Saturday 17 December 2016

Coming Up. . .

This coming week is going to be a busy one!! I just thought I would give everyone a heads up. I just wanted to let everyone know the important dates and times for our festivities this week! 😊


Tuesday-

  • We will be having our "practice" Christmas Program this day at 9:30 am. The elementary is invited to enjoy this program.
  • It is also "Red and Green Day" school wide on Tuesday! 


Wednesday-

  • We have our Christmas Program at 9:30 am for parents and the public. We will also be taking a classroom "Christmas Card"picture in our class this day and I told kids they could bring Santa hats for the picture! So if they ask about bringing their Santa hat to school it was a request of mine...(totally fine if they don't bring it)  
  • In the afternoon we will be working on procedural writing and enjoying hot chocolate while we watch a Christmas movie with the other second grade class! The students will also be getting their gift from me this day....Ill tell you what that is through pictures on Wednesday! 


Thursday

  • Our school will be doing Ugly Sweater Day again this year! Remember that this sweater isn't something that needs to be purchased! You could easily just decorate up an old sweater in the closet for the day! 
  • We also have our Christmas Party in our classroom starting at 1:30 pm. I sent the kids home with a note and parent contact information for those who volunteered for the party. 


Friday--NO SCHOOL! Let Christmas break begin! 👍

Thursday 15 December 2016

Reminder

hello! I can't post pictures from my phone, but I wanted to get a post on the blog for two big things going on tomorrow. Tomorrow is our big unit test on our subtraction and addition with regrouping! We spent the whole week reviewing and practicing as a class and in smaller groups. I think the kids will do a great job!

Next, tomorrow will be the white elephant sale! I know the kids have done this before, but it is my first time! I have been holding sheets and money for s couple kids and will hold their money until we go shopping tomorrow morning! They get so excited each time they walk by the sale!

Lastly, I sent home crepe forms from the high school. The high schoolers will be selling and delivering Crepes to the classrooms Thursday before our Christmas break. They are $2.00 per crepe. They can bring money and the form in tomorrow, but they are DUE Monday, December 19th! 

Sunday 11 December 2016

Christmas Spirit

Our class is in the Christmas spirit! This is officially my FAVORITE time of the year...spending this season with 18 kids everyday is the best! Our elf Oochie made a couple messes this week. 1. Dumped all the building blocks out. 2. Took a selfie (or an ELFie:)) and set it as our desktop background. 3. Got himself taped up in the door while the kids were at music! Yikes! 


We also got rid of our turkey door and moved onto our snowman door! I love switching our theme with the season! Goodbye fall...hello winter! :) 


While in the midst of all our fun we do get a lot done as well! I wanted to share with you what we did in math last Friday. The kids have been very focused on learning addition with regrouping and subtraction with regrouping. Friday we learned 2 ways to solve the same problem! I never knew this way, but I was excited to teach it because it was really easy! I don't expect them to do it the "new" way but all kids learn differently, so I like to give the option and show them we can solve the same thing different ways! 


Now onto the Grinch...my all time FAVORITE Christmas story (my books is falling apart :( wahhh) I read the story to the kids Friday and then after some reading comprehension work we got to do this fun directed drawing! I am a big fan of directed drawings and instead of me being the "instructor" this time we watched one of my favorite youtube channels the "Art for Kids Hub". It is an artistic dad who does directed drawings with his kids and we get to watch them side by side draw the same thing! Any who.....they did the Grinch and I thought it was the perfect time to introduce the students to this fun art channel. I must say these turned out AWESOME when they were finished.






I also gave them this printable quote that is from our story we read together...one of my favorites around Christmas time! Don't forget what is important this holiday season! 💚


Monday 5 December 2016

December Already??

Wowza! Time is flying by, I just can't believe that it is already December! We are totally in Christmas mode in my classroom! I love how we can listen to Christmas music as we write about our Christmas themed work! PS have your kids mentioned Oochie Boo??? He was the size of a staple and no one could see him unless they were over 20 and believed in him. Well he left a note on our white board one morning ....picture below...let me just say I have never seen the kids sooooo excited!

Here is a note Oochie left us over night! I was so excited to see them when they finally noticed the note on the board!


Oochie trying to get into one of our students birthday treats! 


This is funny....in the morning one of the jobs they have to do is mark what they are having for lunch. They all came in wondering where he was and there he was writing EW on his least favorite lunches. HA




We also made these complex art project the other day of "ourselves" caroling! I did not think this project would be such a toughie, but I would say for second grade they did an AMAZING job!







Today I gave the kids a mission...everything is more fun when it is called a mission right? Well anyhow I love change, so we move seats frequently. We are trying out a new "formation" which I am really excited about. Below is a video of them during their mission!




Tuesday 29 November 2016

WIN

Hello!

