Festival of Lights Edition 1

It is the time of year for my favorite event!  Over 300 lanterns and luminaries all lit and placed throughout the cafeteria!  The Festival of Lights was started, at Sunnyside, a few years ago by the third grade team.  All of those teachers have now moved to new schools, and this year, 2nd grade is taking on the amazing-ness that is the Festival of Lights. 

Each student creates 4 different lanterns.
These are the first steps of each of the lanterns:

2-Liter Bottle Luminaries

We paint the inside of the 2-liter bottle with tempera paint and wait for it to dry.

Starch/Tissue Paper/Balloon Lantern

After covering our balloon with starch and tissue paper, we hang it up and wait for it to dry.

Drying Starch/Tissue Paper/Balloon Lanterns

Drying Clay Lanterns

Roll out the clay.  Wrap it around a pop bottle.  Design the top edge and add details to the middle.

 Stay tuned for step two.......

Thankful Linky Party

I am joining the Thankful Linky Party over at What the Teacher Wants and Oh Boy 3rd Grade

In my classroom, I am thankful for, our risers.  Instead of using them for performing, we use them to allow more of us to sit in less space, whenever we meet at the carpet. 

My brother is the person, I am most thankful for.  He volunteers in class, goes on field trips, and does all kinds of projects for me!

Teaching us about Groundhog's Day!

I am so thankful for the blogosphere!  It is as close to being in, and learning from, other classroom teachers as I can get.  The following are the three (of SOOO many) that I am grateful to.

 Guilty pleasure thanks go to......any young adult fiction

and.....Jimmy Fallon's ice cream!

Happy Turkey Day!
Laurie

Word Wall Update

I have always wanted to do a word wall, but was horrible about adding to it.  This year, I got the word wall up, and decided to put up the vocabulary words from each of the Treasures units.  During the week, the words are on our target wall.  At the end of the week, students choose a word and draw an illustration of the word, then add we add it to the word wall.

Photography Amazingness

Our school is part of the Right Brain Initiative.  A program focused on getting arts into schools.  To find out more about Right Brain, click here.  Last year our class worked with Julie Keefe for a week long residency and the final products were fantastic.  This year, she is back again and again what the kids come up with is beyond what I ever would imagine a 2nd grader would do. 
Here is some of the amazing work STUDENTS accomplished!

Want this photo hanging on my wall.

"My back is a suitcase for my spine"  LOVE that!

Sorry about the camera glare.  The hexagon piece is great!

Would like this picture hanging in my house.

Love that her reflection is between her hands!

"My hands put thinking on paper"  Such a great line!

We were even featured in the Right Brain initiative's blog.  You can get a glimpse of the process!

Slow Down, November!

I Love This Time of Year!
Here are some reasons why?
This is the view out my classroom window.  Leaves changing colors are magical!

We have begun work for our Festival of Lights.  Our finished products will look like this:

First we start with our book of writing.  So far, we have created covers, stories, pictures, and poetry will soon fill it.

Coming soon.....posters about different Festivals of Light from around the world and some MESSY lantern projects.