Our $150 ornaments

Mrs. Tirey asked us to help decorate her office's Christmas tree.  The theme was "What does agriculture mean to you?"  Students created a corn ornament in which they filled a glass ball with corn and wrote what agriculture means to them.  They also put together a paper farm animal ornament. 

After the tree was on display, it was auctioned off to raise money for charity.  Our tree raised $150 for St. John's Breadline!  When I told the students, they cheered, especially knowing they had helped raise money for others!

 

Photo courtesy of Mrs. Tirey

Germy Vokis

Voki is a fun website that allows people to create their own talking avatars.  After learning how to use the program, students used the website to show off how much they've learned about germs and staying healthy in science.  Check it out!

You can see more by going to Voki and signing in with our class's username and password (you'll find it on our links website).

Meet Jake!

We had a very special visitor waiting for us when we arrived at school this morning!  We have an elf!  This elf spends his days in our classroom watching our activities and behavior and at night, he reports back to Santa himself!  After his first day in our classroom, I think Santa will be very happy with the report!

Our first mission was to name our elf.  After some brainstorming and a vote, we have chosen to name our elf Jake.  Jake will be with us everyday until Christmas break.  Every morning, when we show up to school, he will be hiding somewhere in our classroom!

Food Drive

Along with reading, writing, and math, NBE strives to teach its students how to be good citizens and caring individuals.  Last week, we reached out to the community and held a food drive to benefit the Loami Food Pantry.  Although it was a competition among the grade levels, the real winners are the Food Pantry and the families it serves.

Our class donated 169 food items alone!  In all, 2nd grade donated over 300 food items!  As a school, we donated over 2,000 food items!  The workers at the food pantry commented that their shelves have never been this full!

 

The donaters!

 

This is just 1 table full of food!  The custodians had to keep setting up more tables throughout the week!

 

Check out the overflow on the floor and under the tables!

Thanks to the students of NBE, area families will have a wonderful, plentiful Thanksgiving this year!

Halloween Party

We had such a great time at our Halloween party on October 31!  We haven't had much time for fun yet this year, so we went all out!  A huge thank you goes out to Mrs. Tirey for creating the crafts and bringing ice-cream sundaes and a huge thank you goes out to Mrs. Pecoraro for planning our games!

October Awards

My Rockin' Second Graders are working so hard this year!  We're 50 days into second grade and they have made so much progress already!  I think I'm going to have to find some more challenging stuff for them - especially math!

We recently celebrated our October successes with awards and celebrations.  Check them out!

October's Homework Hall of Fame... these students turned in every single homework assignment!

We had lunch in the classroom with The Lorax and ice-cream sundaes!

 

Awesome Behavior... these students' clips never went below green all month!

They celebrated with a special trip to the goody box.

Congratulations!  You're hard work is really paying off!

Red Ribbon Week

New Berlin Elementary celebrated Red Ribbon Week during the week of Oct. 22-25.  The goal of Red Ribbon Week is to raise awareness about drug abuse and educate children about the dangers and harmful effects drugs have on their growing bodies.  We discussed that drugs hurt your body and your brain and talked about healthier choices we could make (eating healthy foods, staying busy, playing sports, and getting exercise).  To garner excitement about the week, students participate in dress up days.

Monday:  Crazy Sock Day

 

 

 Tuesday:  Sports Day

 

Our baseball fans

 Our football fans

 Our racing fans

 Our all-things-Pretzels fans!

Wednesday:  Red Day

 Thursday:  Pretzel Pride Day

 

Our boys showing off their orange and blue

 

Our girls decked out in their orange and blue

You Read to Me, I'll Read To You Poems

During benchmark test week, we worked so hard on our tests that we deserved to have a little fun.  So, we worked on You Read to Me, I'll Read to You:  Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together poems.  Students worked in pairs and practiced until their fluency was perfect.  Check out our performances!

September Awards

At the end of each month, we celebrate students who have achieved significant milestones.  Check out our award recipients for the month of September!

 

Rockin' Readers:  These students completed their September reading logs.

We celebrated their accomplishment with a party Friday afternoon!

 

Homework Hall of Fame:  These students completed every homework assignment in September.

We celebrated by having lunch in the classroom - and I brought dessert!

 

Awesome Behavior:  These students never moved their clip below green all of September!

These students got to choose something from the goody box!

Congratulations on your accomplishments!  Keep up the great work!

