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! 

Back in the Swing

This three day weekend is perfectly timed! We just finished up our third week of school. Routines are starting to flow, but my to do list is a mile long! Yesterday I didn't touch anything related to school for the first time since school started. Now I can tackle my list a little more relaxed. Since I am still relatively new to the iPhone world, I keep forgetting that I always have a camera around. I have managed to snap a few pictures.

Day one and already hard at work! It is amazing how attached I was to last year's class, but this new class is sneaking its way into my heart! Overall they are a very sweet class, though I am already racking my brain for ways to control my little chatterboxes. 

We love Go Noodle! Seriously, I use it just about every day. We have a three hour block of instruction time in the morning to do math and ELAR, which is great, but so hard to keep little minds and bodies focused for so long! Depending on our needs we usually do a Zumba or Airtime break in the morning and a running one in the afternoon slump. They adore it as a reward for good behavior and it always perks them up when we are having a bad day. I usually can't help but join in, it is so much fun! 

My Whole Brain Teaching rules. We say them every day after morning prayers and again after lunch. This is my second year incorporating some of the WBT methods, and I am always impressed with how well the kiddos retain our lessons. 

I have a confession to make: I am not at all artsy. Crafty? Yes. Capable with a marker in hand? Absolutely not. To make anchor charts I find the one I like, project it on my board, and start tracing! I usually trace the basic outline and then add in my own flair. I found this image here, but there is no blog post to it. If it is your anchor chart, please let me know so I can give you credit! I made the punctuation names and people before the lesson, then we described each type and wrote examples together. 

Our tattling vs reporting chart. I got the idea here, but then added some of my own. This one the kiddos directed me in the difference between the two with some gentle guidance. I also have a tattle box for those who can't help but tattle. Whenever they come running up during recess my first questions is always "Is this a tattle or a report?" and for the most part, they have gotten the difference. 

Original chart found here. 

Between making this chart and doing WBT motions, everyone in the class rocks at identifying nouns! I was so happy to have everyone pass the grammar assessment this week. 

Happy Labor Day! 

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