Hunter's Haunted Halloween!

Halloween was full of TREATS today in 2nd grade! First, it was pumpkins galore! We observed, compared, and invented! We recorded all of our thinking into booklets we created from paper lunch sacks. Check them out!

To cap off our day, we stirred up a pot of Miss Hunter's Brew from Rachelle Smith's Witches' Brew. Click here to download your copy of the poem and ingredients list. This literally had the kids telling me I was "the best teacher EVER!" They loved the Earthworms best! :) Enjoy the pictures of our day. Have a safe and happy Halloween tonight!

This free collage personalized with Smilebox

So Thankful!

Giving thanks just isn't a Thanksgiving thing for me. At the end of the 2012-2013 school year, the 2nd grade team received grant money from the Van Alstyne Education Foundation. With those funds, we ordered six-station listening centers in order to have a full-fledged Listen to Reading station in our Daily 5 rotations. Yesterday, they arrived! How great it is to have VAEF supporting us this way! So, to all the VAEF supporters, I say:

Little Picassos!

I have to brag on you parents...if it weren't for your support, our school would not be as great as it is! Today was our first Art Day of 2nd grade. Our mom, Ms. Tracy, stepped in as our art teacher. What an amazing job she did! Her examples were fantastic and she handled our class like a pro! When one of our friends didn't want to use the same colors as everyone else, she encouraged him to mix the colors and create new ones. He ended up working with a beautiful turquoise-esque hue. Also, she used her artistic eye to get one of our other friends to see that his portrait could work either "right side up" AND "upside down." Thank you, Ms. Tracy! What a great way to encourage critical thinking outside of the normal subjects! Here's a quick video highlighting our day.

Probability Pig

Probability.  Second graders love probability!  During this week's probability lesson, I wanted to find a way to illustrate the math term "equally likely" to my little Happy Campers.  I found this game on www.mathwire.com and thought I would give it a try.  Here's how it works: Students pair up and get one die. 

Students take turns rolling the die and tallying up their score.

 

The "kicker" of the game is that when you roll a one, you loose all the points you have accumulated.  So the players had to know when not to press their luck and give up their turn to their partner so they wouldn't loose everything.

 After we played I asked the students to explain what "equally likely" meant.  They did a fantastic job connecting the term to their probability of rolling a one.  Mission accomplished!

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Just a reminder...there will be a spelling test on Friday.  Any student who makes a 100 on the pretest tomorrow will not have to take it Friday.  Also, homework is only given on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  Have a great week!

First Day Fun!

We had a wonderful week during our first week of Second Grade!  Check out these little cuties!

Thank you for trusting me with your sweet children.  I am blessed to have the job that I have.  Have a wonderful week!

Last Day Video

It's been a great year!  I am truly blessed to have gotten to know you!

Buenos Dias!

Mrs. McCoy visited Our Neck of the Woods today and helped us learn a few words in Spanish. Here's a look at our time with her.
 

Wiggle, Wiggle, Worm!

Our 2nd grade scientists practiced observing and classifying animals by using worms. We {Heart!} Science!

Buddy Day 2013

Wow!  What an awesome day!  Thank you, Coach Jo and all the volunteers for making our day wonderful!

 Spring is Here!

Spring is the time of year when there are tons of activities going on!  Take a look below and see the different activities we've been enjoying in Our Neck of the Woods.

The learners in our class use our Mimio board to become the teachers!

Our wonderful PTA volunteers helped us create "moving" jungle scenes while studying Henri Rousseau.

2nd grade scientists used their comparing and contrasting skills to observe the similarities and differences of the flowers and trees in our playground area.

We loved showing off our acting abilities during our PTA performance.  Thank you, Ms. Routon!



Each Friday we enjoy Panther Readers that take time out to help us grow as readers.  We especially love when they are our sisters!  :)

And finally, our class spontaneously started singing our own tune when they were reminded to prove their answers on their test.  I HAD to video it!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Valentine's Day Party

I see some future "Cake Bosses" in our class!  Our cookies turned out very cute and were delicious!  Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Homophones Alive!

This past week, Miss Hunter's Happy Campers learned about homophones.  We learned homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings.

Each day this week, we had a Homophone of the Day.  Check it out!

We loved watching Brian McKnight guest-star on PBS Kids' "Between the Lions" video.

To finish off our week, we created silly sentences.  Christina Cottongame's Homophone and Homonym unit worked fabulously for our study.  Find it here.

A Jan Brett-a-thon!

We L-O-V-E Jan Brett in Our Neck of the Woods! Over the past two weeks (one week before Christmas break and last week), we read an assortment of Jan Brett books.

We compared charaters, plots, settings, and conflicts. Then, we chose our favorite Brett book and wrote a summary of the story. We then made two of the main characters using construction paper and completed our pop-up scenes.

To culminate our author study, we explored Jan Brett's amazing website (www.janbrett.com) and watched the following video that taught us how to draw the popular Hedgie.

Check out our wonderful artwork!

By the way, how cool is InstaFrame?!?!