Merry Christmas!

The students could hardly contain their excitement as they came into the classroom this morning!  They were so excited to exchange gifts with their classmates!  Thank you to all of the family members that were able to join us for Christmas poems and Santa letters today.  Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Cookbook Sales Come to a Close!

We had a successful year of cookbook sales, and what a wonderful learning experience it is for the students!  It is so exciting each day to have customers come to our door to purchase our cookbooks!  A huge thank you to all of you for supporting this project by purchasing cookbooks to share with your friends and family and donating money and supplies towards this project.  This year we added additional advertising in the form of a commercial that was played in the commons over the TV.  How fun for all of us to see ourselves on TV!

We sold a total of 135 cookbooks and made $174.  That is really fantastic!  Our first order of business will be to pay back the school $62 for printing supplies.  Then as a class we will pick out something we need, something we want, and someone to help.  We'll keep you updated on the classroom decisions coming up!

Here is our commercial!

A few pictures of customers...

We've Got Mail!

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are so fun for us in 2nd grade!  The students learn about writing letters, and they actually have the chance to send letters throughout the school in our mailbox!  Each day the students write letters, conference them with me, address them and include a stamp, and send them off in our yellow mailbox.  Our mail is sorted daily, and we have 2 different mail helpers each day that go around and deliver our mail.  Incoming mail is handed out at the beginning of our writing block.  The students are so excited to receive a letter!

Wearing Blue to Honor Scott and his Family

Today we wore blue to support our friend and classmate and his family.  Sending lots of love to this family as we honor Scott today.

Cookbooks Going on Sale Soon!

We are so excited to start selling our cookbooks on Monday, December 10th!  We made advertisements and hung them up in the hallway yesterday.  Stop into 2nd grade to pick up your copy for only $1!

Happy Holidays from the 2nd Grade!

The 2nd graders did a great job at the concert tonight!  Thanks for all who attended!

A Visit from a Student Business Owner

We've begun our economics unit in social studies.  The class has been learning about buying what we need and what we want.  We've discussed why we can't by everything we want, even if we want to!  Along with using money to buy what we need and want, the students shared why it's important to save money, and we recently added helping people to the ways that we can use money.  The class has been learning about the difference between a business that sells goods and a business that provides a service.

Isaac from Isaac's Eggs visited 2nd grade last week to share with us the details of his egg business.  Isaac is now in 7th grade, and he started his egg business when he was in 3rd grade.  His visit provides a great opportunity for the students to learn how Isaac came up with his idea, his favorite part of owning a business, about how much money he makes a week or month, what he needs to pay for to keep his business running, and the daily chores he must do to run his business.  The class asked Isaac many great questions!  This also provides the kids with the chance to see a young person who had an idea and made it into a business!  How inspiring!

Thanks for visiting Isaac!

We are getting closer and closer to completing our cookbook!  Sales will be starting at the end of this week!  We can't wait!

Practicing Reading Fluency with Piggie and Elephant

In 2nd grade reading fluency is a skill that really begins to develop as decoding smooths out and the students are able to read with more automaticity. Reading fluency isn't just automatically recognizing words though.  It also includes reading with expression.  Imagining what the character might be feeling and expressing that with our words makes our oral reading so much fun!  What better way to practice this skill than with the hilarious pair- Piggie and Gerald!  Pairs of students chose a book from this series to practice and read for the class.  We kicked if off with Mason coming in to demonstrate this skill by reading "Today I Will Fly!" with me.  We had a blast with this! 

Bee Ticket Choices

Throughout the last few months many students have earned all 8 punches on their Bee Tickets.  The students earn a punch for bringing in a completed reading log every Friday, and also 1 student is celebrated each day for demonstrating behaviors and choices from our 5 Bee Promise.  Once the ticket is filled up, the student can make a fun choice from the Best "Bee"havior Catalog.  Show and tell, bumper seats, and lunch in the classroom have been popular choices.  Below are a few pictures from some of the students' choices this fall.

