Holiday Party and Authors' Celebration

Friday was such a fun day in 2nd grade!  We started our morning with our holiday party and gift exchange.  I love to see how excited the kids are to give a gift to a friend and to open their gifts.  We ended our morning with our Authors' Celebration.  Thanks to all the family members who were able to join us.  It means a lot to your children to share their writing with you!

Letter Writing Unit

Throughout the month of December we wrote letters, sent them out in our mailbox, and received letters into our mailbox.  The students learned about the parts of the letter: date, greeting, body, closing, and signature.  Our letters needed to include all parts of a letter with at least 4 sentences in the body.  Each day 2 students would deliver mail around our school that we had written.  Letters were delivered around our classroom as well. This is one of my favorite writing units because the students are so excited to get their writing out, and they can't wait to get mail!  They are very motivated to work on their spelling and conventions because they want the recipients of their letters to understand their writing.

Holiday Spirit in 2nd Grade

December with elementary children is truly a magical time.  A highlight of each day is writing letters while listening to Christmas music at writing time (another post to come on this).  The Christmas concert at the beginning of the month was wonderful! Everyone did a fantastic job! We've enjoyed a few holiday art projects to hang around our room.   We've also been preparing and practicing for our Authors' Celebration planned for Friday, December 23rd.

Piggie and Elephant Day

During the month of November the students practiced reading Piggie and Elephant books by Mo Willems.  This is a series that the students grow to love in their early reading years.  As 2nd graders we dive into getting to know them as characters.  How are their personalities similar and different?  We practice reading with expression, thinking about how these characters are thinking and feeling.  We also wrote our own Piggie and Elephant books trying to capture their personalities while also creating a story that connects with each individual 2nd grader.  We celebrated by inviting the 1st graders into our room to share our stories.

Turkey Bingo

It has become a tradition at Lanesboro to play Turkey Bingo during our last half hour together in school before Thanksgiving break.  All the students K-12 participate.  A few high school students call out the numbers over the loud speaker.  Any student that gets a bingo must race to the office calling out loudly "gobble, gobble, gobble!"  It sure is fun to hear the students from all over the school running down the hallway with their gobble call!  We had 2 winners this year in 2nd grade!  Happy Thanksgiving 2nd grade families!

Writing Personal Narratives

In October and early November the students focused on writing stories about their own personal experiences.  Our focus was on picking a topic and adding details that can clearly show the reader what happened in the story.  Along the way, we learn about and practice writing in complete sentences.  Using capitalization at the beginning of sentences and for proper nouns and correct placement of end marks.  The students picked their favorite piece of writing to publish and share.  Once published, each book went into a basket on our gathering rug for the class to enjoy.  We also met up with the first grade class to share our stories.

Adjectives Describe Us!

We have been learning about adjectives in 2nd grade.  We know that adjectives are describing words, and we've been working hard to pick them out in our reading during read alouds and small group reading.  Using adjectives to describe our friends is an easy task because we know each other so well and have so many kind words to describe each other!  On Thursday, the students had to use adjectives to describe themselves and make a little adjective mini-me!

Fall Trees in the Sunrise

The students did a beautiful job on this fall tree silhouette art project.  Tissue paper was used to make the colorful sunrise background.  The students tore the tree out of black paper.  Check them out displayed in our hallway!

 

Election Day!

The 2nd graders were able to cast their votes on this election day!  A big thanks to Mrs. Gjere for organizing this elementary election.  A group of 5th and 6th grade students instructed the students before they voted on how to properly fill out their ballot.  They also shared the message with the students to vote for who they really want to vote for and not to let anyone sway their vote.  Then the students went into their voting booths to cast their votes.   The class was sure excited to take part in this process!

2nd Grade Halloween!

Our Monday Halloween celebration began with the annual costume parade around the catwalk.  The students enjoyed playing board games with their costumes on.  Always so fun to see the students all dressed up!

What Turns You into a Crankenstein?

A few weeks ago we read "Crankenstein" by Samantha Berger.  In this story the main character details everything that turns him into a Crankenstein!  It is quite a funny list!  We brainstormed what makes us cranky.   We made a class book and also some fun Crankensteins to share with those walking by 2nd grade!

