Holiday Party and Authors' Celebration

Friday was such a fun day in 2nd grade!  We started our morning with our holiday party and gift exchange.  I love to see how excited the kids are to give a gift to a friend and to open their gifts.  We ended our morning with our Authors' Celebration. Thanks to all the family members who were able to join us.  It means a lot to your children to share their writing with you!

Ian made a snack for the class from our cookbook: Ian's Bear Lake Trail Mix.

At our Authors' Celebration, the class read holiday poems, a reader's theater of "Olive the Other Reindeer," and shared Dear Santa letters.

Letter Writing Unit

Throughout the month of December we wrote letters, sent them out in our mailbox, and received letters into our mailbox.  The students learned about the parts of the letter: date, greeting, body, closing, and signature.  Our letters needed to include all parts of a letter with at least 4 sentences in the body.  This year we received so many letters to our class from other students around the school, that we divided up the letters and responded with a partner or individually on large chart paper.  Each day 2 students would deliver mail around our school that we had written.  Letters were delivered around our classroom as well. This is one of my favorite writing units because the students are so excited to get their writing out, and they can't wait to get mail!  They are very motivated to work on their spelling and conventions because they want the recipients of their letters to understand their writing. 

Cooking Up 2nd Grade Recipes

Our first week of cookbook sales was fantastic!  A few days before we started selling we made advertising posters to display around the school to spread the word that we have cookbooks to sell!  It was exciting for the students just to see people reading their signs and talking about buying a cookbook.  To have customers actually show up at our door is incredible for the kids!  We've had elementary students, high school students, staff members, and people from the community come to 2nd grade to buy a cookbook and support our project.  We are beyond grateful!

On Friday, one of our students made her very own recipe, "Gracy's Best Sugar Cookies," to share with the class!  The students were also interviewed about our cookbook project for the school newspaper.  The hands on aspect of using our economics skills, and the enthusiasm this project generates is just so fun!  If you are still interested in purchasing a 2nd grade cookbook, we are selling until December 20th!

  

Happy Holidays from the 2nd Graders

The 2nd graders did a wonderful job at their concert Monday!  It's so fun to see them all dressed up and performing the songs they've been working so hard on!

We also enjoyed creating these cute reindeer earlier this week.

Being a Business Owner

We have started our economics unit in Social Studies in which we learn about using money to buy what we need, want, and to help people.  We've discussed the importance of saving our money.  The students have learned that in order to have money to spend or save, you need to earn money.  We invited a 6th grade student to visit our classroom to talk about his egg business that he has been running for about 4 years.  He talked with the class about the responsibilities that go along with running his business and the expenses he has for his business. 

Today we took a field trip downtown to a local business The Granary.  The Granary is a coffee shop that also includes smoothies, hot chocolate, ice cream, and more on their menu.  The students were able to take a tour and talk with the owner, Kristin Asleson, about how she runs her business.  We learned about the details of running a business such as coming up with a business name and menu, what the best sellers on the menu are, where the ingredients come from, and so much more!  We learned that doing your research before opening your business is so important.  After the tour the students were lucky enough to enjoy a scoop of ice cream.  Thank you so much Kristin!  We had a great time and learned a lot!

Thanksgiving Fun!

Earlier in the month we read "Turkey Trouble" by Wendi J. Silvano.  In this funny book, the turkey tries many different disguises to escape becoming Thanksgiving dinner.  Using this as our inspiration, the students had to create their own disguise for a turkey along with a letter to the farmer as to why the disguised turkey should not be eaten. We focused on creating very specific reasons that go along with the chosen disguise.  We put our turkeys and letters together in a class book that the students love to read!

We wrote letters to our families telling them what we are thankful for.  The class came up with many sweet ideas.  "You make me laugh."  "You are nice to me."  "You take care of me and feed me good food."  These second graders have a lot to be thankful for!  We made cute watercolor turkeys to go along with our letters.

Our day ended with Turkey Bingo that we play school wide.  If the students get a bingo, they have to gobble down to the office to collect their prize.  The kids have so much fun with this, and we even had a winner in 2nd grade!

Fall Tree Art Project

I love this art project.  These tree silhouettes with the colorful background remind me of trees in the early morning sunrise.  They did a beautiful job!