Thanksgiving Fun

A few weeks ago we started a Thanksgiving writing project after reading the book "Turkey Trouble" by Wendi J. Silvano.  In this book the turkey doesn't want to become the Thanksgiving meal so he dresses up in many different disguises to try to trick the farmers.  The students chose a way to disguise a turkey and wrote a letter to the farmer for reasons that the turkey should not be eaten.  They worked on writing specific details to go along with the disguise.  We put all this all together in a class book that the students love to read!  This project dates back several years now, and the class loves going back and reading these booklets of disguised turkeys from previous classes!

Today we played Turkey Bingo, and we had 1 winner!

Happy Thanksgiving 2nd grade families!

Fall Trees

This week we finished up this beautiful fall tree art project.  I love this project so much because the colors are stunning and each project is unique in its own way!

Making our own Bar Graphs

Recently the students made their own bar graphs.  Each student chose a topic, polled everyone in the class to collect data on a tally chart, used the information to make the graph, and then analyzed the data by writing 3 true statements about the graph.  The students always love when they can incorporate math with movement and conversation!  Since making this graph, many students have continued to poll their classmates on different questions after their wake up work is done!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween in 2nd grade!  We enjoyed showing off our costumes during the costume parade and having a classroom party.  I hope everyone had a fun night with friends and family!

A Special Visitor

Last week we had a very special visitor to our classroom.  A grandmother to one of our students has made it a tradition to visit her grandchildren's classrooms every year to read stories and share a treat.  Thanks so much to Carol for visiting 2nd grade.  We loved telling you jokes, listening to the Halloween stories, and the yummy treat!  We look forward to seeing you again!

Spunky Punky

The big day finally came, and the students couldn't have been more excited to share all their hard work in the play Spunky Punky with their friends and family.  Thank you to all who attended!  It was a great day!

Red Ribbon Week

The kids had a fun week of dressing up to celebrate Red Ribbon Week.  Each Monday the students meet with Mrs. Heidi Johnson for their social skills class.  On this past Monday, the class focused on making healthy choices for our bodies.

Reminders for Upcoming Week...

This week is Red Ribbon Week!  The focus in k-2 will be on ways to keep our bodies healthy and safe.  I've listed the dress up days below as a reminder:

Monday: "Red Out Day"  Wear red to show support for Red Ribbon Week

Tuesday: From Head to Toe, I am Drug Free!  Wear silly hats and socks.

Wednesday: Team up against drugs, alcohol, and tobacco use.  Wear favorite team apparel.

Thursday: Voting for my future to be drug free.  Wear red, white, and blue.

Friday:  Your choices are the key to your dreams.  Wear pajamas.

 This Friday (10/26)  is our Spunky Punky play!

Thursday: dress rehearsal (all costumes and props should be sent by this day)

Friday: Spunky Punky family performance in the library at 2:35

I'm looking forward to a fantastic week in 2nd grade!

What Turns You into a Crankenstein?

This week we read the book "Crankenstein" by Samantha Berger.  This funny book follows a boy as he shares what makes him terribly cranky!  We all have a few things that can make us terribly cranky.  The students shared all their different ideas.  Our next step was to make our own Crankenstein.  Next week we will complete this project with writing about what turns each of us into a Crankenstein.  They did a fantastic job creating their Crankensteins!  I love how unique each one is!

First Bee Punch Ticket Completed!

The students are getting closer and closer to getting all 8 punches on their tickets.  They get a punch each Friday by returning their reading log with 60 or more minutes of reading.  The students may also earn a punch throughout the week if they are recognized for following our 5 Bee Promise by either myself or our afternoon meeting student leader.  When individual students are recognized, they come to the front of the room to hear what awesome choices were noticed.  Some of the behaviors and skills that have been noted are good sportsmanship in gym, applying our writing lessons in our own writing, using kind words with a classmate, walking quietly in the hallway, focusing during our work time... so many different and great examples!

