Our 1st PBL Unit!

Well, you probably heard about this during the first 2 weeks of school when our kiddos were working together on this project, but I am finally getting around to updating our little ole blog here!

Our learners were challenged by our principal and assistant principal to create a "superhero" with a quality that would help make our school an even better place to learn.

They were put into groups and had to figure out their exact task by deciphering the Entry Document given to them by Mrs. H and Mrs. F.  That document was pretty wordy, so our learners had to discuss and figure out what many of the words and phrases meant so they could understand exactly what they needed to do!

They did a great job collaborating, and after fully discovering their task, they made plans and their final product to showcase their team Superheroes!

Here are the finished products displayed in our classroom--each one portrays a specific character quality that the team felt would help our school be a better place to learn...

"Respect Girl"

"Effort Man"

"Super Boy," Effort

"Leo the Super Dog," Caring

I am super excited for our class to begin their next PBL unit in October!  

I know they are going to accomplish great things this year.

Being Humanitarians: 2nd Grade Bazaar 2013

There are so many worthy organizations that are fighting to better our country and our world.  I have narrowed it down to some great choices for our students to vote on--we will donate the profits from our sales at this year's 2nd Grade Bazaar to the winner of our poll.

Here is some information about each of the charities we will be choosing from:

World Wildlife Fund - fighting to protect endangered animals

American Red Cross: North Texas Region  - provides relief to victims of disasters and helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies.

Coppell Humane Society  - a foster home organization that keeps the animals until they find their forever homes, no matter how long that takes

Ocean Conservancy - brings people together to find solutions for our water planet, protecting the ocean and its wildlife for future generations

Students: After looking at the websites above and learning about each one, click on the link below to visit our Today's Meet site, where you will share with your classmates which charity you think we should donate to, and why you think so.  We will then vote and send off our donation to the organization with the most votes in 2nd grade!

TODAYSMEET LINK

Penguin Love

 Mrs. Cockrell LOVES penguins, and when she was out sick the week that we were supposed to study them, she was so sad!  We HAD to learn about penguins, so we did it the following week!  We read a lot of books, watched a lot of videos, read magazines, checked out Nat Geo Kids, and more.  We are definitely learning about all the places you can go to find out information about a topic.  This is great for our upcoming research project that you'll hear more about very soon!  :)

Please enjoy our pictures below:

 

 Left: Penguin Craftivity via Ms. Fultz's Corner (not our lovely librarian--different Ms. Fultz!)

Right: Penguin Book with Tree Map (idea found on Pinterest via Jean's Crafty Corner).

 

Tree Map about Penguins

 Penguin facts put into complete sentences

 I love how each penguin book looked so different!

Some wanted to use googly eyes, and some wanted to draw their own.

 Lots of great information!

 Some students added their own flair to their penguin craftivity! 

Love this penguin daddy protecting his egg.

 Penguin with earmuffs!

 Hair ribbon!  :)

 Love the earmuffs and speech bubble!

 Excited about all the new facts!

 Heart-shaped penguin!  :)

 Girly penguin!

They did really well putting their facts into complete sentences.  We are working up to writing paragraphs that flow, using a topic sentence and closing sentence.  2nd grade is a big year for writing growth!  Trying to get them prepared for all the writing in 3rd!  

Thanks for checking out all our hard work.  Not all the students wanted their pictures on our blog, but I hope you were able to see their awesome work when they brought home their projects.

Johnny Appleseed

Check out our cool Johnny Appleseed art and writing!

We had lots of fun creating our portraits and scenery!

Be sure to check them out when you come in for conferences.

Fall Poetry Celebration

Yes, I have a LOT of catching up to do on blog posts!

Our Poetry Celebration on October 31st was a huge success!

Here are some photos of our adorable kiddos who worked so hard to learn their poems and recite them with great expression!

"Fall Poetry Celebration 2011"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Native American Research

Here are some photos of our presentations about the Hopi tribe:

"Hopi Research Projects"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Flea Market 2011

Our 2nd Grade Flea Market was a huge success this year!  Our students worked SO hard and were very "professional" throughout the sale!  :)

I am sorry to say that some of my pictures have gotten lost (my laptop crashed at some point the first time I was trying to upload the pictures several weeks ago), but I have included all the pictures I could find.  If I come across any others, I will add them.  :(  Sometimes technology is wonderful, and sometimes it is infuriating. 

Hope you enjoy our photos:

Bat Week!

Last week, our book for Text Talk was Stellaluna.  Therefore, we focused all week not only on the book, but also on studying all kinds of bats.

We read other books about bats to find more information, and each day, including today, we added more information about bats to our "bat lap board."

Check out some books we read on bats below, and enjoy the pictures of our completed bat lap boards.  We had a blast making them!

Applesauce Friday!

Today I peeled and sliced LOTS of apples...but it was for a good cause!

I also had lots of willing helpers to get our applesauce cooking!  (I can smell it cooking as I type this!)

We hope to enjoy our homemade applesauce a little later this afternoon, and we hope you enjoy our pictures from this morning's fun!

Pinwheels for Peace

Lakeside will be participating in the Pinwheels for Peace Project where we will be displaying 500 handmade Pinwheels (made in Art class) on the school grounds on Sept.21, the International Day of Peace.   The project has been around since 2005 and this year they expect to have 3 million pinwheels spinning around the world to send a message of peace. For a video, a map of participants or to make your own pinwheels go to:

http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com/pinwheelsforpeace/home.html