Classroom Happenings
August-September
WELCOME Back to School!! Our first day of school was GREAT!!! Mrs. Grisham welcomed 16 Sensational 2nd graders on Monday morning. We began our week by reading the story, First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg and a poem The First Day of School by Judith Voirst. Students made several connections to the main character. We made a list of "What if's..." that we were worried about before we got to school. Then we drank "Jitter Juice" to help make the butterflies settle down.
Mrs. Grisham is so excited to have such a SENSATIONAL bunch of smart 2nd Graders.... We were very busy the rest of the week. Students were learning classroom procedures and rules. We decided there were LOTS of procedures and rules to follow so we pledged to do our best to make our classroom a community of friends. Our Read Alouds were all about how everyone is unique and special in our own ways. These stories started wonderful conversations about how we should respect and treat each other how we would like to be treated.
We jumped right into our Phonetic Connections word study with a review of word patterns learned in 1st grade. In math, we started our Every Day Counts Calendar Math of a morning and Singapore Math in the afternoon. We have taken our PreTest and we're ready to get to work on Numbers to 100!!!
Get ready to have the best year ever!!!
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The season is about to change…Hooray! And just so happens Mrs. Grisham’s 2nd graders are in the middle of our first Common Core unit, “A Season for Chapters.” We are investigating narrative story elements using the works of Cynthia Rylant. Students are digging into two of her series of chapter books, Henry and Mudge and Poppleton. We are learning what makes a “catchy” beginning and a strong ending.
The boys and girls also have listened to nonfiction read-alouds by Gail Gibbons that have explain exactly why we have a changing of the seasons. By doing this, we have shared many seasonal activities that we enjoy doing throughout the year. Students chose their favorite season of the year and explained why this season was their favorite. They did a great job on their first paragraph of the year! We want to say a big “Thank You” to Ms. Kincade for helping during our writers’ workshop time helping Mrs. Grisham conference with each student about their writing.
In math, we are working HARD on numbers to 100, adding and subtracting from 100 and our fluency facts.
The boys and girls love playing “Around the World” for a fast pace practice of our addition and subtraction facts to 20.
We want to wish a Happy Belated Birthday to Gage Vanwinkle. He turned eight years old on August 29th! Happy Birthday, Gage!!!
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Fall is finally here! We love the cooler temperatures at recess and anxiously waiting to see the changing colors of the leaves! Our class is concluding our first Common Core unit, “Seasons of Chapters.” During our writer’s workshop time, students have successfully completed their first opinion piece and poem about their favorite season.
We are carrying over our fall seasonal theme into math, science and social studies. In our math journals, students are working on Cognitively Guided Instruction word problems dealing with Johnny Appleseed. Students are learning to see the word problems as “stories” with a “start,” identifying the “change,” and the solution or “end.”
To celebrate John Chapman’s (a.k.a Johnny Appleseed) birthday on Thursday the 26th, the boys and girls participated in an Apple experiment. The “scientists” conducted different “labs” on red, green and yellow apples. The boys and girls put their math skills to use as they measured, weighed and tested buoyancy of their apples. Then of course, we enjoyed eating the yummy “test subjects!”
Mrs. Grisham is pleased to announce that we have started our Accelerated Reader “100” Club. Students are selecting books from our reading station, the library or books from their house to read and take an AR test on in class. So far we have several members of the “100” Club. If students make a 100 on their test, Mrs. Grisham writes their name on a chart to keep track of their progress. Members of the club will receive a special award at the end of each nine weeks.
We have one student birthday in the month of September. Brenten Cox will celebrate his birthday on September 30th! Happy Birthday Brenten!!!
October
We can’t believe it is October already! Mrs. Grisham would like to thank all of the parents and grandparents who came to Parent-Teacher Conferences last Thursday. Working together, we can make your child the “best” they can be!
