Monday, December 31, 2007

St. Augustine Lighthouse

Greetings everyone! I hope everyone has had a nice winter break so far. I have enjoyed mine. As a matter of fact, I visited the St. Augustine Lighthouse yesterday afternoon. It was a neat place to visit. If you have the chance to visit their website, you can find out all sorts of interesting information about St. Augustine and how the area has changed over the years. The website has a Keeper's Blog, photos from years ago, a detailed history and so much more.
If you have the opportunity to visit the actual lighthouse, be prepared to climb stairs. You have to climb a flight of stairs to reach the top of the tower but the view makes it worth the climb. I happened to be climbing up yesterday and spotted a rainbow over St. Augustine. I even managed to capture it in the photos below. This is a great place to visit for the whole family. Enjoy the photos and thanks for stopping by! Have a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!


Thursday, December 27, 2007

Downtown Chicago

     
     Greetings!  I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday.  I was going through some pictures today and came across some beautiful shots of Chicago, Illinois.  Feel free to check them out.  You can also Google Earth Chicago as well for more information.   Have a safe break and look for updates soon.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Winter Break FUN!

     Good evening one and all!  Well, winter break is finally here.  It is time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the time with your family.  To help pass the time, here are some sites you may want to take a moment and visit.  I will also be posting more information on the website soon.  Once the hustle and bustle from the holidays passes, I intend on updating the website quite a bit.
     AN ENORMOUS THANK YOU to Mrs. Mead, Mrs. Permenter, Ms. Holloway, Mrs. Duke for all of their help this morning with arts and crafts as well as setting up for the feast.  A HUGE THANKS goes out to Mr. Davison, Mrs. Gilley, Ms. Williams-Bryant, and Mrs. Vargas for joining us at our feast.  A BIG THANK YOU to everyone that brought in chips, cakes, cookies, veggie trays, and all of the other goodies.  Your continued support is greatly appreciated.  The students had a BLAST today.  They did an AWESOME job with the crafts, working with one another, and following directions.
      Again, a big THANK YOU, happy holidays and enjoy the sites listed below!

Holiday Links:

Santa's Secret Village: You can write a letter to Santa, play games, print stories and much more.

Google Earth: Track Santa using Google Earth.

Santa Tracker:  You can track Santa with this site as well.

The North Pole: A neat site with activities, games, links, and so much more.

Math Sites

Word Problem Practice: Visit here for additional story problem practice.

Math Playground: Check out this site for some neat games to help your child in math.

Even/Odd Number Practice: A site where you can practice sorting even and odd numbers.

Language Arts

Primary Games: The title says it all.

Gamequarium: More games to help with language arts skills.

General Sites:

Internet 4 Classsrooms: Links to MANY sites that emphasize 2nd grade skills.

Well, have a happy holiday!  





Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Have you heard?


     Well, I just learned from a fellow teacher that Santa will be video streaming live on December 15th at 8 pm.  For your chance to chat with Santa, visit http://ustream.tv/channel/santa-claus-live.  Santa would love to hear from you!  
      Thank you for all of your support and I'll see  you in the morning.  Take care!
     

Monday, December 10, 2007

I scream, you scream, we all scream for FUNCTIONAL WRITING!

