Read Across America Week!

What a fun, fantastical week we had!

  SMS left for vacation in style after celebrating Read Across America Week! I think it's safe to say, our Owl class loves reading just as much as Dr. Seuss himself!!

 Our exciting week started off with Fox in Socks Day! After listening to the tongue-twisting classic, students spent the morning showing off their own fun socks!

During reader's workshop, they practiced reading accurately by tackling some of Fox's tricky rhymes!

On Tuesday, we celebrated Cat in the Hat Day by sporting our favorite (or wackiest!) hats.

Mrs. Belanger shared one of her favorite stories with us: Nerdy Birdy!

          On Wednesday, kids came into the class and found things were quite wacky!

   We read the lesser known Dr. Seuss book (the use of his Theo LeSieg pen name threw us off!) Wacky Wednesday, then set off to locate all the wacky things we found around the classroom---boy were there some strange things we came across (and I'm not just talking about our outfits!!)

Thursday was Theodore Geisel Day (Dr. Seuss' real name!) and students came to school dressed as a favorite book character! Throughout the school, we saw several Dr. Seuss favorites, such as the Cat in the Hat, and Thing 1 and Thing 2, a whole slew of Harry Potter characters (I thought I was teaching at Hogwarts!), as well as many other favorites like Fancy Nancy, Pete the Cat, Piggy, and Pinkalicious! The fun just never stops!

 

 

 

Ms. Donlon and I teamed up to represent a 2nd Grade Classic!

We're SO lucky to have such a wonderful, fun classroom volunteer!

Pete the Cat danced into our classroom for a read aloud!

While we were sad to see it end, we ended our great week with a wonderful, curl up and read day. Sporting their PJs, students snuggled up with pillows and stuffed animal friends for a whole school "drop everything and read" event. Since we were all snuggled up and comfortable, we figured we'd stay that way and enjoy watching the movie Balto! After reading several stories about Balto and the other great dogs from 1925 Alaska, it was the perfect ending to our week (and will be the perfect start to our Iditaread which will begin after vacation---stay tuned!)

Thank you Dr. Seuss for all your wonderful stories! You have instilled a love for reading in each and everyone of us!!

SMS is Celebrating Read Across America Week!

 Today we began celebrating Read Across America Week! SMS will honor Dr. Seuss and his love of reading by dedicating each day of the week to a different Dr. Seuss theme. Students (and teachers!) are encouraged to dress up as they participate in many literacy activities throughout the week. It's going to be great! Check out the theme schedule below:

Monday, 2/19-Fox in Socks Day: wear crazy socks and show them off!

Tuesday, 2/20-Cat in the Hat Day: wear your favorite hat!

Wednesday, 2/21-Wacky Wednesday: wear mismatch clothing!

Thursday, 2/22-Theodore Geisel Day: dress up as your favorite book character!

Friday, 2/23-Curl Up and Read Day: wear PJs and bring a pillow/stuffed animal to curl up for our school-wide Drop Everything and Read Event!

Have a great week & happy reading!!

Celebrations Galore! 2H Celebrates the 100th Day and Valentine's Day!

 The last two weeks have given us so many reasons to celebrate here in 2H! Wednesday, Feb. 7th, marked our 100th day together as a second grade class. It's hard to believe we have less than eighty days left together. As I always tell our class, time sure flies when you're having fun!

     Students did a great job completing their 100 days homework assignment---thank you for your help! It was fun sharing our collections and comparing just what "100" looks like!

 

The collections that looked the smallest and largest!

 Our math workshop had us seeing just how many things we could do in 100 seconds (which your mathematicians quickly discovered was 1 minute 40 seconds!) We set the timer and we were off!

Clapping our hands!

Hopping up and down!

Writing our name---some of us have much longerrrr names than other!

Sitting and standing!

 Later in the day, as a fun 100th day challenge, the owls worked together to complete some collaborative "100 Post-it Posters!" After calculating the math (including myself, we would need to add 5 post-its to each poster in order to reach 100), we set off in coming up with 100 ways to make 100, 100 places we'd like to travel, 100 books we love and 100 things to do before we're 100 years old! After stretching our thinking, we got the job done! Everyone had a blast reading all of the post-its when we were through!

As if the 100th day excitement wasn't enough celebrating this month, the all time highlight was definitely our celebration of Valentine's Day. We were reminded that Valentine's Day is about being with the people you love and showing kindness to others, and we certainly had a great day together!

Starting our day with a two-part heart greeting!

Our math workshop had us completing many heart-filled measuring activities!

Finding the perimeter of the giant heart (first in inches and then converting those inches into feet!)

Measuring and coloring hearts using centimeters!

Creating and measuring "love bugs"!

 

Before lunch, we enjoyed some crafty (& delicious) writing! Using conversation hearts, writers had to fit the words on the candies into sentence to make a letter! While this proved to be pretty tricky, the final pieces came out great (& of course everyone enjoyed eating some of the leftovers!!).

Later in the day, we explored a Valentine's Day mystery: How does your heart pump blood? After making observations about their pulse and heart rate, they created a valentine card for their heart!

 

    After a fun-filled day, the end of the day arrived and it was time for our holiday celebration. Our adorable Owl Bags were ready to be filled! Every student had a BLAST delivering their valentines and had an even more terrific time opening and reading their special cards!

 

 

Even I got SPOILED this Valentine's Day! Thank you all for thinking of me!!

Happy faces all around! A huge thank you for your help in sending in valentines. Each child had a chance to exchange these nice gifts with their friends. What a treat!!

I hope you and your family had a very happy, loving Valentine's Day!