Happy Monday

I was worried about today, just a little.  Sometimes the first day back from a break can be pretty rough.  Today wasn't though!  We had a great day together.  The class worked hard and got along great.  We had indoor recess today due to the rain.  Our first recess we met the other second grade classes in the library and had several games taking place.  Second recess was held in our room.  Right now indoor recess is still a lot of fun.  I hope they still feel that way in the spring!

Happy Thanksgiving

Have safe and happy Thanksgiving!  I am thankful for your children that you share with me.

Short and Sweet

The class thinks this is the best week ever... no spelling words and no homework.  I'm not sure if it will be the best week ever, but I'm hoping for a good one!  We are still working hard the two days we are here!

Happy Friday

Have a great weekend!  Here is a silly picture of our students who wore their favorite sports attire today...

Favorite Sports Team

Tomorrow is "Favorite Sports Team" Day.  Send your kiddo to school in their favorite sports team attire!

Writing and Teamwork

We divided up into groups with the intent of practicing paragraph writing.  This lesson ended up being more focused on teamwork.  Only one group finished a paragraph.  Several groups argued.  I think we'll try again tomorrow!

Paragraphs

Although we work on the writing process each week, I still feel like several of my students do not have a good grasp on paragraph writing.  Today we watched a BrainPop Jr. video on the topic.  We then answered several questions about topic sentences, supporting details, and closing sentences.  I'm anxious to see if it helps on our next writing project. 

Brrr!

We had many cold kiddos at recess today.  We will go outside unless the temperature, including windchill, is below 20 or it is too wet.  Please be sure your child has appropriate attire.  Hats and mittens are a good thing!  Another big help to getting us out to recess is if each child know how to button/zip/tie their own coats.  Please practice with your child.

Lights Camera Action

The class shared their skits over food products today.  Some were quite persuasive!  Ask your child what his product was that he/she shared. 

Have a great weekend!

Cause and Effect

Well, this class knows about effects!  They made me laugh today when we discussed cause and effect.  I would give a situation and they had to think of the effect it might cause.  They had some creative effects!  We talked about how one cause could make several effects.  It was a fun discussion.  Ask your child to share some causes/effects with you!

Grandparent's Day

They say it takes a village to raise a child.  Today I had a chance to see what an amazing village my students have.  It was great to have our grandparents visit and spend time in our room.  I know not all grandparents could attend and we discussed as a class how that was okay.  Those grandparents would be thinking about us from a distance!  It was a good day.

Raz-Kids

A note went home today about Raz-Kids.  This is an online reading program.  It gives the students access to several books at different levels.  The students may listen to, read, and take quizzes on each of the books.  If your child wants to spend his/her time on electronics, this is a great way to compromise!  Our subscription only lasts until January.  At that time, we will have to re-evaluate if the program is helping our students and if we have the funds to renew.  We've been using it in the classroom during small group rotations and it is one of the most popular choices.

Happy Friday

The weather is beautiful.  Go outside with your child and enjoy it while you can!  Have a great weekend!

Food Fun

Our health unit covers healthful foods.  Today we talked about food ads and how they could influence us to buy food items.  Next week, the class will have a chance to make their own food ads.  It is a lot of fun to see their creativity in action!  Ask your child if he/she knows what item they would like to try to sell.

Subtraction Stress

Mental subtraction is not my favorite math unit to teach.  I mixed the order of the lessons up a bit, thinking I would make it easier on the class.  Unfortunately, today seemed stressful just the same.  Our lesson was on using a hundreds chart to subtract.  This is the same process as when we used the chart to add, but several students were not seeing the similarities.  It was a stressful hour, but we made it through.  As your looking at your child's papers tonight, ask him/her to explain the process to you.  Teaching is a great way to learn!

Native American Writing

We are beginning a new writing topic; our focus is on Native Americans.  If your family has any Native American heritage and you would like to visit our classroom to share about it, we would love to have you!  The class seemed very excited about the topic.  I hope they continue their excitement and we end the unit learning a lot about our past and what influences it has on our current lives.