Reading Groups, Birdie Art, Hail Storm and Too Much to Do!

 Hey there!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend!

I finally remembered to take enough pictures to link up with Kacey from Doodlebugs for Five for Friday again!

1

I love this time of year... My second graders are becoming quite independent and we are in need of "mixing things up" a bit. 

I have them read our main story as a group. I give them a list of questions to guide discussion and they take turns being the teacher as they read. It is fun to wander and listen in on their conversations. They even raise their hands as they wait to be called on by the "teacher!"

2

We had a crazy hail storm the other day right after school. 

3

I thought these birds were a little too simple for second grade, but they were so cute I couldn't resist! Turns out the kids loved making them anyway!

4

This is what happens when you have a particularly draining week...

Those are mostly writing notebooks...but it represents the amount of work I brought home because I couldn't even think about doing anything yesterday after school. :-(

5 

And finally, my to-do list for today...

Isn't it sad?

Notice the 'Buddy plays @ 5' is in my husband's handwriting.

All morning before I had to leave, I was asking, "What time does Buddy play?" Buddy being Buddy Hield who plays for Oklahoma. Final Four is tonight and since my Jayhawks are out, I'll be cheering for OU. And yes, I call all my favorite players by their first name as if I know them! ;-)

Anyway, when I left without my list (to work concessions at a Forensics meet which I didn't put on the list), I asked my husband to send me a picture and he had added that for me. LOL!

Where will you be at 5?

I'll be in front of the TV cheering for Buddy!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

 

P.S. No throwing rotten tomatoes, but someone told me yesterday we only have 29 more days of school! WHAT!?!?!?!?!

Reading Stories and Writing Biographies

Hey there! 

It feels like it has been forever since I posted...that could be because I missed my Friday post last week. We had a ladies conference at church that kept me busy. 

I'm back today to catch you up on a few things going on around here before I race off to my children's band concert. It is definitely that time of year when the days and evenings are just crammed with activities! Yikes! 

We were supposed to have "Farm Day" this afternoon, but we were rained out. :-( 

So...I thought it was the perfect day to visit the computer lab. 

You see, earlier this week we had interviewed classmates and wrote a biography in our journals. It was time for the final draft.

Here we are practicing our interview skills.

They were so excited to type their biographies! Before we headed to the lab, I explained that they would need to really listen and follow my directions exactly. If they failed to do so, I would become annoyed and I would want to quit. Ha!

This class is absolutely amazing! I just can't say enough good things about them. They did a great job, and we only had one student move another student's folder to an unknown location by mistake. Hee hee. I call it a success! We'll have to finish typing next week.

We have also reading our basal stories differently the last few weeks. I like to do this at the end of the year to keep things exciting and secretly work on learning to cooperate with one another. 

I take each story and type up the questions from the teacher's manual. The groups then read the story and take turns being the teacher by asking the comprehension questions. We discuss the importance of getting along with each other and make sure there are no "hogs or bumps on the log." They are getting pretty good at working together. It is fun to watch!

That's all I have for today! I'm off to the band concert. Both my kids play...my son is playing piano in the jazz band for the first time. He's talked non-stop about it for weeks (and if you knew my son that in itself would tell you how excited he is--he is not a talker)!

Have a great weekend!