Seeds

We started out first unit in science yesterday: plants. Yesterday we discussed the 3 main differences between plants and animals. Today we learned all about seeds. We cut into 8 foods and examined their seeds: cucumber, tomato, squash, lemon, orange, grapefruit, melon, and green pepper. The students pretended they were detectives and they investigated the various seeds. They learned that tomatoes have VERY small seeds. Melons have a LOT of seeds. Oranges, lemons, and grapefruits don't have a lot of seeds. Finally, they learned that if a food has seeds in it, it is a fruit and not a vegetable!! We saved all the seeds for a later project. More to come on seeds and other plant parts...

Friends

Earlier this week I gave each student a puzzle piece. They needed to decorate it with pictures of things they did over their summer break. I collected all the puzzle pieces and on Tuesday they had a chance to put the puzzle together. I told them they would have to use teamwork to put it together and that I would not help them. I set them loose and they did a super job!! They started fitting pieces together almost right away. Everyone was talking and working together which made me really happy. Needless to say, they put all the pieces together within about 5 minutes and discovered they had 7 letters. They unscrambled those letters and knew they needed to spell FRIENDS. One students found the word in our classroom and they quickly organized the letters in the correct order.

They used super teamwork and put the puzzle together very quickly -- I think they set a record. Great job 2A!!!!!

Daily 5

This summer I took a Daily 5 class along with several other teachers in our building. So...we have decided to restructure our literacy program around the routine of the daily 5. So far your child has been learning about and practicing Read to Self. Hopefully your child has told you about it:) We made an I-chart (I for independence) and listed what the students need to do for read to self and what the teacher needs to do also. I had students show us the right way and wrong way to Read to Self. They thought it was really funny to see kids reading the wrong way!

We have been practicing for five days and have built our stamina up to 5 minutes, hurray!! That means that everyone is able to read quietly and in one place for 5 minutes without any disruptions. What an accomplishment! We plan to continue to work on our stamina and our goal is to make it eventually to 30 minutes. Keep up the great work 2A!

Wordle

I'm sure some of you are thinking, 'What is a wordle??' A wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

So...today I had the kids tell me words that described their last 2 days in school. It took them a while to get going, but once they got going they thought of a lot of words!! As you can see from our wordle, the word "cool" is the biggest. That's because they used that word many times -- evidently they think second grade is pretty cool:) I sent home a black and white copy today and told them I would post the color copy on our blog. You can see it here: first day wordle

I hope you enjoy...your kids really did!!!

Class Parties

Our class will be having a class party for Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas. We are asking that you please donate $4.00 to go towards the class party fund. From this fund, refreshments and any necessary supplies will be purchased. Please send $4.00 in an envelope to school with your child. Thanks!

Birthdays

Today we had our first birthday so I thought I should let you all know what we do for birthdays in 2A. If a child's birthday is during the school year we will celebrate it on the actual day. If you would like to send treats your are welcome to do that. Please make sure they are store bought -- sorry, no homemade food allowed:( If your child's birthday is in the summer we will celebrate their half birthday. Once again, you may send treats if you wish.

Students may bring invitations to school and pass them out for parties. However, if a boy is having a party and brings the invitations to school, he must invite all the boys. THis is the same for girls -- girls need to invite all the girls. Otherwise there will be hurt feelings. If you want to have a smaller party, please mail the invitations from your home. Thanks!

Successful Open House

Thank you, thank you to all the parents and students who came to Back to School night!!! I think this was the first year where EVERYONE attended! It was great to meet all of my new 2nd graders and their families. I am going to have a wonderful group of students this year:) Please feel free to contact me any time throughout the school year if you have any questions or concerns. I can't wait to see everyone again tomorrow morning!

Calling All Walkmans!

Please don't think that I am going back in time, but I need walkmans for my classroom. Yes, the portable music players that play CASSETTE tapes!! I learned in my Daily 5 class this summer that they make excellent portable listening centers. Unfortunately, they don't sell these anymore. I asked at Wal-Mart and they looked at me like I was crazy! So, if you have any old ones laying around that you're not using I could sure use them in our classroom. Thanks!

Goodbye Summer

As I sit here watching the Today Show (which is my daily routine early in the morning) I am saddened. No, I'm not sad because of all the horrible news but because summer is ALMOST over!! Where did it go? I was quite busy this summer visiting family and friends almost every weekend. My girls kept be busy every day...they are quite active and like to keep me busy! I took a Daily 5 literacy class to keep me up to date with my teaching. We also took a family trip to Florida which was awesome!!

But now that August has arrived, I am once again reminded that school is about to start. To be honest I am sad, but on the other had I am quite excited. I have put away my fiction books for school books. I have started setting aside time to go to school and put together my classroom again. I have also started this blog which I hope will keep you as parents even more informed about what is happening in your child's classroom.
There is one final week left of vacation I will spend that week with my girls but will also put in a lot of time in my classroom getting it prepared. I am excited and motivated to start a new school year. I can't wait to meet my new group of students for this year!