Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends!  It's been a wonderful Christmas break, but I'm secretly ready to go back!  Too much free time!  What's a teacher to do?! :)  Just wanted to share a few quick photos from Christmas in 2nd grade!  Enjoy and I will see all of my little kiddos on Monday, January 5th!  Can't wait!

Pre-K - 5th Grade Christmas Concert! :)

Santa Hat cupcakes made by Miss N for Class Christmas Party!

Merry Christmas from Miss N's 2nd Grade Class! :)

Have a great rest of your Christmas break and Happy New Year!

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

Kind Kids Club!

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all having a great week!  I can't believe we only have 2 days until Christmas Break!  This week at school has been so much fun, and the students and I have been SUPER busy preparing for Christmas, making gifts for others and parents, preparing for the Christmas concert, etc! :)

But, what this post is really about is the Kind Kids Club?! Are you in the Kind Kids Club?! Well, the entire 2nd grade at Clarksville Elementary is in the Kind Kids Club and has been participating in the 12 Days of Kindness!  Let me update you on what's been happening in this awesome club!

At the beginning of the 12 days, the students had to "apply" to get into the Kind Kids Club!  They had to fill out an application and talk about what it means to be kind and how they can be kind to others!  Now, they had to be on the right track in order to be in the club...and whew! They ALL made it!  Congrats 2nd graders, you are AWESOME!

Kind Kids Application! :)

I loved this application! :)

So, now that all the students are in the club, we have been doing a Random Act of Kindness each day in 2nd grade.  These random acts have included Thank You's to teachers, librarians, cooks, donors (from our grant), and many more!  We have also done easy Random Acts such as simply saying "Good Morning" or "Hello" to people you see in the classroom and in the hallway! (This was a HUGE one for me to have them work on because every morning I say good morning to them, and they just walk by..but NOW they always say it and I love it!)  I believe it's very important to acknowledge others because it shows you truly care about them and are thinking about them.  We have also done things like hand out candy canes to teachers as well as make a "Snowman Surprise" where students had the chance to make a snowman out of a Styrofoam cup and then write about why they decided to make it for that person!

I know I'm probably forgetting some others that we have done, but the kids have really enjoyed the last 10 days of this Kind Kids Club and the random acts they have been doing.  I think it's really important that young children see that you can give to others without receiving anything in return.  They have noticed that it's so easy to do a random act, even simply just sharpening another friend's pencil or putting their homework in their mailbox without them knowing.  It's so neat to see in the last couple weeks how many kind things each of my students is doing every day.  They are such gifted and nice children and I'm so lucky to have them in my class.

Now, even though the students haven't been receiving anything back for their Random Acts, we actually did receive something in the mail the other day at school which was a complete SURPRISE and could not have come at a better time.  I went to check my mailbox and in it I found an envelope addressed to myself with no return address.  I didn't think much of it and didn't open it for awhile until recess time.  Then, I opened it and in it found a blank card with a $50 gift card to Teachers Pay Teachers (website where I get many fun class lessons for my students) and no signature.  I have NO IDEA who it's from but tears came to my eyes.  It is literally UNBELIEVABLE how gracious and giving people are in this world.  I had tears and my students totally noticed....they asked me what was going on and I told them and it could not have been a better teaching moment.  So, whoever you are out there that provided myself and my students with this gift card to get more teaching materials, I cannot thank you ENOUGH!  I just have no words to express my feelings of appreciation.  It is simply just amazing.

Our gift from an anonymous person! THANK YOU!!!

The last three weeks of school have just been unbelievably great.  It is something about the Christmas season that just makes everyone smile and feel happy.  I am so grateful to have the rewarding job that I do and have the amazing students that I do.  They have opened up to me and we can be silly and laugh, but then can be serious and get work done.  I have an amazing group of students and the Kind Kids Club has made them even better than they were before.

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

Stay tuned for updates about our school Christmas program and Christmas Party! :)

2nd Grade is Merry & Bright!

2nd Grade is Merry & Bright!
(door decoration)

Christmas and Winter has officially hit in 2nd grade and oh my have we been busy! :)  I'll tell you one thing....three weeks in between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break is just simply not enough to do all of the fun Christmas activities that I want to do! :)

Now, once you read this post....you are going to ask yourself, "Do they only do arts and crafts in 2nd grade?"  And I promise and can reassure you that each of these crafts we have done DO have a purpose...and are educational! :) I promise! :)

Read ahead to check out what we've been up to in 2nd grade since after Thanksgiving break!