Red Ribbon Week

During this last week the students at Lanesboro celebrated "Red Ribbon Week."  The students learn about healthy habits and choices for their bodies.  Their time with Ms. Johnson on Tuesday focused on a variety of ways to keep our bodies healthy and safe. Ms. Johnson also organizes dress up days throughout the week.  The students always have a lot of fun with these dress up days!

Monday- Red Out Day

Tuesday: Team Up Against Drugs, Alcohol, and Tobacco Use

Wednesday: Reach for Your Dreams- Make Healthy Choices for Your Body

Thursday: Eat a Rainbow of Colors for a Healthy Body

Friday: Put a Cap on Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Use

Spunky Punky

All of our hard work was shared with our families at our performance of "Spunky Punky."  The students were so excited to perform for their families and asked all day long if it was finally time!  Thanks so much for all the families that were able to attend!  I'm so proud of all the 2nd graders for doing such a great job!

  Pumpkins

 Farmer Boys

 Sun Beams

 Jack and Jill

 3 Little Witches

Scarecrow and Blue Jay

Fire Prevention Week

This last week was Fire Prevention Week.  The slogan this year was "Don't wait check the date!  Replace fire alarms every 10 years!"  As a class we talked about the importance of smoke alarms and having a plan with your family in case of a fire.  The students shared their exit plans and where they would meet up with their family.  We learned more about the job of the fire fighters and the fire trucks on Friday. The firemen taught the class about the different tools they use when going into a fire.  They discussed the importance of replacing fire alarms every 10 years and checking the batteries every year.

Odd and Even Math Monsters

While studying what makes numbers odd and even, the students were able to get creative and put their odd and even math skills to use.  The class created creatures that could include any body parts they could imagine up.  They had to record 4 odd and 4 even body parts.  There were a variety of ideas brainstormed: eyes, mouth, nose, arms, legs, horns, heads, tail, teeth, wings, stripes, polka dots, and many more!  This project is so much fun!

Writer's Workshop

In Writer's Workshop the students write about self-selected topics each day.  As writers we've been developing a list of what great writers do.

Great Writers:
-choose a topic that interests them
-spend writing time thinking, writing, and illustrating
-add details to their stories that stay on topic
-go back to reread their stories and add to them
-keep a list of possible writing topics for days they feel stuck
-write in complete sentences with capital letters and end marks
-use spelling tools to help them (word wall, dictionaries)
-share their writing with others

Many of these items are a work in progress for most students, and we will continue to add to this list all year long.  The most recent item on our list, "writers share their writing with others," was just introduced last week.  At the end of our writing block, the students now have the opportunity to meet up with a partner if they'd like.  This conference is meant to be used for sharing our stories that we're so excited about and also as a tool for improving our writing.  As a partner, the student is to be a good listener and also ask questions about anything that doesn't make sense or about details the listener is still curious about.

Students have been writing about all sorts of topics: pets, family, friends, school, and also a variety of fiction stories have been written.

Doubles Rap!

We've had a blast practicing our doubles facts using a fun rap made by a group of teachers and posted online.  We used their music in the background as we practiced our facts off the smart board.  On Friday the students brought in their best rap accessories to make our doubles rap video.
(I'm working on getting the video posted to our blog.  Due to some computer problems it wasn't possible to get it posted over the weekend.)

Homecoming

Friday was an action packed day filled with school spirit!  We started the day with cupcake decorating in the gym along with face painting.  We were "Buzzy for the Burros!" as we walked through the parade that afternoon.  The day concluded with a pep fest in the park.  Go Burros!

Making our Writing Binders a Special Place for Writing

Last week we finished decorating our writing binders.  The students brought in special pictures, stickers, and paper to personalize their binders.  This binder will hold all of their creative ideas, fiction stories, and personal narratives of school events, family traditions, play date recounts, and so much more throughout the year!

You're Finally Here! Books

Last week we finished our books based on the book "You're Finally Here!" by Melanie Watt.  The students shared events about their summer that kept them from getting to 2nd grade sooner!  They did a fantastic job!  I loved reading through all of their ideas!  We will be temporarily keeping them in a basket on the rug to be enjoyed during Daily 5 time.  This group of students loves to write and illustrate!

