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Sunday, November 22, 2015

Arts in Autumn and Hands-On Math

Mrs. Scrivner's Stars have been rocking since August! We have been working hard and learning lots through home projects, hands-on learning, and arts integrated lessons. As October came to an end, we celebrated Red Ribbon Week with fun dress-up days.
Wacky Hair Day
Crazy Socks Day
October 31st Superhero and Mustache Day
We also had a home project this month. Students created a timeline of their lives to coincide with the Reading Street story Abraham Lincoln by Delores Malone. Students were given the assignment and then assessed according to a teacher-created rubric. Snag the rubric for FREE from my Teachers Pay Teachers shop. We also began comparing and contrasting holidays and traditions in the United States with holidays and traditions in other countries. We learned about Dia de los Muertos through Jasmine Orellano's wonderful powerpoint. Next, we compared/contrasted using Open Wide the World's freebie here on TPT. This lesson was enriched through visual arts as the students planned out their own calaveras skull masks and designed them using glitter, feathers, beads, flowers, markers, and more!


During this semester, our school began a partnership with artists at the Huntsville Ballet Company . From October to November, AAA 2nd grade was fortunate enough to have dance instructor Susan Kelly collaborate, model, and teach an ELA lesson through movement and dance once a week. The students and I have learned so much through this partnership. Here are a few sights from the lessons. 


     
Finding Beat and Rhythm while Mirroring Partners

Creating Story Plot Vignettes Together

We've also been learning how to play our violins in Strings class with Ms. Peck.


Lastly, here are a few pics from some of our hands-on cooperative learning math lessons, a reader's theater with song, and candid shots from the classroom. 





Thanks for visiting our class blog! Check often for updates and freebies. Coming soon: Kennedy Center Arts Edge lessons in action and winter activities!






 

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Writing, Centers, and Our First Project!

It's been a fantastic August; I can hardly believe we've been in school a whole month already! The transition to second grade and a new school building has been an adventure but I think we're all finally settled. Here are a few of our fantastic ELA centers in action:


We got our classroom iPads and learned how to take care of them while exploring our new apps! 

We also started visual art class with the amazing Ms. Bradford!



We read our first nonfiction unit story of the year, "Exploring Space," learned about main idea and details, and tried our hands at expository informative writing. These kids amaze me everyday!


For this story we also incorporated some visual art experiences by creating sentences and murals to define our amazing words for the week. Each group of students had two words to incorporate into a sentence and picture. Here are some of the collaborating groups in action: 




We also had our first drama/theater class. The director, Ms. Fleischman, focused on projection and expression while reinforcing the importance of listening to directions through Shel Silverstein poems. Can't you just see the emotion expressed with each child's face and body language? 





Our first class project was a "Me Project" in which the students designed a mini-me and presented it to the class. Students were to focus on what made them unique. The listening audience was to compare and contrast what similar interests they shared with the presenting students.


Download project instructions HERE. 
We've had a blast so far and can't wait to share more of our learning!


 

Saturday, August 15, 2015

School is in Session!

We've had a great first two weeks of school! We started in a classroom that wasn't quite unpacked from the move to our new building, but you wouldn't know it by the looks on the students' faces.
They are so excited to be in our fresh, newly renovated school! On the first day we learned procedures for being the best learners possible through Whole Brain Teaching rules and gestures. The kids love learning with actions. We also learned our class responsibilities and were assigned jobs to help our community of learners.
Our new elementary music teacher, Ms. Staples, came into our classroom to read and sing rhythm stories. 
The students learned their numbers and practiced lunch time procedures.
The first Friday of school our new playground opened up. 
We practiced math, had an introductory lesson in our interactive math journals, and used our reading books to learn about theme and compare/contrast two poems.
I can't wait to share more second grade adventures in our new school.






School Under Construction

I'm so lucky to have a job I love at a school I absolutely adore! We got a newly renovated school building this year with a new state of the art theater. Due to the renovation construction, teachers and staff were not able to go into the school until one week before school started. That gave me 7 days (not including pre-service prof. development hours) to unpack Kindergarten classroom boxes and organize a new second grade classroom, not to mention parent orientation was just 2 days after staff could enter the building. So, here is what my classroom looked like the day I could come in and work:

 Here is what it looked like by the end of day 1 (a little progress):
On orientation night, things started coming together--thanks to some awesome helpers!


Finally, by the first day of school, it was looking like a real classroom!


Here are some of the ELA centers we used this week
I love those freebie bin labels from Sunny Days!

In addition to the new school renovation, we are also getting a brand new theater! We've been anxiously watching the theater construction through our window. Here is the progress so far:


So much for a room with a view!
The theater is expected to be done by March. Everyone is so excited to be able to watch productions and be on stage in this magnificent structure! I'll keep you updated.