Currently

I'm not sure what I was doing on October first, but apparently not blogging! I thought my first year of teaching moved quickly, but the second year is flying back even more quickly. We have encountered a lot of changes recently at my school, but of course the most important piece is the students, and my energetic little learners are too distracted by their own selves to notice anything else going on.

listening

Okay, so this one is equal parts smelling as hearing, but it is what I am thinking of! I think every meal should start with some sauteing onions. 

loving

I have been ready for cold weather for a while now. Bring on the scarves, jackets, boots, tea, and blankets! Being a true southerner, I think anything below 60 is cold, so this weather in the 50s has been perfect. 

thinking

I have realized recently that some of my lessons just aren't working because there is no schema. How can I teach coins when students have no concept of skip counting? Or 3d shapes when not all of my students know the difference between a square and rectangle? Time for some major reteaching, but it is tricky when we are so tied to our curriculum. 

wanting

When I started this currently, it was Sunday. Even today, I still wish we had a few more days to recover. On Friday we were all dressed up in costume. Our school had a fashion show, class parties, and my students' teacher from last year came to visit. What a crazy whirlwind day! 

Halloween costumes with a coworker! 

Two of my students from last year that come and help me clean before school. One of them asked if I would take a "shelfy" with them. :)

needing

My MEd thesis is due in a month...AHHHHH!! 

reading

Wonder is a wonderful book. I was reading it to see if it was appropriate for 2nd grade, but I don't think so, at least not for my class this year. What I love about this book is that it is told from several different perspectives, which would be great for point of view discussions! 

Make sure you check out Farley for more currently fun! 

Apple Week

We had a blast with apple week this year! We spent every afternoon learning about apples, Johnny Appleseed, and incorporating apples into all types of activities!

Practicing math with apples from Sunny Days in Second Grade. After we made our apples, we cut them up and took turns putting them back together. Their favorite part? The fact that they got to use markers to go over the pencil! It is the little things...

After we read a poem and several books on Johnny Appleseed, we used this freebie to show what we had learned. Since we read everything from tall tales to non-fiction, the focus was pulling facts out of all the stories. They did great! 

Ready to eat apples! I saved apple week until I hit this lesson in our math curriculum. Granny smith apples won by a landslide, much to my distaste. Gala apples are my personal favorite!

  

Applesauce! Not the most attractive thing to photograph, but oh my goodness, it was SOOOO good! We wrote a recipe and mixed it together in the morning, then let it cook all day. My classroom smelled incredible all day long. We cooked in the crock-pot on high for a few hours, then on low until almost the end of the day. My kiddos ate every last bite! We made a graph about who liked it and who didn't, but it wasn't a very helpful graph because everyone said they liked it. 

The hallway this week. I adore the ease of changing these out! It takes about two minutes, and then the hallway looks totally different!