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

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

The Adventure Begins!

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend! What a beautiful, warm fall weekend! :) I just LOVE fall! But what I love even more is to brag about my amazing students! I mean, obviously I'm blogging on a Sunday morning because I'm just that amazed by how awesome last week went!  We had SO MUCH fun in 2nd grade, so....

"Hocus Pocus, Everybody Focus!"

Here we go! :)

Who enjoys change? Who enjoys starting something new even though you have no idea what you are doing? Who enjoys sometimes flying by the seat of their pants because their mind changes and they want to do something else?  Guess who...teachers! Teachers love change, they love new and fresh ideas, they are PERFECTIONISTS.  It was hilarious the other day, I was talking to a coworker in the printing room and I said, "You know, I always think I'm ready for the week, but then I go and change an activity because I found a better one that I think my kids will love! How do I stop this?!"  She replied, "You never will, because in our profession we are perfectionists, and we are constantly looking for the best material for our students or the most engaging activity to truly help the students understand the concept!" Wow, I couldn't believe what I was hearing...and to know the next however many years I am going to be a perfectionist when it comes to teaching...Ahhh :)  But let's move onto the kids...however you will understand the whole "NEW" thing when you continue reading! :)

This week, we started a NEW math curriculum called Engage NY Math, and holy cow, it has got the kids active and learning! We have done so many great things with this curriculum and even though our heads are spinning while we are teaching it, it's fun to see the kids totally soaking it up!  Engage NY Math stresses many counting games, as well as forming number bonds to figure out an addition number sentence.  This week, we were practicing number bonds to 10 (aka: How can you make 10?) and the students definitely picked up the fast facts quickly! :)  Look below to see some different things this curriculum has us doing! :)

Number Bonds to 10! Then they got to make them into people! :)

This number bond person had me in awe! :)

Playing "Happy Counting", thumbs up you count up, thumbs down you count down!
Works with fluently counting up and down!

This year, we also have started a NEW Science Curriculum! Talk about overload right!? Haha, no actually it's great to have updated curriculum because we were definitely in need of it! :)  In Science, we have been talking about habitats and what it takes for a plant or animal to survive in its habitat...which led us to FOOD CHAINS! :) To be honest, I was dreading teaching food chains because I really had no idea where to start, but then, of course...PINTEREST helped me out with that one :)  I found a great book that talked about food chains and had a food chain inside it, so together, the students and I read Jump, Frog, Jump and then created a frog with its food chain on the tongue! So cute but this little activity helped these little learners truly understand what a food chain was!

Food Chain Frog! :)

This year, I have also started a NEW phonics curriculum called Making Reading Heavenly.  Making Reading Heavenly is a curriculum that was put together by one teacher, Cathy Angel, and she now teaches classes to other teachers in order for them to implement this curriculum.  Check out her website here: http://www.makingreadingheavenly.com/.  Mrs. Halverson, the other 2nd grade teacher, has done this for years so she inspired me to take the class this summer to see what it was all about! Holy cow, BEST THREE DAYS of my life! :) I LOVED the class and I love the curriculum, so what did I do?! I bought it and am now using it for the Phonics part of my classroom.

Have you heard your students say....

"If you're gonna have a q, then you gotta have a u, because q and u, they stick together like glue!"

or....

"K goes with i, y, and e....c goes with the other three (a, o, u)!"

or....

Every syllable has to have a vowel!

or....

"Scaredy cat v, always brings an e!" (like in have, love...etc.)

