It’s been a fun week in the first and second grade classroom!
On Monday, we worked on measurement again and built Mr. Gallon Man. 🙂 We ran out of paper, so had to schlep some from the storage room to our classroom — it was heavy, and took everyone’s help! We reviewed gallons, quarts, pints, and cups, and then built Mr. Gallon Man. It cracked me up when the girls turned Mr. Gallon Man into Mrs. Gallon Man and added fancy hair, crowns, tiaras, flowers, painted nails, and high heels. 🙂 Either way, it was a nice activity to learn measurement and capacity.
On Tuesday, we started a new session of DRAMA with Mrs. Blake, and she is going to focus on PUBLIC SPEAKING. Isn’t that exciting?!
Also on Tuesday, and in keeping with our unit on penguins, I decorated our door:
…. and we had a long discussion on what to name him. Some wanted “Sam Beaver,” after the character in Trumpet of the Swan (by E.B. White), some wanted just “Sam,” some wanted Captain Cook, after the penguin in our current read-aloud, Mr. Popper’s Penguins (by Richard and Florence Atwater)…. but after a long discussion, we cast our ballots… and Pingu Popper won. I’m pretty sure that it’s a combination of a TV show and our book. 🙂
We read a few chapters every day from this book, and it’s a good one! Students either play with playdough or sketch in their sketchbooks while I read aloud. Look what Andrew drew yesterday during that time!
On Wednesday, we began a new daily discipline: math speed drills. Each student has 5 minutes to answer as many math problems as s/he can (up to 100)….. and we are graphing the results, using a bar graph. Some students love this and some h…. don’t… 😉 …. but I’m sure it will increase math computation speed and accuracy. Each student is encouraged to compete with himself/herself, and to beat his/her previous scores. Also on Wednesday, Mrs. Blake spoke at Chapel and shared some new and exciting information about the Robert Morrison Foundation — there’s more information and a picture on the school website.
Today (Thursday), we began a new semester of GYM class with Coach Tim. Students love this!
It’s been a fun week, but we miss Danica! We hope she’s having a good time in Florida with her family, but we can’t wait for her return!
P.S. I’m sorry for these long lines of pictures, but WordPress changed its options and I haven’t figured out how to make slideshows, yet!
Mrs. Elliott's Classroom 