Wrapping Up Washington and Lincoln

This week we studied George Washington our 1st president, then we compared and contrasted the lives of these two significant Americans.  To display their thinking students created a chart and used the wonderful portraits they made in art class.

Since Abraham Lincoln and George Washington are two subjects that our students are highly knowledgable about now, I had them pick one to write an informative paragraph on.  This writing was an assessment, meaning the kiddos were instructed to do it all on their own with no help from me.  To make sure everyone would be successful and was clear on my expectations we acted out the paragraph first.

Then they got busy writing away.  I was completely impressed by the caliber of writing our second graders achieved.  They can create organized paragraphs that include a hook, topic sentence, details, supporting details, and a conclusion.  Their writing also shows they can use capitals, punctuation, and spelling appropriately.  So so SO very proud!  Way to go super second graders!  You are all star writers!

Math Fun!

This will be short and sweet but I wanted to share about some of the math fun going on in room 8 on a Friday afternoon!

Hairy money coin counting. Yep we wrote on the desk!  (Don't worry it wipes right off) SO engaging and just what the children needed to grasp the concept.  Guess my addend a super fun way to practice addition facts and solving for a variable,  time bingo, and extreme bump.  Learning is all kinds of happy in second grade!

Valentine's Day

Today was jam packed with all things sweet!  In the morning we finished writing our adorable Valentines for mom and dad. Don't you just love those little love birds!?

During center time we rotated through 4 Valentine themed centers.  Students created sweetheart bingo boards and read Valentine books, graphed and responded to data collected on a Candy Categories Venn Diagram,  played games having to do with time, and sorted, added, compared, and found fractional parts of a box of sweethearts.

Later in the afternoon we passed out Valentines and ended the day with a couple of rounds of sweetheart bingo!

I was completely showered with love all day!  Thank you for the beautiful flowers, kind cards, and sweet goodies.  I can't wait to go on the movie and yogurt date with my husband!  What a wonderful class gift, I love it!  It fills my heart with joy overflowing to work with the 21 little cherubs in room 8!

Happy LOVE day friends!
xo

Abraham Lincoln

This week we honored an important American, Abraham Lincoln.  The children watched videos, read books, learned a song, performed a readers' theater, made hats, created a timeline, and listened to books all about Honest Abe.  Phew!  Now that I type that out I can see why I felt a bit hummingbird like this week!  I do love teaching about Abraham Lincoln as he ranks top on my hero list.  Our second graders are such incredible sponges, ask them to share some of their knowledge with you!

Happy 100th Day!

Today we celebrated being 100 days smarter with some good fun!  This afternoon students measured out various distances (100 mm, 100 cm, 100 in, 100 ft) on the black top and tried to see if they could throw a football that far.  This activity was led by our fabulous student teacher Miss Fekete.  We are so fortunate to have her joining our classroom for the next season of learning.  She is a lovely addition to our room 8 family.  :)

Students also recorded and graphed how many words they could read, jumping jacks they could do, verbs they could name, sit ups etc... they could accomplish in just 100 seconds.  Thank you to our wonderful Mrs. Cote, my right hand gal in all things math, for leading this fun activity!

In class with me students worked on a sweet friendship quilt and snacked on a festive treat.  Nyla called this the, "Best day of her life."  Happy heart <3

Kindness Project

Happy LOVE month!  This month we are participating in a classroom kindness challenge and focusing on the T in HEART.

Each day our student of the day picks a card for our daily kindness challenge.  So far we have had, draw a picture for someone you care about, write a kind note, and use only kind words for the entire day.

On Wednesday students created happy sunshine notes to give to a classmate.  They took their role as bucket fillers super seriously and when students received their sunshines their faces were priceless and the spontaneous hugs were just too sweet.

Students have also been recognizing their classmates' kindness by writing little "I caught you being kind" slips for me to share with the class.

This all makes me teacher heart happy, happy, happy.

Germs, Germs, Germs

We are trying so hard to stay well in room 8.  Last week we had a great assembly about how to catch and how to fight a cold.  Then in class students wrote their own books telling all about a time they were sick.

In reading groups we've been reading books about germs and how to prevent sickness.

Since germs are invisible to our human eye we had some fun with "glitter germs" and learned that germs can easily be spread and it is oh so important to wash your hands with soap and water before eating.

We are currently in the process of experimenting with potatoes.  Each of our potatoes were touched by different hards: 1. control 2. students' regular (dirty) hands 3. hand sanitizer hands 4. washed hands.  In the coming days we shall see what becomes of our science experiment...  It's already pretty clear how dirty our regular center time hands are. Eek!

day 1

More Football Math

We are continuing to have a ball with football math!

We played a fun game telling time by five minute intervals.  After reading the clock and recording their answers, students hiked the clock to the next partnership and work (or was it play) continued. :) I loved calling out the plays "BLUE 42, GREEN 18, READY READY -HIKE!".

We also practiced measuring to the nearest inch or 1/2 inch with football related items.

We learned all about perimeter and put our new knowledge to work by finding the perimeter of 12 different sized football fields.

We created secret measurement playbooks that included essential information needed for measuring length, perimeter, and time.

We sorted objects according to the unit we would use to measure them.

I came up with a fun little long called "It's All About the Length" to help make learning memorable.  Ask your second grader to sing it to you!

Next week to celebrate the 100th day we will see how far we can throw a football -100mm, 100cm, 100in, and100ft.