Merry Christmas!

Wow!  December has flown by.  We have learned about Christmas around the World for social studies, and the kids should have brought their suitcase home yesterday.  We have been working hard on 2 and 3 digit addition and subtraction and word problems.  When we get back from break, we will start a money unit in math.  The kids are progressing well in their math facts, but still need to practice over break to keep their skills going.  In writing, during the month of December, we've been working on writing about each class member.  We are also working on making our writing come alive by using similes.  Unfortunately, there was not enough time to squeeze every student in, so we will continue this after break. 

Today, we read the Polar Express, had hot chocolate, and watched the movie.  The kids wrote about what they would ask for if they could have the first gift of Christmas.  They were so precious, I just have to share.  Note:  I am not editing them much, because I think their spelling is cute and shows their development. 

Kamryn:  I would ask for a fiary, reflective, magicle, pet Pheonix.  Because red, orange, and yellow are the first colors of the rainbow!  Also I would like my own persinal, never melting magic crystle snowflake.

Andrew:  If I, Andrew Balfour, were to have the first gift of Christmas, it would be . . . a venom spitting cobra that scares off girls that chase me.

Kenzie:  My first wish is I want a guitar that is pick.  (pink).  My second wish is a snake that bites boys.

Breleigh:  If Santa gave me the first gift of Christmas I would like. . . a manchin and inside of that manchin is a billion dollers and a . . . snake, puppy, kitty, tertle, buny and hampster.

Gage:  I would probly ask for 50 billiion dolers.  I could by a giant manchon and a 800 inch screan t.v.  And a baby wolf that would never bite me.  Same with a spitting cobra.

Jake:  A prfikt, olsum trip to Huwiy where I can surf the waves and finde seeshels and rest my feet on the sand.  I dusrv a brake. 

Angela:  I would ask for a fluffy, and as white as snow stuffted animal Genetic Mustant.  Because it would be cozy and it would be very fun to play with.

Isaiah:  The first gift I will receive is a puppy softer than a skarf made of fur.  And softer than a polar bear in the snow.

Carly:  I would wish for a puppy that is as soft as a polar bears fur.  I want it to be a golden retriever because I love them.  I always wanted it.  I would get a bowl, water, brush and I would give it a bath whenever it needs wone. 

Chloe:  I would wish for a nice family and a loving family.  I would wish for some super soft skats that would teatch me how to skate.  I would wish for a super soft, snugly puppy.  I would wish for hearts and love.

Lula:  I would wish for a cute little puppy that cdles and a kittin that cdles to.

Kate:  If I could have the first gift of Christmas I want a glass, glowing, glamorous globe because I could see what the world looks like and do a book report of the world.

Emma:  If I got the first gift of Christmas it would be a new, soft something you can braid blond hair, with no tangels hair style for my favorite doll Phebe.

Orion:  I wish for a soft, fluffy, white little pug.  He will not bit me never ever.  I will play with it ever day for the rest of my life.  and he will be snugly when we are usleep.

Aniafaye:  I would whout a puppy because I want a brown pup  that does not grow up.  Because my sister she is going to be scard and its going to jump on her because she's a crybaby.

Aiden:  If I had infinity suckers, dlishes suckers, sticky suckers.  That would taste like charee.

Anthony:  I will whish for a big, silver ringing bell off of Santa's sleigh. I wunt to whish for a mario geilxy game.  I will whish for a moder sikle.  I whunt a fake sord.  for Christmas.

Kadie:  I would wish for love and peace in the world and a holly jolly year.


I hope these warmed your heart like they did mine.  The kids have been one big ball of crazy this week, but reading these makes it all worth it.  They are truly a gift to me everyday, and we can all learn so much by listening to their dreams. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.  May ALL of your wishes come true! 

Love,
Mrs. Stiffler




Crazy pic - this is how it's been all week! 

Just kidding.  Look at these angels.



The girls getting ready to watch the Polar Express.



Trying to contain the excitement.

