Week 5

Week 5 was Homecoming Week!  We had a lot of fun days of dressing up. Wouldn't you know it, the week was nice and warm and then on Friday, it was cool and cloudy!  The rain held off for our parade, but it was kind of on the chilly side.  But we still made it through! :)  We also took our second science test on animals and started to really dig into subtraction in math.  A new math vocabulary word we learned is difference.  We also worked on the use of quotation marks in grammar along with combining sentences together with the same subjects or same predicates.  We are really going to start working hard on writing.  We will be focusing on writing with complete sentences with proper punctuation and forming paragraphs.  Our next AR goal for the month of October is 8 points and as always, keep practicing math facts, addition and subtraction.

Class Color Day: Red

Wacky Day!

Parade Day: We are detectives for the game CLUE.

Happy Homecoming!  Go Wildcats!

Week 4

Week 4 was a busy one.  Our PE teacher is back from maternity leave, so we now have PE every day for 20 minutes.  This will take place of our morning recess.  Besides exercising our bodies, we've been exercising our minds!  In math, we wrapped up Chapter 2 on addition.  We learned how to add 3 digits and how knowing our doubles facts helps us with doubles plus one or minus one.  Subtraction is next! We wrote Fall poems that needed to rhyme and we also took our first Social Studies test, which most all of us did very well on.  Again, I'm very impressed that everyone returned their study guides and received 2 bonus points on their test!  The students are also working hard on getting 4 AR points by the end of the month.  Almost everyone is already there!  Next week will be homecoming week so there will be plenty of fun days to dress up and of course our parade will be on Friday.  Go Wildcats!

 

Reading for our 4 Accelerated Reader points for the month of September.

 

 

 

Our theme for Homecoming is Board Games.  2nd Grade picked "Clue". 

We will be detectives for the upcoming parade on Friday!

 

Week 3

Welcome to week #3.  Thankfully it's a lot cooler this week, which makes it much more pleasant in the building!  This week, we took our first science test on living and nonliving things.  I'm very pleased that almost everyone brought back their study guides signed.  Every time we take a science or social studies test, I'll send home a study guide for the students to use to help them study.  If the parents sign it and the students return it to school by the test day, they'll receive 2 bonus points on their test.  I'm very pleased at how well everyone did...way to be Super 2nd Grade Studiers! We also typed our first stories for the year.  We'll be doing a lot of writing this year and typing too, so they more we do it, the easier it'll get for the students.  We've also been talking a lot about V-E words (vowel, consonant, silent e) for example: make, bake, rake, etc.  There are several V-E words on our spelling test this week.  In grammar, we are working on writing complete sentences and talking about subjects and predicates.  In math, we learned two new vocabulary words:  sum and addends.  The students are also working on their addition facts.  Keep practicing those flash cards!!

Our First Week!

The first week of school was a HOT one!  But we managed to survive...let's hope for air-conditioning for next year!  This week we were just getting back into the routine of school and the new routine of second grade.  A big change for kids this year is filling out a planner.  Every morning the kids come in and fill out their student planner with the assignments we will do for the day.  At the end of the day, they check off all assignments that are completed and circle any that are not.  Those assignments that are circled are then homework for the student to take home, complete, and return the next school day.  Parents should be checking planners every night and signing them so their child can get a responsibility star on the star chart.  Once a student has 10 stars in a row, they get a treat!  Some of the concepts we covered this week included: Place value (tens and ones); Capital letters at the beginning of a sentence and periods at the end of statements and question marks at the end of questions; Living and Nonliving things.  Our first spelling test will be on Thursday, August 29th.  Our words include a lot of short a and short i words.

  Here's a few pics of us working hard, despite the heat!

 

Our poor fan is working overtime!  But if the temps stay as high as they are supposed to, we will be having early dismissals all week long.  Here's to cooler weather hopefully coming soon!

The Room is Ready!

