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! 

Today we watched Little House on the Prairie! The kids really enjoyed having a visual with what we have been reading since August!  After the movie was over, we compared and contrasted the book to the movie and discussed what was different!  Turns out, there was a lot the movie left out from the book and the kids were commenting on every detail!  We also did a little research on Little House and life on the prairie and we discovered a great website I wanted to share!

www.littlehousebooks.com

There are tons of resources and games the kids can play as well as cooking ideas and craft books!  I also reenforced to the kids that they must ALWAYS ask for permission before getting on the computer. 

Reader's Theater!

Today we discussed the importance of reading fluently.  We need to pause at commas and periods and work on our overall flow of reading.  We had our first Reader's Theatre of the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  The kids did a great job of reading their lines and were very excited to do more.  We will do another script with different actors next week! 

Puzzle Mania!

This past week, we focused on Synergizing - working together to complete a goal!  On Friday, we had Puzzle Mania where the students grouped together in teams and then worked together to complete a 100 piece puzzle!  They loved it and really worked well together coming up with a plan and then putting it into action!