Christmas Partying!

We had the BEST day on the last day of school before the break!  I am still recovering from all of the fun, which is why I am just now posting! :)  We started off our morning with our class party, put together by our amazing room mom and mom volunteers!  Students got to make candy cane reindeer, santa handprint ornaments, and decorate bags to hold it all!  They also got to play some fun snowball and jingle bell games!  I was so impressed by how many parents showed up to help!

Next, we went caroling in the lunchroom with the rest of the school.  This is one of our most treasured, Woodruff traditions!  2nd Grade sang "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" and the teachers did a special "12 Days of Christmas" performance.

After lunch students came in and we filled out some pretend passports for our Christmas Around the World activity.  This is another one of my favorite things we do during the year.  First, our class went and "visited" Mexico in Miss Wooten's room.  Then they "traveled" to Mrs. Olsen's room, in Finland.  After that they "jetted" to Miss King's room for a little African holiday fun!  Next they "zoomed" to Miss Pierce's room to learn all about England's holiday traditions!  Last, they "flew" back to my classroom to learn about Denmark and the fun Christmas traditions people participate in there.  They learned about the Nissa Man and got to try a traditional danish aebleskiver (like a pancake).  We had so much fun!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!  Thanks to all of you who sent me gifts!  I felt so loved and special!

Utah State Hey!

Since the beginning of the school year, students in my class have been working very hard to reach their AR reading goals!  To celebrate, those who met their goals were invited to attend a USU women's basketball game on Thursday!  We had a BLAST!

Halloween 2016!

Yesterday was such a fun day here in room 16!  We tried to keep our morning as normal as possible, even though everyone was wearing costumes!  We worked on self start, writing, reading and comprehension.  Then, after lunch, it was time to PARTY!  Here are some of the highlights from our class party!  A big shoutout to our awesome mom volunteers who made it so special!

We had four centers: Skeleton Crafting, Bingo, Musical Chairs, and Donut Decorating!

After our party we joined in on the Woodruff Annual Halloween Parade!  It is one of our most loved Halloween traditions!

A Little Spooky Fun!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, and I love to celebrate all month with my students!  Last week we practiced writing in complete sentences as we described some mummies.  We wanted to have something cute to go with our writing to put in the hall for PTC's so we made toilet paper mummies!  They turned out so cute!

We also used witchy fingers to help us track as we read during Power Hour.  Students also practiced reading in their best zombie, witch and ghost voices!

This week, for math, we got to make dancing math skeletons.  Students had to complete all the addition problems on their skeleton bones before they could cut them out and make them into a dancing, spooky friend!

We have also been working on using adjectives to describe nouns in our writing.  Today we brainstormed a long list of Spooky adjectives on a poster and then used them to describe different Halloween pictures!

Halloween is so fun when you are a second grader, and even more fun when you are 26 and get to party like you are a second grader!  We can't wait for our Halloween party!

Fire Safety

This week we had some special visitors at Woodruff!  The Logan City Fire Department sent some firefighters to our school to educate our students on fire safety!  We took a little tour through their safety truck and learned all about being safe in our homes and what to do if we have an emergency!

We also got some great tips about calling 911.  Please work with your child to learn their address and home  phone number.  These are two things that they would be asked if they called 911 during an emergency!

The boys finished early and had a little fun posing outside of the trailer.

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 :)