What a Great Month!

So many exciting people and animals have come to visit our school this month.
The day before St. Patrick's Day Mrs. Tyner was our Mystery reader.  She read a story about a Leprechaun with a really funny irish accent.  This sotry reminded us to be kind to all kinds of people.

On St. Patrick's day, we came into the room and to our surprise we found some visitors had made their way through our room and played a trick on us!

The little green shamrocks we the remains of the mischeivious Leprechauns!  The morning was filled with creative words when writing a couplet poem.  When we returned from lunch there was more of the little green shamrocks  and gold coins were left on our desks!  We had an festive assembly with irish dancers.

On Friday we had another wonderful surprise!  Grant's mom came to our class and share one of her favorite books to read, Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type.  This was another great classic second grade story that was easy to chant the words as a class. 

As the next week began, we were reading everyday and enjoying our school wide D.E.A.R. time.  Today Thursday March 24, I brought my yellow lab, Molly, into class.  I left at lunch and ran home to get her.  The students we wonderful with her.  I have never seen them follow directions better than they did today.  After D.E.A.R. time we got in centers where everyone would be able to read a story they wrote to Molly.  They were able to give her a treat for listening so nicely.  Thank you to all the parents for letting Molly come and visit our classroom.  Madison Payne, a student in my class,  goes to the library and reads to a dog.  This is a wonderful way to encourage reading in a different and fun way.  

This was a happy and fun day!

Mystery Readers!

Our first Mystery reader came on Friday March 11th.  The reader was Lisa Armentrout, Mark Armentrout's mother.  She came in the room requesting to turn the light down to prepare the mood for her exciting story of Where The Wild Things Are.  She read in funny voices and goofy sounds.  The students Enjoyed her reading so much, we had her read another of her favorite stories Green Eggs and Ham. 

We also has another fantastic reader Ive, I-Allah's mother.  She read an African-American folktale.  We learned how brer rabbit what to change what he looked so he could swat the flies away.  In the end we learned that we should be happy with who we are and how we were made.  We also learned that everyone is different and that is what makes each of us special!  What a great lesson to be learning.

Thank you to both of you for visiting our classroom!  We can't wait for more mystery readers to come and visit!

Sorry It Has Been So Long!

HELLO!  I would like to apologize for not posting for such a long time.  I was away for the entire winter break and the week we came back I was very busy planning our special Dr.Seuss day and I am finally caught up on my sleep!

Our Dr. Seuss day was a complete success!  We started morning as usual with our special and reading groups.  We continued by having a snack with the multicolored goldfish. Before the students were able to eat them, they had to collect some data and make a graph.  Before it was lunch time, we began our race to read as many Dr. Seuss books as we could.  We listened to Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose.  For every story read they had to write about what they read.  After lunch, the readers partnered up and continued the reading extravaganza.  While the students were busy reading, I was making green eggs and ham.  Each student cracked one egg!  Everyone cracked the egg without a shell falling in!  Our class was invited over to Mrs. Stewart’s class to enjoy a fun-fetti  cake.  I have never sleep more after school than I did that day!  

   

In reading, we have been exploring the world of amazing animals.  The first story that we read was “Officer Buckle and Gloria”.  In this story an officer goes to schools and presents to the students about safety tips.  It is very boring until the officer gets a K-9 unit and the presentations become extraordinary!  The story we just finished was “Ants”.  The students learned about the amazing things that ants can do.  To go along with the theme of amazing animals, we had a K9 unit from Grosse Pointe City visit the school on February 14^th .  The dogs name was Raleigh.  Officer Mike showed the students all of the exciting tricks that Raleigh can do.  The students were able to pet the K-9.  We took a class picture with Raleigh and the students received a baseball like card that has Raleigh’s information on it.

March is reading month and to kick off this exciting time we had Detroit Pistons coach Aaron and Hooper visit our school.  They taught us come pretty neat ideas.  We learned a great saying,                     “Be a Good Person!” and “School comes first!”

If we follow those simple words we will be able to achieve our dreams.  Here are some pictures of this fun assembly.

On Monday February 14^th, we began fractions in math.  This is a very difficult concept to understand.  As each day goes on more and more students are beginning to get the concept.  The main idea that I wanted the students to know is that equal parts are very important when dividing a shape into any amount of pieces.  We have been comparing different fractions to determine whether or not the fractions are equivalent, less than or more than 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4.  We took the test on fractions yesterday.  As a whole the students did very well.  Keep up the hard work at home!  The next unit that we will be studying is measurement with long and distances.

Poetry will be coming to an end next week.   We have been learning many different types of poems and then attempting to write a poem in the similar style.  The students will be collecting different poems as the year goes on in their poetry folder. 

Motion has been a very exhilarating unit.  We have finished the motion in terms of spinners (tops, zoomers, and twirly birds.)  We have starting the next investigations about motion in terms of rollers.  All of these investigations are hands on and help the students guide their own learning.

I am sure you’re tired of reading now!  I will make sure to post more often!