Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Workshop Wednesday
I know... it is not Wednesday, it is Sunday. Sunday is the day that I can catch up on my blogs and try to get them done. So I think instead of trying to do it more than once a week, I am sticking to Sundays.
February is proving to be a very busy month. In math we are working on measurement and still working with telling time. They are enjoying measuring, since there really isn't much "thinking" when it comes to using a ruler or yardstick. We are going to measure our room and see what "tools" would be the best way to measure it. One of our ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS is: "What tools can we use to measure objects?" Well, not only can a ruler be a tool, but we found out that string, blocks and even our shoes can be different objects we can measure with. It will be fun tomorrow to see the different numbers when they use their feet to measure.
This week is Valentine's Day. Not only do we get to eat chocolate this month and not feel so guilty, it is the shortest month of the year, so that means warmer weather is coming around soon! I was thinking about those cute candy hearts with the words on them last week when it came to me. So we did these awesome Acrostic Poems last week and they made them all by themselves. For this activity we learned about symmetry and poems. We used the dictionary to come up with words that describe us or adjectives. Many of us had more than one A in our name, so they had to get creative. They really liked this and coming up with different adjectives that describe them. The boys were so funny, because they used words like "smelly" and "dirty." I told them to think of sweet words too, but some I just couldn't get their mind off those boy words. They did a great job making them! I am really proud of how well they did. But I shouldn't be surprised because this class is truly amazing and talented and perfect!
Here is Cason with 300% in AR. I am so proud of him for setting such a great example for all the other students in my class. They all started trying to get to 300%, so I am letting them. But... sometimes they are more worried about taking a test, instead of listening when I am teaching. I guess I will have to live with that. At least the drive to succeed is there!
February is proving to be a very busy month. In math we are working on measurement and still working with telling time. They are enjoying measuring, since there really isn't much "thinking" when it comes to using a ruler or yardstick. We are going to measure our room and see what "tools" would be the best way to measure it. One of our ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS is: "What tools can we use to measure objects?" Well, not only can a ruler be a tool, but we found out that string, blocks and even our shoes can be different objects we can measure with. It will be fun tomorrow to see the different numbers when they use their feet to measure.
This week is Valentine's Day. Not only do we get to eat chocolate this month and not feel so guilty, it is the shortest month of the year, so that means warmer weather is coming around soon! I was thinking about those cute candy hearts with the words on them last week when it came to me. So we did these awesome Acrostic Poems last week and they made them all by themselves. For this activity we learned about symmetry and poems. We used the dictionary to come up with words that describe us or adjectives. Many of us had more than one A in our name, so they had to get creative. They really liked this and coming up with different adjectives that describe them. The boys were so funny, because they used words like "smelly" and "dirty." I told them to think of sweet words too, but some I just couldn't get their mind off those boy words. They did a great job making them! I am really proud of how well they did. But I shouldn't be surprised because this class is truly amazing and talented and perfect!
Wednesday is our workshop day. I love workshop because that is my time with the kids to really work with them on certain math or reading activities they are struggling with. Or, it is just to listen to them read, which they love to do. They love this time as well, so I just wanted to share a few pictures with you. They are really learning, when they think they are just having fun! Love it!
Last, but not least, is our famous AR Super Stars. They have worked so hard to reach their goal in AR. I don't want to make reading all about speed reading and then taking a test on it to get a point... I want them to enjoy reading and really get something out of it. Most of the time it works... others, they just read to take a test and get their points. AR is such a great program and has such positive outcomes that I can't help but push it. I am so proud of one of my students who has come such a great way with reading. He liked to read, but his confidence just wasn't there. Well, I am so proud to say that this nine weeks, he is reading like a pro and has the most AR points in my class. I think this kid has quite a competitive drive, because he is trying his best to be the top reader. The way he is going he is going to have 400% by the end of this nine weeks. I think he really wants a trophy and he will have one the way he is going.
