Classroom Website

Our school district is making the transition to Google for just about everything, which means I've been learning all of the amazing things Google has to offer! I recently made a classroom website that contains all important information and hope that it will help keep parents, students, and myself on the same page with classroom updates. I'll continue to update it throughout the year. I can't wait to see what else Google has to offer!


Classroom website link: https://sites.google.com/a/richland2.org/ms-swindle-s-classroom/

Flat Stanley's Grand Finale

We received Flat Stanley letters from all over the world! In the end, letters came to us from as near as North Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi and as far as Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and London. We were sent amazing souvenirs, such as pecans from Texas, leis from Hawaii, and beautiful magnets from Puerto Rico. Each letter opened the students' eyes and allowed them to learn about a new part of the world they might not have already known about. The excitement that came with each returned letter never decreased and it was amazing to see students grow in their knowledge of the world around them. This project helped students learn about US regions and letter writing, but most importantly it allowed them to grow in their understanding of others and peaked their curiosity about the big world that surrounds them. Hopefully someday they can travel to some of these fun places!

Check out all of the places we traveled and a sampling of the souvenirs we got from each location!

Reading Party

The kids have been on their best behavior recently, which means we earned yet another marble party. We brainstormed party ideas, voted on our top three, and the winning party was...A READING PARTY! Students were allowed to bring in pillows, blankets, and their very favorite books and we spent the last 30 minutes of our day reading (and munching on a little snack I brought in!). A great time was had by all and I think it's safe to say we can't wait until our next marble party. Only 33 more marble worthy days to go!

Fairy Tales

Our classroom story last week was Cinderella, which meant that all other ELA activities revolved around fairy tales. In addition to reading many versions of Cinderella, comparing and contrasting them, and writing our own fairy tales, the students did an activity in which they read a fairy tale of their choosing, completed a story map about their fairy tale, and then created a brown paper bag puppet. The puppets turned out wonderfully and the students did a great job of presenting their mini book reports through their puppets. What a fun and creative way to study fairy tale elements!

Flat Stanley

About a month ago, we began to read the story Flat Stanley. In this story, a boy gets flattened by a bulletin board and is able to go on tons of cool adventures, such as traveling to California through the mail. We tied this story into regions and friendly letters and sent out our own Flat Stanley's about two weeks ago. We waited very patiently for our first Stanley to return, and he finally arrived on Friday morning!! Needless to say, the kids were beyond excited (and I was, too!!!). This Stanley came from the distant land of Charlotte, NC (47 miles away, FYI) and the kids were SO interested in all Stanley had done while away. We're keeping track of our travels on our region map and will then make a book out of our adventures. I cannot wait to see where else our Stanley's travel!

UPDATE: After the kids left today, I got another letter and a big box addressed to my students. I can't wait for them to open it tomorrow morning and see what's inside!!

TALL Tales

We studied tall tales for the past few weeks and the kids loved learning all about the adventures Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed, and John Henry went on. To finish up the unit, the students got a chance to create their own tall tale figure and write their own tall tale about their figure. There was one catch, though - when drawing their figures, they had to actually be TALL!! The kids came up with some creative ideas and it was a lot of fun to read all of their stories!

Marionette Theater Fun

This Friday, the second grade took a break from our regular schedule and headed to the Marionette Theater to see the Brementown Musicians. After watching the wonderful play, we got the chance to go backstage and get an inside look at what occurs to make a puppet show go smoothly. The kids even got to play with marionettes! We ended our day with lunch at a nearby park and a chance to play on a super cool playground. All in all, it was a great day and I think the kids learned a lot about theater and proper etiquette. I'm looking forward to the next time we have a reader's theater in class, where we read our story of the week as if it is a play, because the kids will be such professionals now that they've seen a play themselves!

Disco Fever

It's time for the family dance at my school and the theme is disco fever! We had to decorate our doors with this theme and so I let my kids have the chance to create what they wanted to put on it (a little scary to give them that control, but also fun for them). After brainstorming ideas, they chose to go with the theme "We've Caught the Disco Fever" and create a 70's man with a temperature (CAUGHT the fever...got it?!). I was very impressed and encouraged this fabulous theme. After a few afternoons of hard teamwork, we came up with this beautiful creation. I'm looking forward to the dance tomorrow night when I dance the night away under a disco ball!

