Spending Our Pennies

Since today was the last day of September, I opened the classroom store and each student had the opportunity to buy small items with the money they have earned. It was a great chance for me to see who knows how to count money and who needs to work on it. This year students will learn how to count a variety of coins up to $1.00.

JD lost a tooth today!

Today we played "Sparkle". We are working on counting by 10's and 5's.

During reading today CK "phoned a friend" for help with one of our vocabulary words.

Here DC is breaking a word down to sound it out.

KS is revealing a word as we practice our vocabulary words as the other members of her reading group watch and read along.

This morning we did our second "Mad Minute" test. We will be doing mad minutes from now on. You can help your child memorize their addition facts by making flashcards or going on my website (Math Activities- Flashcards).

AG working hard (and fast).

First Newspaper and Big Money

Today we traded in some of our pennies for larger coins.

Many students are finding out it "pays" to make good choices.

Tomorrow I will open our little classroom store so students can spend their hard earned cash.

Today we started our first newspaper of the year and I am so excited with what they have started already. Here is JR using his dictionary as he types on his AlphaSmart. It will take us about a week to finalize it and then send it home.

Testing With Activotes

We have been earning pennies since the first day of school, but today was the first day that we started talking about money counting strategies. Here is JR working at the interactive board while the rest of us are writing our answers on our small white boards.

Today during reading groups we used the activotes (remotes that register each students answer to the reading questions presented on the interactive board). Here we are focused on reading the question.

Covering our eyes because we aren't sure if we are going to get the right answer....

and...yeah, we were right!

And this is what it looks like if we get it wrong. Urgh!

And what it looks like getting the answer right again. Yeah!

We really like being able to know right away if our answer is correct.

Each full week of school, we will take a simple math test to evaluate

our retention of certain math concepts learned earlier in the week.

Here is EN working on her test.

Here is AR laying on the floor so she has some privacy.

BB who always seems to have a smile no matter what he is doing. :o)

We also took our spelling test today and I am so happy with every ones studying.

Well done second grade!

Birthday Lunch

Friday is our first "Snack Sale" of the year.

Students can purchase small snacks for 25 cents or 5o cents.

Today Mrs. Thorne invited all students that were born in the month of September to join her for lunch. These three were born 3 days in a row.

Fun Learning to Read

We used the Promethean board today to practice reading our vocabulary words.

"This is fun" is what everyone said. We came up in small reading groups and helped each other until we could read each word.
AR is busy typing her letter to her pen pal. We decided it was going to be easier for our Pen Pal's to read if we typed our letters. Hey, look at those fingers on home row. Way to go!

ST working hard.

This afternoon our reading buddies came in.

It is fun to see older students giving so much attention to us. We love our reading buddies!

Thank you for everyone who helped to support our Bookfair.

It is nice to have such a great supply of good books to choose from.

Finishing Birthday Magazines

Please Come!

Wednesday Night 5:30 - 7:00 Parent BBQ and Bookfair Night

Don't forget, Thursday students get out of school at 12:45 for teacher inservice time

We have three students that turned 8 three days in a row so we have been busy making individual books for each.

Today we interviewed AS to learn more about her. She turned 8 over the weekend.

We started EN's book last week and finished it up today.
Then we started in on CK's book. Here are the pages EN and FA created.

KC working hard on her birthday page for CK.

During reading, students can practice their typing skills.

We learned to put our fingers on "home row" yesterday.

First Birthday Magazine

We went on the blog today and took turns reading the comments.
What a fun way to motivate us to read. Thank you all for your input.

Today was EN's birthday. We interviewed her and then typed up her answers and will be putting them into a coffee table magazine. Near or on each students birthday this year we will create their magazine. This is one of my favorite activities, they are so much fun!

EN is so dynamic she captivated our attention.

I had everyone take turns holding this cake while I took their picture.

We will use this photo for the cover of their magazine.

Then of course they talked me into letting them eat the cake.

At the end of the day we went into the computer lab and took our spelling test.

Look in backpacks to find test results and more important papers.

Below is our first published class book. Click on the center arrow and then sit back and enjoy.

Depending on your internet speed, pages will automatically turn. Can you identify your child's voice? (They don't think it sounds at all like them).

Picture Perfect

Today I introduced our spelling program.

Students can access their spelling list here on the blog.

Here is how to navigate the site.

1. Click on "Spelling City.com right here on the blog (top right)

2. Click on the "Find a list" tab on the top left

3. Fill in "schimel" at the "Enter Search Term" dialog box

4. Under the "Name" tab click on the link (this week it says: Short vowels: a,i)

Students will need to practice their weekly words and prepare for their Friday test.

Each Friday, students will have a spelling test and a math test here at school.

We are starting with simple words so that we can focus on the routine. Words will progress as time goes by.

We have been going to the computer lab to create our name badges.

Here is AS with hers.

We also wrote our parents a letter today to explain our homework assignment for second grade. You should get it tonight.
Here is JC with his letter. If you didn't get your letter, you can click on
JC and it will show up larger and you can read his.
Here we are working on our letter.
I was very happy with how hard everyone was working.

This morning we went to the Parents Club Bookfair.

Many students are bringing home their "wishlist".

We also had our pictures taken today.

Here you can see the photographer showing DC how to pose.

Here we are waiting in line for our turn.