Spending Money

Today we opened the classroom store so that we could spend our money that we have earned. Each day students earn 2 pennies for working hard and making good choices.Then at the end of the month, they have the opportunity to purchase items. The video below is what the girls chose to buy.

Reading Groups

Today Mr. Schimel came in and listened to a reading group.

He was very impressed with how well everyone read and how attentive they were. Here is what it looks like in our room during reading groups.

Each student has a reading assignment to complete on the computer.

First they listen to a story, then read it, and

when they feel confident enough, they take a test.

Game Time

We finally had time to play with our new games that we got at our Welcome Back party. Here CC is trying to remove the thigh bone.

These three are breaking in the Sorry game. I sure like how they followed the rules.

And here the boys are playing Checkers.

Fun Times Reading

Today was our last day switching classrooms for reading, so we spent the last half hour doing a fun reading activity together.

The girls came up with a very funny story. Click on the video clip to hear them read it to you.



This is a video of the boys and their Mad Lib.



The activity started with Mrs. Straughan's class having a list of adjectives, verbs, and nouns.

My class had the other part of the project. Our paper contained a story with missing words.

When we got together we were able to create some pretty funny stories.

It was so exciting to see how much fun everyone was having as they read their stories.

Everyone was very focused

And happy!

Today we recieved a carpet from Softstep. This is a video of us playing on it.

A Toast With Friends

This afternoon Mrs. Straughan's class came over and surprised us with orange pop in beautiful glasses. We all raised our glasses and enjoyed a toast to good friends.

Welcome Back Party!

We moved back into our room this morning. It was a last minute job and luckily the children were willing to help get things back in order. In the afternoon we threw a "Welcome Back" party. Here is SA at the ribbon cutting ceremony. Our Principal came in and gave everyone a "thumbs up" charm for the wonderful job they did this week.
We had yummy treats too.

And of course, every party needs PRESENTS.

Our Librarian is missing our company in the library, so she brought us all down some camp necklaces that she made.

This is our goodbye moment to Camp Classlberry. This is the group that made the tent and bushes.

Here are our sign creators.

And our fire makers and the roasting marshmallow group close behind.

What a long week, but probably the most memory packed.

We had a good time together.

Flood Update

We are planning to get back in our room early next week. Friday workers will finish laying the floor and hopefully have a chance to get the wax on. First they have to get the heater up and working though. The maintance crew has patched and painted the one wall that was damaged the most. Then they replaced the white boards and the ceiling tile that came down. Plummers discovered that a part in the heater broke which is what caused the pipe to break and spew hot water into our room over the weekend. Luckily not too many classroom items were destroyed. Only 150 paper back books out of 1000 were unable to be saved. Our AlphaSmarts are a little cranky, but new batteries seem to have helped them out. Luckily I had the laptop home with me for some planning work and blogging. :o)
Which by the way, you should be able to add comments with out a password now if you want. Once a week we all go to the lab and read the blog, so if you write anything, please keep in mind that second graders will be reading it.
Thank you for all your thoughts and smiles through this week.

Life is good at Camp Classlberry!

This morning we began planning on how we could make the Library a little more like camping. CA came up with a name for us. He combined the word classroom with library and got "Classlberry". So now we refer to our space as "Camp Classlberry". We decided to make it look more like camping so we went to work. This group is planning how many sticks they will need to make a sign that says, Camp Classlberry. Pretty clever. Other groups made a tent to go infront of the door, a campfire to roast marshmellows, and bushes to pick berries from.
Later on we received the nicest note from Mrs. Straughan and her class. They said they like how much fun we are having in our new classroom and they wanted us to have some berries to go with our Camp Classlberry theme. Here we are enjoying them.

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Over the weekend our classroom heater had a pipe break and it flooded our room. Water was dripping from the ceiling and down the walls. Tile was coming up and now the ceiling is coming down. This morning we all took turns looking in the empty room and watching the guys try to clean it all up. The white board crumbled, so here they are putting up new boards.
Some metal shelving backboards (that weren't being used any more) peeled off the walls.



Over 250 tiles came loose.

But we had a great day in the library, which is where we will hold class for the rest of the week. This is JS after her very first tooth came out!

It is JJ's birthday today and his mom surprised him with birthday treats.

Happy Birthday JJ.

Look below to see a video of our p.e. activity

Here is a fun video of use playing balloon volleyball in P.E.

New Baby Brother

Friday we each wrote a story and then shared them with each other. Here you can see our reactions to JC's story. Then we listened to HS read his story.
Later in the afternoon CC brought his new baby brother in for sharing today.


He is a very proud brother.

And a happy brother!

This is a movie of CC sharing his new baby brother.

Good Friends

We have been talking a lot about being good friends and how we show that we are good friends to eachother. This is a video of HS explaining to us how he shows that he is a good friend to us.



This is JW and CA typing up what HS said.

Read! Read! Read

Today we said good-bye to our old reading buddies before we met our new ones. We think we have the best buudies anyone could ever ask for. We have so much fun with them. This is CC with his buddy having a good conversation. Here SB listens to her buddies taking turns reading.

TL is sharing some of our old newspapers with her buddy.

Here JS is reading to his buddy who is being a good listener.

During reading block, JW got on the computer and took an AR reading test on a book that he read on his own.

This is JS and EM during small reading groups. They are reading a book about Mount Rushmore.

Then... there is the group reading about SHARKS!

I got out my small shark teeth and this is what I got.

Back to serious work. These boys are reading a Henry and Mudge book.

If you are looking for some fun, perfect second grade stories, Henry and Mudge is your kind of book.