Below is a picture of our data wall. Our data wall helps us keep track of how close we are to reaching our goals. By the end of second grade, we want as many students as possible to have a 3 in each standard to show that we are ready for third grade! You can see on these targets how well we did in the first 5 weeks of school! If you see a sticker in the white section, that student received a 1. If you see a sticker in the green section, that student received a 2. If you see a stick in the black section, that student received a 3, and, finally, if you see a sticker in the red section, that student received a 4. We know that it is okay to start out with a 1 or a 2! Our goal for next time is to get even closer to our target!
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To work on characterization, we read A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. While reading the story, we focused on physical traits and personality traits. In the story, Camilla Cream is a closeted lover of lima beans and a worrier about other peoples' opinions of her. On the first day of school, Camilla wakes up to find herself completely covered in rainbow stripes! Her skin and appearance constantly change throughout the story until she decides to stay true to herself and tell everyone that she loves lima beans! As you can imagine, Camilla's feelings change just as much as her appearance throughout the story. We created this craft to show Camilla's character traits throughout the story. We looked at how she changed on the outside and on the inside.
In our classroom, we use reading workstations to help us work on sight words, spelling words, grammar skills, independent reading, and to differentiate reading instruction. We do four stations for 10-15 minutes four days a week. Our first station is Work on Words. In our Work on Words station, we practice our spelling words every day! Our favorite spelling activities include Rainbow Writing, Spin and Write Spelling Words, and Type-It Spelling Words! (We like to turn off the bright fluorescent lights and use lamps, string lights, and natural light instead. It keeps us more calm and focused! Plus, it looks cool!) The next station is Work on Writing. In Work on Writing, we write in our writing journals, practice editing sentences, work on grammar skills, and practice sight words. We really enjoy Sight Word Graphing and Roll and Writing Sight Words! Our third station is Read to Self. Here we can get comfy and practice our reading stamina! We make sure that we have time to read independently every day! The final station is Meet with Teacher. This is my favorite station because I get to meet with my kiddos in small groups so that I can help meet individual needs. Activities we do in this station include graphing data, reading leveled books, reader's theater, sight word games, and task cards. Some groups are able to do some activities more independently where other groups might need more of my time and attention.
This week we began our class pet project! Our favorite books about pets:
On Monday, we began researching different kinds of pets we could get in the classroom:
On Tuesday, we constructed "YUMMY" paragraphs about the pets we researched! We learned that paragraphs need an introduction, juicy details, and a conclusion! On Wednesday, we presented the information we learned by reading our papers aloud in front of the entire class to practice our presentation skills. On Thursday, we watched a few videos about different pets to see how they interact with people and to see really how big they can get!
On Friday, we began writing opinion paragraphs about what kind of pet we should get after eliminating pets that have fur and make a lot of noise (we need a healthy, safe, distraction free learning environment!). We learned about OREO opinion writing. Opinion papers needs to state the Opinion, give Reasons, give Examples, and restate the Opinion! On Friday, we made a yummy experiment to show what we learned this week about solids, liquids, and gases. We made a root beer float using vanilla ice cream (solid) and root beer (liquid). When we poured the root beer on the ice cream, we noticed a bunch of bubbles! We knew that the bubbles were full of gases trying to escape into the air! Last week, we read the story "Days with Frog and Toad: Alone" and worked on comparing and contrasting. We made Frog and Toad into a Venn Diagram to display our learning!
On September 12, we listened to two books that described the events that happened on September 11, 2001. Fireboat: The True Story of the John J. Harvey by Maira Kalman September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be Alright by First Grade Students at Masterson Elementary School We then talked about how many firefighters and police officers became heroes that day, and many of them even lost their lives trying to save others. We then decided to write letters to our local heroes in Greenfield, MO. Half of the class wrote to the Fire Department, while the other half wrote to the Police Department. THANK YOU TO OUR LOCAL HEROES! WE APPRECIATE YOU! Some of my favorite quotes from the letters: On September 9, we practiced measurement by using rulers and meter sticks to measure objects in our classroom. Some students even wanted to measure objects outside during recess! I wanted to include this awesome teamwork moment I captured on the day. These boys were working together using both of their meter sticks to measure the cabinets. Great work!
On September 7, we created a class story map over the story The Three Little Pigs. We split up into groups who focused on the characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end of the story. They did a great job! Our work is proudly displayed in the hallway!
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"Sometimes the thing your students need most, right now, has nothing to do with what's on your lesson plan." AuthorHello! Thanks so much for checking out our classroom web page! Check out our pictures of what we are learning in the classroom! Archives
August 2017
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