Read Across America Day 4

Read Across America Day 4:  Buddy Class Activities

I speak for the family

In the morning we made Truffalo Trees with pipe cleaners and Easter grass......which was (and still is) EvERyWhERe!  But they are pretty cute.  Then we wrote what we would try to do our best to protect.  A couple of lovelies tried to tell me that video games were what they would speak for.  I informed them that they probably didn't need any help being protected....and some of us wouldn't be too sad if they went away:-)

I speak for the Duck.

I speak for the pets.

During the afternoon, we switched up classes and did three different Seuss activities in each of the 2nd grade classrooms.  We had an If I Ran the Zoo activity, a Cat in the Hat activity, and a The Lorax activity.  Pretty fun.

If I Ran the Zoo

Cat in the Hat Acrostic Poem

The Lorax activity

Cat in the Hat descriptions.

Tomorrow Potato Parade and Pajamas!  I can hardly wait!
Happy Thursday,

Pippi Longstocking

Cat in the Hat

Rainbow Fish

Day 3: Read My Shirt and Reading Help

The Girls

Read Across America Day 3:  Read My Shirt Day.  25 of 27 students were able to find a clever shirt to wear...and no inappropriate ones to cover up! 

The Boys

 Here is yesterday's strange conversation about getting ready for Read My Shirt Day:
Student 1:  "Do you have a shirt with words?"
Stuentt 2:  "No, I am going to Wal-Mart tonight."
Student 1: "I like to go to Wal-Mart on Thursday nights"

Stumped me!  Any thoughts on special events at Wal-Mart, on Thursdays?

 

Can You Help?  I need some ideas from my blogging family.  During Reading Round-Up, my group of readers is reading Charlotte's Web.  There are about 30 readers, all fluent and good readers.  There still is quite a bit of variety in the speed with which the read.  We meet for 30 minutes, four days a week and I assign a set amount of pages for them to read.  What do I do with the kids who get there first.  Right now I have them reread, so the text stays with them.  Thoughts, ideas, suggestions...what do you all do?





We read Oh the Thinks You Can Think, another of my favorite Dr. Seuss books and Abby @ The Inspired Apple has the cutest little unit using the books.  So we made our own "Thinks" and had some clever things to think.

Think of going down a slide into a T-Rex

Each student traced and cut out the pieces for their think.  They wrote their think on paper, with Sharpie, and then drew their mental image for what they think.
They turned out pretty cute.  Thanks Abby for the fun idea.

Happy Wednesday!
Laurie
PS  Some of our Potato Characters are making it to class and I just can't wait to show you what some kiddos have come up with:

Hagrid

Fancy Nancy

Fly Guy

Splat the Cat

Stripes, Spiders, and Science, Oh My!

Read Across America Day 2:  Stripes Day!  We read Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books.  Then we drew silly teachers and silly subjects they teach.  Mrs. Saoud at Primary Graffiti has an adorable Diffendoofer freebie.  Some of my creative kiddos had some interesting ideas for things they would like to learn.

Mrs. Upside who teaches about polka-dot and striped animals

Mr. Carder teaches card tricks.

Mr. Cocy teaches us to take care of goats, and chickens, and cows, and dogs, and baby dogs, and to take care of lions.

Mr. Beef teaches meat and Mr. Wire teaches electricity.

Jobs at a farm, objects at a farm, purpose of a farm, and who lives at a farm.

During reading round-up, where all our 2nd graders switch for reading instruction, we are beginning to read Charlotte's Web.  (The 60th Anniversary is April 24th)  We built a little schema about farms and Charlotte's Web.

3 students who have not experienced the magic of Charlotte's Web!

Also, as a whole class, we (again) went through each step of the Scientific Method.
Question:  How many drops of water will the top of a penny hold.
Hypothesis:  Answers may vary, depending on student.
Materials:  penny, water, water dropper
Plan:  Place penny on flat surface, add drops of water one at a time, until water goes over edge.

Our Scientific Method Chart

Results:  The penny held 14 drops of water.

 Scientific Process Page

Happy Tuesday,
Laurie

Read Across America and Currently

Today was our first day of Read Across America Week.  Show Your Socks was today's activity.  We also watched Tim Tebow read Green Eggs and Ham.










And another Currently Party over at Oh' Boy 3rd Grade Join the fun!

My kiddos really felt that Dodgers should somehow be incorporated into my description.  One girl tried to say it should be Fodgers:-)

Happy Monday,
Laurie

Story Sunday

I lost the weekend...if any of you know where it went, let me know!  I am back with my weekend list of what I plan to read aloud this week.

Here they are:

It is Read Across America Week at our school so obviously many Dr. Seuss books will be read especially these ones.

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett--There are not words for how great this story is!  A little girl knits and knits and knits and gives away her creations, never running out of yarn.  One day an archduke demanded to buy her yarn and she refuses to sell.  So he steals it.   But when he opens the box of yarn, it is empty.  And if you want to know the rest, you will have to read it yourself:-)

The Seashore Book by Charlotte Zolotow--We are still working on writing our own personal narratives, and this is another great author to emulate as we get all the details of our stories down on paper.


Currently taking suggestions for a new chapter read aloud.  We just finished The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  And choosing the chapter book read aloud is so difficult for me!

For more March picks check out Mrs. Parker's Linky Party.

Happy Sunday,
Laurie
P.S.  Thanks for all the blog award love!  That will be addressed in a future post!

And the Science Never Ends...

We did our last experiment today.  Super similar to yesterday except that we looked at the diameter of the straw instead of length.  The goal is to get us really familiar with the Scientific Method, before we move into our marble inquiry unit.
Hypothesize and Plan:

 Cooperatively choose who will start:

Rock, Paper, Scissors is always a fair way to decide...

Here the three different straw diameters we used:

 More Measuring:

Here is a the data collection form we used.

Next week we are celebrating Dr. Seuss Week.  (We chose not to do it this week because of Leap Day excitement AND the 100th Day of School)  We have a door decoration activity and my class really wanted to do The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  (One of the the best read alouds ever...If you have not read it, quit reading this blog, find a copy, and start!)   However we hadn't finished the book yet, so we marathon-ed our way through and finished it today.  I have never seen a group so into a chapter read-aloud.  I think we read 3/4 of the book this week and my kids begged not to stop!  Now that we have finished the book, we can start planning the door.  Then I found this somewhere on the web and thought I would share.

Happy Finally Friday,
Laurie

And the Science Fun Continues

One more day, til Friday. Today we did science.  Love it when kids are into what we are doing!  Today we were trying to discover how blowing through different lengths of straws would affect how far a cotton ball would travel.
First we recorded data:

Then we performed our experiment

 We measured, using unifix cubes.

 

 Finally we graphed and recorded our results and conclusions.

Here is the data form we used.
Happy Thursday,
Laurie