Happy Birthday Johnny!

We celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday by making applesauce on Thursday.  A student is using the apple peeler/corer/slicer to prepare the apple.  The sauce cooked in the crockpot for 4 hours and we ate it for snack.

Every day we write in our journals.  We can write about anything we choose: our thoughts and feelings, something we are excited about, or something that happened to us.

We got together with our 5th grade reading buddies from Mrs. Rosenberg's class.  It was music to my ears listening to all of the whispered reading throughout the room. :-)

 We used a great website, http://www.choosemyplate.gov/kids/   
to learn about the 5 food groups.  There are games as well as information about healthy eating.

We Are Getting Into the Swing of Things

This week we read some stories about school and expectations of school.  We enjoyed the memoir by Tomie dePaola about his experiences with his art lessons in school.  This class really enjoys a good story and likes predicting what the character might do.

 In religion we learned that Holy Trinity refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that other words that have the letters "tri" in them often refer to 3 things.

We have started our unit on nutrition and the body with "Parts of the Ear".  Check out this link for a video we watched: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSO765hyxrc
Next week we learn more about nutrition.


Keep studying those math facts.  We will have a quiz on +5's on Tuesday.

Don't forget to use the Spelling City link to practice the spelling and vocabulary words this week.  Click on Unit 1.2.

It was so nice to see so many parents  at Back to School night.  I know there were some parents that could not make it and the information will be sent home.  Below is a link for a presentation I put together.  Click on the arrows at the bottom of the presentation to move it forward.
http://prezi.com/-4ui3ijv5l9_/our-class/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Fun Friday!

 

Today a mother and cousin of one of our students came in to tell us about Honduras Indpendence Day which is celebrated on the 15th.  A student dressed up in a Honduran outfit and two others hold up the flag. My policy is to use no names on my blog; but I think you all know who she is.  Thanks "Mom"!

We really got a lot done this week.  These are photos of an activity called "Who Am I?"  We drew our portraits and filled in sentences to tell about ourselves.  If you left click on the photo it should enlarge.

At the end of a long week at school we like to enjoy Fun Friday! (Don't tell your kids, but they are still learning!)  We work in groups to practice the skills we have learned throughout the week.

We work with envelope centers to practice things like vowel sounds and consonant blends.

We are practicing our math facts with Math Magician

We are playing "Stare".  We stare at a picture for 1 minute and then see what we can remember by answering questions about the picture.

We are grouping words according to their "word families".

 

Here we are listening and reading along to The Lucky Day at the Listening Center

We love playing Mathlines on the Smart Board.                     


I look forward to seeing everyone at the "Back to School" night on Thursday.  I will give an overview of what we do and what is expected this year and you will be encouraged to ask any questions you have.

 

Doubles Song

Here is the doubles song we sang today in class.  It is sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

1 + 1 is 2, 2+2 is 4, 3+3 is 6,
now let's do some more.

4+4 is 8, 5+5 is 10, 6+6 is 12,
and we'll add again.

7+7's 14, 8+8's 16, 9+9 is 18, 
wow, that's really keen! 

Happy New Year!

                                                                         \

     What a great start to a new year at school!  Above are two of the books we've read so far.  We have a new student this year and we all discussed how we feel when we are in a new situation and we are not sure what to expect.  In The New Bear at School the new student experiences these feelings and the other students learn not to judge a book by its cover.
     As promised, we have jumped right into working on memorizing the math facts.  I have already noticed an improvement in their fluency with the simple facts.  Next week we will start by learning doubles facts so we can use the strategies of doubles plus one or doubles minus one.
     We were super busy these last few days just getting used to the routine and expectations for behavior in second grade, so I didn't get to take many photos.  I know you like seeing the students "in action" so I promise to post some photos next week.  Enjoy your weekend together, I can't wait to get them back on Monday! 
     One last note, thank you for signing those papers for children's magazines and sending them back.  There will be more coming. :-)  I don't want anyone to feel pressured to buy anything, ever; it is just a good way to get a few free things for the classroom.