Laptop Lab

If a Friday afternoon isn't exciting enough, add laptops into the mix!  Last Friday, we practiced our math skills by playing the games on the online Everyday Math games that can be found on their website.  Students were able to play online versions of our favorite classroom games, such as Top It, Beat the Computer, and the Number Grid Game.  Check out how much fun learning can be!

 

Kobi and Landon play Basketball Addition

 

Corren and Flynn are engrossed in their games

 

Molly, Caroline, Skyler, and Peyton on their laptops

 

Emily, Brady, Dominic, and Keira are deeply engaged in their games

 

Katie played the Number Grid Game.

 

Lilly played Top It against the computer.

 

Grandparents' Day

Over the weekend, Sunday to be exact, was Grandparents' Day.  This holiday isn't as widely known as Mother's Day and Father's Day, but in second grade, we like to celebrate the special relationships we have with our grandparents.  My fondest childhood memories are of spending the night at my grandparents' house with my sister and cousins.  We played Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo, made up games, and always walked to Caseys with grandpa to get donuts for breakfast!

Last Friday, we invited the second grade students' grandparents to join us for a small celebration.  The students wrote special stories for their grandparents, gave them a tour of the classroom, and then read Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas while we had a delicious snack prepared by our food service director, Jay Ayers (I'm telling you, try hot lunch this year!).  Here are a few pictures from the event.

 

Kaitlyn's grandma left with a few more granddaughters than she had when she came!

 

Tim and his grandmother read Dr. Seuss together.

 

Lilly showed her grandma how our clip chart works.

 

Caroline and Kobi read Henry and Mudge to Caroline's grandparents and little brother.

I would like to thank all of the grandparents who took the time out of their day to visit us; Jay Ayers, who worked overtime to make us delicious chicken salad sandwiches and apple cinnamon cookies from scratch; and the other second grade teachers, Mrs. Mann, Mrs. Brown, and Mrs. Crews, who put in a lot of hard work to make this event happen!  The students and grandparents had a wonderful time!

A Great First Week!

 

Second grade is going to be great this year!  We have spent the first four days of school learning about our classroom procedures and expectations.  We are working hard on showing respect, following directions, and doing our best second grade work!



Classroom Sneak Peek!

Welcome to Backstage Pass, the blog that will give you an insider's look into our classroom!  Feel free to share this link with anyone who is interested in what your child will be doing and learning this year! 

Creating a fun and engaging learning environment is one of my (many!) favorite things about the start of a new school year.  If you're curious about your new classroom, you've come to the right place!  Take a look!

We're in the Red hallway, right next to Mrs. Mann!

Here's what you'll see as you peek in the door...

The mailboxes are waiting for the important papers that need to go home.

The class pledge is blank because we'll write that together!

Here's the whole whiteboard wall.

Close-up of the behavior board.  We're using the clipchart management system that you may be familiar with from first grade.  Our rules will be referred to as the HIGH FIVE:  five behaviors and character traits that will lead to lots of learning!

Our daily schedule and learning objectives will be posted here.

This is the calendar math board.  We will practice math skills everyday by completing calendar activities.

This is where we will keep our textbooks, notebooks, and other learning materials.

Here's where all the magic happens!  This is our main stage; where all of the learning takes place.

This is the table where we will have small groups.  Behind it is my desk area.

This is our focus wall.  It's pretty empty right now, but we'll build it together!

Here's the coolest section of the room:  the library!  This is the fiction section.

Here are the chapter book and nonfiction sections of the library.

Last year, my name was chosen from a raffle for tables instead of desks.  I love the tables because we do a lot of cooperative learning in my class.  The bags will hold our stuff (since we don't have desks to put it in).

This concludes our tour!  See you next Wednesday, August 22, for a real-life tour!

As the school year progresses, I will post about the things we are learning, ways you can help your child, and pictures and videos of the students in action.  Please subscribe to the blog on your RSS feed or bookmark the site so you don't miss out!  Please leave me a comment if you have any questions!

-Miss Jackson

Have a great summer!

It has been an awesome year! Thank you for all of your support, guidance, and work this year! I truly enjoyed teaching the 18 vibrant second graders in my class! I will miss each and every student. I hope you have a great and safe summer vacation! If there is anything I can do for you, your student, or your family, please send me an email! See you in August as third graders!

2012 Egg Drop

The 2012 Egg Drop challengers...

The aftermath...

Do you think any of the eggs survived?! 

The 2012 Egg Drop champions! 

No cracks, marks, or even smudges on these eggs!