On Monday, we started our Common Core unit 2 “Wild West.” Students will be exploring the Wild West during the 1800’s through chapter books, informational texts, songs, legends, fairy tales and tall tales. First up on our list of legends to learn more about is John Chapman, (Johnny Appleseed.) Then, we will investigate the life of Mose Humphreys, a fire fighter from New York, Davy Crockett, King of the wild frontier, Annie Oakley, Little Sure Shot, and the cowboy, Bill Pickett.
In math, the boys and girls are working with addition and subtraction with regrouping to 100. They build the problems with base ten blocks so that they can “see” the exchanges that are taking place in the place value chart.
We are looking forward to more practice with “bigger” numbers just like the older kids do!
Wild West Friday!!
Yippee-Yay! Round’em Up! Head up and move’em out…Mrs. Grisham’s 2nd graders along with Mrs. Duncan’s and Mrs. Nichol’s boys and girls closed out their second Common Core unit about life the 1800’s Wild West Friday, November 8th with a full blown Cowboy-Cowgirl Round-Up! All the cowboys and cowgirls dressed the part hats, boots, chaps even some came with a mustache. All the cowpokes enjoyed good food and fellowship. Mrs. Grisham would like to THANK several cowpokes for their help in making this our BEST Round-Up yet! Mrs. April Rainwater did an outstanding job decorating and creating our “gold mine” for the students to pan for gold. Also, special thanks go out to Mrs. Tonya Bennett and Ms. Jonna Kincade for being our “Round-Up” photographers and a big “Rooty-Toot-toot” for Mrs. Foreman for bringing her miniature horses for the students to pet. They LOVED them both!
After petting the horses, students rotated through different stations participating in some Wild West activities. We had the world championship stick-horse barrel racing competition, a horseshoe pitching contest, panned for gold and “cheesed it up” in our Wild West photo gallery. While panning for gold and taking pictures, students were treated to cowboy songs lead by singing cowboy, Mike Duncan, Mrs. Duncan’s husband. Thank you Mr. Mike for the performances! Students then unpacked their saddlebags of “grub” and “chowed-down” listening to Mr. Mike play. To wind up the afternoon, Mrs. Foreman shared the big book Hipsey Holler , a tall tale of a Northwestern cowgirl. The cowboys and cowgirls laughed at her extreme tales. We want to thank all the parents and grandparents who sent the “chow” and those who were able to come out to help make our Round-Up Day a lot of fun. Mrs. Grisham also wants to thank Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Duncan for all their hard work in planning and organizing this event. By working together, I think the cowboys and cowgirls had fantastic end to a fun unit. Thanks, ladies!
Our class is now looking forward to the next upcoming Common Core unit of study…Bridges both figurative-through unlikely friendships and literal bridges. With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, I bet several of us will be traveling over those bridges and we will be reading about a very famous unlikely friendship…the Pilgrims and Indians.
November
Pigs, spiders and bridges, oh my! you are probably wondering what Mrs. Grisham's boys and girls are doing now? We started out Common Core Unit 3 Bulding Bridges with Unlikely Friendships. WE read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White for our read aloud last week. We were all a little teary eyed when Wilbur left the fair without Charlotte. This week, we dug deeper into the character's feelings and actions from the story and learned how to write a Friendly Letter.
We have some BIG technology news! Last Thursday, Mrs. Stacey brought in the "ipads" for our class to work on Math Fluency! They loved it! We can't wait until next Thursday! Thanks Mrs. Stacey for getting everything together for us!
In our Quick Reads for the next four weeks, we are reading Do Animals Talk? We learned that animals communicate through sounds and signals. Laynee Prater-Gann brought her mom's puppy for shaow andtell. We saw "first-hand" how puppies communicate! Brody was a perfect gentleman wiggling his nubby tail, prancing and of course giving kisses. Thanks for bringing him for a visit!
Mrs. Grisham wants to wish Cadee Johnson a Happy Belated Birthday on November 14th. We hope you had a great day Cadee Gail!
