Well, Fall is officially here! The cooler weather is a welcome change! We had a week of very foggy mornings! I was used to fog back in The D, but this was more than I had seen since my days as a kid in Monroe!
This was at 10:00 in the morning!
Fog during morning recess is a nice twist!
We are starting to settle into the school year - Spelling City has been a hit...
Spelling City in action.
I always let the students play games after they are finished taking the test. Spelling practice disguised as a game!:)
Our Reading Centers are a work in progress...
We like filling our book boxes with great books from our classroom library!
Working on our sentences.
We've been working on measurement in Math class. Centimeters and meters are starting to make sense to us! A test will be coming soon, but we will rock that! Coming up in October, we will be starting our Math Centers as well -- Math Centers on Wednesday & Friday, Reading Centers on Tuesday & Thursday. I can't wait for that!
What a blessing it is to be working with these children and watching them grow!
We have had a great start to the school year! I have so enjoyed learning about each of the students that God has blessed me with this school year! Here's a glimpse at our first 7 days:
We started our first day by reading the book First Day Jitters by Julie Denneberg. It's a great book to read at the start of the year and has a great surprise ending -- A fun way to start the school year and a nice way for us to create community by showing that we all get nervous sometimes -- even teachers! Of course, no reading of First Day Jitters would be complete without sharing my secret recipe for Jitter Juice! As hard as the students tried, they just could not get the secret ingredient out of me! They had so much fun and loved making their own secret recipes.
Our individual Jitter Juice recipes were a matter of great secrecy!
Thursday and Friday of our first week was spent sharing items with our classmates that told a little bit more about us was a lot of fun. Each child was asked to bring in 3 items that told us a little more about themselves. I appreciated this activity because I really didn't know any of the students at all! I would have had more pictures, but I left my phone at home on the second day of sharing!😬 Sorry!
The second week, we spent time reading the book Freckle Juice by Judy Blume. This book is always a hit with my second graders. First, it's a chapter book - That's so important in 2nd grade! Second, it's a great lesson about being happy with how God uniquely created each of us! It's one of my favorite books to read with my students each year.
This week has our own set of firsts -- First spelling test, first week using Spelling City, first week with our reading books, and first Math test of the school year! I better get to finishing my planning!
I pray that you have had a chance to relax and spend time with family over this long Labor Day weekend!
I can not contain my excitement for the new school year! I feel so blessed to be a part of the Our Savior Family! It wasn't easy to leave my home and school of the last 20 years, but I knew that the Lord was leading me the entire way. No matter what, I know that God has got this! Lansing is a wonderful city and I can't wait to explore it!
There are definitely going to be some jitters on that first day of school, but I hope (and I know) by the end of the week, we will feel like one giant 2nd grade family!
Throughout the year, I will be posting here to keep you up to date on general happenings in our classroom. It is my hope that it will be on a weekly basis, but sometimes life gets in the way so please don't hold me to that! 😊
I hope that I have the chance to see all of you at the Meet & Greet on Tuesday!
Yesterday, we finished our first full week of school! I will admit that by Wednesday it felt like it was Friday, but we made it through! It was also Book Fair Week...that very definitely added to the exhaustion!
We couldn't have asked for a better start to the school year weather-wise! I have to say that in my 20 years of teacher, I have never had a more perfect string of days with cooler weather! For a school that doesn't have A/C in it's classrooms, that is a wonderful blessing! Here are a few pics from the first week of school...
Jitter Juice! Helps get out the jitters everyone has on the first day.
I have a secret ingredient that I will NEVER share! ;-)
We love our tire swing!
You always have to take a silly picture after taking "real" ones!
This week, we started out learning about Patriot's Day. I always struggle with how to talk to students about what this day means for those of us who were alive on 9/11 and were able to understand and experience it. I always want to make sure that I don't give too much detail, because..well, they are only 7 & 8 years old. We started out with a great video from Reading Rainbow -- The Tin Forest episode. This episode exposed the children to students who attended a school next to what would become Ground Zero. I highly recommend it!
We read great books about September 11th and we had wonderful conversations about that day. I was really impressed with the students' depth of knowledge and understanding of what happened on that day.
After watching the video, we spent time making a book about Patriot's Day...
We also got to experience our first two birthday treats! I wondered how students would react to not having a food treat...they loved it! Jackson brought in his treat pretty quickly since is birthday was during the first week...those Hot Wheels and Disney toys were a hit -- but I forgot to take pictures! Conner brought in his Birthday Treat this past week & I remembered to capture the moments of students playing with their "treat".
"Slappy Hands" and a play structure...lots of fun!
What girl isn't excited to get a cup of "slime"?
I don't know that I've ever seen students enjoy a Birthday Treats like like they did these treats! It's going to be a great time this year!
Whew! That's just a tip of the iceberg of what we've done so far. It's been an adjustment for us getting back into the swing of things! I've already said on many occasions that 25 students is a lot, but that also means that it can be a lot of fun! I can't wait to see what this year brings!
I hope you are as excited for the start of the school year as me! It has been a great summer, but I can't wait to see all of the students again!
I hope that you have all received your welcome letter. Please be sure to read it carefully. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me before school starts by email or Remind.
Also, if you are looking for ways to work off some Time and Talent hours, I have 2 ways that you can help to get our room ready before the start of school:
As you know, Mrs. Merz brought in tennis balls for the chairs in our classroom -- Thank you! However, they need to be cut so that we can put them on the bottoms of the chairs. It can be done either with a drill press or with a utility knife. Volunteers can take them home and bring them back when done.
Our supplies came in for our Math worksheets and they need to be filed in the storage containers. This needs to be done in the classroom.
Please contact me if you are able to help with either of these jobs!
Turkeys you say???😲 We don't have any turkeys around here! At least that's what we want you to think.😉
We spent a lot of time with our families making great disguises for our Turkeys so that they wouldn't be come Thanksgiving Dinner! If you haven't had time to check them out, please do so this week! Here is a little peek at our hallway:
Norah's Statue of Libery
Vivian's Pig
Lorelei's Super Star
Ethan's Christmas Tree
Jacob's Football Player
These are just a few of the great disguises we have in our hallway. Be sure to come check them out!
Well, a lot has happened in the month since school started, but we had a little fun today during Health class. We practiced our flossing! Some of us already do this regularly, but some of us (like me) only do it leading up to a dentist visit! Yikes!! We had some great comments like, "It's mint flavored? I hope it's not too spicy!" Or "Miss Mazur is there supposed to be blood on my floss?" These are just a couple of the comments that remind me why I love second grade!
Here are some of the great pics I caught during this fun activity...
Doesn't she look excited?
It's important to take care of the few teeth we have right now!
I am a teacher who loves the Lord! I have been blessed to be teaching second grade for more than 20 years! Check here to learn about our struggles, successes and other important information! It's a great window into our second grade classroom!
