Notes From the Couch

Hurricane Sandy has cancelled school for the next two days, much to the (supposed) delight of student and teacher alike.  While everyone loves a little unexpected holiday, I don't believe that the adult readers in our midst really enjoy the idea of massive power outages.  Unless you are one of those bright people with abundant foresight and you have a generator.  Yeah.  I'm not one of those bright people.

Here at home, Mattie, Tessa and I have been holding our own primitive form of Montessori.  I never appreciate Mrs. Gerber and her amazing crew properly until I attempt to instruct my children in their methods.  It's tough.  Tessa keeps babbling in her baby language about string theory.  I can't keep up.  I'm trying my best with crayons, copious paper, tissue paper, and more than one glue stick.

We're waxing lyrical around these parts.

So, I started thinking.  How can my second graders stay creative during a storm?  You can pick one of these ideas written in crayon format (Sorry; I'm in Montessori mode, remember)

Perfect example of why you should always write in pencil first!

Also, you could try the following:

• Act out those ACTION verbs!  Pick a verb like jump, run, tiptoe, waddle, skip and make your family members guess the action verb.

• Play Categories with a group of 3 (or more)

• Check out the website multiplication.com - lots of fun and challenging multiplication games!

• Start researching the nocturnal animal of your choice - you'll have a head start on our next science unit.

Just some quick ideas from a teacher who is counting down the hours until she herself loses power.  When that happens, we'll get creative over here at Hall Montessori - even in a big storm there is learning to do.

I look forward to hearing all of our stories about riding out the storm!

Tessa says Happy Learning!

Friday Hodgepodge

I just looked up the word hodgepodge.  Stern internet dictionaries inform me that "hodgepodge" means a "mess", a "jumble", a "confused mixture".

Sorry, internet dictionaries.  I'm going to revise the word hodgepodge to second grade standards.

A hodgepodge is a fun mixture with a creative bent.  It speaks of the nature of second grade:  fluid, fast-paced, ready for the next assignment, challenge, problem.

We like a good hodgepodge around these parts.

In the spirit of catching you up on all that we have been doing in these past 7 weeks, I present a varied trio of projects.

Natalie observes and takes notes.

We had to take advantage of the awesome weather.  What real scientist never leaves his or her learning lab? We had to take it to the streets.  Or, in our case, the field.  We aimed to find different types of leaves.  There were three different classifications:  lobed, toothed, wavy.  It was good fun to listen to these investigators as they feverishly tried to identify the attributes of their chosen leaf.  Later we toted our specimens inside and brought out our magnifying glasses.  Perhaps we couldn't see things at the molecular level, but much was noticed and written about.  We appreciate how scientific writing is quite different than creative writing.

Grace works on the hexagon shape.

Tangrams are rooted in some pretty murky history.  Their date of origin is unknown, but it is established that this fantastic mathematical puzzle was developed in China.  The western world finally caught on in the 1800s, thanks to trading ships.

Second grade caught on to these fun and frustrating puzzles on the first day of school.  Seven shapes, called tans, must come together to form a shape.  They may not overlap.  They must all be used.  I like to do this challenge on the first day of school to show these bright lights exactly how hard they will be stretching their minds over the course of the year.  And the verdict?  They are stumped.  They are stomping feet and saying "it's too hard".  And then.  Working through it comes a revelation.  They've figured out the puzzle.  They've done it.  The sense of accomplishment has to be akin to something Einstein must've felt.  When he did that relativity thing.

It's awesome to watch young brains work through big challenges.

Nice work on the Midnight Zone, Teddy!

And finally, Teddy demonstrates an awesome version of ocean zones.  We created Sunlit, Twilight, and Midnight Zones.  We decorated these zones with the creatures that would actually inhabit them.  This was accomplished through reading and research.  Where would you find a seahorse?  Where would you find an octopus?  Would some creatures possibly move from one zone to another?

Is there any surprise that our favorite zone tends to be the Midnight Zone?  Pretty amazing creatures seem to reside there.


I hope that you enjoyed our hodgepodge of academic wonder.  I'll continue to catch you up on what we've been up to.  For now, it's off to the pumpkin patch!

Five Cent Challenge & Paper Clip Float

Cohesion.  Surface Tension.

Not phrases you would necessarily think would be thrown around a second grade classroom.

