Popcorn, Police, and Projects!!!

We are having so much fun in 2nd grade. This is a wonderful group of students and I really feel like we are going to do great things together! We have been reading your comments that you post and the students get so excited knowing that other people are looking at them and reading and seeing what is going on in our classroom. If you ever want to see a picture better just click on it and it will enlarge.


BZ was our Star of the Week this week and she brought in another great poster to share with the class. All of the posters have been done very well and the students really enjoy getting to know each other.

We earned our first party of the year for good behavior. As we behaved well in class we earned letters that spelled out the word popcorn. I brought in a popcorn making machine and the party started. We were going to play some games but everyone had so much fun watching the popcorn pop that we ran out of time. They said it was better than watching a movie!

Everyone enjoyed eating the popcorn - they all came back for 2nds and 3rds.

We had a visit from one of our pen pals - Officer Golter from the Pendleton Police Department. Yes, the last names are the same - he is my husband! He heard me talking about how I would like for the students to practice letter writing through pen pals and he offered himself. The students were very excited to meet him and hear what he had to share. Officer Golter told us all about the equipment he wears on his belt and uniform and he even showed us how some of it worked. The students really got a kick out of the taser when he showed them how loud it can be. Officer Golter also told the students how often he uses reading, math, and writing in his job and that he uses letter writing skills all the time. He has to write letters to people, lawyers, and judges as well as fellow police officers. As soon as he left we started our letters to him right away!

Here Officer Golter is drawing a picture of how a taser is like a fishhook.

Look at their faces as the taser makes its noise! Priceless!

Here is what the taser looks like without a cartridge in it.

We only had time for a few pictures before he had to go but he promised to come back and visit us again and he will be writing us back soon! Here KW, BZ, NH and WH pose for a picture. I had to tell them to keep scooting closer. I think they were a little nervous!

BG thanked Officer Golter for coming and asked him if he liked training other people. He also said he thought the taser was cool.

JW wrote that he also liked the taser and he wanted to know if Officer Golter took anybody to jail today and if they ran away from him.
BZ liked the handcuffs and wanted to know what kind of police dog the police department has.

CK told Officer Golter when he grows up he is going to be on the SWAT team also and he wanted to know how to do that.

On Friday we did a very fun fall art project that involved beans. They students chose a leaf shape and then used beans to decorate it. They all turn out very unique and beautiful.

IH takes his time and makes sure to do a good job!

RH chose to stand while doing the project so she could "see" better! :)

Here are a few of the finished projects. Didn't they turn out awesome!! I was very impressed with how good of a job they did!

Sharing

How easy it is to get behind with blogging! We have been so busy and doing so many things I am behind a week - I will have to try harder! Last week our Star of the Week was AC. He had a great time sharing his poster and the students oohed and aahed over all his pictures.

SY lost the first tooth of the year (with a little help from him). Now everyone is trying to wiggle and jiggle their teeth loose!

Several students have been making stories to share with the class. Here TG is using the document camera to project her story up onto the screen so everyone can see easily. The students are great listeners and pay close attention when others are sharing.

As a class we have started making some class books. So far we have three. They all turned out awesome! After Christmas when we have made enough for everyone we start to take them home to share with our families.

The First Full Week of School

BZ was inspired by our Round-Up field trip and decided to make a western scene at home. She did an awesome job and brought it in to share with the class.

Each week 1 student is chosen to be the Star of the Week. They get to decorate a poster, bring it in to share with the class and eat lunch with the teacher on Thursday. AT was our first Star of the Week and she did an awesome job on her poster!

This was our first week of spelling. Our tests are on Fridays and we practice here at school a little bit each day. One of the ways we practice is to partner spell with the chalkboards. Here HS and SW are quizzing each other.

BZ and KC are working on getting all their words right!

On Friday we had our Welcome Back To School Assembly. It was a lot of fun. Mrs. Roberts and the 5th grade leadership team danced and sang to us at the beginning while everyone came in and sat down.

Mr. May explained to everyone how Tuesday morning book club works and that it will be in the library this year instead of the gym. Yeah!

Mrs. Roberts explained to everyone that we were going to be "cooking up a good year together" and so she had some staff and students add ingredients to the cauldron. Volunteers shared what they thought would be good ideas needed for a good school year. Some ideas were character traits like honesty and good citizenship while other ideas were having fun and being nice.
When the ingredients were added the cauldron would smoke and everyone was amazed at what great cooks we have here at Sherwood!

Projects we've been working on

For our art lesson of the week we worked on sponge painting. We discussed how we dab and not swear with our sponges and how to carefully clean up after art projects!


TT, AT, and TVN carefully work on their coyotes.

SF is showing how he is supposed to hold the sponge - only using a small part of the sponge- not the whole thing.

We worked on our first class book of the year which is an "All About Me" book. Each student creates their own poster and after we have shared them in the hallway, we laminate them, bind them, and place the book into our class library to be enjoyed again and again.

PB, CZ and CK are all doing a great job on their posters.

Our class goes to the computer lab 2-3 times a week. We work on math, writing and reading. On this day we were at the Starfall website which is an amazing site. The students loved it!

Mileage Club has started at Sherwood. The students earn prizes as they run laps during recess. PB is our fastest runner so far - he has already ran 5 miles!

BZ, IH, and AT help out another 2nd grade student during recess.