These sayings help our students learn how to spell tricky works like...why does cat start with a c and not a k?! Because c goes with a, o, and u!  Or why does have not say haaave with a long a? Because that v always brings an e! :)  It's so much fun to teach these spelling rules to the kids and they LOVE it because they all have fun chants to go along with them!  Sometimes I catch them saying it and I just laugh inside because little do they know, it's helping them to become a better speller! :) So awesome!!! :)

This year has truly started off to be the best year yet.  I can say that I have done everything brand new this year and I wouldn't want it any other way.  Yes, I could be that teacher that uses the same stuff over and over again, but how much fun would that be to me as a teacher? I can honestly say I have not reused one single bulletin board yet. I can honestly say that I have not used one same math worksheet as last year.  It's funny how some teachers stray away from the new stuff...because they want the change as well as their kids.  Keeping things new and fresh is only bettering myself as a teacher and bettering the education for my students because what worked last year, may not work this year, and that's why teachers are professionals.  We are professionals, perfectionists, but most of all, we are caring and nurturing people who are truly just trying to give your children the best education while they are with us.  (Sorry if this sounds like a bragging post, but sometimes it's important to sit down and realize the importance of your career, because it makes you appreciate it that much more.)

Thank you all for listening...and until next time, stay safe <3! Enjoy your blessed Sunday! :)

Field Trip! :)

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great Monday!  I know I did, my kids were AWESOME today and we had such a productive day.  They are all adjusting so well to 2nd grade and it's so fun to get to do more and more with them each and every day.

Now, I know I'm a little bit late posting about this...but hey, better late than never right?! The Clarksville 2nd Grade took a field trip to the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, IA on September 12, 2014.  We went here last year with the 2nd graders and the kiddos loved it, so Mrs. Halverson and I decided that we should definitely go back!

Read ahead to find out more about what we did on our field trip day! :)

We left Clarksville around 8:45 AM and arrived in Waterloo at the Cattle Congress fairgrounds around 9:20 or so!  From there, we went right into the Electric Park Ballroom and attended the four small group workshops.  Each of these workshops focused on a different farm animal and what they provide for our nation.  SO EDUCATIONAL and the kids LOVE learning about what all these animals provide for us and the whole world.

We started off in the Dairy Workshop, where we talked about dairy cows and what they all provide for us BESIDES milk of course ;)!  The students then got a chance to be a team and make butter in a baby food jar!  And they even got to taste test it with some crackers!  So fun for them to experience making butter first hand! :)

Students passing the jar around to shake and make butter!

Next, we went to the Sheep Workshop, where again, we talked about the different uses of sheep wool and all that good stuff!  The kiddos also got a chance to wrap a felt black sheep in their own yarn.  They were pumped that they got a souvenir! :)

Learning all about the sheep!

After the Sheep Workshop, we attended the Poultry Workshop where they students learned the different parts of  a chicken as well as the life cycle of an egg to a chick.  They knew alot about this because they experienced that process in 1st grade! :)

And the chickens! :)

Last but not least, we attended the Pig Workshop! STINKY! :)  We learned about the different kinds of pigs and even got to participate in a Jeopardy game with our leader to see how much we learned from her teaching us.  The kids LOVED this game and they actually did very well at it!  I have such good listeners in my classroom, I just had to brag! :)

Playing Pig Jeopardy! This lady was also our tour guide! :)

After workshops, it was then time for lunch.  We went back to the Electric Park Ballroom and ate sack lunches provided by our school.  Once we were done with lunch, it was TOUR time!

We had an awesome tour guide who took us to the petting zoo, to see all the animals including the cows, horses, goats, pigs, chicks, etc! After touring the animals, we got to watch a magic show which the kids LOVED of course and then we also walked around some more and even got to see an alligator! How neat! :)  Miss N wasn't a huge fan of the alligator, but the kids of course ate that experience right up!

Just checking out the animals! :)

Feeding the chickens/ducks! :)

Look at this cutie! :)

And I definitely can't forget the most important part of the day...meeting the Iowa Dairy Princess which called for a photo op for us teachers! :)

Iowa Dairy Princess & Clarksville 2nd Grade!

Overall, we had an awesome day at the National Cattle Congress Fair.  We had a wet and rainy day but the kids truly did awesome and were great listeners!  Field trip days are always a little hectic but we had two GREAT parent volunteers that helped us keep our 25 kiddos under control!  Thank you to those volunteers SO MUCH! :)

I hope you enjoyed hearing about our field trip.  It's so fun to get the students out of the school and experiencing something else outside of their "normal" routine.

Until next time, stay safe...and thanks for listening! <3