Just a reminder! Book orders are due THIS FRIDAY! Get your back to school books! It usually only takes a week to get the order in once I place it, which hopefully will be on Friday night.
Scholastic Book Club Link
Thanks for your support!
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Scrap Art Fun!
After reading many ABC books, the kids came up with a list of objects that started with each letter of the alphabet. From there, we picked our favorites and voted for which one we wanted displayed on our ABC line in the room. Once the object was picked, we worked in pairs to build the art! The kids picked their partners and worked REALLY well on beginning with the end in mind (Habit 2) and coming up with a plan before making their scrap art. They literally had scraps to work with - pipe cleaners, yarn, construction paper, zip ties, twisties, etc. We will finish them tomorrow! Here's a sneak peak of A-M! :)
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Tuesday!
I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! So far, the week has gone great! The kids are definitely getting more comfortable in the room and their new friends and I'm seeing a lot of them really blooming!
In reading, we are continuing to focus on how to "do" reader's workshop and practicing this skill. Today we talked about our Buzz Groups, or our reading discussion groups. The kids read quietly and then went into their buzz groups to discuss what they had read. We talked about the importance of listening to the speaker, making eye contact and taking turns!
In math, we finished up time. This seems to be fairly easy for this class. Continue to work on time to the half hour at home. We also made our own calendar and the kids wrote in important dates for August! We learned to play addition Top It and will use it on our Every Day Math Game Day on Thursday where we put together all our new games and play them during math! Thank you for your support with the homework! I know there's a lot going on at home in the evening so I am grateful that it's getting finished and reinforcing what has been taught at school! THANK YOU!
We are working on writing about our summer vacations that will be displayed at Open House! We did pre writing by making a list of the things we did. Tomorrow we will put them into sentences and edit! The kids will decorate their paper t-shirts as well!
Thank you to the parents who have brought in snack! It's going really well and I think the kids enjoy that food "break" in the afternoon.
In reading, we are continuing to focus on how to "do" reader's workshop and practicing this skill. Today we talked about our Buzz Groups, or our reading discussion groups. The kids read quietly and then went into their buzz groups to discuss what they had read. We talked about the importance of listening to the speaker, making eye contact and taking turns!
In math, we finished up time. This seems to be fairly easy for this class. Continue to work on time to the half hour at home. We also made our own calendar and the kids wrote in important dates for August! We learned to play addition Top It and will use it on our Every Day Math Game Day on Thursday where we put together all our new games and play them during math! Thank you for your support with the homework! I know there's a lot going on at home in the evening so I am grateful that it's getting finished and reinforcing what has been taught at school! THANK YOU!
We are working on writing about our summer vacations that will be displayed at Open House! We did pre writing by making a list of the things we did. Tomorrow we will put them into sentences and edit! The kids will decorate their paper t-shirts as well!
Thank you to the parents who have brought in snack! It's going really well and I think the kids enjoy that food "break" in the afternoon.
Friday, August 24, 2012
SmartBoard Fun!
Today, we played EveryDay Math Games on the SmartBoard! The kids loved playing Monster Squeeze and Money Exchange!
First Week! WHEW!
Today was another great day in our room! This morning, we talked about the summer Olympics and the children graphed their favorite Olympic sport they enjoyed watching this summer (Gymnastics won). We talked about choosing easy, just right or hard books and the children picked 3 of these books from the library. They put a post it in each book that they thought was easy, just right or hard and we shared what makes a book this way for us...i.e.we can read all the words, we can read some of the words, but it can be challenging and we can't read anything and it's too tough!
The children also wrote and drew their pictures on Habit 2: Beginning With The End In MInd. We picked 6 and put them on our habit wall.
We are digging deep into Little House On The Prairie. The kids LOVE this book and we left on a very suspenseful part of the story! I couldn't get the kids to leave the room at the end of the day because they wanted to know what happens! I told them we would continue on Monday. The kids were shown pictures of what Laura and her family might have looked like back then and I was able to give them a virtual tour of Laura's house on the prairie! How cool??
In Math, we reviewed money and played a money game on the Smart Board while answering story problems. They did VERY well with this! I was impressed that they remembered money so well. Later in the afternoon, we played Everyday Math Games online including Monster Squeeze and Money Exchange! The kids sure do love these games and it's nice because they encourage each other on when we do them whole group!
We had our first fire drill today and of course, it was during P.E.! I was there to assist them and Mr. Shoemaker and they did great!
I sent home Scholastic book order forms today. If you can, consider purchasing books from this. The kids made a "wish list" today for books they would like in our library and I can purchase them through Scholastic with points earned from your orders. They are due August 31 (next Friday).
I am looking forward to next week and I hope your child is enjoying being in my room!
Have a great weekend and spend this time with your children. They are fantastic people (as you know!)
- Mrs. Hurak
The children also wrote and drew their pictures on Habit 2: Beginning With The End In MInd. We picked 6 and put them on our habit wall.