My personal grasp of these concepts is borderline shaky.  Luckily, I've got 16 resident scientists at my beck and call.  When I say that we're going to figure out what a molecule really is, we figure it out.  We do it together.  We do a lot of drawing on white boards.  We do a lot of speculation.  We throw in some analogies to imagine exactly how miniscule these molecules are.

Above all, we listen to the ideas being thrown out.  We improve upon them.  We keep improving.

And then we try it out for ourselves.

How many drops of water do you think a nickel can hold?  Julia and Kevin are testing it out in 3 trials.  The water molecules are sticking together.  This is cohesion.  Many drops pool together atop that tiny coin.  Molecules are small, but mighty.

 

Later on, we take a crack at surface tension.  How does it feel to take your palm and gently rest it on top of the water?  We think it feels almost as if the water is supporting it.  We think it feels almost as if the water has "skin".  That's surface tension.  Those molecules are doing incredible feats again.

Charleston adds another paper clip to our water float.  We are impressed with this surface tension.

Of course, none can call herself or himself a scientist without proper notes and documentation.  I mean that!  We utilize our science field journals as if they are going out of style.  I love these little notebooks.  They are full of charts, graphs, scientific writing, and other great stuff for this bright bunch to look back on someday.


Someday.  Like when they're in high school, and a teacher starts talking about cohesion.

It's a stretch, I know that it is.  But I really hope that they think back to our experiments.

Look out, MIT.

National Writing Day: My Pet Monster

National Writing Day annually falls within the third week of October.  We chose yet another spooky theme for our celebration.  The kids were tasked with creating their own pet monster.  The emphasis was on adjectives!  We love powerful, descriptive words.  The kids did such a phenomenal job on their rough drafts that I wasn't sure they'd be able to surpass their efforts for the final, polished essays.

Shame on me for being a skeptic.  These folks are word sleuths.  They are not satisfied with bare bones or status quo.  When asked to add even more colorful, powerful, strange, interesting, descriptive adjectives, they went for it.  Their pet monsters almost seemed to come alive through their writing.

This project is great for any classroom because it's an assignment that I like to call a Pencil Tip Symphony.

You've never heard one?  A Pencil Tip Symphony is better than anything that Beethoven ever penned (sorry, sir).  This is a phenomenon that occurs when students are really excited about the topic at hand.  The only thing that you can hear throughout the classroom is an honest symphony of pencil points almost frantically moving across sheets of paper.

It's glorious.  When you hear one Pencil Tip Symphony, you want to hear them every day.

Another reason I like the pet monster writing project is the craft that comes at the end.  The kids have to use serious auditory skills to listen as I go through the complicated folding process.  Once those little creatures are folded, it's time to decorate!  It's a well deserved craft after a lot of thoughtful writing.

These little monsters actually make fantastic bookmarks.  If you want to try it for yourself, here are the directions!

• We started with a 6x6 square
• Fold into a triangle
• Fold the left corner to the center point
• Fold the right corner to the center point
• Open up to a triangle again and fold one flap of the center point to the bottom
• Re-fold the left corner towards the center point and tuck it into the "pocket"
• Re-fold the right corner toward the center point and tuck it into the "pocket"

• Cut a contrasting square slightly smaller than the 3x3 pocket
• Apply glue and press inside
• Cut embellishments- teeth, eyes, nose, tongue, etc.
• Apply glue and press in place
• Slide them onto the page corner of your favorite book

Pet monsters just begging to be written about.

Trevor's pet monster up close...

Awesome writing, Trevor!

Tiny Project Managers: Poster Reports

This is the first installment in a series that I am going to call Tiny Project Managers (I hope that the kids won't mind that I'm using such an adjective to describe them - I like to think of it as a compliment of their youth and their astounding academic capabilities!)

One of my favorite beginning of the year projects centers around our Ocean unit for science.  It's tough to plan very many hands-on activities when studying such a concept (just wait for the Nocturnal Animals unit, though!  Then it's owl pellet time.)

Our biggest project during the Ocean unit is a 5 paragraph report on an animal of a student's choice.  This year I was mean and limited the choice to 5 different creatures:  Great white shark, Octopus, Seahorse, Blue whale, Dolphin.

This project is very extensive for a second grader, but it works really well every year.  Why?  I think there are a few reasons:

• The subject content is high interest.  Who doesn't want to learn that a Blue whale is close in size to a space shuttle?  Or that the Great white shark's liver is oily and helps the fish to float?

• The kids are aware that much is being asked of them.  They love feeling pushed and they love knowing that they are completing work that a much older child might do.

