Fun and Festivities

During this first full week of December, we were able to start some pretty exciting projects in class.  One of our center rotations this week was creating a stuck Santa craft.  With the craft and part of another center rotation, the students wrote about what they would do if Santa got stuck.  The answers varied anywhere from "If Santa got stuck, I would help him pull him out with a lasso," to "If Santa got stuck, I would do nothing and leave him."  Some of the students got really creative with their responses. 

The kids worked really hard on these and they look great.  You might notice the handwriting in this picture.  One of our big focuses in class recently has been writing neatly and not letting our short lower case letters go above the mid-line.  The mid-line is the dashed line on each of the three lines shown below.  Many of the students have found this to be quite challenging because it requires them to write much smaller than they are used to.  Even though it is A LOT of work, it has certainly paid off and the students' handwriting has improved so much.  When we work on our handwriting like this, with our letters staying below the mid-line, not only are we working on their handwriting skills, but it also helps improve many of their other fine motor skills.  Please encourage your child when writing to try and keep their letters below the mid-line.  

We have also started some other fun holiday crafts.  We made some adorable looking winter trees, using triangle-shaped sponges.  Then the kids used their fingers to make ornaments and other decorations on their trees.  This was such a simple activity, but they turned out so nice and the class seemed to have a great time with both steps of this craft.

Our new P.E. unit for the month of December is Dance.  We love dancing so much as a class and this led itself perfectly into our English Language Arts story for this week.  One of our favorite dance videos is  below:

We listened to the story, "Jonathan and His Mommy" where they go on a walk and do all sorts of different walking movements.  As a class we tried some of them out and had a wonderful time!  We also listened to the story, "Move" and we discussed different types of movements that animals can do.  Later, we compared those animal movements and tried them out ourselves.  We tried leaping, sliding, slithering, waddling, running, and even flying.  We quickly determined that humans DEFINITELY CAN NOT fly, but we still had fun pretending.  

Also, with Language Arts this week we learned a new sight word: "a."  Now our list of sight words has grown to seven total: I, like, the, and, see, we, a.  Keep practicing those sight words.

Even with all of our work time, we did manage to find some fun play time, too.  This week the students had a chance to play with Legos, Wheels and Links, Megablocks, and Puzzles.

This afternoon, the school honored the students who had "Awesome Attendance" for the first trimester.  This meant that they did not have more than 2 absences and no more than 3 tardies or left early days.  There were a lot of students who were being honored.  These students were able to enjoy a root beer float with a parent!  Keep up the great work!

We have also been keeping up on our Lexia reading work on our software program.  Many of the students have made a lot of progress.  If your child comes home with a certificate from Lexia, it means that they have gained a level in their reading progress online.  

Upcoming Events - 

Saturday, December 16th - Breakfast with Santa event 9am - 12pm;  Thank you to all of the families that have donated to our "Game Night" basket for the silent auction at this event.  I think we have a really good basket with a lot of fun game opportunities for a family.  

Friday, December 22nd - Minimum day; students dismissed at 12:20pm

Just a reminder ---- the PTO Giving Tree is up in the office; If you would like another opportunity to donate and help out our school, take one of the stars from the tree and buy the item for that teacher.  This does not only have to be for your child's current teacher.  Thank you so much for all of your help and wonderful donations!

Busy Times!

I apologize for the delay in my post.  I realized I haven't posted since the very beginning of November.  November has been a very crazy and busy month.  Between our regular curriculum, lots of exciting Thanksgiving activities and preparations, and first trimester evaluations, we have been really busy in the classroom.

I have some adorable pictures of the students in their cute turkey hats that the kids wore to our Family Feast right before Thanksgiving break.  I think you will love these cute little turkeys.  Thank you to all of the families who were able to make it to our Family Feast.  It always such a fun experience to have the parents and families come on campus with their student.

  

The class has been working especially hard this last week as we have been doing all of our first trimester evaluations.  All of the kids did great and I can certainly see some improvements from the beginning of the year with many of the students.

While I was assessing students individually, the class had some fun with free play centers.  One of the favorites this week was playing with the chocolate scented playdough and making cookies.  Many of the students also liked the playhouse area in the classroom.  The students also had a chance to use Legos, Duplos, and giant floor puzzles.

We made it through another week and are now officially done with the first trimester of the school year.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I almost forgot about the fun Turkey song we learned in the month of November.  Please excuse the poor video quality, but they sound and look really cute anyways!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

- Dec. 8th - Movie Night - 6 pm; students can come in their pajamas, bring a blanket and/or pillow, and buy some yummy snacks while watching a Christmas movie for this month's event

- Report Cards will be sent home on Monday, December 11th; please be sure to check your child's backpack that day.

