Using Tongue Depressors

One of the greatest inventions-tongue depressors! I use them for several purposes. One of the ways I use them is to write English vocabulary and concepts on them. For example, nouns, verbs, adjectives, naming, action, etc. When the students pick a stick they need to identify an example of what is written on their stick. If somone picks noun, he/she could say, "Cat."

Thank you to whoever created these!

Questions

I saw this picture quote and wondered how many questions I ask per day, how many the average adult asks and then how many my 2nd Graders ask...perhaps I should take a survey?????

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood

I stumbled upon a wonderful site that has several educational and enriching videos for primary students to watch:

http://pbskids.org/rogers/videos/index.html

It is Mr. Roger's Neighborhood! Yes, the name probably rings a bell from days of younger years watching TV, but the website it definitely in "modern times." The videos are fantastic!

Common Core Standards

Well I am beginning to dive in-test the Common Core Standards' water. These two links are the ones I have utilized thus far:

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/mathematics/introduction/how-to-read-the-grade-level-standards/

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards/introduction/how-to-read-the-standards/

Next year we will be implementing them. I am curious to see what all the districts choose to do with the Common Core Standards, especially what materials they will use to meet the Standards.

Ice Cream in a Bag

We continue in our Matter Unit...Super Solids, Great Gases, and Lavishing Liquids!

Yesterday we had the Brown County Dairy Council representative for our area visit our classroom and teach us about ice cream! We discussed the process of making ice cream, the nutritional value of icecream, watched a DVD about it, and then made it!!! THE EXCITEMENT LEVEL WAS HIGH!!!! We were all smiles, not only because of the delicious ice cream we got, but also because of the joy of learning how to make it!

Dental Month

February is National Dental Month. It is a month to put even more emphasis on keeping our teeth healthy, clean, and practicing mouth healthy practices. I found a wonderful book to assist in teaching about oral hygiene, but with a student friendly, creative, and appealing approach-OPEN WIDE, It's a must read to accompany one's lessons on dental health and care!

Matter Experiments

Today we did three more experiments in our Matter unit. In the first one we had to predict what would happen when an Alka Seltzer is dropped into water. What would be the results of the solid dropped into the liquid? In the second one we filed a plastic cup 1/2 with water and had to predict the date of evaporation. The third one was spraying air freshner in the air and raising our hands when we could smell the scent. Overall, most students seemed most intrigued by the Alka Seltzer experiment! As for myself, I enjoyed the many smiles, excitement, and engaged learning that I saw in my classroom. Matter matters!

World Language

In our district for the 2011-12 school year Spanish is being taught in k-2nd grades. At our school, our teachers have decided to take on the curriculum too and try to integrate it as often and as fluently as possible. A few of my students had Spanish in summer school and "assist" in teaching the basics: commands, colors, days of the week, months, etc. I did find a website that is very helpful with lessons/ideas/ and as "hear it" feature- which I love:

http://www.spanishtown.ca/spanishforkids/spanishforkids.htm

Goop

We have started our Matter Unit! It's all about solids, liquids, and gases! We kicked off the unit brainstorming what we saw in the classroom that were solids, liquids, and gasses and took a pre-quiz on the unit. Next, the highlight, we made GOOP! Anticipation was high as they tried to predict what was going to happen with the water, cornstarch and bowl (I did add food coloring for a twist). We did go by the bathrooms to feel our experiment because I knew, from the past, Goop leaves a messy trail. When they tried to scoop up the Goop they exploded with laughter and oohhs and aahhhs. I knew it was a fantastic lesson on matter when several asked to do it again and some said they wanted to try it at home! Next experiment- Balloon Blow-Up!

Quotes

I am a quote lover! I love to pin them, put them on my Facebook status and save them! I have quotes on my school desk, home desk, and saved in random places. I found a must save set this morning:

Home Sick

Happy Valentine's Day!

I get to spend the day home vs. with my 18 2nd Graders passing out and sharing Valentines!

