Saying hello and goodbye

This week we got to know CB and BG a little better. They both had a lot of pictures and stories to share with the class.












This week we also got our letters from our 2nd grade pen pals at McKay Creek Elementary. They did an awesome job on their pictures and letters. When I told my students that the letters had arrived they yelled so loud I had to shut the door! They were very excited and the letters were read again and again! Thank you pen pals for the candy also!


CB read his letter 5 times before he was ready to put it into his scrapbook. :)

HS was very excited because her pen pal was a girl who also liked horses.

SY said he thinks his pen pal plays soccer and he hopes to see him at a game.

It was a sad day when we had to say good-bye to TG. Her family has moved to Stanfield and we are excited for her but very sad to see her leave our room. NH wanted to leave her with a smile so she put on her silly glasses and sure enough, TG laughed and smiled through her tears.

KC also gave TG a big hug on her way out the door.

We will miss you T!!!

Animal Reports

Our animal reports have taken us a couple of week to complete but now that they are done they are very cool! The students first had to choose an animal that they wanted to learn more about and then we went to the computer lab and printed out pictures of that animal. Here IH and SY are looking at google images of great white sharks. The students chose 6 pictures to print out for their book.



Once the students had their pictures they cut them out to fit their pages and glued 1 picture on to each page of the book. AC and KC are working together.

WH chose to do his report on the gray wolf. He found a lot of neat pictures for his book.

CF chose the spotted leopard and here she is showing the cover of her book without the title on it yet.

Once the students had their picture in the books, the hard part began. I printed out information on their animals and they had to read and find the answers to questions like what their animal looked like, what they ate, where they could be found, what enemies they had and how they defended themselves.

Once the students had answered all their questions they began to write sentences into their books that told all about their animals. In this picture TT is using her information to write a page on pugs.

In this picture KW is writing a page about how cheetahs hunt for food.

As the students completed their books, I took a few pictures of them. HS, PB and KC are showing off their books. They did a great job!

TVN chose the horned lizard, CG chose the appaloosa horse and CK chose the liger which is a combination of tiger and lion. The students shared their books when we were all done and you will be seeing them in a class book sometime after Christmas.

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.