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!