We started off with "Warming Up To A Good Book" because when we got back from Thanksgiving...it was frigid and cold!  Each student had to pick their favorite book and write two or three reasons why they thought it was their favorite book!  The students did a great job with the writing, so I decided to let them make it into a mug of hot chocolate :)  Check out the pictures below to see the students' awesome work!

Hanging in the library so the kids can read which books are good books to warm up to!

One student's favorite book just happens to be a Christmas book! :)

Next off, our curriculum wanted us to focus on instructional writing which means having the students focus on writing instructions and using those words like First, Next, Then, and Finally.  So, of course, I'm not going to just let them write...I have to let them do a craft with it! :)  The students had to write the steps it took to build a snowman....and THEN....Miss N gave their writing to someone else and that person had to build their snowman based on the student's instructions!  Now...you may be asking yourself, "What's the purpose of exchanging writings to have someone else build their snowman?"  Well....some students learned that their instructions weren't specific enough...and some students didn't know where to put the eyes on the snowman, or didn't know which way to stack the three snowballs, etc.  This was an amazing activity to make the students see exactly how specific their instructions needed to be in order for someone to follow them to make something!  The students loved it and they all definitely learned from it...as well as had fun with it! :)

Must have been good decorations...but no mouth or buttons?! Shux! :)

Uh oh...someone didn't tell them where the eyes were supposed to go! :)

In our curriculum, it was also time to focus on contractions.  Contractions I like to describe as shortened words that come together with an apostrophe.  And let me tell you, the word "apostrophe" is a tongue twister for the little ones...it's so funny to try and hear them say it :)  So, of course, I'm still in the Christmas spirit so we made a "Christmas Contraction Tree" where each student got to decorate a contraction ornament for the tree, and then had the chance to make their OWN contraction tree by matching up the contraction with the two words that make it up! :)  Super cute wall decoration and the students love it when they are working at word work and it's reminding them of what a contraction is!  Check out our "Christmas Contraction Tree" below! :)

Student's contraction tree!

Classroom Contraction Tree!

Last but not least.....we have a classroom full of ELVES!  The elves are back and are entertaining us every day! Now, since they do Elf on the Shelf in Kindergarten, I switch it up and the students get a chance to be the elves.  Each student made an elf, and since they've made the elves, one of the elves has been moving each day!  So far our elf has wished us a Happy Friday, has wanted us to color with them, read a book with us, and today...he had us look in a mirror!  Oh my gosh, the students LOVED looking in the mirror.  Who knew!? I would catch them waving in the mirror and I just laughed and laughed! :)

Morning Greeting from Elf John! :)

These elves are just WAITING to move! :)

The students are definitely starting to open up to me and I'm encouraging it because I just love when my students and I can feel like a family and feel like we can laugh with one another and have a good time.  I want them to see me as a teacher who loves to have fun and get off task once in a while and they are finally getting to that stage! It's so fun teaching kids who get excited about school, but can laugh and have fun with everyone at the same time! :)

And of course, I have to include a picture of the class Christmas tree! :)

Thank you all for listening...and stay tuned to hear about our new club in 2nd grade! Stay safe and have a great rest of the week! <3

Turkey Day Update!

Hi everyone!

I am sorry I have been MIA (missing in action) on my blog lately...I really have no excuse except I've been busy with family, baking, shopping, wrapping presents, decorating, and oh ya...teaching! :) Let me quickly update you on our Thanksgiving celebration in 2nd grade, and then my next post will be ALL about Christmas and Winter and how 2nd grade is gearing up for the holidays! :)

The day we let out for Thanksgiving break, my students and I enjoyed some nice Thanksgiving activities!  Our biggest focus for the day was on Native Americans, where each student was in a group of two or three kids and had the chance to research about a specific Native American tribe and present their poster and information to the class! :)  They LOVE using the internet for research and getting to make a poster was a HUGE excitement for them....and oh ya, they got to use Miss N's markers! WOAH! It's the little things with this class and that's why I love them so much! :)

Here is the link the students used to research their Native American tribe:

http://nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/tribes.html

And below are the students with their posters of the Native American tribe they researched! :)

Cherokee Tribe

Kutchin Tribe

Navajo Tribe

Wampanoag Tribe

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and got to enjoy all the many blessings of this holiday....including stuffing yourself FULL of turkey!

