As part of our word work during the week (the work the children do to help them more deeply learn their Word Study words) the children play a game called Spin N Spell with a partner. During the game, they are challenged to spell words aloud, use them in sentences, and share definitions. To start the game, they play rock/paper/scissors to decide who will be the first "spinner" and who will be the first "reader." The reader picks one of his/her partner’s word cards and reads the word aloud without showing it. The spinner spins the pointer and then performs the action. The reader checks the answer. If the answer is correct, the spinner scores the given number of points. The children take turns, and keep a tally of points. The winner is the child with the most points when the time is up or when all word cards have been used.
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The children enjoyed the Virginia Repertory Theatre performance of "Have You Filled a Bucket Today, the Musical" this afternoon. The story followed a boy at summer camp who meets the BFF (Bucket Filling Fairy) and begins a journey of learning how to be a better friend to all those around him. The children loved the performance and were reminded to be “Bucket Fillers” of kindness and not “Bucket Dippers.”
The children had fun seeing how far toy cars would travel as they zoomed down a ramp and across two different surfaces, the wood floor and the carpet. First, they each formed their own hypothesis (made a prediction) to answer the question will the toy car travel farther on the wooden floor or the rug? The children predicted that the cars would travel farther on the floor because the rug causes more friction with the car. With tape measures in hand, data recorded after four trials on each surface, their prediction proved to be true!
The children have been having a great time learning how to use the LEGO Story Starter sets in S.T.E.A.M. The children choose from a variety of LEGO pieces to develop settings, characters and plots for their stories. They develop their context through building before putting their thoughts and creations into words.
Michelle Mogel, Financial Literacy Manager at TowneBank, visited our class yesterday to share the bank's "Making Money Count" lesson. The lesson was designed to teach children how to responsibly save, spend and share money, and was written specifically for second graders. The children loved the highly interactive lesson which used the book The Berenstain Bears' Trouble with Money as a vehicle to convey the basic concepts of being a producer and a consumer, and of $aving, $pending, and $haring. The children acted out the relationship between a consumer and a producer in a grocery store setting, and learned that money is a tool, that it is a finite resource (which means that it has an end – it runs out). At the end of the lesson each child received his/her own savings book with a quarter inside to help them start saving $5.00 in quarters.
At the beginning of the school year, the children thought about their hopes for the coming year and their dreams for the future. On our first day back from Christmas break, the children were excited to see their friends, return to the familiar routines of our classroom, and ready to learn new things. This positive energy made for an enthusiastic "share" of New Year's resolutions during our first Morning Meeting of 2017. First, I explained the idea of making a New Year's resolution (a decision to do something or to behave in a certain way), "Every day's a new day, and you every day you have a chance to do things better and become your best self possible." Next, I started going over the positive things that the children have accomplished since the beginning of school. Finally, I asked the children to close their eyes and think of things they can do now that they couldn't do last year, and then said, "put on our 2017 glasses and look ahead into this new year, what are some of the great things you want to do this year? What do you want to improve? What will make you happier?" The children offered a wide variety of resolutions including getting better at math or writing, helping mom cook, making one-handed catches and 3 pointers, keeping my room neater – all excellent resolutions! Check out more pictures of the chidlren during our share by visiting our Photos :-) page. At our Christmas party, the children were thrilled to receive some Christmas goodies that included a box of colored pencils, a Frosty the Snowman activity book, and a copy of Judy Moody & Stink The Holly Joliday (the characters featured in two class-favorite chapter book series). The book is from First Book, an organization that enables schools such as St. Andrew's to provide books for our students to read and keep in their own at-home library. In this book, Judy Moody is making a list and checking it twice, but all her brother, Stink, wants this year is snow. It hasn’t snowed on Christmas in Virginia in more than a hundred years, however, so what are the chances that that will change? Enter the new mailman, Mr. Jack Frost. Silent Night never sounded so good! After the visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus, we headed over to St. Andrew's church where the children practiced and perfected their perfoirmance of Silent Night. Lessons and Carols will take place tomorrow at St. Andrew's Church from 9:00-10:00AM. A reception will follow in Baldwin Hall.
With only one day of school left before Christmas break, our whole class was beyond excited today when Santa and Mrs. Claus walked into our room as the children were enjoying snack and our Christmas read aloud, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Santa and Mrs. Claus visited with us for nearly 15 minutes, taking time to speak with each child and giving out candy canes. The children learned that Santa wears the key to his workshop around his neck, and that Mrs. Claus has an iPad that she uses to take pictures -- she even showed us some of the pictures she has taken! We ALL loved having Ms. Dougherty as our student teacher, and we'll miss her. She successfully completed her student teaching assignment with us and now has her teaching license. Ms. Dougherty has accepted a job at St. Christopher's School teaching in their Extended Day Program. Though Ms. Dougherty will be busy with her new job, she has promised to visit us. The children asked her to visit during quick play so she can be the ball thrower during Switch Dodgeball :-) |
AuthorMrs. Tappen and her CategoriesArchives
April 2017
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