     Good evening! Today was a busy day to say the least. First of all, we went over the new vocabulary words and insert them into Quizlet. Then we visited Google Earth to see some of the schools we will be sending our cards to. Afterwards, we read and discussed If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. The students LOVED the story! We followed that up with a discussion of the story and a comprehension activity. As students finished their comprehension activity, they were asked to work on their functional writing pieces about making an ice cream sundae.
     I showed the students a functional writing piece that met the standard on the ELMO. We then selected several pieces and discussed whether or not they met the standard. Since we have just begun functional writing, these pieces serve as the baseline. These pieces will drive my instruction for this genre.
     Math found us solving story problems using separating and combining.  The students seem to have combining down.  They can usually read the story problem and figure out whether or not to combine (add) or separate (subtract).  Separating does seem to be posing some difficulty for the students.  We will continue to work on it more in class.  I will also be posting strategies and methods in the next few days for use at home.
     We are continuing to learn about the weather.  When the students return to school after Winter Break, they will be creating a PowerPoint presentation about weather.  I hope to be able to have them create a podcast to go along with the PowerPoint.  The students enjoy using technology and it is the wave of the future.
     We also made our sundaes after lunch.  I followed the students directions EXACTLY AS WRITTEN and they soon discovered problems with that.  They found that their sundae did not have all of the toppings, ice cream was not scooped, no spoons were given, and so on.  It was a hoot!  The students discovered quickly that their instructions lacked details.  Some of their instructions lacked a clear sequence while others missed one or two steps.  Like I said, they had fun with it and so did I.  It was a fun way to teach them to add details to their writing.
     Well, that is all for now.  Hopefully I can post some pictures later this week.  Have a great evening!

Greetings!

     Greetings one and all!  Well, the holiday hustle and bustle go to me as well this weekend and I was unable to post as much as I would have wanted.  I did not get the pod casts posted like I wanted to but I will be working on them all week.   
     This is going to be a hectic week to say the least.  On Monday, we must finish our cards that we will be sending to other schools across the country.  We must then get them in the mail.  This is all part of the Technospud Holiday Card Exchange Program.  The students have really been looking forward to this activity because it involves our using Google Earth.  If you EVER have the chance to download it, please do so. It is AMAZING what you will find.  You can take a field trip to almost anywhere in the world without leaving home.  People have uploaded beautiful photos of places such as the Eiffel Tower, The Grand Canyon, The Statue of Liberty and many more.  
     We will also be finishing up our web page on Dr. Seuss.  It will be posted on-line sometime over winter break.  The students have really enjoyed studying Dr. Seuss as well as creating pod casts and making the web page.  It is my hope to teach them even more about creating a web page by the end of the year.
     We also have our Polar Express Day on Thursday, December 13.  Please remember to wear your pajamas for this exciting adventure.  
     Finally, Friday will be spent doing holiday crafts and having a feast.  It should be fun!   Below is a copy of our weekly newsletter.  Feel free to check it out.  The Weekly Brain Buster and Club Einstein questions will be posted later tonight.   Until then, have a nice day!

Friday, December 7, 2007

Functional Writing

Good evening everyone! Well, the week has come to an end and we have accomplished so much. The students really worked hard this past week.
We have completed the Theme 1 assessment in Reading which included a narrative writing piece. We have continued our study in story problems, combining and separating in mathematics. Weather is still the focus in science and we are finishing up our study of Dr. Seuss. It is my hope that the Dr. Seuss Author Study page will be posted by Sunday. If not, it will be posted over winter break.
A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Permenter for devoting her day to reading with the students and recording them for our pod casts. I will work very hard this weekend to make sure they are posted.
In the meantime, if you can't tell, I am really excited about this blog. It is SO easy to use. It does not take long at all to post an entry. It is simply a matter of typing in what I want to say and that is all. No hassles with html, rss feeds, and so on and so forth. It is my hope that this blog will serve to get the students interested in story writing. It is also my hope that this blog will keep them interested in what is going on in class as well initiate discussion.
I introduced functional writing in class today. I began by reading a recipe from Emeril's book, There's a Chef in My Soup. As I read the recipe, I engaged in a think aloud by asking myself questions as I read. We then discussed the attributes of his recipe and whether or not it would work. The students noted that his recipe was detailed, sequential, and easy to follow. Included in the recipe were a clear list of ingredients and tools required to cook the peanut butter cookies. I then explained that his recipe was an example of functional writing. Then I posted a list of ingredients on the board for an ice cream sundae. I challenged the students to write a functional piece of writing providing me with instructions on how to make an ice cream sundae. I explained that I will be following their instructions explicitly on Monday when I make the sundaes per each child's instructions. That should be a very interesting experience to say the least.