Fun fact for all of you...
I do not eat turkey and am still a HUGE fan of chicken nuggets on Thanksgiving :)

And here is one man I am so thankful I met this year....:)

Kyle & I on Thanksgiving Day!

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

Thanksgiving Break in 5 days?!?!

Hey everyone!

Wow, this month has seriously flown by!  Why is our year going by so quickly?! Ahh! Slow down school year, I have too much to teach these little ones yet! :)

Catch up on a quick photo tour of the past couple weeks! After all, that's what parents love to see! ;)

First:  We have been learning about main ideas and details in stories, and relating it to a table.  Without legs, can a table stand up? No.  Well, without details, can a story be a story? No.  (Aka: Main Idea = Table, Details = Legs) :)  To make this teaching "Thanksgiving" themed, I had the students write their main idea of their turkey about their "Thanksgiving Day" and then the details focused on what they did during their Thanksgiving Day!  The students were very creative and it was fun to hear all the different traditions in every family! :)  Check out the photo below :)

Second:  We of course had to do a FUN Thanksgiving project, so I read to the students the book: Turkey Trouble!  This book discusses how the turkey tries to disguise himself so he won't get eaten for Thanksgiving dinner.  The students loved this book and they absolutely LOVED disguising their turkeys and writing about how they disguised them!  I have alot of them to share so just please laugh and enjoy them with me because they are too cute! :)

We had a mouse, cupcake, Batman, Luigi, and of course Elsa!  There were many more but these students did so wonderful on coming up with the idea on their own that I just had to share! :)

Third:  We learned NEW learning games on the computers! :)  Learning games on the computer are a hit in my classroom and students love being engaged on the computers and it's promoting educational success on the computers as well as 21st century skills!  I'm very open to my students being on computers because this world is definitely changing and in 10 years, there may not even be a pen or paper! Who knows :)  Some different games I introduced were Synonym games, a Compound Word game, and a Sound Sort game!  They love them along with the usual Sight Word games and Math Fruit Shoot!

Hopefully this blog post finds you doing wonderful and made you smile.  I promise even though I don't blog all the time, we are super busy in 2nd grade and the students are learning like crazy! :)

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

Oh, by the way, did I mention we got SNOW?!?!?  The kids LOVE it and this pile of snow blocks is the HOT item at recess time! I had to snap a picture of it because it's ALL they play with :)

Who knew a pile of snow chunks could be such a big deal?! :)

Fun Update on a Crazy Week! :)

Hi everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend and all got that extra hour of sleep!  Our kiddos and teachers all got a three day weekend because of parent teacher conferences which leads me to my first item of business:

We had 100% attendance at parent teacher conferences for my class! How exciting is that?! So, thank you to all of you awesome parents who took out 15 minutes of your crazy, busy life schedule and took time to truly care about your kiddos and come and listen to what I had to say (since I pretty much did all the talking I feel!) :)

Last week was such a crazy week! We had so many different things going on but the kiddos did awesome!

We celebrated Red Ribbon Week, which promotes saying No to drugs!  We had some fun dress up days which the kids loved! We had mismatch day, neon day, mustache day, and crazy hair day!  Check out our cute mustache class picture below along with our door decoration for the week! They LOVED the mustaches for about 30 minutes! :)

Red Ribbon Week Door Decoration! :)

My "mustache" kiddos! So cute! :)

On Halloween morning, the Clarksville police officers came to visit each classroom to talk to the kids about safety during trick or treating and then gave them a glow stick to wear the night of trick or treating!  I absolutely love that the police officers come every year to discuss rules and safety during trick or treating. It just shows how close knit of a community Clarksville is!  We want to keep everyone safe, no matter where they are at! :)

Clarksville police officer discussing safety during trick or treating! :)

We also celebrated Halloween on Thursday afternoon which obviously calls for some great treats and some great quality time together as a class making a craft!  Check out the pictures below to see what was all included in our Halloween party!

