Week 6, Fastest Week on Record

Wow.  I am overwhelmed at the moment.  In approximately 30 minutes, I must rest my weary eyes for 8 hours and then wake-up to the start of Week 7.

Week 6 was jam-packed with events.

Monday marked the 100th Day of School.  During Math, Ms. Grant planned an awesome activity:  the students counted out 100 Fruit Loops and created a pattern with the different colors and made necklaces.  The students were each assigned to bring 100 m & m's, 100 peanuts, 100 raisins, etc. and we made a class trail mix.  Great fun celebrating 100 Days of School!

After all that fun, the students received beads on Tuesday morning to celebrate Mardi Gras.  Also, on Tuesday, we began integrating a read-aloud into our morning Reading Block.  This particular morning I was reading "Baby Whales Drink Milk" and the students were telling me what warm-blooded and cold-blooded meant in their own words.  One student said, "Warm-blooded is when the temperature changes, your temperature stays the same."  Awesome.  I asked for a volunteer to tell me about cold-blooded.  One boy raises his hand, "I thought cold-blooded means selfish."  

On Wednesday, I was invited by another 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Taylor, to participate in a Web-seminar between her class and a class in Ghana.  I was thrilled to take part in this exciting opportunity to see communication and technology bring classrooms on different continents together.  Of course, I took some video and will post the footage as soon as possible.  

Also on Wednesday, we had a visit from Pam, a consultant that visits our schools once a month to conduct explicit instruction meetings with teachers as part of one of our grants.  Today's focus was on modeling and the importance of setting the stage for your students (visible learning targets), using clear, kid friendly language for explanations, modeling and then guided practice until students become independent.  

Looking back, Wednesday was a really full day!  We also had our Leadership Meeting and went over the Star Math data again.  The teachers and Math Coach were brainstorming on how to re-teach math concepts to those students who are missing crucial concepts.  The consensus was to create stations in the classroom during math, that way, the students can be grouped based on the skills that need further practice.  While the teachers love the idea of centers, the concern raised was the amount of modeling and practice needed when integrating centers in the classroom.  

Thursday, February 14.  Valentine's Day!  And, Happy Birthday to my mom, Valerie!  

If you're the type to get a little down if you're single during this "holiday", I have the perfect remedy:  spend the day with 2nd graders.  The little girls arrived wearing pink and red; the boys with valentines and treats in hand.  Our party was in the afternoon and all morning, we had a parade of parents dropping off treat after treat.  The one drawback to the holidays is the kids are SO excited that it's hard for them to concentrate on anything else during the day.  Ms. Grant, being in her 5th year of teaching was armed with learning activities with Valentine's Day themes.  For example, during Math, the students graphed candy hearts.  Did you know there is now a candy heart that says, "Text Me?" Where's the romance in that?!

Here are photos from the most EPIC Valentine's Day Party I've ever attended:

It is even more challenging for the students to focus after a bash like this so I re-worked the Language for Writing Lesson to a Valentine's theme.  The students had to write about a picture of a little girl sitting on a plant of hearts while a little boy watered it.  One student came up with the sentence: The girl is ecstatic because she is in love.  I was ecstatic that a second grader used the word "ecstatic"!!!  I also made a synonym game where students were given half of a heart with a word on it.  Their task was to walk around the room and find the student with the other half of their heart containing a synonym for their word.  I was able to pull up the words each student missed on his or her ISIP test in order to give students practice with words they are struggling with.  Here is an example of some of the word pairs:  astonish & surprise, beneath & below, divide & split, difficult & hard, bonus & extra, and distant & far.