Math Facts Practice!

I had sent home a pin number with the childrens report cards at the beginning of December for a website called, www.xtramath.org.  Each week I get an email from their servers telling me who has practiced and how they are doing. I have noticed that many of you have tried using it at home AND that you are doing very well!  That makes me SO happy!!!  We have started using it as school as well.  It allows for daily, individualized practice for each child.  When your child has mastered addition and subtraction it will then go into multiplication! I encourage you to have your child use it many times during the week.  If you need your pin number again, please let me know and I can email it to you!

Math Facts Practice      < Click here to go to the site!

Grinch Day 2010

I found this idea on a first grade blog called firstgradeparade.blogger.com.  I added some things that made it more appropriate for Grade 2 and presto-chango, we had Grinch Day 2010!!

The children started their day by hearing the Grinch read How the Grinch Stole Christmas outloud.  We then brainstormed words that we thought would describe the Grinch.  I wish I had taken a picture of the web, you would be amazed at the words the kiddos came up with!  After that, we constructed similies and glued them to a Grinch that I drew traced.  We made text to self connections, learned about how characters change and then compared the book to the movie.  We were surprised at how much was changed!

Below are some pictures of the Grinch and Max.  Clearly, the teachers had just as much fun as the kids!

Ms. Daly dressed up at the Grinch.  Mr. H. says I should have worn green pants instead!  Something to add to the costume for next year!!



Mrs. H. dressed up as Max!  Isn't she a good sport?!

Celebrating the Season...

Today the children and Mrs. H. decided that our little room needed some holiday decorations.  So who am I to complain!  The little monkeys have been working very hard to get through our Unit 2 Benchmark test in Journeys that I thought, what a great way to reward them for their hard work!  We made reindeer with our feet and hands, handprint wreathes and tomorrow we will be working on stockings.  I think they came out pretty great if you ask me.

Earlier in the day we made an Elf Glyph that came from mathwire.com.  What a FUN activity.  It did take a lot longer than I had anticipated so we weren't able to share our observations today.  I'm hoping to do that tomorrow.  Also, I used the photocopy papers to make the elves, next year I think I'll make tracers so they come out a bit more unique!

First Post!

Well here it is!  My very first post on my very first blog!  I am SUPER excited about this new venture.  I have a website that my class uses, but it is so hard to keep updated.  I thought this might be a good place for me to keep in touch with my students as well as a place to network with other teachers.

Let me know what you think! :0)