Frankensteinn Dirt Cups! :) How adorable! :) (From Sam)

Spooky Ghost Brownies (from Miss N)

Skeleton Stuffed Hands (From Landon)

Owl Craft made out of pinecones! :)

Overall we had a great crazy week of activities including Parent Teacher Conferences, Red Ribbon Week, Halloween, a tornado drill, an assembly, and so much more! Lots of stuff packed into 4 crazy days but hey, we survived and had a great week!

And before I leave you, I must post my sister and I in our Halloween costumes, because adults dress up too! :)

Green Lantern & Flash! :)

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

Habitat Hoopla! :)

Hi everyone!

I hope this Monday treated you absolutely wonderful!  I know my kiddos were A++ students today!  They were so well-behaved and we got so much done!  :)

Now, I know I haven't been blogging a ton, but it's because we've been doing so much on one specific topic that I wanted to wait to blog until we were ALL DONE!  We are almost there, but let me update you on what's been happening in 2nd grade (as far as Science goes!)  Here goes my first Science post since the beginning of the year, because that is exactly how long we've been studying this awesome, exciting, fun to teach topic!

Can you say.....HABITATS?!?!?!

Since the beginning of the year, we have been studying habitats.  What are habitats? What is their purpose? Where are they located? All of these puzzling questions that your 2nd graders should easily be able to answer by now! :)

We started our unit on habitats with talking about the basics, what animals need to live in their habitats, different kinds of weather, etc.  Then, we took time to dig into each habitat in our curriculum!

We started off with the Woodland Forest, talking alot about how Herry Wood's is a "woodland" forest that is close to us!  Then, we made the awesome owl flip books for the students to share what they learned throughout the Woodland Forest study time!

Woodland Forest Owl Flipbooks! :)

We then moved on to the other type of forest....a Tropical Rainforest! :)  Tropical rainforests are one of my  most favorite habitats to teach.  I love tropical rainforests because I think of warm weather, but then I also think about all the rain which sometimes changed my mind!  The students knew quite a bit about rainforests, but there is always room to learn more!  Then, the students had time to research the different layers of the rainforest (there are 4) and the animals that live in each layer.  Check out the group projects they completed! :)

Layers of the Rainforest and the animals that live in them! :)

Side note: The students used a WebQuest to complete this project.  A WebQuest is an online learning site that helps the students navigate on the Internet to find out more information about a specific topic.  This is how the students found out what animals lived in each rainforest layer.  Check out the WebQuest at this link: http://mrsgebauer.com/rainforestweb/WebQuest.htm

After the tropical rainforest, we moved onto deserts.  Did you know there is such thing as a "hot desert" and a "cold desert?"  I've never heard of a cold desert, so this was a learning opportunity for myself as well.  We started with the typical "hot desert."  One that most of us know quite well.  When you think desert, you think hot, no rain, dry, sand, and cactuses!  Trust me, your children thought the same thing! :) Deserts was a fun habitat to teach because the students were so knowledgeable about this topic coming in!  We then completed a fun project where the students got to make their handprint into a camel, and that camel they had to draw in a desert habitat!  Now, since we can't just do art in 2nd grade, I then made them write about what they learned about the desert through the different things we read and studied!  Check out the artwork below! ;)

Desert Habitat artwork! :)

We then moved onto the "cold desert" which is also known as the Arctic Desert.  I had no idea they called the Arctic a cold desert!  So neat!  We didn't get to spend alot of time on this habitat because of time reasons, but I found an AWESOME Science experiment that helped students realize the importance of blubber on animals to stay warm!  Check out the pictures below to see the steps in our experiment!

Step 1: Make predictions.
Students had to make a prediction how their hand would feel in bare ice vs.
 their hand covered in Crisco and then put into ice! :)

Step 2:  Experience ice cold water with no "blubber" (aka Crisco) around your hand! :)

Step 3: Experience the ice cold water with Crisco around your hand! :)

Conclusion from the "Blubber Experiment":  Animals need blubber to keep them warm in this cold, freezing habitat!  The students absolutely LOVED this science experiment and it was so EASY to complete!  Awesome! :)

Overall, the past month and a half have been SO MUCH FUN in Science.  Seriously though, habitats is such a fun unit to teach and myself and the other 2nd grade teacher are like, "Are we really only through the first unit of Science?"  But then we look at each other and just laugh because we both love habitats so much!  We aren't completely finished with habitats as we still have one of my most favorite habitats to study....the OCEAN!  We just started studying the ocean habitat today and I'm so excited for this week!  Stay tuned to see what my students get to experience when traveling through the ocean!

