Tuesday, May 21, 2013

One More Thing...

I realize that this blog is rapidly changing over the years, and the last post probably had little meaning to anyone other than my teacher readers ;) But still, as always, I've just been documenting my life. Welcome to a new chapter!
Fact about me: I am a little bit of a mess. Just as a whole. I blame it on being "only" 23 and still figuring this whole "real life" thing out. Anyway, being a mess as well as a bit of a pack rat carries over into the technology world too. That being said, I have SO many emails that I have never deleted. It's bad. I need an intervention. Honestly. However, this email hording did reveal something interesting... This is what I found...

Note the date... February 28, 2012. This is from my pre-internship at MHES when I spent one day a week for six weeks in a third grade classroom. This was the email sent at the end of that time.
Foreshadowing? Of divine intervention? I think definitely :)
Anyway, I love everything about Mooreland Heights. So grateful.
Tomorrow is our last day of school so if you need me I'll be crying in the corner.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Second Grade Wrap Up

We only have two and a half days left of school.
Such a bittersweet feeling.
I am SO excited to get to focus on this up coming school year. To get to think about how I'm going to design and manage my own classroom (not that I haven't already been pinning tons of ideas like a crazy new teacher ;) )
But I am also so sad to see this class go. These "almost third graders" are all-starts. I adore them. I once again am counting my blessing of getting to stay at Mooreland Heights. I don't think I could handle leaving this school and not getting to see these precious kids in the hallway. 
Anyway, here are some of our end of year wrap-ups, some shamelessly stolen from Pinterest.
Goodness, am I thankful for that website. How did teachers find thousands of cute and creative ideas without it?!

FIELD DAY! Oh my goodness! What a fun (and exhausting) day this was! From 8:30-2:00 we played hard down at the park!

These are the all-stars I'm gonna miss!

The second grade team :)

:)
First, second and third place.

I love the craziness of second grade. So much laughter.

Run!

Jump! (And do some dance moves in the background?!)


We read George's Marvelous Medicine. Then the kids creates triaramas to tell the setting, characters and plot. By the end of the week we had finished the book and they created four so they could retell the entire story. 





 

We also made inches, feet, and yards for measurement. The students decorated the "yard" as a yard. Then glued of foot-long feet and inch long inch worms. This helped them visualize the different units of measurements. And was totally stolen from Pinterest.

Based on Andy Warhol's painting, we create fantasy and reality painting using our own faces. Then wrote five fantasies and one reality. These turned out so cute and were absolutely adorable.









 "Dreaming BIG in Second Grade" This is 100% NOT my idea. Thank you, thank you, thank you Pinterest. The kiddos wrote what they want to be when they grow up. I am giving them their picture and the class picture with a little note from me to encourage them to keeping "dreaming big" as part of their end of year gift. Shhh... ;) This turned out SO cute. If you wanna see what it really looks like, I'd love to show you the "official" finished product.
Just a few close up of our "big dreams"





And the whole group. 
Ahh! I love it!





I also read them Dr. Seuss 's Oh the Places You'll Go. I got goosebumps through the whole book... "Kid, you'll move mountains!" I think they enjoyed it, although I'm convinced it was written for graduates later in life... ie. recent grad school graduates... Anyway, then the kids wrote their own "hopes and dreams" on balloons. I took pictures of them and we glued it all together. (Disclaimer: We had to have a lengthy lesson that this kind of 'dream' was different than the nighttime kind of dream. And I didn't really want to have "I had a dream to be a giant carrot when I grow up" written on their balloons...) So here are the almost finished results.




Lastly, Miss Trout's classed hatched some chicks! Thanks to the wonderful extreme collaboration between the three classes, we've gotten to experience the process too! The kiddos have loved learning about the chicks and playing with our new friends.
I can't tell you how many times I said, "Eek! Be gentle!!!" Seven and eight year olds holding fragile animals makes me nervous! We also learned that it is GOOD LUCK when a bird poops on you :)


There's a total of 7 of these little fellows




Such a WONDERFUL end of the year!


Of course I will miss teaching with Monica too. I can't tell you how many times the kids say something and we just look at each other from across the room and hide our face behind papers giggling. I cannot imagine ever agreeing to have a stranger spend a year in my classroom with me, but I will be forever grateful that she did.


I can't wait to teach more second grade darlings next year. I also love that I get to stay at MHES and see my current second graders (soon to be BIG intermediate kiddos! :)) every day. Wow, I'm reminded once again just how incredibly blessed I am.