Catch-up Post!!

It has been quite some time since I've been able to update! I had to get permission to upload pictures from parents and then I went on a trip to Georgia! I went to volunteer for a week at the Nature Conservancy in Moody Forest. It was such a great trip and I met so many wonderful people! Here is a group shot of us the first day we arrived!

Moving back to the subject of student teaching! As of this week I am no longer in second grade- I have moved upstairs to a 4th grade classroom! I was very lucky to have such a great first placement where I was able to learn and grow so much! I will miss Debbie and the kiddos, but I am excited to see what fourth grade will bring!

NOW, I need to try and catch you all up on all the wonderful activities we did while in second grade (stay with me this may take a while!) I'll start off with January and our Antarctic/Penguin unit. This was a unit that Debbie gave me complete control over! We read Mr. Poppers Penguins, did map work, research work, and so many fun penguin activities. Here are a few pictures.....

This was one of the first activities that we did! We made penguins by using paper plates and gluing on the penguin body parts. Students got to have fun making these while learning about penguin beaks, flippers, feet, etc. 

We made penguin books where students listed what they knew about penguins and what they wanted to know. After we read a book about penguins, students were able to fill in what new facts they had learned. They had so much fun sharing all their new penguin facts with their classmates! 

After a month long unit on penguins, we ended with one big final project-- Investigations! These are great because they align with so much of the common core and students LOVE doing them! They were actually excited when I told them we would be making them. This was their second time making investigations ( they had done one on Arctic animals) and their progress was amazing!! They completed planning in about half the time and put a lot more effort into finding interesting facts about their penguin! Here are a few examples!!

One of the things OTES is working on this year, is their writing program! We had students write a "How To" piece about S'mores (they even got to eat them!) We did a lot of practice before the final project could be created.

Starting out with how-to writing, we had students create an "expert list"so that they would easily have ideas on what they could write about. They created several how to pieces about topics including how to play their favorite sport, how to start a car, how to feed their pet, how to make a cake, and many, many other topics! FINALLY, they were able to write their S'more how to. Once they were done we used their writing to make our own s'mores- YUM! Here is their final work...

That is just a taste of what we did in second grade while I was there. My very last week, I had the whole class to myself! I have already posted the plan for that week, but now that it's over I can give some more details!

One subject I was super excited about teaching was our mini lessons! That week our focus was adverbs and we had so much fun learning about them! To start out we watched the School House Rock video called "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here!" I was thrilled to see how much the students enjoyed that video- they kept asking to watch it again throughout the week. We did lots of practice with adverbs and at the end we create adverb trees! ( I do have pictures, they are just not yet on my computer yet) Each student had four adverbs that they had to make a sentence with. They wrote their sentences onto leaves and then we glued them onto a tree! They came out wonderful, so I will try and get pictures up soon! 

Moving onto Africa! Students have left Antarctica and moved onto Africa. We started off this unit by making a fun craft- African fly swatters. We discussed what they would be made out of if they were really in Africa, then we created our own! Here is the finished product.

Looking into science... we have been learning about our heart! I set up three heart centers for students to explore their own heart as, as well as to learn some new heart facts. After a read aloud, students broke into three groups and rotated between writing new heart facts, learning about the heart as a muscle, and listening to their heart beat at different levels of activity (resting, jumping, running in place). They really enjoyed being able to use real stethoscopes! 

OK, one last thing! On my very last day in second grade we had a very special visitor! Any guesses as to whoooo whoo it could be? OWLS! We were able to learn about owls that live in Maine and see a few owls ourselves! What a great way to end my first placement!