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

When Kids Become Authors...

Hi everyone!

Oh my gosh, I cannot apologize enough for not blogging for over two weeks.  Time has been absolutely flying in 2nd grade, but we are working on some really neat things and preparing for parent teacher conferences so hold on to your seats folks, the next week or two is going to be a wild ride! :)

In 2nd grade the past couple weeks, we have been working on the students becoming authors and writing class books for our library.  Now of course, this content is related to our reading curriculum, but I think it's so important that the students get a chance to read each other's writings.  And they are so creative, oh my gosh, I can't wait to share them with you! :)

Two weeks ago, we talked alot about the cause and effect reading strategy.  What made that event happen? Why did it happen? What happened because that happened? Those questions the students heard over and over and over again!  And of course, we read the classic book "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" because that shows cause and effect perfectly!  But then, the students had a chance to write their own..."If You Give A ______ A _______..."  They were so creative with this story starter that I just have to share some of them!  Check them out below :)

If You Give A....  By Miss Nederhoff's 2nd Grade Class

If you give a girl a brand new phone, it will probably want to text her friends,
call her friends, to get a purse, to order pizza and frozen yogurt,
and she will wanta tv and tablet!

If you give a kid a football, it will probably want to play catch so he
gets better at football.  Then he would want to be a wide receiver.
He would probably make a touch down.
Can you say future football player!? Look at the awesome illustrations! :)

Then came our second class book.  The students are always asking me, "Miss Nederhoff, can we write our own stories!?"  So finally, last week, I let them take off with their imagination and write their own imaginative stories!  I told them that if they did a very good job writing their rough drafts, I would let them do their final drafts on the computer!!! Now that got their attention! :)  They love to use the computers and as a 21st century teacher, they need to be on the computers and learning how they work. So of course, they did awesome on their rough drafts so we took some time out of our day to have them type their stories in Google Docs and then print them off!  They then got to be the illustrator to their story as well!  These stories are now stored in the Second Grade Class Story Book, which I hope we can continue to add stories to throughout the year.  Check out a few of the stories below! :)

Second Grade Story Book

I LOVED this illustration! :)

Check out this kid's vocabulary skills! :) Wow!!!

This story just made me laugh! So creative!!! :)

Two of my students reading the class book together! :)

Now, not only are the students getting to be authors of their own stories, but they are getting to read each other's writing which ultimately improves everyone's writing.  They see what other students are writing about, how they are using grammar correctly, and learn from that so much faster than if I was to stand up in front of them and teach when should you use "was" or "were" or "is" or "are."  Little things like that can be picked up from reading not only books, but their peer's stories as well.

This class has truly impacted the way I teach.  They learn in so many different ways than my students did last year and I love that as a teacher because it makes me change and it makes me try new things. These students are so talented in so many different ways and their imagination is incredible!  Before I leave, I have to share a few quotes from these past few weeks that have truly not only made me laugh, but have made their parents laugh and my family laugh as well!

"Miss Nederhoff, I am SO STRESSED!" (Because every 2nd grader knows what the word stressed means!) :)!

Walking in from recess, the students who were quiet got to stay out and enjoy the "Vitamin D" aka sun a little longer.  One little kindergarten boy who was not being quiet walks past me, "I HATE VITAMIN D!"  Since he totally knows what Vitamin D does for you! :)

These are the quotes I get to hear daily and I can't help but laugh and know they bring complete joy to my life each and every day!  The quote below describes my teaching philosophy perfectly.  Let them be little. Let them enjoy each and every moment during their school day.  Let them get crazy when they succeed.  Let them be sad when they see they made a sad choice. Let them be little, because if you make them grow up to fast, then they lose their time to explore who they are and what they want to be. <3

Last thing before I go...because I'm an aunt who loves to brag...I got the chance to spend Saturday morning with my niece Emma, my nephew Evan, and their mom (aka my sister!) Brooke!  I wish these people lived 2 minutes away from me instead of 2 hours but hey, we take the time we have together and make the most of it!  So here is an updated picture of my cute niece and nephew!

Emma, Evan, and Aunt Titi! :)

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