Introduction to Miss Lathrop!

What a fabulous Monday it has been! Today I presented my first lesson- an introduction of myself. I tried to come up with something fun and active instead of just sharing information. I showed the students a PowerPoint of myself. (If I was talented enough, I would post it). Each slide had a question, such as, "What is my favorite team/food/color?" or "How many siblings do I have?" or "What animals do I have?" etc. Followed by four images of the item discussed in the question. Each image has a number next to it. The number next to the image corresponds to a corner in the room. The students go to that corner in the room (which I labeled) that they think is the correct answer. The next slide reveals the answer to the question. The students in the correct corner receive a "1 point" token. The student with the most points wins! The kiddos absolutely LOVED it! (The even loved my silly little paper tokens!) They spent lots of time deliberating and coming up with the perfect answer to describe Miss Lathrop. :) In the end we had a four way tie. Success? I think so!

After the game, I had the students fill out this worksheet so I could get to know them as well. Some of the kiddos answers were absolutely precious!

Getting To Know YOU!

I finally feel like I'm grasping routines, procedures, schedules, etc. I'm getting to know the kiddos and their personalities better which always make things more fun. Today, we also started reading groups. This will give me the opportunity to meet kiddos from other classes. In one station we read/will be reading The Littles. Another station the students did Rainbow Spelling. The students write their spelling words in marker alternating colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet). Such a great idea! At the third station, the students worked on decodeable text with "The Clean Team." This was a small little "book" the students read then answered questions along with it.

In math the students are doing a unit called "Cubeland." They work with cube math manipulatives to create different "plans." They can then switch them with other classmates. (There are a TON of other activities that go with this unit... I'll share more later.)

The students are also finishing up their New Years people. The ones that have finished look so cute! They worked very hard writing out their New Years resolutions. These were then pasted on large pieces of construction paper. They then added faces, mittens, New Years hats, etc. I'll try to take some pictures and post later.

Early dismissal tomorrow! Looking forward to talking with some other 2nd grade teachers in the area and swapping ideas. Time to write my letter to my parents!

Squeezes and smooches, Miss Lathrop