Happy Halloween!

The kids had a great time at the Halloween party and thank you to Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Hoyt for doing such a wonderful job with the snacks and craft!  I hope you all stayed warm and dry on Trick or Treat night!

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!