Subjects and Predicates Gooru Review

This site has some great resources to review concepts we have learned. I will try to every few weeks post a link to games and videos for students to play and watch. Below if you click the link your child can play some games reviewing subjects and predicates, and watch a video we watched in class!

 

http://bit.ly/1fwkw5G

 

Once you have gone into the link your child will need to hit study to watch and play! :)

I deserve a.... Rain Forest Animal!

Last week we worked on persuasive writing. They wrote a paper why they deserve a rain forest animal of their choice. Well our class wanted everything from a Capybara (World's largest rodent) to an Anaconda Snake!!! They had some pretty good arguments explaining how they would care for it, and why it would be good to bring a rain forest animal into a home of Rexburg!

 

Polygon Monsters!!

BOO! We made some scary/cute monsters this past week! We learned about Polygons, and made some polygon monsters out of all different polygons. We now have them hanging in our classroom. So if your scared when you come visit don't worry they are friendly :). 



Multiple Meaning M&Ms

 

 Last week we focused on multiple meaning words. This means words such as "bat" that mean more than one thing. We did a little project to help us. We made some M&Ms to help us remember that some words are multiple meaning.  They each picked two multiple meaning words and made two M&Ms (one for each meaning of the word). Each M&M has a word in one of the meanings! Don't they look great! We have hard workers in our classroom!

Student of the Week ~Averie~

~Averie~ 

• Has a little brother
• Loves Hershey's Cookies + Cream Candy
•  When she grows up she wants to be a singer
• Likes to go to the Lake
• Likes golfing and soccer

Congrats Averie on being student of the week!

Next week's student of the week is Isaac

Read to Self

In our classroom we have been focusing on the Daily 5. The Daily 5 is the concept that students' need to focus on five areas to help improve reading: reading to self, working on writing, word work (spelling words, high frequency words), listening to reading, and read to someone (could be a partner or a teacher). 

The idea is that eventually when the class comes in in the morning they get to pick out of these 5 what they want to work on first and bins will be laid out on the "Kiva" in which they get to choose the activity from. During this time they get to do more than one activity. The only one we wont be doing in the morning is listening to reading, because we do this during centers at the listening center. What I love about doing this is they get to do the activities at an independent level while I will get the chance to work with students in small groups. 

Moving on! My goal is over the next few weeks to make a post about one of the daily 5 individually on this blog. So that you can better understand them, and apply some of the techniques which we do in the classroom at home. As it is the beginning of the year, and we are still learning the routines we are not ready to dive into picking whatever in the morning, but we will get there!

So to start of "Read to Self" .
You can see what the bin looks like below what they grab from. They read a book on their own then I usually include a comprehension sheet (later in the year they will each have a reading response journal).

 

We have been trying to focus choosing "Just Right Books". This is a book that should not be too difficult for them. An independent reading level book should actually be below their level to amplify excellent fluency. Below you can see one of our focus poster for choosing a "Just Right Book"

These are great things to keep in mind when helping your child pick a book at home.

1. Interesting to them

2. Making sure they understand as they read

3. When they reread they sound like they are talking

4. Making sure you can read most of the words. ( I like the five 5 finger rule for 1 page. Count how many words they miss if it is more than 5 then maybe they should pick a different book)

 

 

They have been using our "Just Right Book" rules while picking books from our classroom library for reading to self. Hope you find them helpful for you at home!

Anaconda Ssssssnakes

As you know we have been learning all about the Rainforest. Yesterday we learned of one of the most deadly predators found in the Amazon Rainforest.... The Anaconda! The Anaconda is one of the largest snakes that can be found in the world!!! We each made our own mini Anacondas yesterday afternoon after watching a video that showed an Anaconda hunting it's prey in the wild.

They came into the classroom this morning to the mini anacondas being strung together from the ceiling. They are measured out to 30 ft strung together which is the same length an actual Anaconda can get! Wow! Glad I never came across an Anaconda that size when I was in the Amazon!

