Holiday Fun

December is filled with learning opportunities to explore cultural celebrations and build friendships. We took advantage of this special time of the year and enjoyed a Hanukkah celebration followed by the Big Red Fellow and a Christmas party. Enjoy the look of delight in the faces of our students as you view the photo shows. Hanukkah Fun on PhotoPeach Christmas Fun on PhotoPeach

Our Second Grade Holiday Play

Putting on a holiday play is a second grade tradition at Chets Creek.  The boys and girls begin learning the words to the songs in the early fall.  Then they add dance moves. We read the script and divide up the lines.  By the time we add props and costumes December is upon us.  Here is a peek at this year's production of Once On A Housetop.

Once On A Housetop on PhotoPeach


After the play, we had the children reflect on their experience.  Here are some of their thoughts.

 

Pumpkin Math

 On October 31st, we dedicated our math workshop to pumpkins.  Here are two guest bloggers, Dylan and Aspen, to tell you what we did...

First, the parents brought in pumpkins.  Kids got into groups and picked a pumpkin to work with.  We had eleven pumpkins - all different sizes and shapes.

The teachers explained the directions to the kids.  Each students also had a data sheet to fill in.

We guessed the weight of the pumpkin and then used a scale to find the actual weight.  

We also measured the circumference, diameter, and height (after estimating, of course). 

A parent helped us cut off the top of the pumpkin.  The inside was slimy and wet.  The whole room smelled like pumpkin!

We pulled out seeds and pulp.

It was fun!

To count the seeds efficiently, we grouped them by tens.  The biggest pumpkin had over 500 seeds. 

This is one of the data sheets our classmate filled in.  

When pumpkin math was over, we carved them into cute or scary faces and lit candles inside.  At the end of the day, we raffled them off.

Literary Pumpkins

Today I'd like to introduce two guest bloggers who are students in our class this year, Kara and Adrianna.  They will explain our literary pumpkin pictures to you. 

Our teacher read us the Skppyjon Jones book.  

One day we painted the pumpkins. 

We put brown on the back and white on the front.

When the paint was dry, we put whiskers, a cape, ears, and a mask on the pumpkins.  

In the book, Skippyjon Jones pretends he is El Skippito, the great sword fighter.  

Here's our class when we were done painting the pumpkins.  

The literary pumpkins are in the front lobby of the school on display.  

Fiction vs. Nonfiction

In Readers' Workshop we're learning about nonfiction text features.  What better way to explore nonfiction than to compare it to fiction?  Students worked in small groups to compare and contrast two books about a common topic - one of them in each genre.  They wrote their noticings using a venn-diagram in their reading journal.

The book on the left is clearly a fiction story.  The book on the right is nonfiction.  Students can easily identify the genre based on the title and picture on the front cover.  

This group of boys can't help but concentrate on the content of their nonfiction book!

These girls are comparing their books side by side. 

An example of student work. 

Sorting Through Our Nonfiction Library

As we begin studying nonfiction in our classroom, I challenged our students to organize the nonfiction books in our library.

First we created random piles of books all over the floor. Then we discussed the possibilities for sorting them.

I referred to Lucy Calkins and learned that students will make meaning of their world by sorting objects into categories. Second graders can do this with nonfiction books. It will help readers find materials and inspire them to explore new topics!

Students were given index cards and markers and then set out to create categories of books. They came up with animals, people, places, solar system, weather, patriotic, math, and we even discussed the need for a miscellaneous pile.

If you visit our classroom, you will see that our nonfiction books are neatly labeled in baskets all around the classroom - organized and ready for students to read!

How does your garden grow?

Functional Reading, Science, and Fun - that's how we roll in room 210! On September 18th our class unwrapped our Fast Start Seedstarter.

We read and followed all of the directions and planted cucumber seeds.

Once they sprouted, we moved them to the grow light center in the dining room so everyone can see them. Soon they will be large enough to transplant in the garden behind the school. And eventually... YUM!

FundRun Fun

This week was our biggest PTA fundraiser of the year. The children collected pledges from sponsors and were awarded prizes. Tuesday morning we put on our new shirts and headed to the track. Luckily we were scheduled for 9:15 before it got really hot out there. Parents showed up like paparazzi to take pictures and videos and, of course, to cheer us on! The teachers took new Sharpie markers to cross off those laps on the back of the t-shirts. And the kids... well they ran and ran! Max was celebrating his birthday and brought us all popsicles to cool off with after the race.

FundRun Fun

Fabulous Fun on the First Day

Today we met our new second grade class.  What a TERRIFIC group of kids!  Mrs. Phillips, our Principal gathered the students along the bus loop to see how a hot air balloon is inflated.  She even climbed in the basket for a quick float up in the air.  For safety reasons (high wind) the balloon was tethered to the trees so she didn't go up too high.

Here is a slideshow of some fun photos we took with our friends from the land of Oz.  Enjoy!

First Day Fun on PhotoPeach

Waiting for the Munchkins

Chet, our class bear, is patiently waiting for the return of our students.  He's excited to meet a new group of second graders and visit their families.  Here are some photos of Chet in the lobby of our school having fun. 

Summer Reading

I just read a blog post by Kyleen Beers, an educator I have met and highly respect, about summer reading.  I feel compelled to share this!

http://kylenebeers.com/blog/2014/05/04/guidelines-for-summer-reading/

I also feel the need to rush to my current book, Delicious by Ruth Reichl, and continue reading it.  Never mind that my laundry room is overflowing.  ;)

Improving Narrative Writing by Setting Goals

Today we taught Session 7 from the Second Grade Narrative Writing Unit of Study by Lucy Calkins.  This comes at the end of Bend I and is the perfect time to reflect on what we put in our writing and think about what we can do better.  This lesson, in fact, is about setting goals for your writing.  We passed out the narrative writing checklist and the pre-assessment on demand writing piece that students produced at the beginning of this unit.  They could already see where their writing has improved.

Here are some examples of student work along with the rubrics that the teachers used to evaluate the pieces.

Next, we talked about setting goals.  How could we use the rubric (and narrative checklist for 2nd and 3rd grade) to make our writing better?  Students wrote their goals for themselves on sticky notes and placed them on our Jot Lot.  

Some of the goals were right on target.

My goal is to develop my story.
My goal is to work on transition words.
Write less jumbled together.
My goal is to work on my ending.
My goal is to work on my lead.

My goal... to add more pages.
My goal is that I want to get more on the second grade track.
My goal is to work on my ending.
My goal is to bring characters to life.
I need to write more excitement.

We're looking forward to Bend II and improving our stamina.  Like an athlete, we will be exercising our writing every day to develop our skills and I'm sure, achieve our goals!