Doc McStuffins and "Writing Syndrome"

So, my daughter Hadley, loves to watch Disney's Doc McStuffins.  For those of you who don't know, she's a little girl who diagnoses problems with toys and then fixes them.  She gives diagnosis a name like 'NoBatteryitis' or 'NeedsOilitis'.   It's super clever. 

Well, In writing yesterday, I was teaching how to revise our narrative pieces to make sure our writing sounded good.  Basically, do we repeat words (and, then, I, etc.)? OR do we leave out punctuation creating a whole page that is one sentence?  I had a sample of my writing that I had purposely made into a run on joined by a bunch of ands.  I was trying to get the students to revise my writing but they just couldn't see it.  FINALLY, after a ton of guesses someone said "you have too many ands Mrs. Green!"  It finally came to me!! I had 'anditis'!  So, I asked them if they had ever watched Doc and most of them had.  I told them that a lot of them needed to have a diagnosis.  Immediately they came up with a few 'syndromes' that they knew they needed to 'heal'.  I sent them off to write and within about 5 minutes we had a full list of them...it was a perfect way to get them to revise their own work! Look for our list to grow in our upcoming lessons!

Writing Buddy Conferences

We are working on 'zooming in' on our small moments in writing.  On Monday, the students used magnifying glasses to look at rocks and describe how they looked when they 'zoomed' in.  They then did the same with their writing using sticky notes to add details in their writing.  Today, they conferred with their writing buddies and gave each other ideas on details to add.  Below is just a little snippet of a conversation between Skyler and Morgan. I can't wait to listen in to more writing discussions!

Word Study

Small moment books

World Jam

Math games...

Our math time typically looks like this:
1)  We go over our morning work (number of the day).
2)  Whole class lesson and practice
3)  Students practice the concept independently at their seats with a worksheet. (This allows me to assess the needs of each student in that particular lesson.)
4)  Then, they go to their different center assignments for the day...iPad, game #1, game #2.  The next day they switch centers.  **Because of our later lunch, we have less time between lunch recess and specials. Therefore, we have to switch each day, not every 10-15 minutes.**

We have lots of fun games that the students play. Some are independent but many are two player games. Also, a lot of them are games played with a deck of card or dice. (I just realized we really sound like we're gambling...we're not!)  Take a look at the pictures from one of our days in math...

WOW...They have an addiction...

To writing!  The kids are discovering that they can write about anything they want.  They have also become obsessed with creating books.  I think that if I let them, they would write for 2 hours straight! It's so much fun to to watch....

PJ Day!

We will have PJ day on Thursday, September 12th.  Bring in $1 and wear your favorite PJs!  Money raised will go to Mia's fund.

Play 60 Assembly!

The students went to a big pep assembly to ring in the Rams football season.  They also pledged to:

1.  Fuel:  energize their body and mind by eating healthy

2.  Play:  being active for 60 minutes a day

3.  Fuel Up to Play 60:  eating healthy, being active, and having fun with friends to make school an even better place.

Illustrating our Ideas...

In writing we talked about how the ideas in your head can be turned into illustrations that then help you to write a story. We reread the wordless picture book Good Dog Carl by Alexandra Day as an example of how authors tell stories just through pictures.  The class learned that as authors THEY could just make a picture and that helps tell a story.  After illustrating their writing idea, they shared their work, and the story in their head, with a buddy...

Reading Around the Room

Today the students picked a quiet spot in the room to read.  They could go anywhere they wanted as long as their choices didn't affect their reading or the reading of those around them.  The students did an awesome job! Check out these readers:

A Room Full of Readers!

Today we started talking about the three ways to read...

1.  Read the pictures.

2.  Read the words.

3.  Re-tell the story.

The students are learning how to read independently and how to increase their stamina, or the length of time that they read.  Check out these readers!

Sharing our 'All About Me' bags...

Sharing our five things from our bags helped us to get to know about each other.  Students brought in photos, symbols of things they like, and other items that represent themselves...

Maya shares a story about her birth.

Aidan's turtle shell...

Eli shows us a picture of his family.

Nigel is interested in crocodiles and alligators.

Our Hopes and Dreams for Second Grade...

Today we began working on creating our class 'constitution'.  This starts with the class drawing and and sharing their Hopes and Dreams for their year at Sappington. Next, we will talk about how to make sure that we all help each other to make sure our hopes and dreams come true. They will come up with a HUGE list of rules that all start with 'don't...' and we will turn them all around to become statements that say what we WANT our friends to do.  Eventually (and every year this happens) we end up with four rules or expectations.  Stay tuned to find out what they are...

First day!

We are up and running! We have a GREAT class!

Meet The Teacher Night

Hooray! All of my new second grade friends came! I was so fortunate to be able to meet all of the kids and their families tonight. Thank you all for coming and taking the time to fill out alllllllllll of those forms.   We are going to have a great year...I'm looking forward to getting started!

Back to School!

It's hard to believe that the summer break is winding down and we are about to jump into another school year. It goes so quickly!  I am really excited to meet all of my new students!
Here are some dates to remember:
Tuesday, August 13:  Meet the Teacher Night  5-7 pm
Thursday, August 15:  First Day of School
Thursday, August 22:  2nd Grade Curriculum Night 7 pm
Monday, September 2:  Labor Day - No School!