Happy 50th Birthday Clifford!

Monday, September 24, 2012 was Clifford the Big Red Dog's 50th Birthday! Fierke's 1st and 2nd graders gathered in a the Media Center to watch a live webcast from Scholastic headquarters in New York City. The webcast featured the author of Clifford's books, Norman Bridwell, along with Emily Elizabeth and Clifford himself! All students wore their 'Clifford ears' that they made themselves. We continued the celebration in class by sending a special message to Clifford using our iPads on www.scholastic.com/Clifford. Here are a few pictures from the event:

Remembering September 11th in Room 110

Today we remembered the events of September 11, 2001. We started the day with a tribute by our Principal and the Pledge of Allegiance. We watched a short video that had very vivid images that were captured throughout the time when the attack on the U.S. occurred. The students were very interested in learning about the sequence of events and the struggles people had to go through during this time.

We also read the book Fireboat, by Maira Kalman. This book captivates the life of a New York City fireboat, built in 1931, that helped out the NY firefighters the day of 9/11. We made connections to this event to our own lives, and also made connections to things we've seen or heard on television or from parents about 9/11 (activated our schema!). 

To wrap up our lesson on September 11th, the kids were given an American Flag template (Thanks to my 2nd Grade team :). In every other stripe, the letters that make up the word R-E-S-P-E-C-T were written. The students had to come up with a word to represent the country that we live in that started with each of the letters of the word Respect. The picture shown above is the students with their final projects. Here are some examples of what they came up with:

R-Responsibility                                          
E-Enjoy Life
S- Sharing
P-Peace
E- Encourage
C- Citizens
T- Trust

R-Respectful
E-Enjoy Freedom
S- Salute the flag
P-Pledge of Allegiance
E- Equal
C- Caring for all and our Community
T- Take Chances


Here is a link to the video on SchoolTube: http://www.schooltube.com/video/9033b1725b7b433f931f/

Classroom

Here is a tour of Room 110. Enjoy!

Classroom pics:

Here is the Classroom Management system that I am using in class.All students begin the day with their clothespin on Green. Blue is a verbal praise. Pink is an additional 10 minute reward choice. Orange is a warning to change behavior and 5 minute loss of technology or other class privilege (teacher's choice). Black is 10 minute loss of privilege and parent contact (form sent home &/or phone call).

My new 'wrap-around' projector that came with the Technology Package. This eliminates using a cart in the middle of the classroom to project on the whiteboard. No shadows!!

Calendar time! During this time every morning, the kids recite the date, count the days of the year using tallies, ten frames, straws (place value), and coins. Each student has a 'Coin Calendar' that includes a calendar and data table that must be filled in every morning to count the days of the year using coins.

 These are student mailboxes that collect all work from the week. Friday folders are sent home with all work from the week and returned on Monday. Homework folders are sent home daily and brought back daily.

This is our reading area. This is where read-alouds take place and students gather to listen. I use my special 'bee' chair to read from.
The 'Super Work Spotted' board is where student work is displayed that is 'spotted' by the teacher!

iPad Station for students' iPads. They must return to their 'homes' at the end of each day.

Birthday cupcakes! I decided to do something a little different this year and add student pictures, instead of just writing their names. They loved it!

What do good readers do? They use all the reading strategies we will cover over the course of the year- Schema, Inferring, Visualizing, Synthesizing, Asking Questions, Determining Importance, & Monitoring for Meaning.

To go along with our 'Technology Classroom,' our classroom jobs are all on iPods. Each week, there will be 16 jobs- each student will have one weekly. Jobs include: Messengers, Scrap Patrol, Monitors, Technology Helpers, Paper Passers, Line Leader & Ender, Librarians, Lunch card and Lunch Bin Helpers.

This may be a little difficult to see, but this is 'Mrs. G's Swap Shop!" I am using this as a reward program and also as a tool in learning how to count coins. The students each have a cup hanging from the side of their desk. Every day, I walk around and reward good behavior with pennies (sometimes nickels if it is outstanding behavior). On Friday afternoons, students have the option to swap their coins for reward prizes- things like pencils, erasers, sharpeners, mini markers, bouncy balls, etc. They can use their money on Friday or save their money to buy something a little more 'expensive.' It will also help them with money management and to be responsible with their 'earnings.'

When students walk into the classroom in the morning, they must grab their lunch card and place it in either the 'hot lunch,' 'cold lunch,' or 'milk' container. This will determine lunch count and attendance for the day.

"Warm Fuzzy" Jar. I found this great idea on Pinterest. It reads 'Do something kind and get a WARM FUZZY. Put it in the jar. When the jar is full you get a class party!' I have the 'warm fuzzies' clipped to the side of the shelf for easy access.

These two shelves make up my library. I am working on expanding it and my co-workers have been very helpful in helping me accomplish this, since I am new to second grade and didn't have many books to start the year. The kids were very excited to see chapter books now that they are in 2nd grade.




Well, there you have it! My classroom- this far. I am in the process of adding a few things, so I will post some new pictures soon! Thank you for viewing my blog!


Mrs. Grigas