I'd much rather have them healthy and me home vs. me at school straining my throat, trying to see with blury vision, and blowing my nose more than teaching...well enough of the sick business!

Writing About Clouds-A great idea I thought of today was writing about clouds. On a beautiful, cloud filled sky, day, take your students outside and have them take pictures of the clouds. With your help, assist them in trying to find something that a cloud looks like or resembles-a bunny, a bucket, a pencil, etc. I love this picture...definitelyh worth writing about.

PINTEREST

Woot... I know have a link on here for you to follow me on Pinterest! Please do...and happy Pinning!

I Heart these Picture Books

Valentine's Day is tomorrow! It is also a day I reflect upon all the gifts, joys, and treasures I have in my life! One of those treasures is the gift of reading! Here are my top picture books that are must reads:

1. Lilly's Plastic Purse
2. Officer Buckle and Gloria
3. Oh, The Places You'll Go
4. A Beautiful Oops
5. Alligator Baby
6. Tacky
7. The Great Fuzz Frendzy
8. Amelia Bedelia
9. Chicken Cheeks
10. Interrupting Chicken

I probably could type 90 more...but today list is just 10 of my favorites!

Happy Reading...Happy Valentine's Day!

Cat in the Hat Glyph

Yes...already prepping for March and I found an awesome Cat in the Hat glyph!

Thank you Virtualvine...a wonderful site and resource!

http://www.thevirtualvine.com/pdf/vvcatinhatglyph.pdf

GREAT SCIENCE WEBSITE!

I'm always on the hunt for great science websites. I FOUND ONE..a must check out:

http://science-mattersblog.blogspot.com/

I have made this-Oobleck-and it is always a hit and strikes the curiosity button my 2nd Graders!

Salt Water

I must admit, I have been healthy this school year. But, something has bit my nose and throat. Despite fighting off many boughts of flu that others have had, sinus infections, Strep, etc. I was not able to stop this bug. SO, out comes the salt and water...gargling time! (who ever invented Kleenex with lotion- thank you!)

Penny Harvest

For the 100th Day of School each student brought in 100 pennies; we had a Penny Harvest. They looked for the birth year, analyzed the coin, stacked them, spun them, graphed head or tails when they flipped 10 at a time for 10 times, and much, much more. Their favorite activity was adding pennies to a full cup of water to see how many pennies it would take before the water spilled (32 pennies).

NEVER FORGET

So often I forget...

What I Want to Be....

My Second Graders journaled about who they wanted to be when

they grew up...what they wanted to do/be! Some choose

teachers (yah), a few athletic stars, and a couple choose

to be Moms :-) (there were other occupations/jobs choosen too...very creative). We loved this project!

Powerpoint

Yipee! We now are making Powerpoint menus which will have voice added to them. We were able to buy a few microphones and record our voices to have narrated menus. Our menus consist of each student created a main page slide, a breakfast slide, a dinner slide, a snack slide, and a drink slide! The menus are looking phenomenal!

114

Wow...I now follow 114 Blogs. I continue to wonder how these wonderful and inspirational teachers keep up the amazing Blogs. To me to get to the point some of these teachers are, I would need to leave teaching just to work on my Blog!

RENEWED!

It's official-well at least via online notification-I have my licensed renewed for another 5 years. Now I have had my licensed renewed twice and ponder, will I be gifted the opportunity to teach for another 10 years? Will I still be at the same school? Will I be teaching the same grade? I will be 46 at my 4th renewal...now that's I am going to save for another night to ponder on!

Feb.2nd-Groundhog's Day and Open House

What a day it is going to be! Groundhog Day (what pressure put on that guy) and Open House.

Predictions are thick as we anticipate what Open House will bring and if the Groundhog will see his shadow. I CAN only pray for SPRING to come anyday (I'm a VITAMIN D, over 50 degrees lover). Open House should be a time to converse, share, enjoy, and share our room and projects with guests/parents. We will playing one of my favorite games- Student Bingo. It is amazing how quickly a student gets all boxes initialed. Every year I am surprised by the results!