Well, school will officially start in 10 days!  My classroom is ready (at least I think it's ready!).  I'll have 12 students this year (about half of my class last year!).  This class consists primarily of boys.  There are 10 boys and 3 girls. Also to make things interesting, I'll have my own son in 2nd grade this year.  But I don't see that being a problem...I've already told him that his teacher knows his mother very well, so he won't get away with much!  Ha, ha!   Well, here's a sneak peak of the room...

 

 

This year, to keep the students more organized, I taped a pocket folder with their names on it to the sides of their desks.  This way, if they have any unfinished papers, they can put them in their pocket folders instead of shoving them into their desks.  If a student doesn't get their work finished before the end of the day, then he/she can get them out of their pocket folder and put it into their take-home, homework folder.

 

 

 

Here are our lockers.  I have the students names on some cute owls I found at the local dollar store. About the names I have some posters displaying character traits we want to work on at our school from the Boys Town Model of Social Skills.

 

 

 

 

Here's our AR tracker.  Guess I kind of have an owl theme going on!  I made a "bulletin board" on the side of my file cabinet to hang the AR tracker, that way I can use magnets with the students names on them to easily move from bird to bird to keep track of their AR points.

 

 

 

 

This is my Responsibility Chart and Daily Objectives Chart.  Every day, I write down the lesson objective for each subject we are covering.  That way students know the "reason" why we are doing what we are doing.  To go along with the Common Core Standards, the objectives are written in "kid-friendly" language.  The Responsibility Chart keeps track of my students' responsibility to get their planners signed and homework completed.  Everyday that a student has his/her planner signed by their parent and all homework (if they had any) completed, they will get a star on the chart by their name.  Once they get 10 stars in a row, they get rewarded with a treat.

 

 

 

Here's our "mailboxes".  To save room, I just use hanging file folders in a crate with the students' names on them.  Their take-home papers go into their mail folders and at the end of the day, they can get their "mail" to take home.

 

 

 

 

The Done Jar!  This will be my first year of trying this.  If a student gets finished early with an assignment, they have the option of choosing a stick from the done jar, telling them what they can do.  Some examples are: Read a book, write in your journal, practice flash cards, etc.

 

 

 

The Tattle Monster!  Using an old shoe box, I created a "tattle monster" where the students can write their "tattles" on a piece of paper and put it in the monster's mouth. 

 

 

 

Our "Cent-sational" Work Chart.  Every time a student passes a spelling test and/or a math facts test, they get a quarter to put up on the chart.  Once a student gets four "quarters" on either math or spelling, they get to trade in their dollar for a prize from the prize box. It's a little incentive to motivate kids to study their spelling words and math facts.

 

 

 

Pickles and Ketchups.  If any student is behind on work and needs to catch up, their name goes on the "ketchup" side.  On Fridays, when we get to have some free time at the end of the day, any student on the ketchup side, needs to try work on getting their work done.  The other students that are on the "pickles" side, get to pick what they want to do for free time: iPads, games, etc.

 

 

 

Our behavior chart.  Green smileys are good, yellows are warnings, oranges are a loss of 5 minutes of recess, and reds are a loss of 15 minutes of recess.

2nd Grade Common Core Standards.  Our standards are posted in "kid-friendly" language for the students.  Once we cover a standard, I'll cover it with highlighter tape to show that we've covered it.

 

 

 

 And finally, our classroom library! 

 

Well, there's my classroom in a nutshell...I'm really looking forward to another great year just around the corner!

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Blogging!

I've seen so many great blogs from teachers all across the country, that I thought I'd finally try my hand at it, too!  I hope my blog will be useful for parents and other educators as well.  As the summer months roll on, I'll be starting to think of ideas to use in my classroom this coming school year. (My Pinterest boards are filling up!)   So in the next few months, I should have a lot more to "blog" about! :)

Enjoy the rest of summer vacation!  My children and I sure are!

Here's some fun things we've done this summer:

 Emma's Cinderella Cake for her 4th Birthday

 Fun at the Fair

 Roasting Marshmallows in the Fire Pit

 Pool Party

Storybook Land

Twins Game