OUR MVP Ryan

Yesterday I got to go to a bowling party.  I drove in Mrs. Oak's car to the bowling party.  When we got there, I had to get some bowling shoes on.  Then we walked over to find a ball.  We took the ball to a lane.  We typed in our names.  Olivia, Jackson, and Cheyenne bowled with me.  I hit a lot of the pins down.  I was excited and gave Mrs. Oak's a high five everytime I knocked them down.

After a little while Mrs. Oaks brought me some pizza and pop.  I had pepperoni pizza and Dr. Pepper.  The pizza was tasty.  Finally it was time to go home.  My mom came and picked me up in a little bit.  Bowling was really awesome and I hope I get to go again!

OUR MVP Damen

This year was my second year playing in the Cornhusker State Games for hockey.  Our team name was the Little Lancers and I was the team goalie.  When our team received our jerseys the parents set up the locker room like a professional NHL locker room, it was awesome.  On our way out to play our first game in the  tournament all the parents lined up to give us high fives and tell us good luck.  It was a very hard tournament but our team had so much fun.  Our team even had its own professional photograph with us at all times, he is also the Omaha Lancers photographer.  We all can’t wait to play in the tournament again next summer.

 

Glove save during game.

Damen and fellow team mate celebrating after the Little Lancers scored.

Team locker room

Damen getting ready to go on the ice.

 

 

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Our MVP Talia

Going to Colorado

 

First, we hiked in the mountains.  Next, we rode horses.  My horse's name was Lance.  We had a cabin next to a really fast river.  It was really loud and had a little waterfall.  We caught a trout.  It was a rainbow trout.  Teh best part of Colorado was swimming at the hotel.  We also went on a carriage ride and I jumped off a building on a bungee cord.



We Remember

Today is Patriot's Day, a day that we use to remember the events of 9/11 and those who lost their lives that day.  We took took a break from our learning at  9:11 a.m. to have a moment of silence and then followed that with The Star Spangled Banner.  What a great opportunity to recognize and remember all those that work daily to keep our country safe and free. 

We also had the opportunity to show our remembrance by creating a pictorial representation of September 11th, shared by a wonderful teacher at http://primaryparadise.blogspot.com/2012/09/free-september-11th-craftivity.html The picture shows the Twin Towers, Pentagon, and a badge representing the first responders who were there to help, with the background of our flag.  It is an amazing tribute to all, and a fantastic way to remember and celebrate what makes us proud to be an American!

We hope you enjoy our tribute. 

American Symbols Reader's Theater

Our second grade class has been learning about America, with a focus on the symbols that represent our country and what our rights and responsibilities are as citizens.  As part of our learning this week we completed reader's theaters. Reader's theater is an awesome tool that incorporates the content along with speaking and reading fluently.  Take a look at our performances!

 

Our MVP Katie

We ate in our classroom because we got all of Joe's body parts.  Joe is our potato head.  We get body parts because we are being quiet at the carpet, are being respectful, or get a compliment from another teacher.  If you were cold lunch you got to leave your lunch in the classroom.  If you were hot lunch you got to go down to the lunchroom to get your lunch.  Then we came back into the room so that we could eat our lunches.  I was happy that we got to do that.  It was really fun to do it. 

Our MVP Brody

Minecraft is a really fun game.  There are tons of blocks and there are creepers and zombies and spiders.  You can get swords, shovels, pick axes, and a hoe.  There are diamonds.  Your character can die. 

Our Favorite Things

Today we will work together to write our first class blog post that will tell you all about what we've been working on in writing...

     We all brought blue bags that had three things that we wanted to write about. (Damen)  We wrote about the first favorite thing we pulled out. (Katie)  Then we all learned how to write paragraphs. (Kate)  Our class wrote five paragraphs all about ourselves. (Blake)  All of the essays had the same endings. (Addison) It took us three days to finish it! (Kitt) After we were done writing, we decorated the front of our essay with a self portrait. (Cameron)  Finally we got to share our essays with the class. (Jasmyne)

Ryan is sharing his story.

John is reading his essay.

Damen is writing his essay.

Kitt is writing about her favorite things.

Hudson is sharing the story to the class.

Boo!  Can you guess who is who by our self portraits?

Building Our Reading Stamina

A large part of our daily literacy routine is our Daily 5 Rotations.  Daily 5 consists of 5 (in our room 6) different literacy stations that each child can choose to complete daily.  They complete 2 stations each day, with their third rotation being either a reading group or a reading response assignment from reading group.    The 6 stations they may choose are: 

Read to Self - students silently read books that they have self selected

Read to Someone - students read with a partner from a selection of poems, magazines, and books

Listen to Reading - students utilize Tag Readers or Leapsters to listen to fluent reading and/or play educational literacy games

Work on Writing - students write independently.  Often times they will have a writing activity to complete but after that they can choose to write anything they'd like. 

Word Work - students practice their sight words and phonics skills by choosing from a large selection of word working games including - Boggle, stamping words, rainbow writing words, word wheels, making words, and roll and spell words

Ipads - students may choose to read/listen to books from several sites or play literacy based games

We have learned expectations for several of our Daily 5 centers and will continue to work on doing them correctly throughout this week.  Reading groups will start slowly this week and then in full force next Tuesday. 

OUR MVP KITT

I want to show you some of my pictures when we went behind the waterfall. 

This is Snake River Falls

This is the picture of my cousins and me and my brother and my uncle behind the waterfall.

This is me, my brother, and my mom on a ledge.

My uncle picked me up and put me in the waterfall.

I was climbing on the rocks behind the waterfall. 

A New Year in 2nd Grade!

Welcome new friends to TEAM Heath!  We are off to a fantastic start to our 2014-2015 year.  Our first week of school went smoothly.  Take a look at our shining faces on the first day of school!

