How will your children spend their Winter break??

As we get set to prepare for Winter break, I've wondered what some families do as their children will not be in school for more than 10 days.  This will be my first break with a child of my own, and although he will only be a few days past two months old, I thought of how I might spend time with him while I have it.  As well has how we will spend future breaks together.  So I thought of a list of ideas that might help pass the time, keep your child's mind in good "thinking" shape and strengthen our relationships with our little loved ones.  

1. read together
2. read together and plan a craft that goes with the book
3. read a book together that has a movie about it, and watch the movie with hot cocoa
4. if we are lucky enough to have snow, get outside and play in the snow
5. bake or cook together, pass on a traditional recipe to your child
6. do some redecorating or much needed "winter cleaning" together
7. play board games
8. play a video game with them
9. build something together (using legos, pop-sickle sticks or any other household items)  
10. Ask your child what their favorite thing to do is and plan a play date with them.

Dissecting an eye!!!

Today our class was able to take information they learned and see it in real life.  Thanks to our own nurse Twyla and some willing nursing students, every student was able to watch the nurses dissect a cows eye and see the parts of the eye that we've been studying in the past few weeks. 

Math Workshop

About three weeks ago, Mrs. James and I decided to combine our classes on Friday's during math time.  Our students are able to choose from a variety of math activities.  There is a computer station, games station, smartboard stations, and manipulative station.  Meanwhile, both of us pull students into a small group mini-lesson to review skills from the week or catch students up on skills they may be behind on. 

The next animal that students get the opportunity to observe and learn about were ants.  Students were separated into small groups.  Each group was given an ant farm for students to observe.  They learned about the ant's body parts and their functions.  The groups also learned about how ants behave.  

Science-Animals and their needs

Our class has begun their first Science unit of the year.  They are studying animals and their needs.  Students first were broken into groups and allowed to set up a fish tank to hold a fish that they'd observe.  The observations allowed students to see what parts their animals used and how they used them to survive.  

ANIMALS!!

Our B.V. County naturalist brought her animals for our students to see and talk about.  Each 2nd grade class will be beginning to study animals needs in the upcoming animal unit.

Today starts homecoming week at Storm Lake Community School District.  At the elementary students are allowed to dress up each day with a different theme.  Today is hat day, followed by favorite team day tomorrow, class color day Wednesday, funny feet Thursday and Tornado spirit day Friday.

*Here are our hat wearers for Monday!

The Joy of Reading

For 25 minutes each day our students get the opportunity to find any book they want and read it anywhere they want.  They can then check these books out or check others out to take home and do the same that night.

Getting to Know You

Students tend to learn best when working in groups.  They are able to collaborate ideas, learn new vocabulary and understand that people work in different ways. 

Welcome Back!!

Today the Storm Lake Elementary School is holding its annual welcome back conferences with parents and students.  I'm excited to meet my class this year.  Hope to have a great turnout! 

End of the Year Fun!!

Mrs. James' class teamed up with us to do an end of the year science project.  Groups of students had to design and build a container that would keep ice cool and slow down its melting.  The students enjoyed it very much and the teachers were impressed with their cooperation and creativity.

Which soil absorbs water the best?

Clay absorb the most water than loam,and sand because clay hold the water on top.-Luisg

when i felt the soils they were wet and the clay was the stikeest  it dosent look stiky but it is. Giselle

when i felt the soils some of the Peaces were sticky but clay was the sticky one.Maia

When  i   felt   the    soils   they    were    sticky   but   clay   is  the   sticky  one.- Kaitlyn

What happens when soil settles?

When this cup settles it stays still then the loam broke into little peaces of loam the sand was at the bottom it had little particles the clay was in the middle some of the clay broke into little peaces to then all of the different  kinds of soil settled  -Odoll

When soil settles the water is not moving and the soil is not moving too -Emanuel

We let gravel settle in a cup of water.

The next day we look at it.

I saw grass on the top.

My friend saw the water was all foge-AUSTIN

When  the  soil  settles  it  goes  flat on the bottom with  loam,clay,and sand goes on the bottom too and  they block the  water.  -Emmi

when  soil  settles   the  soil  stated  to  settle to the growned     and  than  it  coumdown    down to the grownd   .----    KARINA          

Pet Rocks

As a lesson extension from our rocks unit, students got to be creative and invent pets and animals out of ordinary rocks that they found.  


Students shared a story that they created with their pet rock as the main character.  


You can read these stories on their personal blogs under Kidblog.org which can be reached by the link at the top, right of this page. 


ENJOY!

Rock Stories

Students were learning about rocks, how they formed, what they are made of and how they are used.  They have also begun learning about how to organize their writing when writing fiction and non fiction.  Here are stories, poems, and songs from students about a particular rock that they pick

Ben Stark


The rock of the night started as a pebble and grew and grew and it turned into a big rock.  The next year a kid named Luis G. dug a hole in the ground and polished the rock.




Emmi Johnson - Song


Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh there's a shiny rock as shiny as glass wooooooo its magic ya know. 


