One Quarter Down, Three To Go

What a PERFECT way to end the first quarter of this school year - with a field trip to the IMAX Theater and a Fro-Yo party!  Our class traveled to St. Augustine to watch two 3D IMAX movies: Under the Sea and Born To Be Wild.  After enjoying lunch outside in our sunny Florida weather, we rode back to school.  As the kids ran around at recess, their parents set up games for some fun in our classroom.  We played 3 minute-to-win-it type activities: spider ring toss, vampire teeth marshmallow challenge, and wrap the mummy.  Menchie's made a special delivery of frozen yogurt and toppings for us.  What a great day!

Halloween FUN! on PhotoPeach

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Our behavior in the dining room recently won the 3 Ring Circus Award! Our classroom name is proudly displayed in the center ring for all to see. 

Celebrating our Narrative Writing

Lucy Calkins believes that at the end of a unit, after students have given 100%, it's time for a celebration.  We've drafted, edited, and published our very best piece of writing and just had to share them.  Friday morning we invited our second grade friends to come over and see what we've accomplished.  We shared the narrative checklist first and then wowed them with our work.  They complimented us and we answered their questions.  We also enjoyed some delicious cupcakes and lemonade.

Awesome Student Work

Sharing Narrative Writing

Using our work to explain the checklist. 

Second graders are getting a glimpse into third grade. 

Celebrating is sweet!

Technology and Miss KK

One of our very favorite resources at Chets Creek is visiting Miss KK in the media center. Today she and Mrs. Willett taught us to use an online encyclopedia. We also worked on Achieve 3000 and i-Ready.  

Students work on laptops.

Teacher of the Year

Last week Principal Phillips came to our classroom and announced that I was selected as the Teacher of the Year for 2015-2016.  This is a huge honor at Chets Creek because you are nominated by your peers.  I have great respect for the people I work with and will do my best to represent our school with honesty, integrity, and kindness.  Since Chets Creek is a family affair for me, (I co-teach with my sister, my mom volunteers at the front desk every Thursday, and my dad helps with Blessings in a Backpack on Fridays) Mrs. Phillips had them join her for the announcement.  I'm overjoyed to share this honor with what I believe is The Greatest Class On Earth!

A surprise!

Mrs. Phillips

My mom and dad with me and the kids.

My sister and parents.

My own parking space!

Missy brought me a celebratory coffee!

Building A Reading Life with Lucy Calkins

To grow as a reader we need to look at our reading habits. Although we tracked the books we read last year in second grade, in third grade our Reading Log is much more sophisticated. This year not only do we write the book title and author, but we are keeping track of the level, starting - ending pages, starting - ending times, and minutes read. After a few days we will look for patterns and self-assess ourselves as readers. What genres do we choose? How long does it take us to read a page (or ten)? Do we read fiction books quicker than nonfiction books? Are we reading so fast that we are choosing books that may be too easy for us? Is the opposite true - are we reading books that are so difficult that it is taking us a long, long time and perhaps, interfering with comprehension?

One student's reading log.

Reading with our logs ready to fill out.

Third graders read and enjoy chapter books.

.  Our goal is to read three quarters of a page a minute for at least an hour a day between school and home. We will work to achieve this goal in third grade. We know we can do it because as Lucy says... "You are in charge of your reading life." 

What makes a GREAT classmate?

As the new year starts and new friendships are formed, we asked our students the question... What makes a great classmate? After a short discussion the kids used sticky notes to write what a great classmate is, does, says, and is not. We put our finished chart in the back of the classroom as a daily reminder.

Welcome to the Greatest School on Earth

Today is day one of our 180 day journey into third grade.  We have the greatest class in the greatest school on earth!  The circus is our theme this year and it's fun, colorful, and energizing.  Our second grade class has stayed together so coming back for third grade wasn't scary at all.  In fact, today was all about rekindling friendships and making memories.  Our principal, Mrs. Phillips, arranged for a show with a clown and dogs that entertained us with tricks. What a great first day!

The circus comes to Chets Creek on PhotoPeach

What teachers do during the summer...

While we miss our students during summer vacation, we do have extra time to spend with our own children. This summer Mrs. Metzger and Missy found an awesome bookstore! Missy picked books from the teen fiction section while Mrs. Metzger loaded up on third grade chapter books for the class.

 

Sarah and Joey enjoyed camping in the Georgia mountains. 

 

 

 Mrs. Metzger and Mrs. Morris went on a "road trip" to Atlanta, Georgia.  While there, we found a restaurant called The Varsity that serves delicious cheeseburgers and french fries.

 

Mrs. Morris felt right at home because some of the seats in the restaurant were actually school desks!  

 

 Soon we will be cleaning and organizing the classroom to get ready for our third graders!  

Second Grade Comes to a Close

It's hard to believe 180 days are up! We've had a GREAT year together growing, learning, and enjoying school life. This last week has been filled with friendship and fun. We've played games, had a talent show, learned about each other through show and tell, and capped it all off with field day! Field Day Fun on PhotoPeach

Hot Dog - Now We're Cookin'

As we study energy in science, we decided to put the sun's energy to work for us.  We constructed solar ovens from simple shoe boxes and foil.  We picked a bright, sunny day to "bake" our hot dogs for about 1 1/2 hours.  Then.... mmmm.... LUNCH!

Hot Dog - now we're cookin! on PhotoPeach

Twins, Twins, and more Twins

In our class this year, we have three sets of twin boys. Two sets are identical and one set is fraternal. We thought it would be interesting to hear what these boys have to say about being a twin.

Our identical twins look exactly alike.  It's almost like a mirror showing a line of symmetry.  Although they may look alike, they have different interests and tastes.  Dressing alike is okay for picture day but not for everyday.  As babies, dressing alike was an everyday event.  Now, they have their own tastes in clothes.  Shoes, while the may be the same size, are not shared!  One way to tell them apart is by adding a letter to the inside.  LOL
Our fraternal twins, on the other hand, do not dress alike or share clothing.  They have completely different personalities.  They also have different interests, such as favorite authors (one likes Psuedonmonus Bosch and Orson Scott Card and the other brother likes Rick Riordan and Dan Gutman).
The best thing thing about having a twin brother is always having someone to play with.  It's also fun to play tricks on your friends - if  you're identical!

Field trip fun to Sally Corporation in downtown Jacksonville

What a wonderful day downtown learning about a local robotics business that creates dark rides for amusement park fun!  Add to it, lunch in Hemming Plaza, a ride on the Skyway, a peek into City Hall, and a read aloud in the children's room of the Public Library and you have an awesome day!!

Field Trip to Sally Corporation on PhotoPeach For more information, visit their website. http://sallycorp.com/

Fairy Tale Characters

We are in the middle of unit seven of Lucy Calkins e-book for the Reading Workshop Grade 2.

In our classroom, we are reading classic and fractured fairy tales - paying close attention to the cast of characters we meet!

We've noticed some character traits that seem to fit into most of our stories.

We chose some words that describe our character traits.  

 The boys and girls chose a book and worked in a small reading group to determine what part the characters played.  They looked for text evidence to support their opinions.

Just for fun, we self assessed our own character traits and wrote them on post-it notes for our Jot Lot. 

I have... Who has?

We play this fun fluency math game in our class called I have... Who has?  Each student gets a card and looks at the number on the card.  One card reads, "I have the first card.  Who has...?"  Each child needs to think about the question and decide if their card holds the answer.  If it does they read their card out loud.  We have many sets of cards that allow us to practice ten more than/ten less than/ one hundred more than/one hundred less than/ etc.  To make it really challenging, sometimes we time ourselves and see if we can go faster and beat our time!