Shape Robot

Sorry for the long gap since my last post! Things have been a little busy around here :) Our last unit in math focused on shapes and our last unit in social studies focused on recycling, so naturally we integrated the subjects and created a recycled robot! The kids LOVED this activity and had a great time naming the shapes as we used them to create our robot. This also allowed us to put a big focus on 3-D shapes, something we've only touched on, and I was surprised at how much the kids knew about these shapes - they never cease to amaze me. This robot proudly sat in our Town Hall area until a few days ago, when his hot glue joints went out and he started to fall. He's now actually been recycled, but we sure loved him while he was around!

UPDATE: We had our first marble party this week and it was a blast! The students brainstormed ideas for the party (some included a giant marble cake or a "learning party"- don't we do that everyday??), but in the end we chose extra recess and popsicles. It was the perfect day to spend extra time outside and the kids adored it. We've set our next marble goal for 30 marbles, 5 higher than last time, and I'm already looking forward to the next party!!

Marbles!

I have several different ways to manage behavior in my classroom, but the one that excites the students the most is the marble jar. At the end of each day, the students pack up and join me on the carpet. During this time, we reflect on our day and discuss all of the positive things that happened as well as all of the things that we need to work on the next day. The students are wonderful at reflecting and we are usually on the same page with our thoughts. After we reflect, we take a vote on whether we think we earned a marble that day; the students are so good at judging their own day that I rarely have to sway the final decision. If we earn a marble, we select a marble from my collection of marbles - you can't believe how thrilling this process is for 2nd graders!! - and add it to our marble jar. Our goal is currently 25 marbles, so once we reach that goal we will have a "Marble Party" which the students will decide upon. We are at 17 marbles right now, but I'm really looking forward to reaching our goal because I LOVE a par-tay!!

Check out the HUGE marble - only the best days earn one that big :)

Artist Spotlight

One of my co-workers had a fabulous idea to incorporate poetry into the classroom each week - a poetry journal! Each Friday, students are given a poem that we read together and then discuss its meaning. Students are then set loose and given the chance to visualize their idea of the poem in the form of a picture. They spend time drawing the pictures that they see when reading the poem and the results are always fabulous! I have an outsider come into the classroom each Friday to judge the "Artist of the Week" and the journal that is chosen is on display the entire next week. The kids love it, and it's a great way to study poetry and visualization. Here are some of my "Artist of the Week" winners that we've had this year!

I can't wait to see what other great poetry art work is created this year! 

Edible Landforms

Second grade sure is a lot of fun! We're starting to get into a regular routine and beginning to be able to handle fun activities. We're currently studying landforms in Social Studies and South Carolina happens to have many different ones - how convenient! After creating our own maps of SC landforms (including a map key, of course), we shaped cookie dough into the shape of our great state and then decorated it with the different landforms. The kids loved the decorating, and especially the eating at the end! See if you can guess what landform each food represents!

I'm off to watch the Gamecocks play in Charlotte and then spend the rest of the weekend with my lovely family in Winston-Salem. Enjoy your long weekend!!

The Beginning

I just had the most wonderful first week of school! My 20 students are all precious and we loved spending the week getting to know each other in a variety of ways. We shared "Me Bags", made a huge yarn web to show how we're connected, and talked about ourselves on puzzle pieces to show how we fit together. While these 'get to know you' activities were fun, however, I'm really looking forward to next week when the teaching actually begins!

While reading Chrysanthemum as a class, we crumpled this paper heart every time there was a put-down. By the end of the story, the heart was in a little ball. Even though we opened it and tried our best to smooth it, the wrinkles on the heart would not come out. We then put band-aids on it and signed our names to promise that we would not say put-downs to one another!

Meet Jo-Jo, our class mascot! We voted on his name this week (other top contenders were Horton and Ellie)  and next week he will begin going home with a different student each week. I'm excited to see what adventures will be recorded in his notebook!

Here We Go!

The school year is about to begin, which means lots of time spent setting up my classroom, planning lessons, and getting excited for my new students to arrive! I had a great time at our Meet and Greet tonight where I met my incredible students and their families for the first time. I'm truly looking forward to this year of teaching and know many wonderful things lie ahead. Monday morning will be here before we know it and I can't wait for everything to get started :)