Thursday ~ Fun Day!

      Jump Rope for Heart was this morning!  It was lots of fun to be with friends and jump rope.

              Today was also Hat Day!  We had many students wearing fun and different hats.

This afternoon we read the book My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall, another Minnesota author.  We got to make our own heart animals just like those in the book.  We learned how to cut hearts and then got right to work cutting, sliding, flipping and turning hearts.  It was more challenging than we thought, but we got the hang of it after a few accidents.

Here are a few examples:

   

Spring paragraphs

We have been working on learning how to write complete, focussed paragraphs.  We learned that a paragraph can be kind of like a stoplight.

The green light means go, start your paragraph with a topic sentence that tells the main idea of your paragraph.  Continue your paragraph, like the yellow on the stoplight, by writing three, or more, supporting detail sentences.  These sentences should connect to the main idea.  To end your paragraph, think of the last sentence like the red light.  The last sentence can restate the first sentence, show emotion or express an opinion.

Here are a few examples:

We are working on our books about Egypt.  We will finish them after break.

Our Class Book

We are continuing to prepare for making our books about Egypt.  This week we learned how to use Little Birds Tales to create a page in a book.  Ms. Zbacnik taught us how to use the program and drawing tools. We created our own page and drawing and wrote a sentence to go with our picture. Students did a great job with this project.  I am feeling really good about creating our books about Egypt.

Here are the steps in the procedure:
1.  Once you are logged in to you own Little Bird Tales account begin to create your page.
2.  Using the draw tools, draw a picture of yourself doing your favorite thing.  Be sure to have a background and use the entire space.
3.  Put your name in the lower left-hand corner.
4.  Type your sentence using capital letters and punctuation.
5.  Save your work!  

Students completed this project independently.  I was available to help students who needed it, but for the most part they did this themselves.  

Enjoy!

• Click to view my tale.
• 

Reading Party !

Today we had our Reading Party!  We read for an entire hour !  We listened to Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner, Snow by Cynthia Rylant, Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead.  We watched two bookflix.  We had a snack of cheese, crackers and apples.  It was a wonderful morning to snuggle with our animals and read books.

It was also "Read my Shirt"Day.  Many students wore shirts with words on them.  It was also "Favortie Book" Day.  Each student wore a sticker with the sentence "My favorite book is ____________"  It was fun to read everyone's shirt and favorite books.

We will go to library on Monday to exchange books.  Have a super weekend!

Research, research, research!

We learned to use the Table of Contents to locate information.

Busy reading and taking notes.

We learned to take notes in our own words.

Working hard!

Sample note card

We have started our Country Research project.  Each second grade class is researching a different country.  Our class is learning about Egypt.

We started by thinking of what we would like to know about another country.  We came up with many questions such as what food do people eat, what are the schools like and what is the land like in that country.  Ms. Zbacnik helped us learn how to use the computers as tools for research and practiced reading and taking notes from a book.  On Wednesday, we started researching on our own.
Ms. Zbacnik loaded some books onto the computer for us to use.  It is lots of fun to learn about another country.

Our Favorite book is . . .

For "I Love to Read" month each class is decorating their door or area outside their door with their favorite book.  Our class selected Two Bobbies by Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery.

Each student made an origami cat or dog  to look like the real animals from the story.  Together we wrote a summary of the book and brainstormed a list of things we can do do show kindness to others.

Our display turned out very well.  The cats and dogs are very individual and realistic looking. 

Here is a link to the Two Bobbies website.

February - I Love to Read Month !

Here are a few things we are doing to celebrate I Love to Read month !

Drop Everything and Read - During the week of February 4 - 8 we are having surprise D.E.A.R. time.  We must be ready to read at any time during that week. 

Door Decorating Contest - Each class has selected their favorite book and is making a door decoration display.  Classes will have the chance to walk through the entire school and see what other classes are reading.

What are You Reading?   - Each student is keeping a log of what they are currently reading.  In second grade we are keeping track of what our class is reading and we are making an all grade level display of what we are reading at the end of the hallway.

Reading Party times 2! - On February 22nd and March 1st we are having a Reading Party!  On February 22nd our class will be having a reading party all morning, kind of like the one we had in the fall.  On March 1st, the entire school will have a reading party the last hour of the day.  It should be lots of fun!