. He wiggled the tooth a few times, and out it came! He is now part of this year's Lost Tooth Club. He took home our Lost Tooth Club bag, read one of our books about teeth, and shared his journal entry with the class. Can you believe that a 1st grader lost her tooth the following week? It was literally hanging by a thread, and she let me pull it out. That makes two lost teeth in our classroom so far in the month of September.

 
Our first Superstar of the Week was featured earlier in the month. Being Superstar is a really big deal. Every day during Morning Meeting we have a share from our Superstar that helps us get to know him or her better. Here's the schedule that we follow:

• Monday: All About Me poster
• Tuesday: favorite book
• Wednesday: family/baby pictures
• Thursday: talent

On Friday the entire class writes letters to the Superstar. We bind them together in a book. My daughter still has hers from two years ago. I remember her saying that she was going to keep her Superstar of the Week book forever. Seems just like yesterday when she was in my 2nd grade class . . .


Our first Superstar in front of her All About Me poster

 

Birthdays happen once a year, so we try to make them special. Birthday celebrants get a birthday balloon from our birthday bouquet, a birthday bookmark, and a birthday cake certificate from me. Student also write birthday letters to the celebrant, and we bind those into a book like we do for the Superstar of the Week. At lunchtime we sing "Happy Birthday!" to the celebrant. At the end of each week during school-wide assembly, our principal has the entire school sing to all students who celebrated their birthdays during the week.

 

 



Photos from the First Week of School

A number of pins on Pinterest inspired this first day of school picture frame.

Recess is always voted favorite time of the school day!

The kids had a great time playing this getting to know you game.

After reading the book First Day Jitters, we made a graph to show we we felt on the first day of school.