All About Inventors!

Last week we looked at Inventors from our past!  The kids were given a sheet of inventors that were labeled with a number and what they invented.  They glued these in their learning logs.  Then, they had to go around the room on an inventor scavenger hunt!  Around the room were pictures of inventors with their invention.  They had to go around the room to find the inventor and their invention to complete the sheet!  

After we completed the scavenger hunt, the kids created an inventor timeline by placing year of the invention in order from the 1700's until 1950's!  

Crazy Sock Day for Red Ribbon Week!

Our kids definitely know how to sport crazy socks!!!  

Author Frank Smith Came!

Author Frank Smith came on Friday to read his first book, A Kid Named Billy!  The kids loved the surprise at the end of the story and were making connections to previous books!  

Author Smith's wife came in as well and shared the steps of making a book!  She showed us the first steps of him writing the book on paper, to editing from the publishing company to the illustrations that were designed!  It was great for the kids to see the editing process of a  REAL book!  Hopefully they will take what they learned and apply it to their own writing.

Before Author Smith came, we generated critical thinking questions for him to answer.  Thank you to Jordan Perry who shared her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma with us for the morning!  

Happy Apple Day!

Today was Apple Day in Second Grade at Mill Valley!  The kids had a great time learning about Johnny Appleseed, various types of apples, the diagram of an apple and measuring with apples!  In my room, the students made predictions as to how many apples tall they and they're partners were.  Then the kids measured themselves.  They were given a certain amount of apples and had to come up with a way to continue counting when they ran out!  After they measured themselves, they had to describe whether or not their predictions were correct.  If they weren't, how many apples off were they?  Lastly, they had to take a string and wrap it around their largest apple.  Then lay the string flat on a ruler to measure in inches how many inches around the apple was.  

I think they had a great time and learned a lot! 

Instrument Making Day!

Mrs. Hurak's class was beaming with creativity today while the children made instruments made from recycled materials!  They had to create a musical device that created sounds of different pitch.  I was thoroughly impressed with the ideas that were flowing and the conversations on processes!  

Enjoy the pictures! 

A few notes....

Scarecrow Night is tomorrow evening!  I'll be there passing out all the Mumkin's that were ordered!  Great job and thank you for your support!

Thank you so much for everyone who brought in supplies for our instrument making!  We are doing them tomorrow so check back on the blog for awesome pictures of this project in action!

If you can donate snack, we are getting low again. Fruit, ritz crackers, saltines, goldfish, and fruit snacks are great!

Apple Day is on Friday!  The kids will be transitioning to the other second grade teacher's classrooms all day doing fun, educational activities based on Johnny Appleseed and Apple Day!  I'm sure they will have a lot to talk about! Again, check the blog for pictures and updates!  This should be a fun day for the kids and a nice change in routine for the day!

Beat the Calculator!

In math we have been reviewing and learning new strategies to help us add and subtract fluently within 10 and 20!  The kids learned to play a new game called, "Beat The Calculator"!  There are 3 (sometimes 4) people in a group.  One person is the brain, one person is the calculator and one person is the caller.  The caller says an equation and the brain and the calculator compete to get the correct answer of the equation!