We're Buggy For the Burros!

Homecoming was an exciting day that kicked off with an all school cupcake decorating in the gym and ended with the Homecoming parade and pep fest in the park.  Here are a few pictures of the 2nd graders supporting the Burros!  The 2nd grade theme was "We're Buggy for the Burros!"

Monsters in the City

On the first day of school we read the book "Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli" by Barbara Jean Hicks. This art project was inspired from the city scene in this book.  This has been a project in the making for the last few weeks, and we finally finished it up on Friday!

Daily 5- Our Literacy Framework

We now have all of our Daily 5 choices up and running!  During our reading block I meet with small groups or individuals to provide reading instruction that is appropriate to each student's skill level. The students not meeting with me are working on a literacy related choice.  The Daily 5 choices include "Read to Self," "Read to Someone," "Work on Writing," "Word Work," and "Listen to Reading."

In the first weeks of school the students have shopped in our classroom library and are working on picking out books that are "just right" in order to do the best practice during "Read to Self" and "Read to Someone."  This a skill that we continuously work on as our reading levels change throughout the year.

Everyday the students are working on writing during our writing block.  This writing is then extended during "Work on Writing."  Students have learned to brainstorm a topic and add details to their words and pictures.  Students are guided in their writing progression through individual conferences and whole class mini-lessons.

We have several "Word Work" choices in which the students practice their spelling words or word wall words.

During "Listen to Reading" the students choose between listening to a book on Tumblebooks on the computer or listening to a book on CD and following along with the book.

We're Off to a Great Start!

The first week of school just flew by as we learned and practiced all the routines in our classroom.  We began building our stamina for read to self.  The class learned how to shop for books in our classroom library.  We learned and practiced our math rotations.  We brainstormed writing topics and wrote each day!  At the end of the week, the students were so excited to finally decorate their writing binders!

 Pictures above were taken during our Read to Self time and during our math rotation practice.  Our math block will have 3 rotations: teacher lesson, math assignment, and partner math game.  Using this framework allows me to teach small groups during math time and differentiate the instruction to the needs of the students.

 The students couldn't wait to get into our classroom library and start shopping for books!  This class loves to read!  Building our stamina for Read to Self has been so smooth because they don't want to put their books down!

Here we are making our writing binders a very special place to hold all of our writing throughout the year.  During writing workshop we've learned that as authors we all have stories to tell.  We are never done writing as authors.  We can always go back to a previous piece of writing and add to our words or pictures.  We can also start a new piece of writing.