Penguin Pocket!

The cover...

Pocket one..

Here is an example of the penguin book the little monkeys made to store all of their penguin related work.  They came out SO cute!  Each piece holds different information.  As we work on penguins these books will be

Pocket two...

                                                         bursting at the seams with 

Pocket three.

                                   information!

As promised here is a picture of the watercolor penguins that they made.  I am really impressed with them, AND they make the room so colorful!!!

Have a great day!!

Ms. Daly

Penguin painting...

Mrs. H. painting her penguin!

Our penguin chart where we are recording all of our facts!

The beginning sketches!

Today we painted beautiful penguins using oil pastel crayons and watercolor paints.  The kids really did an amazing job.  I found the idea for this project at http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2009/03/penguin-painting-for-first-and-second/.  We talked about what penguins looked like, as well as what their habitat looks like.  As our unit moves on we will learn about penguins that don't live on iceburgs, but that's not for a bit!  Here is my sketch that I used to show the children how to make their penguin using ovals.  As soon as I have them all hung up I will post more pictures. I took a picture of Mrs. H. painting her penguin, I would have some of the kids but for privacy purposes I don't want to post their little faces online.  There is also a picture of the chart we have started where we are storing all the interesting facts we are learning about penguins.  

SNOW DAY 2011!!

Welcome back from 2 days off!  I hope everyone survived the snow, and more important the SHOVELING!  Thankfully I have the very best landlords ever who did a great job shoveling!  We all even built a snowman.  It was a work from home day for them!  I found the snowman kit at the Christmas Tree Shops.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that store!  You can always find something super fun there!








I found this great idea on FirstGradeParade and decided to try it with the class.  The children had to write tally marks as they interviewed the rest of the class asking what they did over the snowdays.  We decided that most of the children in the class had a snowball fight (with their siblings!) and the least amount made a snowman.  I was so surprised!  

When we get back to school on Tuesday we will start talking about Famous Americans.  I am taking ideas I have gotten on the secondgradeteachersclub.ning site as well as in the blogging world to help the children grasp the ideas.  We will start with Martin Luther King Jr., then go into Rosa Parks, then Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  By the end of this unit the children will be presenting their own Famous American projects.  MsWinston.com has a terrific unit that I started using last year and added my own little bits and pieces to.  We will also be continuing our penguin study.  I need to post pictures of the super cute penguin pocket folders they made on Monday!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Study Island Is Here!

Our school now has access to a great resource for preparing our kids for the state standardized tests.  We have purchased a building license for a web-based program called Study Island, which is accessible to students from school or home.  If you have Internet access, your child can access Study Island from home as well as school to prepare for the state assessments. I have sent home your childs personal password and login.  Please feel free to use it as much as you want at home! :0) We will be using this program in the computer lab each Friday as well as in class during different times in the day.

 We are excited about the potential benefits this program can bring to our students, and we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity by using Study Island. 

Welcome 2011!!!

I found this great idea on Ms. Durnings Blog.  I made tracers for the bread and the butter and had the children trace and cut out their own "toasts".  They had to write a wish that they had for 2011 on the butter.  Mrs. H. and I made our own bulletin board on the wall so that we could have these awesome "toasts" hanging on the wall.  I think they came out pretty great!

Here is a picture of the start of our new bulletin board.  While the children were in Music, Mrs. H. and I covered the cabinet doors with blue and white fadless paper to make the doors look like an iceberg.  Next week we will start our penguin unit and this is where our handprint penguins will be living!






We had indoor recess on Friday and when I came back from lunch this is what Mrs. H. had come up with.  Can't leave that woman alone for a minute!!!  ;0)  I think it came out super cute, we decided that we could have the kids make a snowflake to put around the snowpeople.  










This week is going to be super busy as we finish up our snowman book reports and work on our penguin unit.  Check back soon, I hope to add more pictures of our work!