 It's always exciting to complete that Bee Punch ticket and take a look in the Best "Bee"havior Catalog to choose something extra fun to do!  This super 2nd grader received his final bee punch and chose show and tell to share a favorite toy with the class.  Way to go!

Weather Lab

The Weather Lab visited Lanesboro today!  Unfortunately I had to be away with my daughter, but I was able to get a few pictures from Mr. Rogers.  I can't wait to hear all about it on Monday from the class!

Banana Bingo

Banana Bingo is a classroom management system that I created several years ago, and we use it throughout our whole day for transitions.  For example if the class is gathered on the rug, we do "banana to our seats."  This means back to our seats with zero voices.  If this is done successfully, we earn a banana point.  Once five points are collected, we get to add a banana to our banana bingo board.  Transitions are always tricky in an elementary classroom because naturally kids will seek each other out and want to chat with friends.  This is great at the right time!  So "banana" helps us move more quickly and efficiently in our classroom and be ready for the next direction or subject area.

The students earned their first Banana Bingo last week!  As a class we brainstorm a list of suggested ways to celebrate, and then the class votes to determine their top choice.  For each celebration we pick out a new idea so nothing is every repeated.  On Friday the class was excited for Electronic Day.  The students were able to use an electronic during 2nd recess time.

Math Stations

In the beginning weeks of school the class was slowly introduced to our math stations.  During our math block the students move through 3 stations: teacher lesson, math assignment, and math choice which includes a partner game, i-pad math skill practice, and and an additional partner station to review a skill. I love this approach because it allows me to see small groups for the lesson and differentiate instruction based on the the needs of the group.  We started the year with this cute "Math About Me" project.

Odd and Even Math Monsters

On Friday we combined our creative art skills with our math skills.  The class recently learned about what makes a number odd or even and what odd and even numbers end in.  Using these skills, the students each made a math monster including whatever body parts they wanted such as eyes, mouth, teeth, wings, horns, legs, etc.  The students recorded 4 odd body parts and 4 even.  I love how they all turned out so unique and colorful and put to use our math skills in a different way!

Doubles Rap!

We've been practicing the doubles facts the last few weeks through a catchy doubles rap.  We performed it in full gear this week.  We had a little technical difficulty halfway through with the smartboard, but the class did great and did not miss a beat!

School Picture Reminder

Just a reminder to all 2nd grade families that Monday, September 24th is school picture day!

Busy Birds Art Project

The Busy Birds art project was recently completed with feathers and hung up to share in the hallway.  These little birds turned out so cute!

The 2nd Graders are Chirping for a Burro Win!

What a fun day we had to celebrate Lanesboro school spirit and homecoming!  Our day started with cupcake decorating in the gym.  The 7th graders helped us frost and decorate our cupcakes.

A little later in our morning we went to the gym for face painting.

By afternoon it was finally time to hand out our masks and signs we worked so hard on for the parade!  The class has been waiting all week for the parade!

Finally... parade time!!

Go Burros!

A Special Place for our Writing

This week we worked on decorating our writing binders.  The students brought in special pictures, stickers, and magazine cutouts to personalize their binders.  This binder will hold all of their creative ideas, fiction stories, and personal narratives of school events, family traditions, play date recounts,  birthday party excitement, and so much more throughout the year!  Often, the students will also look at their binder to spark an idea of what to write.  Looking over the pictures of family and friends will remind them of something that has happened that could make a great story!

You're Finally Here! Books

This week we finished writing our first books as 2nd grade writers!  On the first day of school we read the book "You're Finally Here!" by Melanie Watt.  The students used a sticky note to write about 1 thing they had been doing in the summer that had kept them away from 2nd grade.

The next step in our writing process was for the students to brainstorm 2 more fun events that had kept them away from 2nd grade all summer.  The class then took their ideas and wrote them into sentences for each page of their books.  The final page telling the reader what they're looking forward to in 2nd grade.  After conferencing with me, the students worked in their little books on their words and illustrations.  Now our books are down on the rug for our classmates to enjoy during Daily 5 time!  I just love reading their books and seeing their sweet illustrations!