Our First Book Report

We sure enjoyed sharing these super book reports today!  Not only was everyone excited and proud, but they did an excellent job as well.  I am looking forward to hearing from more second graders tomorrow.  There sure are a lot of fantastic books out there!  My teacher heart is beyond happy about how much our second graders LOVE books! 

A Classroom Full of Smiles!

This was just so cute I had to share! As I was leaning in over his should to snap a picture of his pumpkin he switches the camera so our faces appear on the screen and says time for a selfie! I just love this little guy.

So there you have it friends, our first official room 8 selfie! We are now officially a modern classroom. :) 

Types of Communities

We have been busy learning about different types of communities this week.  We started by watching two informative videos to learn the differences and similarities between each one.  Then the students sorted traits typical of each community.  Next they worked in groups to create posters representing their favorite community and presented their projects to the class.  We are currently in the process of writing opinion pieces telling about our favorite community.  Here is a fun FLIP of our awesome second graders at work.

California Our Golden State

Over the last week we have learned a lot of fascinating facts about California!  We started with a close reading activity where we practiced annotating text and found the answers to several key questions about our state.  After that the kiddos dashed off in small groups to find out more information about our state symbols.  Later we collected our thoughts and created these wonderful state posters.

Last but not least each student wrote a paragraph telling abut what they learned.

Great job second graders!

Bats, Bats, Bats

Funky Little Bats!

We have been having lots of fun with informational text.  The students practiced their close reading skills, wrote their own bat facts book, drew a scientific diagram labeling the key parts of a bat, and wrote an informative paragraph to share their knowledge.

Here's a fun SONG we sang while learning about these interesting flying mammals.

Wrapping Up Our All About Me Unit

A few weeks ago we finished up our All About Me unit.  I thought I would do a little recap and open up the comments for our room 8 students to share some of their thoughts.  Let's take a look!

To kick off the unit, the kiddos created these fun "Me" posters at home and shared them with the class.  We had so much fun learning about our new friends through this project. :)

Then they made these adorable self portraits and wrote a nice paragraph to introduce themselves.

Meanwhile, each student created their own very special name book using an acrostic poem for their name.

Next we learned a bit about our families and created these beautiful family trees.

The following week we made sweet family banners, wrote about our special families, and even started drawing a picture of our family in art class.

Further, we created these great projects showing our special place on the map.

And last but not least we interviewed one of our family members and created a special Venn diagram to compare and contrast our lives to theirs.

And that's a wrap!  We have sure been busy working hard and having fun in room 8!

I'm so excited to open up the comments!  Students (and parents too ;) what was your favorite part of this unit and why?

Happy Birthday Lucas, Alexis, and Jordan

Such a fun couple of weeks full of birthday celebrations!

Calling all volunteers!

Anyone available tomorrow from 10:30-11:30?

Poster and Pumpkin Book Report

Dear Parents,

  For this trimester’s book report I have something very fun and festive planned for our second graders!  Each student will be creating a book report poster telling all about a narrative book of their choice, then they will use a pumpkin to create the main character of the book. 

  For the poster, written responses must be in complete, thoughtful, neat sentences.  Illustrations and other details should also represent best effort work.  Feel free to add details that will bring the project to life!

  As for the pumpkin ... it is time for our second graders’ creativity to shine!  The only criteria is that the main character of their book must be clearly depicted.  I have shown the kiddos some examples online and they are oh so excited to make their own projects!  I added the link on our blog that shows some fantastic examples for reference.

  Projects are due Monday, October 27, 2014.  This gives one week to find a book, one week to read it closely, and one week to work on the project.  Homework will be light during the last week so everyone has enough time to work.

Thank you for partnering with me in this fun creative project! 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions.

                        Happy Reading,

                          Mrs. Lara      

For examples click HERE.

Some Highlights From Our Week

We sure have had a fantastic week in room 8!  The children are learning so much and there is certainly no shortage of smiles. :)  I am so very proud of our delightful second graders.  They make my heart swell. <3  Here is a little snap shot of our week...

Having more fun with nouns and adjectives.

We made our own version of the song My Favorite Things renaming it My Favorite Nouns.

Leraning all about addition and subtraction fact families.

Finding out if a peach will sink or float using the scientific method to guide our experiment.

Writing a Guess Who riddle for our Purple People Eaters.

Creating folk art pictures of our families in art class. 

And here's our sweet little FLIP

Have a wonderful weekend friends! 

Help Needed for Pumpkin Fun

Next Tuesday from about 10:30-11:30 we will be doing some pumpkin math and science!  I already have two fabulous parent helpers at that time, but I would really like to do this project small group.  Therefore I am looking for two more parents that can come in on October 7th from 10:30-11:30.  Please comment below if you are available.  Thanks so much!

I am also gathering those little round pumpkins for this project.  I think they might be called sugar pumpkins?  they look like this:

I picked up three last night at the market but I still need 7 more.  If you happen to see them while shopping and can pick one or two up to send in by Monday that would be great!

Thank you!

October is Here!

At times like these I wish we were in the South so I could cheerfully say... "It's Fall Y'all!"  Did I even spell that right?? Did you hear the twang??  #californiagirl #whatarebootsandscarves

To greet this special month we have started in on some festive projects in room 8 (even if it is a beautiful, hot, sunny day that feels like summer.  Just wait till we write our Fall poems -we get all our good material about this season from books I tell ya!).

Anyhoo... I do love this time of the year so bring on the pumpkins!  This week we have been making these adorable pumpkins and kitties.

This project started out as one of my favorite math lessons on finding half of a shape. Over the years it has turned into a gem integrating art, math, and grammar skills.

After creating their pumpkins and cats, the kiddos added their own unique personality and creativity, which they then described with descriptive adjectives.  I LOVE how they turned out, our room is feeling festive, and my little loves had fun learning and were super proud of their projects. A win Win WIN!

Tomorrow we make our Purple People Eaters - I can't wait!