This afternoon, Mr. Walck had a special delivery for us with a letter from Santa.  He sent each of the kids a bell that was still ice cold from the North Pole!  They were beyond excited!

 

If this moved you, feel free to leave us a comment below.  We love reading them!

Adjective Fashion Show and Fall Party!

Boy, did we have a great time at our Adjective Fashion Show!  While the kids were walking the runway, we came up with adjectives to describe their style.  Afterwards, the kids wrote descriptions of their outfit using the adjectives.  It was out of this world, let me tell you!  So much fun!

First, let me back up to the beginning of our adjective unit.  To start out, we read Ruth Heller's "Many Luscious Lollipops" to learn about describing words.  Then, each student received a lollipop and used all five senses to describe the lollipop.  Next, we created superheroes and described them.  Our next step was to write a description of ourselves richly enough so that others would be able to know who they were.  When we were finished writing, we went around the room reading the descriptions and putting our guesses on post-it notes.  Most of us were spot-on!  Our finale was the adjective show.

 Please forgive the blurry iphone photos.  

 What a bunch of hams!  Well, actually, it's the funniest thing.  Some of the most outspoken, outgoing kids were suddenly very shy when it came time to walk the runway.  The shy kids surprised me by being really expressive!  It was too funny!

Fall Party

Our fall party later that day was loads of fun!  Our room mother, Neshela Duke, with the help of many of you, did a great job putting it all together.  The kids had some fun treats (oreo spiders compliments of Breleigh's family - darling!)  and we had a mummy wrapping contest.  A good time was had by all.

Reminders for this week:

Don't forget to send a sack lunch with your child Friday - we will be eating lunch at the WSU basketball game!

Happy Fall, Reminders, and What We're Learning Now

Hello again!  I promise I'll try to be better about updating our blog.  I love this time of year.  The trees are beautiful, the weather is heaven, the kids are excited about dressing up and getting candy.
Speaking of dressing up, Thursday will be our Adjective Fashion Show!  Don't forget to send an outfit with your child for this spectacular event!  We will be rating each outfit by how many adjectives we could use to describe it.  It is tons of fun!

Our Secret Super Hero Writing was darling - the kids did a great job of describing themselves with adjectives.  Next week, we will read them and try to guess who wrote them.  We will also start brainstorming our Turkey Persuasive writing project next week.  We will read books about turkeys disguising themselves so as not to get eaten for Thanksgiving.  Then we will take a stand - should we eat turkey for Thanksgiving or save the turkey and eat something else?  Students will then write a persuasive article convincing the reader why or why not we should eat turkey for Thanksgiving.

In reading, we are working on making inferences.  Last week, we learned the OWI method - observe, wonder and infer.  We looked at some really interesting pictures, observed them, asked questions, then made an inference about what was occurring in the picture.  This was one of the pictures we used the OWI strategy with.  Later in the week, we had some fun with Halloween inferencing - it was lots of fun!


We are also working hard on our Unit 2 projects - some kids are creating their timelines with posters, powerpoints, and some are making Paperslide videos.  I will be excited to share some on this blog when they are finished.

In math, we wrapped up our unit on word problems.  However, from the looks of the test, this is still something we really need to work on.

Below, enjoy some pictures from our Crash and Read Character Counts party and our  Electronics party that the kids earned by getting 100 mark offs on our class 100's chart.

                                           Okay boys.  Not much reading going on here.

                      This is what happens when I let Jake take pictures with my phone.  Too funny!

                         Below, I included some photos of the kids at work during the day so you might get a                         feel for what their day is like.

     During book clubs, kids go to different activities based on their needs.  Here, kiddos are practicing       reading fluency by reading a script.

 Here, Emma is presenting her Lion poster that she worked on during book club.  She read the book, "Who Would Win - A Lion or a Tiger?" Then she created a poster to share her findings.  Speaking and Listening are important second grade standards, and they are getting plenty of practice!

Aliyah is presenting her diorama about the Bull Shark.  She read "Who Would Win - A Bull Shark or a Blue Whale?"