Our 5 Bee Promise

Within the first week of school, the students were introduced to our 5 Bee Promise.  The 5 Bees represent how we work, play, and treat each other.  A different book was read to go along with each "Bee," and we also took time to discuss why each one was important.  The students had many examples from their lives for our "Bees."

Once the entire Bee Promise was introduced, the students received their bee punch tickets.  Each day I recognize one student at the end of the day for being hard working, being a good listener, being kind, being responsible, or believing in him or herself.  I explain to the class what I saw that student do throughout the day that was representative of our 5 Bee Promise.  That student gets a punch on his or her ticket.

The students can look through the Best "Bee"havior Catalog once their tickets are filled with 8 punches.  They also have the chance to earn a punch every Friday by bringing back their homework with 60 minutes of reading logged.

Daily 5 Literacy Block

In the last few weeks the students have been learning about the choices for our Daily 5 literacy block. In the primary grades we use the Daily 5 framework created by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.  This allows for the teacher to meet with small groups or individuals to meet the different needs of the readers and writers in our classroom.  The 5 choices are read to self, read to someone, work on writing, listen to reading, and word work.

Each day we will be doing 3 rounds of the Daily 5.  If a student is not meeting with me individually or with a small group during a round, they make a choice which allows them to focus on reading or listening to books they enjoy, writing stories they are working on, or practice spelling patterns. Students may also be working on assignments that go along with the book they are reading in their small group.

All 5 choices have been launched and we began the year with building "stamina" for each choice. The goal is to be independent, focused, and productive in our choices so everyone can do their best learning.  It's also valuable that the students have "choice" over how to spend their literacy time when not meeting with me: reading self-selected books and writing stories that they have created.

Math Stations

Last week the class was slowly introduced to our math stations: teacher time, assignment station, and game/partner work.  We worked on a "Math About Me" project to learn about teacher time and assignment station.  The students began to learn a few math games to practice cooperative work expectations with a partner.

Today we had all of our stations up and running.  During each math block we have three rounds.  Each student will always see me for the math lesson for a round, work on their assignment in a different round, and the final round includes a partner game, using the online math program Moby Max on the computer, playing a math game on an iPad, playing a math game with a partner, or solving math problems in our math folder center.

I love using this approach for our math block because it allows me to see small groups of students instead of teaching a lesson to all 23 students at the same time.  It gives me the chance to differentiate the instruction when needed and give support to those students who may initially struggle with a new skill.  They did a fantastic job today with our stations!

2nd Day Fun!

What a great second day we had!  The class learned how to shop in our classroom library.  I love watching the students go through all our baskets of books searching for old favorites and new treasures!  Once each student had chosen 12 books for his or her book box, each settled into a spot around the room and started reading their new found books.

We worked on page 2 in our books about where we've been all summer.  The students have shared all types of adventures from fishing trips to water park fun.

We started an art project yesterday based on the book "Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli" by Barbara Jean Hicks.  There is a city scene in the book that we based our projects on.  This class sure loves to do art, and they asked me all day long when we would get back to that project!  I love how each individual project ends up being unique to each student.  Can't wait to see these projects come together!

First Day in 2nd Grade!

We had a wonderful first day back to school!  We learned about how our 2nd grade classroom works.  We read some funny books along with launching expectations for "read to self" at Daily 5 time.  The students practiced a math game with a partner to practice the skills of cooperation and being a good sport as part of our math rotations.  We even began writing a book about where the students have been all summer based on the book "You're Finally Here!" by Melanie Watt.  Such a fun day, and what a great group of 2nd graders!  It is sure to be a fantastic year!

Open House

So great to see all the families that were able to attend our open house last night!  Such a fun night to see new faces and also visit with old students. See you on Tuesday 2nd graders!

Elementary Open House

Welcome to 2nd grade!  I look forward to meeting everyone at the Elementary Open House on Wednesday, August 31st from 5:00-7:00.  Be sure to bring your school supplies to put in your desk.  See you soon!