We started our week off at our first K-5 Morning Meeting. Mr. Levy's Band performed a couple songs for us, Ms. Beers went over the Essential Agreements, The Birthday Board and Ms.O'Rourke discussed Actions students took over the summer. Our Sydney got up and shared how she helped the environment. Students love to share during our Morning Meeting time. This is a great way for them to practice speaking in front of a group and allows us to get to know them better. Each week they will learn a new greeting and practice greeting each other by looking at the other student, using a friendly voice and greeting them with their name. In our classroom we will learn to work with every one and respect each other. It will allow us time to practice being a communicator, caring and being open-minded. In Writer's Workshop this week students watched as I created "My Strong Feelings" Chart. They then got to create their own after they finished their heart maps. These are another tool they will use when writing their narratives. Students presented their Me Museums to their classmates. They got to use the microphone if they wanted to. This was an excellent way to get to learn about each other and an opportunity to practice speaking in front of the group. I was right there to help them if they needed it but they did a great job and I'm so proud of them for being courageous enough to share a little bit of themselves with us. When they were finished presenting to their classmates they got to set up their ME Museums and the other 2nd grade classrooms got to walk through and ask questions about their items. We also visited the other 2nd grade classrooms to visit their museums and practice being inquirers. This week we had a bus evacuation drill and a fire drill. We also spent a lot of time talking about why we do these drills, different scenarios to help students with more questions and how we should know these drills at our homes as well. Please take the time to practice this at home because many of them shared they don't have a plan yet. Leaders in our classroom, like Kenny, lead us though daily practice on letters, sounds, blends and digraphs. We got to meet our kindergarten reading buddies on Thursday. We will be reading with them on Thursday afternoons for 15 minutes. This will help not only our kindergarten friends but also help us with our fluency and reading skills. The students in Ms. Albanese's classroom were so happy to have us and asked us to come back. I was very proud of my 2nd graders as they eagerly chose a friend and a spot in the room and got right to reading to them. Another way I've been showing them how kids can be inquirers and be curious is through Mystery Doug. Check out the site when you get a chance.
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This is my bird feeder in my backyard in the morning on Saturday and then in the evening. Who do you think ate all of that bird seed? and what can I do to make sure that doesn't happen again? What is Inquiry? Inquiry is talking about what you see, thinking about what it makes you wonder about or connections you have with it and coming up with questions you have based off of what you are inquiring about. Inquiry is NOT giving students the answers but giving them the skills to find the answers and the practice to ask more questions. Students got to look at pictures and artifacts from two different places I went to this summer. When I asked them to come up with questions they might have the ONLY question they could think of is "Where did you go?" I had to spend a lot of time modeling questions that an inquirer might ask. We are going to be spending a lot of time this year practicing being an inquirer and learning NOT to expect me to answer their questions they can research and find answers to themselves. Writer's Workshop How do you get children to love to write? Provide them with examples they can use when they are asked to write. Students worked on Their Heart Maps and Strong Feelings Charts after watching me create my own. I know these are going to be very helpful as we write our narratives this month. I love Action Takers and I'm so glad they feel comfortable in our classroom already! To be so young and wanting to share with their peers is just AMAZING! 2nd Graders heading to their lockers for the 1st time and lining up to greet me with a fist pump, handshake or hug-their choice! Getting to know each other by playing the game Under the Sea with their new table friends. I loved reading first day notes that parents packed in their child's lunch in the Balanced Cafe! I'll never forget the smiley faces my dad made with mustard on my salami sandwiches growing up! To start the day they reflected on how they felt by drawing an emoji that represented their feelings, later in the day we read the story: First Day Jitters, discussed what that meant, graphed our results AND of course made some Jitter Juice! They were busy here creating their hand puzzles that I hope they shared with you over the weekend as they shared what we did all week. On Tuesday we had a snowball fight with the Guess Who sheets that I sent home this summer. If your child forgot or didn't get my packet this summer I made it with them so they could participate too. All the students helped put together our GIANT Kerplunk. The first round is looking for a class ON TASK. So every time we are all on task a student gets to pull a stick out. Once they all fall down we will have a class reward. Students got to work with a partner and go on a Classroom Scavenger Hunt to help them get acquainted where everything is located in our room. After they found the item they had to write the # and location of the item. They had a lot of fun and now they know where everything is at! Our 2 o'clock Snack/Playground Time is a great time to reconnect with a friend from their class last year or to enjoy the new friends they are making this year. We did a lot of work and discussed why we need rules at school. The students were able to tell me many times that we need them to be safe and to learn. We are practicing and modeling these expectations every day. They also know the consequences for not being safe or allowing others the chance to learn. This book was a great example of why non stop talking and blurting out is not allowing others to learn. They got to create their own volcanoes with words and phrases that would interrupt learning. Table teams took a break to play some Jenga with each other. Students were challenged to find objects in our room that went with every letter of the alphabet. They were allowed to work with a partner or in teams but had to complete their own sheet. These will come home Friday if your child completed theirs. Have them share what they found with you.
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AuthorMrs. Humphrey
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