Happy Heart Day!

Since we had a noon dismissal, we weren't able to squeeze too many Valentine themed activities into our day. We did have fun, nonetheless!

A popular activity that I have done for a few years now involves conversation heart candies. The kids' favorite part is being able to eat their candies at the end of the assignment!

 

Activity from this fabulous unit by one of my favorite teacher bloggers, Lindsey, The Teacher Wife.

For our writing activity, the kids did a fill-in-the-blank poem called Things I Love. This poem was a reminder to the kids that poems do not have to rhyme! Here is a video of some of the kids reading their poems.



We spent our last hour passing out Valentines and enjoying birthday cupcakes in celebration of one of our 2nd grade friends who was born on Valentine's Day! The ribbons had balloons attached, but they couldn't fit in the photo.

2014 Historian of the Week #5 :: Charles Lindbergh

2014 Scientist of the Week #5 :: Cover a Nail with Copper

Chinese New Year

At the beginning of the month we read two books in class to start off our Chinese New Year unit.





The class learned about Chinese New Years traditions and compared them to American New Years traditions. One of the activities that the kids really enjoyed was finding out what animal they are on the Chinese calendar. However, the most popular activity of all was learning how to use chopsticks. I made a run to my local Asian supermarket the week before and bought each of the kids a pair of chopsticks. We watched a tutorial on how to use chopsticks which was quite helpful for the kids. Following the tutorial I gave each one of them an orange and a cup of rice. Both foods are Chinese New Year symbols for wealth and prosperity. Then they attempted to use their chopsticks to eat their oranges and a cup of rice. Afterwards we voted, tallied, and then graphed who was able to successfully eat with chopsticks.



 

 

Below are some of the videos that we watched to learn more about Chinese New Years. (I promised the kids I would post these so that those who were allowed on the blog could watch the videos.)

2014 Historian of the Week #5 :: Dr. Seuss

Happy the Hamster, Our Classroom Pet

Happy the Hamster is a Roborovski dwarf. She has been a member of our classroom for several months now. Happy is crepuscular and is up and about during dawn and dusk. Much to the kids' dismay, this means that Happy is asleep during school hours. If Happy happens to be awake when the kids come to school in the morning, they take out their free writing journals to write and draw what they see Happy doing. The kids' love watching Happy eat, run on her wheel, and climb up her tunnel to her loft.

2014 Historian of the Week #4 :: Hellen Keller

2014 Scientist of the Week #4 :: Magic Ink

2014 Scientist of the Week #3 :: Tornado Simulation

2014 Historian of the Week #3 :: Buddah

100th Day of School Celebration

What a fantastic 100th Day of School celebration we had! I invited the children to come to school dressed up to look like they were 100 years old. When the children walked into the classroom they were greeted by Great-grandma U. who was the "substitute" until lunchtime.

Here are some photos of the kids' fabulous 100 year old costumes.  

 





This 100 year old 2nd grader found the Fountain of Youth and didn't age at all! Too funny!

One of the most popular 100th day activities was working in tables to create something with 100 building block pieces. Another great idea found on Pinterest!

We made 100th day poems. Here is a sample of one:

  

Thanks to Pinterest, I picked up a fun app called Aging Booth so that the kids could have an idea of what they would really look like as a 100 year old. Best laughs we have had all year!

 Here are some fun videos we watched for our 100th day celebration.