Secretary Needed!!

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you wished you had a secretary?

My life at home has been on the hectic side lately. First we passed around a nasty little bug which put each one of us out of commission for a day or two. Then we found out our AC was leaking into both of the kid's bedrooms. Between getting everyone healthy and dealing with the clean up and AC people, I feel like I'm being buried under a mound of paperwork and to do lists that I have put off at school. Luckily I have an understanding husband who let me stay at school until 6 tonight so that I could try and catch up. But really, I think teachers should have secretaries. Any takers? :)

Snack Time!!

I used to loath snack time. I tried it one year. What I saw was scary.

My idea was to have kids bring a quick, healthy snack to eat while they are working independently on writing or some other activity. What I got instead were 24 kids unwrapping Ding Dongs and Twinkies, smearing their cheesy little Doritos hands all over their papers, and a line a mile long of kiddos needing me to open something. Plus, little crumbs of chocolate cupcakes and the remains of Goldfish crackers were repeatedly ground into my carpet. Not pretty. Definitely not how I envisioned it in my head.

That was when I banned snacks in my room. It was a blessing that lasted many years. But then, I was handed a new schedule that put lunchtime at 11:45.

If you know kids at all you will understand that going from 8-11:45 without a break is almost impossible. Their little minds begin to fade away and their bodies get a case of the wiggles. So, I decided to put snack back into the day along with a 15 minute recess.

But, I've learned. Now I have a class snack. My parents donate boxes of cereal, bags of pretzels, goldfish crackers, animal cookies and any other bulk snack items that they can think of. On the way out the door I give each kid a handful. If they don't like that particular snack then they simply say no thank you. This is not a buffet; you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

The best part is that it literally takes 2 minutes to pass out and if they drop any it falls onto the sidewalk; no more little fishy parts being ground into the carpet....yay!!!

Working With Words

The last component of Daily 5 that the kids learned was Working With Words. Each week the kids have 10 spelling words and 2 challenge words. These words are usually sight words and word family words that they need to know for both reading and writing. We use these words for our word work each week. The students choose from a list of several word activities that they can do to practice their words.

The list is growing but here are a few;

Stamps- The kids use letter stamps to print the words on paper.

White Boards- The kids use white boards to write the words. They can practice writing them over and over or they can use blue for consonants and red for vowels.

Rainbow Writing- The spelling words are written on paper in a variety of colors.

Magnetic Letters- The words are spelled on the easel whiteboard using magnetic letters.

Playdough- The letters for each word or rolled out and formed using playdough.

We also have letter beads, string words, and a scrambled egg word activity that we use. Word Work has quickly become a favorite Daily 5 component of many of the kids in the room!

It's Official!!!

WE are a BLUE RIBBON SCHOOL!! Yay!!! I am so proud and lucky to have taught at such a great school for the past 8 years. There were only 4 chosen in the entire state. Here is the official notification listing us on the Department of Ed website. The Herald had an article on us in today's paper. I am so excited to represent PDS at the recognition ceremony in DC in November. Go Dustdevils! :)

Miley Who?

I have a bunch of performers in my room. One day a group of girls came in from recess wanting to perform a song they had practiced on the playground. I love impromptu moments in the classroom where we take a break from academics to simply enjoy each other, so my answer was "Go right ahead!". I grabbed my camera and began filming. So without further ado, here are some talented and cute gals singing "Party in the USA".

After that, every day for the next week I had kids wanting to perform after recess! I finally asked them to show me at recess so we could stay on track with our Writer's Workshop. I think I will have to have a Talent Show some Friday afternoon!

Fly Little Butterflies, Fly!

Today we released our butterflies that we raised from tiny little caterpillars. Seriously the process of raising butterflies is very simple thanks to Insectlore. You can even raise your own insects at home by purchasing a kit from insectlore. Along with butterflies, they also sell ants, frogs, ladybugs, spiders, and worms. What a great way for the kids to learn about lifecycles!

We released our butterflies during recess. It would have been fine if just my class was on the playground.  It also would have been fine if the butterflies flew away once they were released. Instead, we shared the field with 4 other classes and many kiddos who chased after the butterflies that "flew" right to the ground. Seriously, why do kids want to pull their wings off? The kids in my class were running around trying to save their butterflies all the while yelling and screaming at the other kids to go away. Not the beautiful release into nature that I expected, but I guess you never know what's going to happen when you teach second grade!

"Picnik Show"

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Monarch of the Week and Mystery Reader

I'm late on this one but I wanted to make sure I posted pictures of our last Monarch of the Week and Mystery Reader. Last week we didn't have either because of the short week and conferences so these are actually from the week before.

Monarch of the Week- Kayla!

Mystery Reader- Connor's Grandma Sharon! (okay, I know that she is technically my mom. But I do have my own kid in the class so it's okay!)