Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Hi everyone!

I can't believe it has already been ten days since I have last blogged.  Holy cow, time flies when you are having fun, that is for sure! :)

Well I can successfully say that my 2nd graders and I (tomorrow) have completed three full weeks of school! (With a day off or afternoon off here and there that is :)!)  Hey, we can't help it that we don't have air conditioned! :)

So let me update you on the last week of school and what has happened!

Last week and this week, we have successfully started our Daily 5 rotations, and the students have done AWESOME!  I love that they had Daily 5 in 1st grade because it makes the transition to 2nd grade so much easier and smoother for both the students and myself!  The students complete 4 rotations each day.  I know you are probably asking yourself, why only 4 when it's called Daily 5?? Well, I'm blessed to say I only have 12 kids in my class...so if I was to do 5 rotations, I'd have less than 3 kids in each group!  So we do 4 rotations, and switch Read to Self and Read to Someone every other week.  Therefore, the four rotations are Teacher Time, Read to Self/Read to Someone, Word Work, and Writing!

Perfect tie in with Daily 5!

Let me talk a little more about Word Work.  Each day in Word Work, the students are given a task to complete in their green journals.  This task is always focused around their spelling words and the spelling pattern we are learning for the week; so for example, this week the spelling pattern is all short vowels and working on those short vowel sounds!  We do different activities each day, including rainbow writing, spelling sentences, ABC Order, syllable spelling, etc.  This keeps the learning different each and every day and keeps the students engaged while practicing their spelling words!  It works perfectly, and for the most part, I think they enjoy it and it's a little more structured as we all know 7 and 8 year olds can get off task sometimes!

Reading time in 2nd grade has been going great, but we have also had fun in Math as well.  In Math, we have been focusing on Addition strategies and making sure we are working on our math fact fluency, which means only one thing...TIMED TESTS! Woohoo! :)  The kids love them and even though whenever I say we have a timed test they go...AWWWW...I know they truly enjoy it! ;)  Here are some things we have been doing to practice our addition strategies.  Now I can tell you this is not EVERYTHING but if I posted everything we did...you'd be reading for awhile! Look below to check out some projects we have done to make learning fun! :)

Can You Solve It?
Student written word problems! :) 

iPod Doubles Rap! :)

Doubles, Doubles I Can Add Doubles Chant! :)

Overall, the past three weeks in 2nd grade have flown by and the students have been doing wonderful.  The beginning of the year was a little slow moving, getting to learn routines/expectations, but I think the students now truly know the expectations and I'm excited to get started with our year and continue to incorporate more and more learning into each and every day!  By the end of 2nd grade, these kids are going to know SO MUCH and be SO BUSY that they will LOVE SCHOOL! :)

Now, I love to talk about teaching, but I also love to talk about my life because little do the kids know..teachers do have lives outside of school! :)  And because this is both my personal and professional blog, I choose to include both!

About a week ago, I was blessed enough to say that I got to see my German relatives for the third time in my life.  When I was a sophomore in high school, my family and I went across seas to visit these relatives, which would be my Grandma Nederhoff's cousins.  It was amazing to visit them over in their home country and see what life is like in another country.  Then, I was blessed to see them again because they came back for my sister's wedding in 2010!  And on Tuesday, August 29th, they came to Iowa to visit the good ole farmland! We held a family get together where we grilled and simply enjoyed each other's company.  I left this grill out on cloud nine!  These two people, Herman & Utta, are truly the best people on this Earth.  They are in their 70's but travel around like they are 20!  They have so much energy and love for life that I have truly been inspired to be exactly like them and live my life exactly like them.  Alot of people can say they have relatives across the seas, but not many are lucky enough to visit them this often in one lifetime.  It was such an amazing experience last Tuesday and I can only pray that I get to go visit them again in Germany soon!

Dad, Brie, Herman & Utta, myself and Mom at the grill out!

And as we all know, Labor Day weekend was last weekend, where we got to enjoy a 3 day weekend away from work!  As many of you know, Labor Day weekend is the one weekend (out of many ;)!) that I always spend with my entire family!  This year, we spent the weekend in Pella, Iowa (where my sister, husband, and niece and nephew live) camping and boating all weekend!  I was also lucky enough to have my boyfriend for the WHOLE weekend with no chores! I know, I am spoiled!  That is not normally the case if you know my boyfriend!  It was such a fun weekend to spend with  my family and to know we can always get together and pick up right where we left off is such a good feeling!

Kyle & I in front of our camper before leaving on Monday!

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