Tuesday, August 31, 2010

First Day! Mr. Merritt does the Sprinkler Dance??







Can you say sprinkler dance? Indeed that's what we all said to ourselves as Mr. Hines lead our school in our first all school assembly today and Mr. Merritt broke out into the sprinkler dance! It was a full blown 10 minute dance party with our own TJ representing 2W (and very well, I might add)!! Hard to be nervous the first day of school when your getting "jiggy" with all your friends, old and new! After the assembly, we had our first morning meeting (complete... with song, greeting, message and our game, which we fit in at the end of the day... "Have you seen Ms. Marbles"?). Much of today was spent in guided discovery (fondly known as "housekeeping") and establishing routines and expectations for behavior in second grade. Today we learned routines for checking in, how to take care of our tools and our desk (indeed... we all have our very own... supremely cool DESK!!), how to check out for bathroom/nursing needs, where "finished work" goes, how to do math warm-up, where the schedule is and how it works, how to sit in a "story spot" on the rug, and how to carry chairs safely to morning meeting! Phew! If that wasn't enough, our author of the month is Marc Brown, and we listened to his very first published story "Arthurs Nose". Second grade isn't second grade without lots of Arthur books... that's for sure! We also began our first couple of chapters of "My Father's Dragon" for read-aloud. Lots more tomorrow! What a great beginning to what feels like a fabulous year... be proud of your students! WELL DONE second graders!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Ready or Not... Here We Go!! Sky's the Limit...


Greetings to all our new second graders and their families! While there's still one whole week of summer fun and freedom left, our classroom is already "buzzing" with excitement! Our first day will be spent getting to know each other, our classroom, and and our schedule. A good night's sleep is the VERY BEST way to be ready for school, so, fill your backpacks with a healthy snack, school supplies, a favorite summer book, and go to bed nice and early! Can't wait to see you all Tuesday!