Well, in honor of the season and the introduction of the functional writing, I have found a video that may be of interest. It is an interview with Robert Sabuda, author of Winter in White (which we will be reading next week). Robert Sabuda creates very detailed and intricate pop-up books that even adults find fascinating. In the video, he explains how develops his books. So, sit back and enjoy.


Thursday, December 6, 2007

Cat in the Hat

Thank you for stopping by. We have been working on finding the main idea and supporting details in reading for the past two weeks. We have also been working on an Author study on Dr. Seuss. Several days ago we read The Cat in the Hat in class. Once we finished reading it, the students had to come up with the main idea of the story. They then had to list four details that supported the main idea.
They did a great job in finding the main idea and supporting details. They also discovered that finding the main idea and supporting details are similar to summarizing a story. When teaching new skills in class, I alsways try to help the students find connections to what they know. I was really thrilled that they made this connection on their own.
Well, enjoy the work samples. Just click on a specific work sample to see it up close.



Again, thank you for stopping by!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Oobleck!!!!





Well, this afternoon was certainly fun! We made Oobleck this afternoon in honor of reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. That was a very entertaining experience to say the least. You would think that 2nd graders would not mind their hands getting dirty but, as I learned today, that was a misconception on my part. They enjoyed playing in the Oobleck but it was funny listening to them as they mixed it. I lost count of the number of ewwwws and yucks I heard. They did have fun with it though. Above are some pictures of the Oobleck for your enjoyment. Be sure to check back Friday for some more pod casts featuring the students reading various Dr. Seuss books. Thanks for stopping by and we hope to hear from you soon.

Sally Corp

Tuesday, December 4, 2007


Greetings!  We had a WONDERFUL time today on our field trip to Sally Corp and the Skyway Express.  First, we rode the Skyway across the St. Johns River.  The students were very excited to have the opportunity to cross the river.  They also enjoyed being able to put the coins in the turnstile and going through.  We switched Skyway Trains several times.  It was really fun!  I had no idea that the Skyway crossed the river.   I hope to be able to do that again next year.
     Then we went to the Sally Corp for the remaining part of our trip.  That was very enjoyable and educational as well.  We were given a wonderful tour by a VERY ENERGETIC tour guide.  We saw how they make molds for the robots, how they use pneumatics to power the robots, various movements robots make, how they paint the robotics and so much more.  If you ever have the opportunity to go, I strongly urge you to visit Sally Corp.  It was a wonderful place to visit.  Thanks for stopping by and our class will be posting soon.



Monday, December 3, 2007

Welcome!

     Greetings and welcome to our brand new class blog.  We will be posting all of the new and exciting things we are doing in class here from now on.  This blog site allows more freedom in adding pictures, work samples, and so much more.  It is my hope that next week students will be posting on the blog.  In the meantime, I will be posting to keep parents updated on the latest information about our class.
     The next two weeks will be very busy weeks.  Tomorrow we will be going to Sally Corp and riding the Skyway Express which should be a BLAST!  I have never had the opportunity to visit Sally Corp but I have heard it is fun.  On Wednesday, we will be making oobleck in honor of Dr. Seuss.  I hope to also post a few more pod-casts by the end of the week.  We will also be engaged in a search for the Gingerbread Boy on Friday this week. 
     Next week will be VERY busy as well.   Wednesday, December 12th is an Early Release Day. We will be hosting our Pajama Day on Thursday, December 13th.  We will spend the day engaged in activities devoted to the study of the Polar Express.   We will even be watching the Polar Express on the big screen.  Friday is our class party.  The morning will be spent doing arts and crafts while the afternoon will be spent having a feast with family.  Until then, thanks for stopping by.  

Welcome to Sheffield Elementary