Weak side/Strong side

Much of the first days of school is spent learning routines and procedures for how to make the classroom run smoothly, and learning how to be a good learner is part of that. In second grade, we use the idea of weak side/strong side to illustrate how kids can (and should) make good choices that benefit both themselves and their classmates.

As with many lessons, we began with a book. We read Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon.

I explained the idea of weak side/strong side by talking about how everyone has two voices in their head. You know, that one that encourages you to do your best, think happy thoughts, follow the rules–the shoulder angel. There’s also that other one that whispers and tells you how great of an idea it is to pinch your sister or blow bubbles in your milk or slide down the banister on the stairs–the shoulder devil.

In order to make the concept a little more concrete, and move visual, we created a class chart (which I will later make a little neater and hang on our anchor chart wall) with our ideas of things we could do or say that would fit under each side. Students started with partner thinking–where many of them recorded thoughts using a t-chart–then we put our ideas together. As of today, our chart looks like this (but it is ever-changing–I think we’ve added to it every day!):

It’s definitely sinking in, too, because I am hearing kids use the language of their chart when they speak to each other. 🙂 We’re by no means working perfectly all the time, but we’re on our way!

Self-Portraits 2015

Remember our FABULOUS portraits from last year? Well, we did it again. Partly because we had free wall space, partly because we took home the ones from 1st grade, partly because we look different than we did last year at this time, and mostly because it’s a way to reconnect our old community and connect for teh rifrst time with the new friends in Rm. 202.

We found a new book this year, which spoke to the idea of how beautiful we are in our own skin, and how that skin can come in such a spectrum of colors:

I really wanted us to paint our portraits, but because of a planning fail, I didn’t have those supplies ready for us when it was time to work. Instead, we used the same fabric, paper, and yarn that we used last year (plus really anything else that could be found in our room), as well as the many different colors of crayons and colored pencils we have to try to make our portraits match our beautiful selves.

Of course during the process, it was messy:

but once we were finished, and they were hanging, they were magnificent! I love how much they look like the kiddo who made them. 🙂 (Be sure to click on the pictures to see the full-size version. 🙂 )

Getting Started with Reading: Second Grade Reading Museum

I hope that like writing, it’s no secret that I love reading and books. And getting great books in the hands (and ears!) of kids so that they can have the feeling of losing themselves in a good book. One way we do that in 2nd grade (ok, in all my classrooms no matter what grade they are!) is read A LOT, and talk A LOT about books. This year, since our kiddos are older and wiser, we also added in a Reading Museum, like I’ve written about with bigger kids.

It started out much the same, with this invitation:

I changed the criteria for choosing books a little from when I taught 4th and 5th grade, but really the goal was the same: bring your favorite books to help us learn something about you as a reader.

When Friday finally came, we got ready by setting up our “exhibits” and discussing the etiquette for visiting museums.

As kiddos circulated through their friends’ exhibits, they were expected to be thinking about these questions:

We turned on some soft music and got busy with our museum:

I was very impressed with how quietly they were focused on checking out all the books on display. It became very clear, though, that most kids were not thinking about making connections with friends. They were instead focusing on just the middle question:
They were reading new books and finding new favorites, and you know what? That’s amazing! The goal of the museum (and in general) is to get kids excited about books and reading and see that it’s for them. When we shared at the end of our museum time, I was reassured that they actually were paying attention to whose books they were looking at, too, as they shared where they’d seen some of their new favorites. YAY!

I should have expected that they’d go about it in a little bit different way, and but I shouldn’t have been surprised that they still accomplished the goal I had set out. These kids are super amazing, after all. So glad we did this!

2nd Day of 2nd Grade Selfies!

Last year we shared our super-sweet pics of ourselves on the 1st Day of 1st Grade. So what could we do this year but share super-cool pics of ourselves on the 2nd Day of 2nd Grade??

While some of these are silly and some are serious, I think in many ways they show the personalities of the kiddos who took. And if I’m being honest, they weren’t all actually selfies, because I told them where to stand and probably micro-managed the whole thing a little too much. Boo. 😦 Sorry!

But the whole idea of selfies came from this article posted by my principal in our school’s ShareTank (which is a Facebook group where teachers can share learning and ideas with each other). It’s all about using selfies and other strategies to give kids more control and voice in the classroom. It is, after all, OUR classroom not just mine. And I know from the work I did on my Masters’ project last fall that choice and voice in the classroom increases engagement and perseverance, so why not?! I feel like I tend toward this direction anyway, but I can always do better at making sure my students are helping to direct their learning, with me alongside helping to facilitate that journey. I feel honored and humbled to have that opportunity. 🙂 Here’s to a great year of student-centered, student-directed, everyone’s-engaged learning!!

Getting Started with Math: How Much is Your Name Worth?

In the first days of school, our goals are both that kids get into subjects as well as that they build relationships with each other (just like last year!). One of our first forays into math this year was with a challenge about names.

