In a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

Today the 2nd grade teachers put on a fun presentation to introduce us to our "Book Wars" competition!  Here is a little video of how it went down

Here is how Book Wars will work:

Each student has a goal for the first trimester (based on reading level).  If they meet their goal, they will receive a few different rewards.  First, they will win a special Book Wars themed prize from me.  Then, at the end of each trimester, the school will have a special AR celebration field trip.  Those who have accomplished 100% of their goal will be invited to attend!  

To earn points:

Students must read books that are on their LEVEL.  If you are curious about your child's level, and they cannot remember, feel free to email me.  Then, they must pass an AR quiz on that book with a score of 85% or higher.  

We will be keeping track of our goals in class, and also in the hallway.  This is a fun activity that really helps students to be motivated to read!  Please encourage your students to work hard to reach their goal!

Skip Counting!

Starting last week, we have been working hard on skip counting!  Skip counting is a great skill to have because you can add, subtract, and count more quickly!  It is also EXTREMELY important to be able to count by 5's and 10's when we start to learn to count money.  Please help your child practice skip counting at home!  Here are some ideas!

* Watch this video and sing along! (We do this in class) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYRTtwZGwj8

*Have your child explain how to play "Buzz" and play as a family

*Pull out your child's hundreds chart (in their homework folder) and have them show you how they can use it to skip count.  Also, ask them to show you any patterns they notice when counting by 5's or 10's on the hundred's chart.

*Practice! Practice! Practice!  Skip counting is a memorize skill!  Practice as you eat dinner, ride in the car, or get ready for bed!

I am a firm believer in at-home reinforcement of what we are learning in class.  If we work as a team to educate your child, they are much more likely to succeed!

Feel free to email me any questions or concerns you might have :)

Mrs. Blair's Class SOARS

I am so excited to be back at school, working with 23 adorable 2nd graders!  This year, my mom had a fun idea to implement into our first week!  She visited the school with balloons for each student.  Before she came I had each student write a goal on a sticker that they would want to set for the year.  Many of them chose things like "Make a new friend" or "Work really hard".  When the balloons came, we stuck the stickers on them and went outside.  On the count of three we yelled "Mrs. Blair's Class Soars!" and let the balloons go to symbolize how high our dreams can soar!  It was fun to watch them slowly rise, and then quickly fly away when the wind picked up!
It was a great way to start our day!

Last Day, Hooray!

It is lunch time on the very last day of 2nd grade (2015-2016)!  I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!  I have LOVED each and every one of my students and am proud of all of their accomplishments!  Today we have been partying hard!  We started the morning off by signing "yearbooks" in the other second grade classrooms.  Then we had a surprise visit from Baby Johnson and my mom!  It always warms my heart to see the way my students love my little guy and try so hard to make him happy!  Here are a few picture highlights!  Instead of taking a morning recess, they voted to stay inside with Johnson and play board games :)

 Every student wanted a chance to hold him, so we passed him around the room!

I still can't believe the year is over!  Shoutout to all the awesome parents who helped out in the classroom, and gave support to my students at home!  Have a great summer!!!

Secret Number

Today in math we learned how to "read minds" using this Secret Number game.  Here's how it works.

1. Have someone think of a number and hold it in their head (don't tell!)
2. Take that number and multiply it by two (add it to itself)
3. Take the new number and add 10
4. Take the new number and divide it by two (cut it in half)
5. Subtract your ORIGINAL number
6. Their answer should be 5!

Try it out!

Rocks ROCK!

This week we started one of my favorite units, rocks!  The kids eat this up every year and most of them spend all of their recess time looking at and for rocks to show their friends and me!  One of my favorite activities we have done was our properties sort.  This was our introduction to the unit.  I gave each group of students different colored papers and a pile of rocks and wanted them to sort them in some way.  I was surprised that every group did the same thing: size!  I had them do it again and choose a different attribute to sort by and this time we got some different sorts: shape, color, texture etc

Another fun activity we did was our Pet Rock Projects.   Each student brought a rock that they had found and we pretended to be geologists!  We learned how geologists classify rocks based on different properties such as color, luster, texture, pattern, hardness and streak.  Since we didn't have professional geologist tools to test hardness and streak we used a penny (for hardness) and the sidewalk for streak. :)  

Next week, we will continue our exploration of rocks and learn more about the three main types of rock!

Object Drop Experience

Today in class we had fun being scientists again!  Students were given many objects, and a record sheet and got to conduct their own test on how quickly objects fall through space.  After we collected our data, we came back together as a group and wrote down all of the questions we still had about our tests.  We will be exploring this more in an upcoming unit!   Can't wait :)