First Full Week of Learning Fun!

Well, I have officially finished my first FULL week of teaching 2nd grade.  Although it was tiring, it went by so fast and it was so fun.  My 2nd graders are finally starting to open up, challenging me a bit but hey, if my career wasn't a challenge I wouldn't be able to call it my career, right?  It's part of the learning process when being a first year teacher.  As for myself, I don't want to sound confident or cocky, but I believe I am doing the best job I can and as the days go on, I feel more and more confident and comfortable in what I am doing when teaching 2nd grade.  After all, it's only been 8 days!  Well, now that I'm done with my 'soap box,' let me show you what we are learned in 2nd grade this week!

In Reading, we have been studying how to put events in order...aka: Sequence of Events.  To make this opening activity fun, I had the students complete a Peanut Butter & Jelly Sequence Activity...because everyone likes a PB&J right?!   Now you're  probably asking...what did you teach them?  How did you teach them?  Well, with Sequence of Events, it's important to look for key words such as First, Next, Then, & Finally.  I taught them to use those key words in order to put the events in order.  Because sequencing is a large word, I taught them that sequence means "order" and that helped them understand this concept much better.  The activity went over fairly well, and then we followed up with a Sequencing Test on Friday.  Overall, the students scored over 80%  so I was extremely happy with them and their progress on this skill!

Writing Poster that helps them organize Sequence of Events

In Spelling, we studied short a and i words such as cat or mit.  Our spelling lists every week will consist of 10 words.  Eight of those words will cover the phonics part of our curriculum, and then two of those words will be challenge words.  Our challenge words this week were sandwich and picnic.  We took our pre-test on Monday, because you should always give a pre-test to the students to see what spelling experience they have and see if there is a general mistake they are all making.  After grading the pretest, most of my students scored around a 60-70% getting 6 or 7 of the words right out of 10.  Because of this, I then decided it was important to review our spelling words and complete a spelling activity with them.  On Wednesday, we reviewed spelling and I taught them a few different skills.  Everyone knows there are syllables in words correct?  Right!  Well, on Wednesday I taught them that if the word is one syllable (aka...one clap), we spell by sound.  For example, one of our words was "sad."  Because "sad" is one syllable, when you are spelling you need to spell it by sound such as, "c - a - t."  You split the word up by sound.  I also taught them that if their word is two or more syllables, you spell by syllable.  For example, one of our two-syllable words was "sandwich."  Now, you split this word up by syllable rather than sound...."s-a-n-d"  , "w-i-c-h."  Everyone get it??? And that is how you teach spelling, my friends!  Haha, if only it would always stay that easy to teach!  It will get more difficult as the year goes on, but this is a perfect starting point for 2nd graders.

 
And....because Miss Nederhoff is a cool teacher, I told them that if they ALL got 100% on their spelling tests, we could have popcorn as a snack on Friday.   And........they all got about 90%!! We had 13 perfect tests and 2 tests that scored 90%!!! Woohoo!  I guess I did my job...and they did theirs!  It was a perfect way to celebrate hard work and a Friday! :)

In Math, we are learning about Addition.  Addition, addition, and MORE addition.  I'm kind of sick of addition, but it's great, in depth review for 2nd grade and gives them a great platform before beginning a difficult skill they have never been exposed to.  We have been playing many different math games such as Bingo Math and I Have-Who Has?  and we have also done a few math projects such as an Addition Strategies book and a Doubles Number flip book thanks to my co-worker Mrs. Halverson who shared this idea with me!  This is why I LOVE my co-workers!!! :)

Left: Addition Strategies book that the students may now use to help them solve addition problems.

Below:  "I Have, Who Has" card game.  I had the students stand in a circle around the room and we played this game altogether!  They loved it! :)

I am going to stop there for this week, and report on Social Studies and Science next week...because Social Studies and Science often run in two-three week units rather than one week at a time.  Right now, we are studying communities in Social Studies and Habitats in Science!

Oh....and great news to end this week.........we get to go on a FIELD TRIP!!! WOOHOO!  On September 12, Clarksville 2nd grade will be going to the National Cattle Congress Fair in Waterloo, IA!  Yay!  My first field trip as a real teacher!   I absolutely CANNOT wait!!! :)

And my final thoughts about this past week.......yes it was tiring, yes it was hot, but it was so much fun and went so fast I hardly noticed any tiredness....but maybe a little humidness!  As many of you know, our school does not have air; therefore, our week was a little warm but I'm not complaining yet...because next week may be even more hot!!! Overall, it was a great first full week in 2nd grade and I'm looking forward to the many more weeks to come!!!

Thank you all for listening...and until next time, stay safe! <3