The original activity was called “How Much is Your Name Worth?” and was all about how each letter of your name is worth a certain amount (i.e. a=1, b=2, c=3, etc.). While it was definitely a math challenge for some (we might have forgotten how to add over the summer!! LOL), it was also a reminder of how sometimes things are harder than we thought and we need to work through the tough parts.

For me, it was also an invitation to revisit the activity I was asking them to do and change what was tricky. Not because I wanted to make it easier, but because we realized that the directions on the first try were really confusing. Some were stuck with what to do, not how to do it. So I made a new sheet, and also invited a new question to the challenge that they could attempt with a partner (which added another level to the activity). Their new question was:

The other thing that happened here was watching kids as they solved the problem of who’s name was most expensive by thinking about both the length of the names, and which letters were included. There were resources everywhere that could help them if they knew they were there: the lunch sheet, our checkoff grids, the word wall, the helper chart, our mailboxes, our cubbies–the list went on and on!

In the end we didn’t really ask the question of who’s name was most expensive, but we all got our math brains moving, solved some problems together and worked with our friends! That’s a great start in my book!

Marshmallow Challenge: 2nd Grade Style

If you’ve been here for a while, then you are familiar with the Marshmallow Challenge that I’ve done a couple of times. Both of the previous times it’s been attempted in Rm. 202, though, it’s been with 5th graders. Well obviously I don’t have any of those anymore, so I wanted to see how my 2nd graders would rock this challenge.

Now, I must add that since most of us were here together last year, we had a little bit of an advantage, rather than doing with people who are relative strangers. The activity, however, was new to everyone.

I gave them the same directions and supplies as have been given before:

25 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of string, one yard of masking tape and a marshmallow

I put everyone together in our new Room Teams, and their first job was to create a name for their team (which is new for us–last year we just went with numbers). They were super creative, and came up with GREAT names like Cherry, The Blue Angels, The Legendary Black Dragons, The Golden Girls and the Lion Kings. Cool, right?

Ok, so next step was to plan. And that was fun to watch; each team had a different way of going about that:

Golden Girls making a plan

Cherry Team huddled at the short tables

Lion Kings kicking back and planning

The Blue Angels sketching their ideas

Legendary Black Dragons figuring out what to do

Once I said “GO” the fun began and the teams tried to create the tallest free-standing tower they could. I was SUPER impressed with how well each team worked together and also with how they built on each others’ ideas.

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When time was called and everyone stepped away, only one tower was still standing:

But we did go ahead and give a 2nd place nod to the Legendary Black Dragons for the height of their tower before it fell. Check it out:

They admitted that they should have worked on making the bottom stronger. No worries! Next time. 🙂

Now…we could have walked away and left it there, but of course we could not. We had a debrief on what worked and what didn’t, and talked about plusses and deltas for that activity. Here’s our chart of what we said:

Our conversation after the challenge was perhaps the best part. We could have said that most groups failed and that just the tower that stood was successful, but we were not ok with that. We agreed that we had many points that proved that we were successful in spite of the fact that our towers fell over. We had focused on the process and the product was not the biggest deal. We have come back to this chart already a couple of times, too, and used some of the plusses for other activities together!

We’re excited to try again!

Getting Started in Second Grade

Wahoo! We’re finally getting started! I spent some time getting ready, and it was fun to stop getting ready and finally get started! And since we’re looping, it has definitely been fun doing just that. I was looking back at the beginning of the year from last year to see what I had written about, and MAN–our kiddos were BABIES!! You should take a look and see how much all those munchkins have grown since last fall.

As is usual fashion for me here on 20somethingkids, I have TONS of stories to tell you! I am making a list of it all here, partly to help me make sure I get it all in, but also just in case you want a place to land to find it all. Once I add the post, I’ll link to it on this page and you can easily find it again. Ok, here we go!!

Over the last few weeks, we have done so many things!:

Marshmallow Challenge: Second Grade Style
Getting Started with Reading: Reading museum
Getting Started with Writing: Tiny Notebooks

Tiny Notebooks: Sharing

Self-Portraits
Appleletters
Reflection with plusses and deltas
2nd Day of 2nd Grade Selfies
Getting Started with Math: How Much is Your Name Worth?
Weak side/Strong side
Anchors of Learning
Math Warm-ups 8-18 to 8-2

…yet

I Hope You Make Mistakes

I know there were many things crammed into those first days together, but when I see it all in a list, I’m still amazed. Let’s get into it!

Together Again!

I’ll start with the only picture I took today:

Yep–it’s the same as the header on the blog now. It’s the snack we shared at our Back-To-School Park Party today. Looks yummy, right? And weird, I know, that I only took this one picture. And before I was even at the park! Goodness, Mrs. Bearden, you call yourself a blogger? They were just so busy running all around everywhere getting all hot and sweaty and having fun that I couldn’t get them all in the same frame for a pic. I know, I know, my sincerest apologies. 🙂

Today’s get-together was a little bittersweet, as we were not able to visit with everyone of our Rm. 202 friends. What a great opportunity, though, for those that were able to attend, to reconnect and remember how amazing is our community of learners! Oh, and to think about how LUCKY we are to be able to stay together for another year! We’ll be missing a few good friends, but have a few new ones joining us, and for sure we’re set for a FABULOUS year.