We are digging deep into Little House On The Prairie. The kids LOVE this book and we left on a very suspenseful part of the story! I couldn't get the kids to leave the room at the end of the day because they wanted to know what happens! I told them we would continue on Monday. The kids were shown pictures of what Laura and her family might have looked like back then and I was able to give them a virtual tour of Laura's house on the prairie! How cool??
In Math, we reviewed money and played a money game on the Smart Board while answering story problems. They did VERY well with this! I was impressed that they remembered money so well. Later in the afternoon, we played Everyday Math Games online including Monster Squeeze and Money Exchange! The kids sure do love these games and it's nice because they encourage each other on when we do them whole group!
We had our first fire drill today and of course, it was during P.E.! I was there to assist them and Mr. Shoemaker and they did great!
I sent home Scholastic book order forms today. If you can, consider purchasing books from this. The kids made a "wish list" today for books they would like in our library and I can purchase them through Scholastic with points earned from your orders. They are due August 31 (next Friday).
I am looking forward to next week and I hope your child is enjoying being in my room!
Have a great weekend and spend this time with your children. They are fantastic people (as you know!)
- Mrs. Hurak
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
First Day Fun!
We had a GREAT first day today! The kids started off by completing a "How I get home" graph by coloring in a picture of their transportation method. We then graphed them as a class. They also colored a "I have people who care about me" picture. I'm holding on to these to give them back at the end of the year. We will gradually make these into a book this week and next, which the kids will get back at the end of the school year.
We went over cafe rules and playground rules. The kids used their listening ears and were very respectful of all the teachers who were giving directions. After lunch we read the story First Day Jitters and we talked about how even teachers can be nervous on the first day. The students were making text to self connections to the story and to the teacher in the book.
The students received their poetry folder today and tomorrow we will read through our first poem of the year - The First Day. We will dig deep with this poem this week and look at vowels, consonants and interpreting what the poem means.
The kids really got to know each other through a "get to know you" grid they had to fill out. This came home with the kids. They got most of it done on their own, and then we finished the rest in group time. I was able to learn a lot about the boys and girls.
We did a small reading workshop time (about 15 minutes) with the Back to School books and the books on the tables. I can tell this group is going to be awesome for reading time! They loved ALL the books available to them and can't wait to see the others that are still "closed" to them at this point. We open up a few tubs at a time so we can focus on the authors and topics at hand. This allows them to really get to know the books and the authors.
At the end of the day, we did a writing piece. My prompt to them was "What Do You Think Second Grade Will Be Like?" They had some pretty interesting answers, but over all they believe 2nd grade will be the best year yet and they are excited to have fun!
Tomorrow and the rest of the week, we are going to be looking at the habit, Beginning With The End In Mind. We will focus on our goals for 2nd grade and what we expect to learn. I will hear the children's expectations of me and vice versa. The beginning of the school year is a lot of practicing and repeating to get positive behaviors enforced right off the bat. Thank you for your support with this!
This week, too we will be slowly transitioning into our normal schedule and routine.
Again and always, please let me know if you have any questions. My door is always open!
anhurak@marysville.k12.oh.us
Mrs. Hurak
We went over cafe rules and playground rules. The kids used their listening ears and were very respectful of all the teachers who were giving directions. After lunch we read the story First Day Jitters and we talked about how even teachers can be nervous on the first day. The students were making text to self connections to the story and to the teacher in the book.
The students received their poetry folder today and tomorrow we will read through our first poem of the year - The First Day. We will dig deep with this poem this week and look at vowels, consonants and interpreting what the poem means.
The kids really got to know each other through a "get to know you" grid they had to fill out. This came home with the kids. They got most of it done on their own, and then we finished the rest in group time. I was able to learn a lot about the boys and girls.
We did a small reading workshop time (about 15 minutes) with the Back to School books and the books on the tables. I can tell this group is going to be awesome for reading time! They loved ALL the books available to them and can't wait to see the others that are still "closed" to them at this point. We open up a few tubs at a time so we can focus on the authors and topics at hand. This allows them to really get to know the books and the authors.
At the end of the day, we did a writing piece. My prompt to them was "What Do You Think Second Grade Will Be Like?" They had some pretty interesting answers, but over all they believe 2nd grade will be the best year yet and they are excited to have fun!
Tomorrow and the rest of the week, we are going to be looking at the habit, Beginning With The End In Mind. We will focus on our goals for 2nd grade and what we expect to learn. I will hear the children's expectations of me and vice versa. The beginning of the school year is a lot of practicing and repeating to get positive behaviors enforced right off the bat. Thank you for your support with this!
This week, too we will be slowly transitioning into our normal schedule and routine.
Again and always, please let me know if you have any questions. My door is always open!
anhurak@marysville.k12.oh.us
Mrs. Hurak
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Hello Families!
I look forward to working with you side by side this year!
-Mrs. Hurak
Thank you so much for logging into our second grade blog! Ideally, I'd like to use this feature to showcase what we do throughout the week to supplement our newsletter and later actually use it as our newsletter. Please continue to read both until we get into a system of either using the formal newsletter or the blog. This is my first time using it with families and teaching therefore I appreciate any constructive feedback. Thank you in advance!
I look forward to working with you side by side this year!
-Mrs. Hurak
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