Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie

I forgot to mention we read Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie a few weeks back... it's been such a whirl wind lately, I think May rivals December on the business scale!   Anyhow, this is a wonderful children's book based on a true story.  It's about a brave young girl who cares for her family's lighthouse when her Papa gets caught in a tremendous storm.  My sweet second graders have become such fluent skilled readers.  Each one of them has made a ton of growth this year and I am so proud of their successes!  After reading the book in reading groups, they made these beautiful lighthouses to go with the story and kick off our ocean unit.  The kiddies also wrote a poem to accompany their artwork.

A Pocket Full of Poetry

We have been enjoying lot's of poetry in room 8!  This week and last, we've read and learned about several different types of poems and the kiddos have been writing their own poems as well.  To tie into our geology unit the students first wrote a poem of their choice (acrostic, shape, free verse, rhyming, haiku, diamante, or rebus) about a volcano.  We kept one copy for their poetry pocket, and turned one into a fantastic art project. 

Next we learned about figurative language and made these mini books as super reference tools.  So far we have covered alliteration, simile, and onomatopoeia.

I have been completely impressed by the way the kiddos picked up on figurative language and are now adding it to their poems!

We also made a fun class book using alliteration!  The students had so much fun creating their pages.  They are guaranteed to make you giggle!

Finally, our poetry pockets are filling up with delightful poems!  I will put them up for display so we can all enjoy them, but I plan to have the students continue to add poems when we return from Spring Break.

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!