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

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Hi everyone!

Happy first day of October! :) I hope your first day of October went wonderful!  We are loving fall here in 2nd grade, the nice weather (besides today) brings out the best in my students and they have been doing SO GREAT lately! Fall is truly the best season! :) (Okay, maybe I'm a little bias because I'm a farmer's daughter, but still!) Let's get right into how we are celebrating fall here in 2nd grade!

Last week, we celebrated the first day of fall on September 23, because technically this was the first FULL day of fall :)  The students started off with a writing prompt by writing about their favorite things about fall!  I read different things such as making leaf piles and jumping in them, Halloween, football, tractors, animals, etc! :)  The kids LOVE fall just as much as I do I think. :)

Last week, we also talked about Author's Purpose, which teaches them about why an author writes a story.  We use the acronym PIE to describe this concept.

P: Persuade (means to convince someone to do something)
I: Inform (means to teach you something new...Nonfiction books primarily fall in this category)
E: Entertain (a simple story that tells you something and possibly makes you laugh!) :)

Then, the students got a chance to write their own PIE sentences, by describing candy corn! Because who doesn't have candy corn on the first day of fall?! Each student got some pieces of candy corn to test out, and then they had to write a Persuading sentence about candy corn (why we should buy/try it), Informing sentence about candy corn (teach you something new about candy corn), and an Entertaining story (I told them they could make a silly story up about candy corn!)  Here is how they turned out! Super cute so of course I had to hang them up!

No do not eat my candy corn bed, not yet!

At the end of the day, I provided my students with a little fun craft/writing project.  The students got to make up their own scarecrow and write about its job in the classroom!  These turned out absolutely ADORABLE! If they haven't told you, I decorated my door to look like a scarecrow and that is why I always let them make their own scarecrows!  Perfect creative writing project but done in a very fun way!  Check them out below!

Scarecrow Writing Project!

His scarecrow's job is the class clown! :)

On Friday, September 26, we celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday which is just conveniently located in the first week of fall!  How awesome!  As many of you know, Johnny was one of the first people to plant apple seeds to grow apple trees where new pioneers were settling.  So, my students and I celebrated this day doing a couple different activities!

First, we watched a short video on Johnny and also read a book about him.  Then, the students had to write me four facts about Johnny that they had learned through the movie and book.  After, they got to decorate a "Happy Birthday Johnny" apple and hang it up on their desk with their fact sheet! Super cute way to decorate their desk as well as learn new facts and get a chance to write a nonfiction writing!

Johnny Appleseed Project!

We also made Homemade Applesauce in 2nd grade.  Not only did we make applesauce, but I also MADE them write the recipe down so they could do it at home!  It's a super easy recipe and recipe writing is great for kids.  It teaches them about measurement, abbreviations, and how exactly to write a recipe.  I absolutely LOVED this activity because it exposed them to something completely different but they had no idea they were immersed in learning because it was fun for them!  So cool to see this activity take place!

Apples before mixing!

Mushing the apples! Definitely the favorite part! :)

Homemade Applesauce Recipe

Writing out the recipe! :)

Then, of course, we had to enjoy our homemade applesauce during snack time! :)  It was delicious!

YUMMY! :)

Overall, we had a great first week of fall in our 2nd grade classroom.  The students loved all these activities, and I even heard one of them say, "Hey, can we do this EVERY day!?"  Oh, if only there wasn't Common Core Standards to meet! Yes kids, we could...if only education wasn't so complicated! :)

I hope you all enjoyed seeing what is going on in 2nd grade.  Stay tuned for some great events coming up in our 2nd grade classroom...including HALLOWEEN! AHHH :)

Before I leave you...I have to brag...I made my first apple pie last weekend for my dad's birthday and it turned out phenomenal! I may just be a Betty Crocker yet!  Thanks Grandma Manlick for your recipe! :)

Yummy! :)

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