One thing I love about family reunions like these is the ease everyone feels as they come and can just hang out with old friends! It’s so different from how we all remember feeling last summer—how when I came to do home visits and our kiddos were waiting patiently (and nervously), looking out the window to meet their new teacher? Even with the most confident kiddos there was still some uncertainty–will I like my teacher?; Will I have friends? What will 1st grade be like? This year? SO DIFFERENT IN SO MANY GOOD WAYS!

Here’s what I love about looping (for those of you who were looking for a list. 🙂 ):

1) Like I mentioned before, the beginning of the year has a familiarity that is different than with a new class. Looping brings a chance to reconnect with “old” friends and pick up where you left off. All that “getting-to-know-you” that we did last year will come in so handy now as we look back on fond memories and look forward to making new ones.

2) We can jump right back in where we left off! Instead of spending the first 6 weeks of school learning about new procedures, routines and friends, we can get started with learning about new curriculum, sharing new books and making new connections! Think of all the extra time we will have!

3) Like the last one, we can jump right back in on class projects and activities we left in May. Since I knew that we would be together again, there were several things we left “undone” on purpose, knowing that we’d be able to come right back to them in August. What a gift–wish every year could be like that!

4) Everyone already knows and trusts each other! Yes, we are different people than when we left for the summer (some of us are OLD and 8 now!), but we all have a base and strong foundation from which to continue building as we get to know our friends (and even me!) better. We can build on what we know about each other from last year and add to it! There will even be ways to get to know some friends in ways that weren’t possible last year for whatever reason; another year gives us more time and space to really “get” each other as learners and as people!

5) We get to build on common experiences. I always love how many times in the 2nd year of a looping situation you hear me (or a friend) saying, “Remember when we….?” I can’t promise that I will keep track of that tally, but it will happen, and I will probably find a way to document it. I might have to say I’m most excited about breaking our own record for number of Read Alouds that we added to the timeline. I think we added 20, which beat my class from 2012-2013, which read 17 together. So here’s your challenge, Rm. 202–21 or more!

6) I know I already mentioned time in #2, but there is SO MUCH TIME that I can save as a teacher with trying to figure out where everybody is as a learner. Again, some things will have changed and kiddos will have grown over the summer, but it’s so great to walk in on Day 1 and KNOW the readers in my class (I’m excited to fill book boxes and get readers ready for another great year!), to KNOW what they can do as writers (and then plan for how we’ll do even more AMAZING things), to KNOW the mathematicians in my room and be able to listen as I attend trainings with a little bit different angle than some others (I can already plan specifically for what I know my kiddos can do and what they might need more time on), to KNOW how adept they are with using technology and how willing they will be to continue to go with me and try new things. I know what they know about science and social studies, as well as what we’re interested in knowing more about–I can use this as I plan our year! It’s so simple, but is such a WEALTH of knowledge that most teachers (including me last year) don’t get for many more months down the road. I can tweak things that didn’t quite work and continue those that did. See? The gift of time came up again!

7) I hope I don’t speak out of turn when I mention that another thing I love about looping is that trust that is already built with parents. While I’m sure that not everyone agreed with everything I did or how we did it (thanks for being nice about it, though, friends!), I think I can confidently say that you know that I care about our kids and want just what you want–for your kiddo to feel loved, to belong and to learn something new every day. I love working on a team with families, and am excited each day to see what new things are brought to the table. I hope I do you proud as I continue to work to inspire our learners to find their best selves and work to heights they hadn’t even realized they could reach. I am so lucky to get to work with this AMAZING group of kiddos every day and SO APPRECIATE that you share your 2nd grader with me. 🙂

WOW. I didn’t know that was going to come out of a picture-of-fruit-and-we-missed-you post, but it did and now I’m feeling even more excited and energized for our year together. Here’s to making 2015-16 the best yet!

Will you help me out with something, please? I would love to make this blog a more interactive place this year, and so would you please leave me a reply to this question–What are you most excited about for our year together? What is your child thinking about getting back to work with their Rm. 202 friends? What else are you thinking? 🙂

THANK YOU and HERE WE GO!!

Pictures of the Day: May 27, 2015–FIELD DAY!!

This one is probably best described with a slide show. The day was so full of fun and activities that I took lots and lots of pictures. We had a great time moving and grooving with our Learning Buddies. Even though it was raining, Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Manees planned an AMAZING indoor field day for us all to enjoy. THANK YOU!!!

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Pictures of the Day: May 26, 2015 (a little late….)

Yes, I know it is June 22. Just go with me here, ok? 🙂

There was only one (ok, well, two) pictures that we could have chosen to celebrate this day. And they had to involve this handsome fella:

Our dear friend Diego had been gone from us for a while, and this was his first day back. We were over the moon to see him again before summer break started!!

See? Us over the moon that our friend came home. 🙂 (And ok, maybe we were a little excited that there were only 3 days left until summer break…)

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Starting a 3rd Grade Journey

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