- Dec. 16th - Breakfast with Santa - 9am - 12pm; Breakfast will be cooked by the Kelseyville Fire Department and will be pancakes, eggs, sausage, and a drink for $5 a plate.  Pictures with Santa will be available.  A silent auction will be happening with Classroom Provided themed baskets.  A holiday boutique will also be happening here, as well as a mini book sale to help the kindergarten classes

       - Auction Baskets:  Our class is doing a "Family Game Night" themed basket for the silent auction.  I am requesting families to donate different board and card games.  The class whose basket sells for the highest bid will get a pizza party.  If you would like to help our class out, please see our class website on ClassTag for items that we are in need of.  (Below is also a list of some ideas that I have requested from families for our basket.)

Uno
Jenga - TAKEN
Farkle
Charades for Kids
Pictionary Jr.
Sorry -TAKEN
The Game of Life
Blokus
Yahtzee
Twister
Regular Playing Cards (2 - 4 decks)
Small pads of Paper
Pencils
Generic Snacks to have while playing games (2 - 4 varieties)

Please message me with what you decide you can donate so that I can keep track of what we have and still need. Donations need to be brought to the classroom by Dec. 12th. Thank you so much for all that you do to help our school!

-December 22nd - minimum day; students will be dismissed at 12:20pm

Focus on Family

This last week was an incredibly exciting one.  We spent most of the week preparing for our big event last Friday, Grandparent/Special Person Day.  Part of the second grade curriculum includes discussing family members and relatives.  Each student chose one special person in their life that they were to focus on for the past couple of weeks.  (Please note, actual Grandparent Day is in September, but this works so well around the curriculum and also, especially right around the start of the holiday season.)  The students wrote about their special person and even had some extra homework involving their special person.  The students wrote out 3-generation family trees and conducted a short interview with their special person.  (A special thank-you to the parents and family members who helped out with all of the components to this event and its coinciding projects.)  In their writing about their special person, each student made a book to give to their special person and focused on things that they do with their special person and what makes that person so special in the lives of the students.
Wednesday of last week, our science tied in perfectly with our special event.  We are just finishing up our unit in science on properties and matter and we made butter in the classroom.  Starting with just heavy whipping cream in a glass jar with a marble, the students were able to see the liquid form into a solid... after quite a bit of shaking.  One of the more important discoveries here was that once the liquid became solid, there was still some liquid in the jar.  The students learned the importance of skimming off the buttermilk and they were then left with a solid block of butter.

 

 

So the butter was to serve at our event on Friday.  But of course, we can't just have butter.  So on Thursday of last week, the class made homemade bread.  This also tied in with our science on properties and matter as we were able to revisit and discuss how things are changed with heat.  This bread recipe was done in gallon-size Ziploc bags and was mess-free!  Each student in the group had a job to measure out a specific item to go in the bread.  

Bread in a Bag

1 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Heaping teaspoon of salt

1 Heaping teaspoon of yeast

2/3 cup Water

Mix all dry ingredients in the bag together.  Make sure the bag is zipped tight.  Give it a couple of really good shakes.  Add in the water.  Close the bag tight.  Knead the dough in the bag for about 5-7 minutes.  Open the bag and leave in a warm, dry place to proof for 2 hours.  Put into mini loaf pans and bake at 475 for 25- 30 minutes.

 On Friday we were able to reap the benefits of all of our hard work.  We had a wonderful showing of special people arrive at the school.  We had a few special people who were not able to make it to the event, but we have such a wonderful class that some of the students shared their family members and special people with others.  This was really a touching day within the classroom.  (And, the students definitely saw me get emotionally worked up ---- just like I told the class they were happy tears, but it was an incredibly great moment in the classroom.)  Each student read their book and presented their special person to the class.  After the readings, all 4 second grade classes went outside and celebrated together by eating our bread and butter.  This was such a great event and couldn't have been successful without the help and support of parents and family members!

Here are a few photos I was able to catch during our celebration.

To the end the week last week, our class got to teach Mrs. Sonneville's class how to do some basic coding on kodable.com.  Everyone seemed to have a really great time!

Our whole school also was able to see the local Scotts Valley Pomo tribe do some native dances.  Friday was definitely an exciting day and the perfect end to the week.

This morning we managed to get in another character trait assembly.  Awards were given to two students from each class for being caring during the month of November.  I apologize for not getting a picture, but hopefully I will remember when we get back from break.  Awesome job to Lexxi and Mikaela for being so caring and considerate this last month!

A Quick Reminder:  Today parts for our class play for the 2nd grade December performance were sent home.  Please help your child work on their part over the next few weeks.  Dates for Performances: Thursday, Dec. 15th at 1pm and Thursday, Dec. 15th at 7pm.

Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!