• At the end of the report, the kids meet with me and we revise their work together.  Then it's Poster Time.

Poster Time is bliss.  Poster Time calls for the roles of architect and graphic designer.  There is a large, blank canvas awaiting each child.  There are no ground rules other than:  use a pencil, get creative.  Their edited work helps guide the process.

I'm amazed at their patience, tenacity, and creativity.  They take a huge white poster and they fill it with ideas, fun titles, pictures, drawings.  And when it's finally time to cart away these awesome writing specimens, you see the pride they have while clutching their rolled up masterpieces.

So.  Coming Soon Directly To You:

An Awesome Ocean Poster.

Andrew is working hard on some final details.  Love the catchy borders.

It's nearly complete!  Already a masterpiece.

What Scared Me

A teaching blog posed an interesting question in the spirit of Halloween:

As a new teacher, what scared you most?

My response:

"I’ll give it a name:  stagnaphobia.  As a newly minted teacher, I had the very vexing fear that my teaching would be stagnant and stilted.  Then I was launched, no, hurled, into the world of a second grader.  Teaching second grade is like permanently moving to a strange planet.  Life on my planet is fast-paced, sometimes messy, but never boring.   Problems exist but are solved creatively and democratically.  These second graders are kind to have me along for the ride.  They have the talent of wearing many hats.  They are scientists, not just in name.  They are actors.  They are bloggers.  They are word sleuths and they are debaters.  They are sometimes real estate agents who try to sell haunted houses with persuasive writing and abundant charm.  Above all, they are excited and passionate learners.

They are the smallest project managers that I have ever met.

Second graders might sometimes steal my sanity, but they give me more in return.  They give me a true will and desire to teach.  They give me a reason to push myself as an educator.  They give me a reason for life inside the classroom and out to never fall stagnant."

(This blogging thing is addictive... I cannot promise 3 entries per day every day, but I've got some enthusiastic students on my hands, eager to see their work featured.  We will enthusiastically press on!)

If you were running for president, what would you change?  Who would you try to help?  Some very insightful ideas in the Writing Lab.

Verbs, Verbs, Verbs

Language Arts is a favored part of my day.  I love being creative with the curriculum and I love planning various mini lessons in order to break a long morning into manageable chunks.

Learning about verbs doesn't have to be bland.  We started off our morning by acting out some of the action verbs that you see on this chart.  Later we completed a cut out and sort activity in order to unscramble some rather garbled sentences and identify the different types of verbs within them.

The kids enjoy being active and have begged for more of these charades-type games.  The morning also consisted of word work with plural nouns (adding s, es, or ies) and some research into presidents of our nation's past.

I love how the kids complete various lessons and wear various hats throughout the morning - in this case, they were actors, assemblers, writers, and researchers.

We have some future actors in our midst, I think.

Cut, sort, arrange, glue, color.

Kevin working very hard as he learns about John F. Kennedy.

Welcome

I'm really excited to launch this blog!  This school year has been jam packed so far.  I want to use this space as a forum for my students, their parents, and fellow educators.  I will post class updates, information on fun projects, and general best practices in the classroom.

T-Minus 8 days until Halloween!  Can you sense my strange combination of excitement and fear?  There is nothing quite like an elementary school on Halloween.  On my first year of teaching, I let a second grader hold a large tray teeming with cupcakes and pass them out to everyone.  It took no more than 45 seconds for the tray to teeter and fall.  I felt like I was watching the scene in slow motion.  Let's just say this:  Neon orange icing.  All over the floor.

I have not made that rookie mistake since.

It's been a lot of fun to prepare for Halloween with spooky writing.  We acted as real estate agents and pretended to sell a haunted house.  The kids were tasked with using descriptive adjectives and compelling arguments for why a person might want to buy such an abode.  Here's an example from Natalie!

There is a Halloween house for sale in Boothesda.  There is a master bedroom with a slime blanket.  There is a monster that is green and slimy.  There is a huge backyard with a pool.  A witch lives in the pool house with her pet frog.  There are ghosts in the bathroom.  There is a cook in the kitchen but it is a scary Frankenstein.  There is a hairy, scary spider that crawls around the living room.  If you need a maid, witches will fly to your room to help you clean up!


After our writing was complete, we made houses from construction paper and miscellaneous supplies.  Grace created an impressive Halloween house to accompany hers.

Very creative, Grace!