We've Got Mail!

Once we returned from Thanksgiving break, we started our letter writing unit.  This is one of my absolute favorites because the students get to put all of their skills to work in writing letters they actually send out throughout the school!  It also feels very much inline with the holiday spirit, as families are sending and receiving holiday cards at their homes.

We began our unit by learning about the parts of the letter and the expectations of the letters we write.  Our letters need to have the date, a greeting, at least 4 sentences in the body, a closing, and a signature.  Our process includes writing letters, conferencing about the letter with Mrs. Howard, addressing it and including a "stamp," and placing it in our mailbox.

Each day, 2 students deliver the mail we have written around the school.  Mail we have received is passed out in the classroom.  The students open their letters and respond.  It's so much fun!   The students are very excited to receive mail, and they are motivated to respond with quality letters.

Feel free parents to drop a letter into our mailbox for your child if you'd like.  If you aren't able to make it into school, you could place it in your child's take home folder with instructions for me.  I'd be more than happy to get it into the mailbox for you!

Cute Holiday Reindeer

December is such a magical time in a primary classroom.  You can feel the holiday spirit in the air! We began one of our holiday art projects on Thursday- these adorable reindeer.  The students followed step by directions for drawing their reindeer, but I always emphasize that I want them to look unique to each student.  I love how our projects all look different and special based on the student that made it.  These will be up in our hallway soon!

We Are Thankful

Before our Thanksgiving break we took time to reflect on everything we are thankful for.  The students came up with a very long list.  A few examples included our families, friends, school, our homes, food to eat, books to read, soldiers who protect our country, and so much more!  I'm thankful for such a kind and considerate group of students.  They make every day in 2nd grade a great place to be!  The students wrote about what they are thankful for, and we used watercolors to make some very colorful turkeys.  Our final day before break was closed with the annual tradition of Turkey Bingo. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Below are Turkey Bingo pictures.  Turkey Bingo is played K-12 with numbers announced over the loudspeaker.  Students who get a bingo have to gobble their way down to the office.  Our classroom had 1 winner!

Edible Place Value

Last week we started learning about expanded form in relation to place value.  We had already used place value blocks to represent 3 digit numbers.  In order to mix it up and make it more fun, we used crackers to represent hundreds, pretzel sticks to represent tens, and marshmallows to represent ones.  We used an interactive dice on the smartboard to create 3 digit numbers that the students had to represent with the crackers, pretzels, and marshmallows and write on their white boards in expanded form.

Fall Tree Art Project

I just love these beautiful trees the 2nd graders finished last week!  Doing art in the classroom is one of my favorite things because it allows to the students to show off their creativity.  Even though with this project we are creating a similar image, I tell the students that I think it's fantastic that all of our projects are unique to the student and look different from each other!

First Grade Writing Share

On Friday afternoon, we ended our day by meeting up with the first grade class to share a few pieces of writing we've recently completed that will be added to our classroom library.  The 2nd graders read their favorite piece of writing that we published from first quarter, and they also read their funny "Letters to the Farmer..." turkey writing.  The first graders have been working on "How To" writing, and it was great to hear their writing as well!

Awesome Adjectives

Last week we read "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late" by Mo Willems to learn about adjectives. After reading this much loved book, the students brainstormed a fantastic list of descriptive adjectives!  We then called up a classmate and the students called out adjectives to describe their friend.  We found the words to describe our friend to be quite different than that crazy pigeon!  Later in the day the students drew a self-portrait and used adjectives to describe themselves.