On our first few days together we spent a lot of time talking about what makes a good team and reviewing expectations for learning and behavior. Here you can see us listening carefully to Mrs. Glover as she explains what happens if we forget to follow the school rules of Be Safe, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible. 

Of course, we have also taken the time to have some fun in class.  We have played games on the smartboard, learned some new brain breaks and word games that we will play throughout the year, and gotten to know one another better.  Our first game of telephone was fun, but an utter failure!  I guess it still counts as a win if the kiddos are smiling!!

  All and all, it was a fun-filled, fantastic first week of school.  I can't wait to see what the new week, and the rest of the year, hold!!

 

 

Love,

Mrs. Heath

 

A Timeline of Papillion

Learning about the past is an important part of social studies; understanding the past can be hard though!  When you are 8 years old, everything seems to have happened in the past.  Many 2nd graders are unable to tell you who lived first - George Washington or Abraham Lincoln - and some would even tell you that they lived at the same time.  How then, do we get young children to understand that things that have happened in the past occurred over a span of time?  We use time lines.

Because our standards are focused heavily on understanding how our community has changed over time, we used a timeline of Papillion's history.  We began with the founding of Papillion in 1857 and listed important events that have occurred, including when Hickory Hill opened, Shadow Lake's opening, and the building of Werner Park.  Students worked together to put the events into order and discussed why things have changed in our community. 

You can support this understanding at home by having your child create a timeline of their own life, or even of your family.  Talk with them about how your family has changed throughout the years. 

I'm Talking BIG!

In writing we have been working on revising our writing by using more exciting words.  Today we read an awesome poem:  I'm Talking Big!

I’m Talking Big!

By: Colin McNaughton

I’m talking big!

I’m talking huge!

I’m talking enormous, immense,

Tremendous!

I’m talking hulking, towering,

Titanic, mountainous!

I’m talking maximum, massive, stupendous, gigantic, monumental!

I’m talking fantastic, fabulous,

Incredible, unbelievable, mammoth,

Vast!

I’m talking astronomical, mighty,

Monstrous, universal, colossal,

Magnificent, galactical!

I’m talking BIG!

 

After reading this poem, students worked together to write their own synonym poems for some of our "over-used" words. 

 

Walking

By:  Connor and Haleigh

 

I’m talking skipping!

I’m talking running!

I’m talking galloping and sliding, jogging, and hopping!

I’m talking walking!

 

Hot

By:  Sariyah and Addison

 

I’m talking  burning!

I’m talking steaming!

I’m talking sizzling, roasting, blistering.

I’m talking hot!

 

Small

By:  Andrew K. and Kamira

 

I’m talking teeny weeny!

I’m talking tiny!

I’m talking miniature, teeny, microscopic!

I’m talking small!

 

 

Happy

By Marriah and Mason

 

I’m talking joyful!

I’m talking elated!

I’m talking great, glad, thrilled!

I’m talking happy!

 

Excited

By: Emily and Andrew G.

 

I’m talking bedazzled!

I’m talking impressed!

I’m talking awesome, great, shocked!

I’m talking excited!

 

Sad

By:  Molly and Grace

 

I’m talking disappointed!

I’m talking worried!

I’m talking lonely, let down, upset!

I’m talking sad!

 

Good

By: Landyn and Trey

 

I’m talking nice!

I’m talking enjoyable!

I’m talking satisfying, excited, great!

I’m talking good!

 

Cold

By:  Madison and Thomas

 

I’m talking freezing!

I’m talking breezy!

I’m talking icy, windy, frosty!

I’m talking cold!

 

 

Nice!

By:  Orion and Bryce

 

I’m talking respectfully!

I’m talking honest!

I’m talking delightful, gladly, friendly!

I’m talking nice!

 

Fun

By:  Brayden and Joshua

 

I’m talking entertainment!

I’m talking ball!

I’m talking impressed, pleased, enjoyment!

I’m talking fun!

 

OUR MVP EMILY (the last one for the year!!)

I've had a great week being MVP.  I like when we get to make words out of my name.  Some of the words we made were mime, maze, are, and yum.  I got to share my poster the first day.  I got to bring five show and tells.  I brought my snow globe, my favorite book, "Night, Night Emily", a ball of clay I made.  I also brought a rainbow bracelet I made.  The snow day on Wednesday I did not do my WORDLE because we weren't here.  We did it today.  Today we got to do my MVP paper.  The MVP paper is when you get to say something nice about the person who is the MVP.  I loved being MVP but now it over.  That makes me sad because there is no more MVP's to do for the year so there will be no more papers or we won't get to see any more show and tells.  I am also feeling excited because I get to eat lunch with my mom!

Snow Day Musings ... And a Few Great Poems

I love snow days -- and hate them at the same time!  I love that I get a bonus day to spend with my family and get caught up on the never ending pile of work that teaching brings.  I also hate that I miss seeing the bright, shiny faces of my 21 friends.  We have a lot of fun learning together each day and I miss them when we are apart!

As for this snow day - I'm busy getting some work done for my boys' trap team, looking at some writing done by our friends, scoring essays for Hickory Hill's scholarship, and going through a stack of papers that have been needing my attention.

One of the things in my stack of papers are two great poems written by friends on our 2nd grade team.  One had an author name and will be noted, the other is apparently anonymous.  Either way - they are both great and I wanted to share them with you!

We're a
T - teammates
E - entertained
A- awesome
M - Mrs. Heath as teacher
         By:  Andrew K.

We're a Team
T-turns
E- excited
A-amazing
M-mighty

H-helpful
E-education
A-athletic
T-thoughtful
H-happy
     By:  Anonymous