Check these Awesome Super Star Readers!!! I am so proud of them all for reaching their AR goals and above!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Just a quick update...
Okay...
We did it, we finally did it! The kids are finally taking tests and trying to reach their AR goals for real! They LOVE putting the beads on their necklace for every point they get. When they reach their 100% goal for AR, they put on a star. When they reach their 150% of their goal, they get a GOLD STAR! They love the gold stars!
I would like for all my kids to reach 150% of their goal, which averages around 18 points, or 36 books. They are doing a fabulous job! I am so proud of them. Today, I took pictures of all the ones that have over 150% and the ones that met their 100% goal. Well, I didn't post it yet, because I know tomorrow, I will have 2 more kiddos that will have reached their goals... so I will post pics tomorrow!
We are working on measurement in the classroom. They had fun today trying to guesstimate what the temperature was outside and inside. We passed around the thermometer and measured both inside and outside temperatures. They are doing great with that. Tomorrow, we will be learning about inches.
Tomorrow, I promise to post more pictures and update this blog more than I have been doing. I need more hours in the day.
See you tomorrow!
We did it, we finally did it! The kids are finally taking tests and trying to reach their AR goals for real! They LOVE putting the beads on their necklace for every point they get. When they reach their 100% goal for AR, they put on a star. When they reach their 150% of their goal, they get a GOLD STAR! They love the gold stars!
I would like for all my kids to reach 150% of their goal, which averages around 18 points, or 36 books. They are doing a fabulous job! I am so proud of them. Today, I took pictures of all the ones that have over 150% and the ones that met their 100% goal. Well, I didn't post it yet, because I know tomorrow, I will have 2 more kiddos that will have reached their goals... so I will post pics tomorrow!
We are working on measurement in the classroom. They had fun today trying to guesstimate what the temperature was outside and inside. We passed around the thermometer and measured both inside and outside temperatures. They are doing great with that. Tomorrow, we will be learning about inches.
Tomorrow, I promise to post more pictures and update this blog more than I have been doing. I need more hours in the day.
See you tomorrow!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Writing...
Writing is such a fun subject for me to teach. Unfortunately with writing the students either LOVE to write or hate it. I always have such a hard time finding fun writing activities for them so they can learn and grow to produce good excellent writings. Sooooo, in my search for fun writing activities that will help teach them the different genres, I found this fun site that I am pretty sure they are going to love! It is a great site from Scholastic and I hope it is one that won't go away for a long time! If you get a chance go check it out! For one of my workshops, I have these boards that they mix and match to come up with a sillly sentence. But for this, they have to come up with a story. I am going to give it a try this week and see what happens! I found this over at
Thanks so much Mrs. Chappell for sharing your great find!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
100th Day of School
Today is the 100th day of school for us! It is hard to believe that we have been in school for 100 days! We did a few fun things this afternoon to celebrate being in 2nd grade for 100 days. I needed a few more hours to do all that I really wanted to do, but instead, we did sorting and counting. They counted by 10's and put all the things around the classroom into groups of 100. They worked very hard and even got very creative when putting the items away!
Do you see the 100th day spelled out? So cute!
They made different shapes with their blocks.
Look at all the groups of tens they had.
They had a lot more than 100!
This group had a big job as well! They decided to count the crayons to see how many there were. In the end, they had over 600 crayons that they sorted by groups of 10! They did a great job sorting them and putting them away!
How excited were they?
They had the mini blocks and put them into groups of 100!
This group had the smallest pieces, but the biggest number out of the class!
They really had their work cut out for them! But they did it with over 800 blocks!
WOW!
They worked so well together and had a lot of fun seeing how much 100 really is. We learned that we can't buy a car with $100, but we might be able to buy some groceries with $100 or a nice outfit or a new pair of Nike tennis shoes. We learned that $100 would be nice to have, but in reality, we can't buy that much with it either!
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I wanted to share a couple pictures from our PBIS dance party! They all participated in it and saved their money! I hope they enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed watching them dance!