Nothing better than this this this it's a rock, it's a rock , a rock, a beautiful rock.  


oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh 
ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya!!




Odoll Aqwa


My rock is a mineral it's very shiny, old, sparkly.  Its very dark black, its also a pretty mineral that looks like a million dollars.  So be careful to take really good care of them. 




Shayla Pelico-Pelico (poem)


Everybody has two rocks, two rocks, two rocks
Everybody has two rocks and the rocks are pretty
They are so shiny and it's cute.




Eduardo Sanchez


In Eddy's School we were studying about rocks.  We has to have a rocks but nobody picked Johnny.  Then Eddy picked up Johnny and that's when he call him Johnny.  And they did experiments on Johnny.  And they has to break open there rock.  But Eddy didn't want to break Johnny.  So Eddy put Johnny in his pocket.  And he took him home.  And he played with him.  So he kept him.  
THE END




Karina Gonzalez - song


Everybody has one rock and then you could be one
Yeah, you can be one tonight
Yeah, you can be one tonight
Yes, you can 
No you can't
Yes, I can be one, a shiny rock tonight.


Octavio Sanchez


First a rock is buried in the dirt.  Next the rock is a crystal.  Then the rock gets a little bit of color to it.  Last, the rock is all done, the people who find rocks get to build the buildings. 




Luis Garcia


This story is about a black rock named Blacky.  He is going on an adventure with a geologist named Junior.  Junior studied about rocks.  Junior didn't have a rock so he used Blacky. 




Viviana Zavala


My rock is a rock that looks like a sea shell.  My rock is black and has curves in it.  My rock is also bumpy and sharp.  It is the shape of a triangle.  




Emanuel Catarino


My animal is a crab.  My crab's name is Crabby.  They have to claws.  They live in the water.  




Alayna Rice


The Little Black Rock
Once upon a time their was a rock, a little, blcak, smart rock her name was Carol.  Carol was strolling around the back yard, suddenly a cry for help.  
"Help!"
She looked left, then right...O man, Murtle!  Carol ran to the beach, jumped in.  
"PSHH" "Uh, uh!" "PSHH!" "M-Murt-t-t-l-e." 
Murtle the turtle was in!  She was a 95 mile per hour swimmer.  She snatched Carol in fine minutes.  Later Murtle returned to land. Carol Said "OMG are you OK?"
I'm ... O...K."
Lets go home you need some cocoa and a blanket!

ROCKS ROCK!!

Students observing how water effects rocks (erosion).  They have rocks they observe and record the changes they see everyday after they shake them in a container of water.

Guest Speaker-Water Pollution

Our students had a guest speak from out own Storm Lake today.  They learned about how our lake gets polluted and how that affects the fish in the lake.  They finished the presentation with a craft activity.

Survey Says...

How teachers feel about standardized tests.

Standardized Tests Survey Artricle

Show and Tell

At the beginning of the year, during a class meeting, our students decided and voted on having a show and tell portion of our week.  The decision was made to let the Super Achiever from the previous week, bring any special item of their choice to share with their classmates. 

Teaching Math...Is it Time for a Change?

I recently read a good article that was posted on my Twitter account.  The article addresses the growing issue of how to better teach math in schools.  Read it and see what you think!


*article*
Teaching math for the future

Elementary Concert "Songs of Friendship and Love"

On February 14th, Storm Lake Elementary put on a concert featuring songs that fit the theme of Valentine's Day.
The students worked hard and performed well.

"Valentine" song video

Making Learning Fun

At any level of education, one of the biggest road blocks for teachers, and students, is to keep oneself motivated to learn.  Learning requires a majority of your daily energy, keeping your brain tuned in to new information is tough.  Thinking of my previous post about singing a book rather than reading it, is just one novel example of how to change things up and make learning a routine skill a little less routine.
Some other ideas come to mind when thinking about how to keep learning fun and motivating are:

-make it a competition or make a game out of it
-change your routine (instead of reading after dinner, read before bed with flashlights in the dark)
-make it creative

Other ideas can be found at:
motivation and learning

Singing a book?

Last Friday, our students had the pleasure to be able to learn from PBS's own Dan Wardel how to make reading fun.  He sang and had the second graders sing along with him to a book.  The students (and yes I believe the teachers did, too) had a blast.  Even this shy male teacher had a small solo.

Addition and Subtraction

*In math, our second graders have been focusing on learning to subtract and add, especially with larger numbers.  Today we worked on using adding and subtracting with ten to help us add and subtract by nine a lot quicker.  Here are a few of the number sentences we used.

New Year, New Possibilities

As the new year begins, we all have those aspirations to become better people.  Whether its through health, wealth, family, religion or whatever areas we want to improve on, this tends to be the time of the year when our dreams of bettering ourselves starts out with the most momentum.  Yet, for some reason as life starts to take over, we fall back into the same routines.  Why is it so hard to stick to our resolutions?  As a class we discussed ways to stick to our goals for the new year.  Check out our class "kidblogs" and see what our students feel they want to do differently for the year 2012.  


Check out our students' blogs by clicking on the link for Kidblog on this page.