Our History Studies

We recently finished up our Social Studies unit on history.  In this unit we learned about the history of Lanesboro and Minnesota.  The students made their own timelines to show the history of their lives in chronological order.  We studied the Dakota Native Americans who lived in Minnesota.  The students learned about how the Native Americans lived and how their lives were tragically affected when the settlers came to America.  We used Native American symbols to create our own artwork.  Mrs. Lieb visited our classroom to share Native American artifacts that her family has collected on their home farm for several years.  A big thank you to Mrs. Lieb for sharing these items with us!

Comfy Cozy Day

On Thursday we celebrated earning a Banana Bingo with Comfy Cozy Day.  The students wore comfy clothes and brought in blankets and stuffed animals to make our learning day more comfortable. 

Authors Share with First Grade

During 1st quarter we focused on writing personal narratives as we learned what good writers do:
-choose topics we are experts in
-add specific and interesting details to our topic
-write in complete sentences with capital letters and end marks

Each student chose his or her favorite story to publish and share with others.  We met up with first grade on Thursday.  We read our stories to a first grade friend and also listened to their stories.

Happy Halloween from 2nd Grade

The students had a blast showing off their costumes as we walked through the costume parade.  After the parade the students enjoyed snacks and played classroom games.  It's always so fun to see all the costumes throughout the elementary!

Spunky Punky

Thanks to all of the family members that were able to make it for our "Spunky Punky" performance.  The class did a fantastic job!  I'm so proud of all of their hard work!

Red Ribbon Week

We celebrated Red Ribbon Week this last week in the elementary.  Each day the students enjoyed the different dress up days to show support of making healthy choices for our bodies.

"Red Out Day"

"From Head to Toe, I am Drug Free"

"Team Up Against Drugs"

"Voting For My Future to be Drug Free"

"Your Choices are the Key to Your Dreams"

Adjective Self Portraits

We've been learning about nouns and adjectives in the last few weeks.  After reading "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," we brainstormed words that would describe this bossy pigeon.  We also used adjectives to describe a classmate before the students used adjectives to describe themselves by making adjective self portraits. 

Monsters in the City

This art project was created during the first few weeks of school after reading "Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli" by Barbara Jean Hicks.  This project is inspired by a scene in the book where the monsters are in the city eating everything they can, everything except broccoli of course!  I love how bright and colorful these projects are!

What Turns You into a Crankenstein?

Recently we read "Crankenstein" by Samantha Berger.  In this story the main character details everything that turns him into a Crankenstein!  It is quite a funny list!  We brainstormed what makes us cranky.   We made a class book and also some fun Crankensteins to share with those walking by 2nd grade!

Fire Prevention Week

Last week was Fire Prevention Week, and as a class we discussed the importance of having an exit plan with our family and the possibility of an additional exit plan if needed.  On Friday we walked down to the fire station to learn about the equipment the firefighters use.  They gave a great tour and helped the students to understand how their gear works and what they would look like going into a fire so as to not be frightened.  The students also enjoyed spraying the hose!  Thank you to the Lanesboro Fire Department for the tour!

Electronic Day

This is one Banana Bingo celebration the kids always look forward to.  It's fun for them to bring in an electronic to school to share with a friend.

Writing Workshop

In Writer's Workshop the students write about self-selected topics each day.  As writers we've been developing a list of what great writers do. 

Great Writers:
-choose a topic that interests them
-spend writing time thinking, writing, and illustrating
-add details to their stories that stay on topic
-go back to reread their stories and add to them
-keep a list of possible writing topics for days they feel stuck
-write in complete sentences with capital letters and end marks
-use spelling tools to help them (word wall, dictionaries)
-share their writing with others

Many of these items are a work in progress for most students, and we will continue to add to this list all year long.  The most recent item on our list, "writers share their writing with others," was just introduced last week.  At the end of our writing block, the students now have the opportunity to meet up with a partner if they'd like.  This conference is a time to share our writing that we've worked so hard on and also as a tool for improving our writing.  As a partner, the student is to be a good listener and also ask questions about anything that doesn't make sense or about details the listener is still curious about.

Students have been writing about all sorts of topics: pets, family, friends, school, and also a variety of fiction stories have been written.