During WIN time today (What I Need) we started a new unit about opinion writing! The kids learned about an old library that shut down because of lead paint...they read about the process of what the community did to try and get it to reopen. Our kids will be writing about something they think would be good to have in our community...we told them about how the movie theater, skatepark, and walking path were brought to the community by the voice of the people in our community! Today they wrote letters to you and want YOUR feedback on what YOU think would be something great for kids in the community! Have them jot some ideas down so we can discuss it tomorrow! They worked hard on these and did a GREAT job :)


Tuesday 22 November 2016

Gobble Gobble. . .

Hello everyone!

Before I dig into our thankfulness I just want to share that the kids have gotten their 12 owls!! What does this mean you may ask?? That means they received 12 compliments while walking down the halls from other staff...in trade for those owls they get a "party" so they voted that tomorrow they will get to wear their PJ's and watch a movie in the afternoon...It works well that their party fell on this day because I for sure have 4 kids gone tomorrow! Just make sure your child still bring good clothes for outside recess and PE shoes! :)




We are getting close to our Thanksgiving break (tomorrow)...and with that we have been talking a lot about what we are thankful for! On Monday we cooked "turkey legs" AKA rice krispy treats! This was so fun...but the best part was giving them away to staff members! The kids delivered and gave each high school staff member a thank you (thanksgiving card) The kids loved making these and sending thanks to our staff!

I love how realistic these look! The best part was when I sent two kids into each room in high school they had to ask, "Do you want a turkey leg?" I mean how could this not make your day a little better? 🦃





The cereal mixture was SOOO sticky that I couldn't even get it off my hands and onto the pretzel...we did some MAJOR brainstorming as a class as to how we could solve this problem! I had them all dunk their hands in veggie oil and then form the rice krispy into balls moving their hands "wicked fast" as I would say! :) Problem solved....


This makes me smile.... :)


 I mentioned in a previous post that we have been studying different Native American Tribes. We watched a video of a woman making a patterned rug by weaving and using a brush tool to push down the material to keep it tight. After watching that I taught them how to weave on their own. . . I was surprised with how well they did! The only thing I helped with was cutting the scraps to weave before hand...I kept reminding them to tap it to keep their weaves tight just like the woman did with her brush tool. 


I laminated them for the students so they could use them over and over again! They were proud and excited to get them back! 



While we are talking about thanks I would just like to thank a few parents for buying me these awesome books at the book fair last week!! I love a new book! 💗💗💗


I love how they said, "Miss Ellis it would sound really good if we said, HEY at the end!"Here is a little poem we did during poetry! 




Have a great Thanksgiving break and enjoy your time with your friends and family! I know I cherish mine! 

--Miss Ellis




Wednesday 16 November 2016

PLTW: Insulator Experiment

So for the past two weeks we have been doing Project Lead The Way (PLTW). The kids have been learning about matter, insulator, conductors, and so many more things! I love to see their brains working during this interactive time! Our big experiment was about how to keep an ice pop frozen for about an hour, using supplies from around the room or what may be in a house! They had a day to plan, then build, and today experiment!

Below are some pictures of the insulator/coolers the students built.







Next they got to put their ice pop in their insulator and we set the timer for an hour. Once our timer went off they got to spin my spinner for who got to present first! They shared their ideas and what they used to insulate...as you can see from above they all had different approaches! One of our classmates had to leave from school early, so we promised we would video tape when his group got to present.....here ya go buddy!!



They were SOOO excited for this experiment and to share with their classmates....also it was a big deal because they didn't get to check on the ice pops during this hour, so they can NO clue how melted they were. : ) 


A couple of the results from how much of their ice pops melted! Obviously we wanted the LEAST amount of water.


Next up was our "scavenger hunt". We started a Native American Unit this week...before we dig into this unit I want them to be exposed to the new vocabulary they will be seeing. So, they worked in their groups to find my posters with definitions an pictures on them and wrote them in their flip-flap book, which was glued into their notebook. I love getting them up and moving out of their seat! 







Monday 14 November 2016

Full Moon Monday...

Such a busy day in our classroom! I first just wanted to share a picture of the homework calendar on the back of our reading log I sent home today... this will be replacing our two math homework sheets that the kids use to get daily. Now the kids will have to complete four choices a week, their reading log, and their spelling choice notebook! I sent home a letter with more details! 



During our reading groups today the kids had such great discussions with each other while finding text evidence. I love just sitting back and listening to them discuss and use new vocabulary we have bene learning in our groups!

 We are still working on adjectives, and today I wanted the kids to make their own anchor chart! I told them it was a "poster" so it needed nice handwriting and coloring...We will keep these in our mustard folder for reference for the next couple of weeks! 





Lastly, I took down our moon phases interactive bulletin board we made together and switched it up for our Native American Unit we will be starting tomorrow! These are our new vocabulary words for the unit. I love how when the kids came back from swimming today they were sooooo curious! I love watching those big brains burst with curiosity!!