Henry and Mudge The First Book

Friday has brought so much fun! We got to do a kickball tournament as an entire 2nd grade! Way awesome! We also have had an amazing week, as we have gotten to read the first book in the "Henry and Mudge" series. The students loved reading about Henry and his dog Mudge. We worked a lot with sequencing (order of events in a story). For a accumulating activity before our test today we found different parts in the story, and put them in order. They also colored their own Mudge. This is now displayed the back wall of our classroom. They all did fabulously, and really mastered sequencing. When the test came today they were ready for it! You can see a picture below of there beautiful sequencing work!

Doubly Doo, Doubly Dee!

In our classroom we have a fabulous students who are AMAZING poem memorizers!!! We just started the poem "Doubly Doo, Doubly Dee", which is a math poem about double addition facts. So many have already memorized the poem, and everyone else is almost there. The cool thing about memorizing a poem is they get to move their pin up to "Perfect Pig". This means they have a pretty good chance of staying on "Perfect Pig"  the rest of the day, and receiving a prize Monday morning.

Congratulations to these fab students for performing, and memorizing the poem in front of our class today!

Sam

Ava

Ari

Emerson

Adrianna

Chloe

Mallory

Everyone will have another chance to perform. They have an opportunity to try every Friday. Starting on Monday a new poem they will again be trying for! 

For those who would like to practice some more at home "Double Doo, Doubly Dee" here are the words:

Doubly Doo, Doubly Dee!
Doubly Doo, Doubly Dee! We're having fun adding doubles at school. Doubly Dee, Doubly Doo! We're adding doubles ‘cause we’re so cool! 

A little glitter, a little glue,

 1+1=2! 

Two cats purr, two lions roar,

 2+2=4!

 Three little monkeys, three little chicks, 

3+3=6!
Four peas in a pod, four peas on a plate, 

4+4=8!

 Five ask where? five ask when? 

5+5=10! 

Six dogs dig, six dogs delve,

 6+6=12!

 Seven faces dirty, seven faces clean, 

7+7=14! 

Eight jackets red, eight jackets green,

 8+8=16!
Nine diamonds sparkle, nine diamonds gleam,
9 + 9=18!
Ten have enough, ten have plenty,
10+10=20!
Doubly Doo, Doubly Dee! We're having fun adding doubles at school. Doubly Dee, Doubly Doo! We're adding doubles ‘cause we’re so cool!

Back to School Documents

I was so excited at the amazing turn out we had for our classroom! Thank you so much for all of your support  parents! I am posting all the documents I gave out at Back to School Night. They are all in images so simply click on them, and they will maximize. I know papers often get lost so here is a way you can still access them all!

Back to School Night Letter:

The Break Down:

Class Schedule:

Rainforest Layers

This year we dived right into the rainforest. First we learned about nocturnal, and day time animals. Next, we got to know the different levels of the rainforest that are now hanging in our classroom. We discussed how there is the Emergent (highest), Canopy, Understory, and then Floor (lowest). We also talked about the different animals that you can find at each level. We did this art project, and hung it in our classroom to help us remember the different levels! SO much fun!

Making Lemons into Lemonade

Coming into a new classroom has A LOT of ups and downs. So we read "Molly Lou Melon" our first day of school discussed how we can turn a bad situation (in our eyes) into a good one. I love all the cute stories they told in their writing assignments. We discussed how lemons are really sour, but can be turned into something sweet like lemonade, just like tough situation in our lives!

2 Stars and a Wish!

We have so much to accomplish in second grade! So we have a lot of goals to make! This past week each class member made a wish, and two goals for the year. They are now hanging in our classroom to remind everyone what they are working towards!

Place Value Planets

Talking about numbers is not enjoyable for every child. To help get them a little more eager into learning we did it through planets!! We talked about expanded form, and what is bigger 1s, 10s, 100s, or 1000s. They learned about it by seeing that planets are different sizes, and so are numbers!

Check out their fab art work!

Crayon Colors!

The year has been starting, and it has been a busy one! We go right into graphing in our 2nd grade classroom! So all of 2nd grade (76 students) got together and made this fantastic graph isn't so fun! I love graphs they are great for teaching more than less than and so much more!