PJ Party

We ended up the week before vacation with our PJ Party.  Children were invited to wear holiday pjs and bring in their favorite holiday story to share with a reading partner.  Everyone was so excited to share their stories and participate in a fun filled day before heading out for a two week break.

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Artistic Inspiration

We were so inspired by Bren Bataclan and his work that we created a bulletin board outside our classroom with art created in Bren's style.  Don't you think it feels happy?

The week before vacation Bren Bataclan joined us at NMES to create a mural for us all to enjoy.  He used ideas generated by the entire school to create a harbor inspired mural.  Our fifth graders created sketches of the scenes Bren painted.  It was so much fun to see him in our halls each day.  The children really enjoyed watching the project evolve. 

When Bren was working on finalizing the mural two of my students led tours to the mural.  They then took photos of the groups near the mural.  They were very proud to be entrusted with this job.  They took it very seriously. 

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Artist Bren Bataclan

In December NMES will be visited by Boston based artist Bren Bataclan.  On December 15th students in grades K-2 and then 3-5 will attend assemblies to learn about Mr. Bataclan's art and process.  Mr. Bataclan will be working with the older students to create a mural in our school.  Younger students will be involved in brainstorming ideas to be included in our mural.

You can see some of Mr. Bataclan's street-art inspired work on his website.  He has worked with many schools to create both smiles and art!  One of Mr. Bataclan's  initiatives is to spread hope with art.  His story was featured on CBS news.   You can check it out here.

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CREW Star Rewards

Throughout NMES children have the opportunity to earn CREW tickets when they show CREW expected behavior.  The expected behaviors for different areas in our school have been identified and shared with students.  Our student council posted signs throughout our building to remind students of expected behavior.  CREW stands for Cooperative, Respectful, (Excellent) Effort and Welcoming (Friends).  In our class we have been using tally marks to keep track of the tickets earned by each student.   Each child has earned a bookmark and for every five CREW tickets  he or she earns a star for the bookmark.  We worked together to come up with a list of rewards from which the children can choose. Today the children chose from our Crew Star Menu.  Some children spent all of their stars while other spent some and saved a few.  A small number of students are saving up their stars for a big prize.

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Time

Part of our next math unit involves telling time.  Learning how to tell time is challenging for children.  The common core requires children in second grade to be able to tell and write time to the nearest five minutes from both an analog and digital clock .   I am always on the lookout for helpful strategies to teach children how to remember the difference between the minute hand and the hour hand.  I found this idea on a blog through Pinterest.  I think it will be helpful!

Students are also expected to know the relationships of time, including seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour, days in a week/month/year, and weeks in a month and year!   

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Half Day Happenings - Author Study

 On, Wednesday, November 19th we spent the day reading, talking, watching and writing about a variety of Ezra Jack Keats's books.  We read Hi, Cat!, Whistle for Willie, Peter's Chair, A Letter to Amy, Goggles and The Snowy Day.  The children noticed that many of the stories revolved around the same characters and took place in the city.  They learned about the themes of friendship and perseverance.  You can find some of the stories we read online here. 

Here is a peak into our Author Study.

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In the future students will visit the other second grade teachers to learn about a variety of other children's authors.  

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American Education Week

On Monday November 17th we welcomed our families into our classroom to celebrate American Education Week.  During the last hour of the school day the children taught their families how to play some of the math games we use to practice skills we are working on in second grade.  The turnout to our event was fabulous.  The children were so excited to have guests in our classroom.  The anticipation was palpable in our classroom all morning.  After math children read to family members or a partner.  Reading together was a calm way to end a very exciting afternoon.

Enjoy this slideshow of our time together.

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Until next time....