THANKSGIVING in Mrs. Grisham's 2nd Grade
Mrs. Grisham’s boys and girls were very excited not only about the upcoming holiday but also for our special performance last Tuesday, November 26th. Our class presented two short skits for our families entitled "Turkey Tom” and “Thanks for Thanksgiving.” Students were given their scripts and they eagerly rehearsed their lines during the day. The first skit told of a turkey named Tom who wanted to be picked for“Thanksgiving dinner.” His turkey family tried to warn him about eating so much but he wouldn’t listen. Then other animals on the farm wanted the farmer’s attention. So they gave their plea to be picked. The ending put the choice in the hands of the audience. Who would you choose for a Thanksgiving feast?
They were so excited to see so many family members in the audience. Thank you to everyone who came and supported our first acting début. Great job Narrator, Turkeys, Pigs, Cows and Chickens! You all were Terrific! To wrap up our day of Thanksgiving, students re-enacted the first Thanksgiving. Each student brought an item for our Thanksgiving Feast and wore either an Indian headband or a Pilgrim hat. They enjoyed eating the Friendship Trail Mix. We hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving with their family and friends.
December
Wow! Our class was so busy the week before our Christmas break. Here is a quick run down of all of the activities. We started off the week making gifts and cards for our parents and grandparents. Tuesday was our highly anticipated “Polar Express Watch Party” Day. The boys and girls wore the pajama’s, brought their pillows and blankets and enjoyed “hot-hot-hot chocolate” and chocolate chip cookies as they watched the movie. This is always one of their favorite days of school. It’s my favorite too!
Wednesday, the second grade students were rewarded by Mrs. DeShazo for raising $600 during the Penny Wars during Homecoming week. The money raised was used to purchase Christmas presents for children at The Children’s Shelter. The students were rewarded with popcorn and a movie. Thanks Mrs. D!! This activity was done in conjunction with the Christmas musical “Santa’s Shopping Network.” The first and second graders gave a great performance even though the winter weather allowed for only a couple of practices. Mrs. DeShazo always has great patience and works so hard for our students. Thank you again!
The second and third graders welcomed local author and illustrator Janice Stump Clark to our campus on Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. Clark has written two books, Enough Salt and Pepper, a Mischievous Dog Adventure and Miss Golden-silk Unties a Tangle. The books were shared in second grade during our Common Core Unit 3 Building Bridges with Unlikely Friendships. She shared with the students the different stages of getting those books published. We want to “thank” Mrs. Clark for taking time to visit our school.
Thursday was the BIG day, our classroom party! The boys and girls were soooo excited. We began with our Book Exchange then played the game “Decorate the Christmas tree.” Then students made and ate their “Snowmen on a Stick.” That was a first for many of the students. Some didn’t want to eat their creation…while others ate them without a thought. We had a great afternoon!
We want to wish Jaylee Jones a Happy Belated Birthday! Jaylee turned eight on December 22nd! Hope you had a happy day!
January 2014
Brand new year!!!
Snow, Snow go away…please don’t come back until after school is out for summer vacation! We did FINALLY get to celebrate our 100th day of school on January 30th! The boys and girls came decked-out in their “family” created 100 Day T-Shirt. This activity is a 2nd grade tradition and a wonderful way for parents and their child to create a cherished memento of their 100 days of learning! We had some very creative designs…from 100 inches of duct tape, 100 googly eyes, to 100 hearts and 100 #22’s to 100 seashells. To complete our 100th Day ensemble, students created 100 day hats and glasses customized by themselves…they were quite fashionable!
Our afternoon was devoted to the number 100! Being 100 days smarter, students were able to find several combinations of 100 using addition and subtraction number sentences and decoded number puzzles. But the best part of our celebration was our “Tootsie Roll Pop Experiment!” The boys and girls were posed with the questions, “How many licks would it take to get to the center of the Tootsie Roll Pop?” We used skip-counting as a way to keep record and count of our licks…it took us 660 licks for the first person to get to the center!! WE had soon much fun carrying out this “scientific” experiment!
To catch up on some previous January happenings, we welcomed Karen Davis, RN into our classroom. She presented a “Just Say NO to Tobacco” program during Tobacco-Free Awareness Week. Students watched a very informative and detailed video of the dangers in smoking just one cigarette. By educating our children, we hope to save many lives in the future.