Bubble Blowing and Tornado Warnings

Sometimes…
things really happen at the wrong time

So today we are watching clips of storms on United Streaming
Just after the clip begins talking about the tornadoes in Kansas in 1991
"Attention staff, our area is under a tornado watch”

ok, really??!!
Needless to say, the kids were a little freaked
but I subdues them with reassurances it was just a “drill”
like the fire drills
only it wasn’t! eek!
Guess the conditions were ripe here in southern NC today

But on to a fun little weather/wind activity we finished up
Last year I had luck with mixing dish detergent, paint, and water to make the perfect blend to blow bubbles and have the pop onto our paper for a little art. This year for the life of me I could not get the mixture right, but we worked with what we had!
Each student came over to the sink and blew as many bubbles onto their paper as they wanted. I tried to keep them from smearing and dripping, but they make for interesting pictures regardless. Sometimes I just gotta let go!

After they dried all morning and we watched the weather clips, I guided them through writing what type of weather their picture reminded them of. You can’t see my bubble picture in the shot, but it just had 2 perfectly popped bubbles with a little bit of “shrapnel” all over. I asked them to tell their reader about the “what”{the weather} and the “why” {they chose it}

Here is how they turned out. I am pretty pleased

And here’s a little freebie to write their weather blurbs. 2 versions, same file in Google Docs

 

Funny Money

We actually had our first 2-hour delay Monday, so I have stretched out Presidential fun throughout the week.
Monday when the kids came in, they had huge funny money bills on their desks. {Dollar Tree!!}I had actually bought them to use for the 100th Day, but time was not on my side.
Needless to say they were ecstatic

Our strategy/skill lesson for the day was an adaptation of Amanda Nickerson’s Outside/Inside Character Traits pack.
After I gave them examples of each about myself-short, spunky, stubborn, shy, and pale…they decided which were inner traits and which were outer traits-and they added bossy and best teacher ever to the list…those go hand-in-hand!

Next, I read What Presidents are Made of…oh my! What a great on the whim purchase this was! The illustrations are amazing. I love that the do-dads used represent something about the person. Ah-Ma-zing!

Then we made a circle map of presidential character traits we thought were important to have

and the kids chose one {some did 2} traits they possessed and wrote why that was important. They turned out a-dorable. Here are some favs.

If you want to do the same-here are the signs and writing papers!
Just click below {they are 2 separate files}

We also made Amy Lemons’ little Lincoln craftivity today! Oh, precious! We read Abe Lincoln’s Hat then the kids wrote what they would keep in their hat.

Here they are! You gotta read the one below. A child of my own heart.

Cardis, Converse, and hot guys in wigs {and leggings}?

these are a few of my favorite things!

Finally feeling a little like autumn here in southern NC. The high was 58 Friday! It’s been in the upper 80s-90s all week! It was wonderful. So good in fact, I wore my Uggs! Too early, maybe…but my feet sure felt good! I’ve been sporting cardigans and Converse tennies all week and it’s been nice.

I have come to the conclusion I won’t be posting more than weekly these days. I don’t know how I thought I could still post everyday. I really need to write posts and set dates for later…but…oh well! My class is still working out the expectations kinks and I’m feeling like a big ole meanie everyday, but we are getting there. I try to keep in mind that I am remembering my kiddos at the END of 2nd grade, not the BEGINNING!

What We’ve Been Up To:

I’ll start with 9/11. My kiddos had never even heard about the tragedy and I teetered on not even getting in to it for fear they’d have nightmares, but it is a huge part of our national history and completely changed how our country operates. I am SOOOOO glad I did. I have not had a better day yet with these dears. I started by just asking for a show of hands who had ever heard the term “9-11” and when only 1 kid had, I read a news article aloud. It really led to a wonderful discussion. I told them exactly where I was, what I was doing, how there was nothing televised but NYC for at least a week, and how American flags flew everywhere and everyone had a flag magnet on their car. I felt so proud to be an American. Then, my friend across the hall brought her kids over, told them her story, and we all watched the Brain Pop video. {I love those things…}. We also checked out the interactive timeline and the time lapse video of the memorial going up. You must use this site, it is ah-maz-ing