They had a great time!
I can't wait to see what is in store for the next nine weeks!
I can't wait to see what is in store for the next nine weeks!
I love my sweet class!!!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Messy Matter
We are finishing up learning about Matter and all its properties this week. We had fun with experiments and learning about solids, liquids and gases. Yesterday, we played with a type of matter that was both a solid and a liquid. We started with water and then passed around some corn starch. We felt the corn starch and saw that it was very smooth, but still a solid. The particles were very small, so when we poured it in the cup, it took the shape of the container. But when we mixed both water and the corn starch together a funny thing happened. We predicted it would be like a cake mix batter, which is what it looked like... until we felt it!
What a surprise we had when we went to touch it! When we pressed on the matter, it became hard, but when we let it go, it ran through our fingers... just like water. Was it a liquid or a solid???
Look... it is hard...
No.. it is wet!!!
What a great way to learn about a matter that doesn't really fall into a solid or liquid category.
It is called "OOBLECK."
Oobleck is a non-newtonian fluid. That is, it acts like a liquid when being poured, but like a solid when a force is acting on it. You can grab it and then it will ooze out of your hands. If you make enough Oobleck, you can even walk on it!
To make it was very easy! We had one and a half cups of corn starch and one cup of water and mixed them together to experiment the fun!
Half Way Through!
Can you believe it? The New Year is here and we are half way through this school year already! I cannot believe it. We have already done so much this first week back!
I want to brag about how awesome my class is... They all worked so hard the last nine weeks for 2 things... The first thing was AR. I had all 22 students not only meet their goal, but mostly all of them EXCEEDED their AR goal. I am so proud of them and their hard work on their reading and comprehension. I want them to have a love of reading and not to do it just because they have to do it to reach their goal. The thing I love about AR is the fact that they really learn how to comprehend what they are reading. Along the way, I see that most of these students really WANT to read, not just because they have to. They develop that love for reading that I am talking about.
We are reading a chapter book now in class called, Cupid Doesn't Flip Hamburgers. They are really loving The Bailey School Kids adventures. I love to change my voice and hear them laugh and really love all the different characters in the book. I love it when they go back to their seat and try to read their book while changing their voices. That shows they are really getting into a book! I LOVE it!
I want to brag about how awesome my class is... They all worked so hard the last nine weeks for 2 things... The first thing was AR. I had all 22 students not only meet their goal, but mostly all of them EXCEEDED their AR goal. I am so proud of them and their hard work on their reading and comprehension. I want them to have a love of reading and not to do it just because they have to do it to reach their goal. The thing I love about AR is the fact that they really learn how to comprehend what they are reading. Along the way, I see that most of these students really WANT to read, not just because they have to. They develop that love for reading that I am talking about.
We are reading a chapter book now in class called, Cupid Doesn't Flip Hamburgers. They are really loving The Bailey School Kids adventures. I love to change my voice and hear them laugh and really love all the different characters in the book. I love it when they go back to their seat and try to read their book while changing their voices. That shows they are really getting into a book! I LOVE it!
Here is a picture of my awesome and talented 2nd graders!
They all made their goal and they should be so proud of themselves!
My top 2 Readers were Noel and Nicholas.
They both had over 200%!
Way to go!!!
The second thing I am so proud of these great kids is for their behavior. They all SAVED their Bronco Bucks for our Dance and Wii Party tomorrow! They needed to save $50.00 for the party, but because of their positive behavior, they all had over $50.00 to participate in the party. I will post pictures tomorrow. In class I am trying to teach/instill the difference between needs and wants. I know we all want a new toy off the Braggin Wagon, but maybe some of us might really need a new pencil. They are also learning how to save with our Bank. I open the bank once a week so they can deposit or withdrawal money to spend on the Braggin Wagon. What a great way to learn about saving and spending! Tomorrow, we will all be enjoying ourselves because they all saved their money to participate in this fun event! I can't wait!
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