The fun times just keep on comin' in 2nd grade.
Last Thursday was Kansas Day - and since we had an in-service on Friday, it was the last day of the school week. Perfect day for some fun.
So the four 2nd grade teachers divided our classes into three groups and we did rotations. One teacher showed some videos of some cool Kansas things - like we have a salt mine in Hutchinson that I guess is huge! {I don't know what else he showed videos of - it might have been Sponge Bob for all I know!}
I did a Bingo game with the kids - but with a little twist. They had Bingo boards with the answers. On the SmartBoard, I used the Random Word Chooser, and wrote out clues. For example, "Number of Counties" - and the answer is... 105. So the kids would have that on their board. Or "State Mammal," which all the kids know is the Bison! I think if we do this next year, I need to shorten the list of answers because it took a while for anyone to get a Bingo. I do like using the clues, however, to get those little friends thinking!!
The other two teachers took the kids outside for some old fashioned games. I don't remember at all what they played - but it sounded like they had loads of fun. And the newbie teacher got to show all the groups how to do the games, so she got her exercise in for the day!
Tomorrow we are having pajama day! What fun!!
Yikes and yuck - I have a cold, again, or it's back, or something. I don't know, but it does not help that I did not sleep very late at all this morning. Do you think there's any chance this could just be a two day, weekend cold? Please??
Oh, on to something much more fun! If you read my last post, you know I'm from Kansas and next Tuesday is Kansas Day. If you want to read about part 1 activities, go here.
I had been debating all day yesterday about what to do. Our state flower is the sunflower, and I just love to have the kids paint sunflowers. I show them some pictures and then have them draw and paint their own. But I just didn't know how I could find time this year. So I debated skipping math and doing it then. (I know, very naughty!) I was still debating at lunch time. I had recess duty and when I went out, the teacher that was on duty with the 4th graders said, ah, go for it. So I did.
First of all, I made all my little twittle bugs who didn't work during literacy centers, do some work. I had some grumpy children then. But I let them join us after about 4 minutes of probably the hardest work they had done all day. And I saw hardest because they got more done in 4 minutes than they did in 20 minutes when they were supposed to be doing it! Oh, whatever.
I did some delegating - yeah, me, sometimes a little hard for me to let go like that. Somebody else passed out papers, somebody else passed out paintbrushes, somebody else passed out palettes (paper plates for the paints :). I did take control of sharing the paints - I'm not a crazy woman!
The saddest thing of all was I have a young man whose last day in my class was Friday and he didn't want to paint. Oh, pooh. I even offered to let him paint another Kansas symbol. But he just sat there and played with his erasers.
For the rest of the afternoon, we had some grade level fun. In the past, our school has had a school wide behavior plan with a reward celebration thing each month. This year, it has been moved (passed - ha) down to the grade levels and the teachers. So our 2nd grade team decided to focus on Kansas Day this month. We each planned a 20 minute activity and we rotated the kids to each class. One team member did a boys against girls game - I'm not sure exactly what. The other team member showed some video clips of Kansas symbols. And I made up a Bingo game. But I added a little twist. First of all, this is a pretty good site, I thought, for making Bingo cards and it's FREE! (Love that!!!) This Bingo card generator will make several (I made 25) Bingo cards and it puts all the words in random places. And it also gives you a word list. Yeah!
So what did I do to make it a bit more challenging? I put the answers on the Bingo card. Such as buffalo, meadowlark, sunflower, 34th, 15th. Then I had a light bulb moment. I have a Smartboard, so I used the Random Chooser on that and I typed out the clues on it. Such as State Mammal, State Bird, State Flower, Admitted to the US, # in Land Size. When we were playing, I had one kid come up and push the select button and the Random Chooser would pick a clue, I'd read it and if most of them would know the answer, we'd all answer together - like on the State Mammal. But if most of them didn't know, I'd have kids raise their hand and somebody would tell the answer. Bingo winners got a dorky sticker. It was pretty fun for them and easy for me, so that's obviously a win-win.
I had something else of Great Importance to share, but now I can't remember what it was, so maybe it's importance wasn't really that great :)
Have a terrific weekend. I think mine will be spent clearing off DVR things. Like Downton Abby - please no spoilers, I'm about 2 weeks behind!
Sara
I'm from the good ole state of Kansas and Kansas Day is next Tuesday. I think it's 152 years of statehood for us. So our grade level team decided to do a couple things in honor of that.
First, we had the zoo come visit our school. I've mentioned before on my blog that we have a wonderful zoo for our medium sized city. The great part is they have this outreach program, so they come visit the school and it doesn't count as a field trip! Wahoo!! So the zoo gal came and brought a couple animals. One was our state amphibian - the barred tiger salamander.
She pulled this guy out of the cooler (they carry the animals around in a cooler) and was talking about him. Meanwhile, he's swishing his tail to beat the band. After she had talked about him a bit, we got to touch him. They use the two finger touch system, and we had to wet our fingers first. Let me tell you, they are SLIMY little creatures. Gross! (Not that I let any kids know I thought that :)
Then one of my sweeties asked a question. Why do his eyes bug out? And the zoo gal said that was the best question anyone had asked so far. And she proceeded to tell us that when they have something in their mouth, the salamander pulls his eyes in (toward his mouth) to help crush whatever he's eating (like an insect) and push it down toward his stomach. His eyes are kind of like our tongue. Umm, double gross, but fascinating!
Next, she got out our state reptile - the ornate box turtle.
This was kind of interesting - as soon as she pulled him out of his container, he was trying to bite her and swipe at her with his front legs. But his back legs were pulled all the way into his shell. She said he has a hinged shell, so when he pulls himself in, he can be all contained. Other turtle just pull themselves in and hope to hide their softer parts. Didn't know that either. We got to touch the box turtle - that was quite mild to this teacher - especially compared to the salamander.
Now, the rather funny thing. Last year, we tried to have the zoo come out around Kansas Day, but we called too late and they couldn't come. But they did have a biofact tub that I checked out and was able to show the kids some animal pelts, bones, and a turtle shell, among other thing. When I got that tub home and opened it up, there was a fox pelt, complete with legs and everything. It was just too much for me. I couldn't stand to handle it and I didn't share it with the kids. Just a little too realistic - or reminiscent - of the real thing. Well, guess what was the first thing she pulled out of her biofacts tub. Yup, a fox pelt. Not as bothersome when she's holding it, I'll tell you. She also had an otter pelt, a coyote pelt and two skunk pelts.
Man, I was going to tell you about tomorrow's activities - but this is longer than my arm as it is. I'll share over the weekend.
Doing the happy dance because tomorrow is Friday! Are you too?
Sara