Bookmark these for next year!

http://www.911memorial.org/ - great lessons and videos, etc.

http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/september11th/ - free Brain Pop video

Natalie and Rachelle with some good resources - http://whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com/

Next we made a mosaic of the Twin Towers and added the questions from What the Teacher Wants blog to it. It really turned out beautiful and created a wonderful atmosphere of teamwork in my room {really the first I’ve seen of it}. Like I said, I am so glad I shared this time with them… 

We read some wonderful books too: 

 

Nonfiction Writing

Have you seen this news story? http://news.yahoo.com/filipinos-hunt-2nd-killer-croc-1-ton-catch-052749439.html INSANE! I though sharing this story would be a great intro to writing workshop this year and capture their attention for sure. I am admittedly very weak in this area. I have still not figured out the plan for writing to fit my teaching style yet, but we are simply starting with sentence writing. I modeled a sentence about myself capturing a croc roaming our school’s track, then sketched a little doodle. The kiddos thought it was hilarious-the sketch too! I asked them to imagine what they’d want to capture {humanely of course} and sketch a picture and write a sentence that matched. It was a good indication of what they could already do. We have been working from here writing lots of sentences and using complete sentences to answer questions orally and written.

A great strategy I learned from a teammie is called “Flip the Question”. I ask the students what the question words are, then we cross those off and use what’s left to start the answer. I pretty genius if you ask me! I will be posting more about our sentence writing skills soon!

Q: How much does the average croc weigh?

A: The average croc weighs 500 pounds.

Constitution Day…how did it slip by me!? I swear we were still in single digit dates! And I guess the daily emails about being required to teach it slipped by me too?? So, since I had not seen the wonderful posts by Amanda, Rachelle and Natalie, and the SOS ladies yet…Sooo, I slipped over to my teammie’s room and we watched The Preamble from School House Rock {this DVD is probably the best money I’ve spent!}. My teammie really cracks me up! Her kids had been writing a PROBE {more about these gems later} about the Constitution and she kept referencing the hotties in wigs! I did have to remind them they wore leggings too-wow-za! Next week we will be working on Family Constitutions home projects. Cannot wait to see these and share!

A little inspiration from Bing!

Not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but I LOVE Bing. Not necessarily for searching…sorry Microsoft-I’m a Googler; but for those pictures.
Today’s picture reminded me I needed to share the wonderful, endless possibilities of using Bing for writing! And that I miss hatching chickies-even those these are salmon!

What to do-pull up Bing on your tv (well, we have flat screen tv’s rather than anything “smart” connected to our computers…) and start using the picture as inspiration for shared writing, modeling conventions, ideas, anything! I began with just lots of free flowing think-alouds. I didn’t reveal what the little snippets of info about the picture were until I was done. I like the idea of imagination! I wrote nonfiction, narratives, how-tos, whatever popped into my head. After a week of this, students wrote 1-2 sentences in their journals moving on to longer pieces. The beauty-new ideas daily and complete freedom and flexibility, oh, and it’s free!
Alas, not my idea-A few years ago at a county “share fair” a 4th grade teacher told about how she turned her writing program around using Bing. I was interested and started to use it randomly with my 4th graders. But this year in 2nd, I was desperate so I pulled “Bing books” back out of my repertoire and wha-laa, my kiddos loved it! One little booger would get online each morning before school to get a preview! I did not use it every day, I wanted to preserve its effect, but you certainly could.
Sorry this got long-but I hope someone gets a little Bing inspiration! Oh, how do you like the new blog layout…? I finally made a header! I’m not in love, but I am really trying to resist snatching up a premade. I am sure I will give in!

B & N Giveaway! yay!

 

Run on over to Mrs. Roja's Teaching Blog for a chance to win a 15$ giftcard to Barnes and Noble. It's easy! And you can read about my favorite writing activity...BING!