Poetry Books

During the month of March the students learned how to write a variety of poems.  For each poem that was introduced the students wrote three, and then they picked their favorite to publish.  The goal during our writing was to be as specific to the topic as possible.  For each poem, the students always picked their own topics.  We published by typing our poems and then adding artwork.  We recently met up with the 1st grade class to share our booklets.

Winter Authors' Celebration

Thanks to all the families that were able to make it on Friday to our Authors' Celebration.  The students really enjoy sharing their writing with their family, and I'm so proud of them for all their hard work!

Piggie and Elephant Day!

Today we invited in the first grade class to share our Piggie and Elephant books.  Each 2nd grade partnership read the Mo Willems' Piggie and Elephant books they've been practicing with the focus of reading with expression.  We also shared the books we wrote ourselves.  Our goal in writing our own books was to capture the personality of these two lovable characters.  We've so enjoyed this character study and writing unit!  We celebrated our day with some Piggie and Elephant cake as well! I love to see how proud the students are of their work, and how excited they are to share it.

My son, Mason, who is now in 4th grade also stopped by to share the Piggie and Elephant book he wrote in my class as a 1st grader.  Piggie and Elephant Day came to be when he sat down at our kitchen table one day and started writing his own Piggie and Elephant book.  This sparked the idea that the whole class could do this, and then we could celebrate our hard work.  I also think it's a great example for the class to show how progress in our writing and spelling and handwriting takes time and effort. We were able to look at Mason's first grade work and say, "Hey, look at these great ideas! There may be words that are spelled wrong or letters going the wrong way, and that is part of the process for us as we grow into better writers through practice!"  The class had many thoughtful questions for Mason about his writing process.  What a fun afternoon!

Writing our Piggie and Elephant Books

In 2nd grade we are huge fans of Piggie and Elephant books!  We use them in our reading to work on reading with expression and understanding character traits.  It's so fun to really pay attention to the similarities and differences between these 2 great friends: Piggie and Gerald.  We have noticed that Gerald is dramatic and at times grumpy, but still very kind.  We've learned that Piggie is optimistic, lighted hearted, and silly.

The students are currently working on writing their own Piggie and Gerald stories.  I love how the students take ownership of this project.  They are free to work at their desks or spread out on the carpet.  Students will make a different choice each day depending on what they're working on at the moment.  Projects like these give the students freedom to play around with their creativity while implementing the basics of constructing a story line that makes sense, and of course, using correct conventions so their message is clear to the reader.

When we are finished with our stories, we will invite the 1st graders in and enjoy a Piggie and Elephant celebration where we share our stories.

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!

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!

We are Writers

Our Writing Workshop is up and running in 2nd grade!  At the beginning of the year the students decorated their writing binders to make them into a very special place to hold the students' writing.  As writers, we've learned to pick a writing topic, add details to our topic in both words and pictures, and use spelling tools to help us with unknown words in our writing.  Every student has a story to tell, and reading their stories amazes me each day!