California Our Golden State

This week we have been learning all about California and our state symbols.  The students created these wonderful projects and wrote super paragraphs to go with it.  As you can see from the picture we use colored dot stickers to help with paragraph organization.  We follow this format:  Blue -hook, catch your readers attention.  Green -topic sentence, tell what your writing is all about.  Yellow -star idea, a detail about your topic.  We are just starting to incorporate, Red -stop and support your detail with further information.  (Each paragraph needs at least three star ideas.) Finally, Green -conclusion sentence.  We use green again here because I teach the students to go back to their topic sentence and restate it a little differently.  The kiddos are really getting the hang of paragraph writing.  I have found that using a consistent format takes out so much guess work that leads to writers block.  The picture also illustrates this student's fine use of the thesaurus.  "Let me convey to you about remarkable California." Love it! Way to go!

Penguins and Haikus Are SNOW Much Fun!

Today we learned all about these adorable birds that DON'T fly!  After reading both narrative and informational text about penguins we integrated art, math, reading, language, and writing to create these awesome projects.  I taught about haikus, which are short 3-lined poems that follow the syllable pattern 5, 7, 5.  Then we made our penguins which was actually a lesson on symmetry.  Love!  Follow this link for instructions.  The background is sponge painted and the snow was created using glue, laundry detergent, and white paint.  Last we added glitter for a little extra sparkle!  I'm thrilled with the final product and all the fun and learning that went into them!

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.

To celebrate and recognize Martin Luther King Jr. the students created these special projects.  The cover shows people of different skin colors working together and for the writing, they wrote a bit about MLK's dream and a dream of their own.  I just love hearing all the fantastic dreams my second graders have.  Our future history makers!

Hello Friends!

Hi there! Thanks for stopping my my blog! My name is Jessica Lara. I am a Southern California native. As I write this post in the middle of our sunny 80 degree winter weather I think it's safe to say I don't plan on going anywhere else anytime soon. Ha! I love all things sunny, beachy, and fun!

I went to college at Cal State University Northridge and later earned a Masters degree in literacy curriculum and instruction from American College of Education. Here's a view of what my weekends looked like in grad school... and now I spend all my free time with my sweet niece and nephew. :)  I'm very happy to have time once again to have fun with family, friends, and hobbies such as being outdoors, traveling, crafting, and cooking.  

In 2012 I married this amazing man! I am so super blessed to share life with my best friend. ❤️ 

I have been teaching for 10 years (that's so crazy!). Currently I teach second grade which I absolutely love. I began this blog to capture the joys and successes of my day to day experiences. It's a place for me to reflect on the positives, communicate with parents, teachers, and friends, and share life as I journey on in this challenging and rewarding work of the heart called teaching.