2nd Day of 2nd Grade

This summer I had a great time planning with one of our second grade teachers. She wanted to create a fun experience for her 2nd graders on the 2nd day of school!  We built in activities to promote a community of learners and setting expectations for a the classroom.

Of course, one must have a cute t-shirt for the special day!

(Thanks, Stephanie for letting me take your pic!)

The first day of school, Stephanie sent home the template below so students were ready to record their voice and create a QR Code to go with their own unique crayon.

Stephanie started the day by reading, The Crayon Box that Talked. This is a great book. It is a story about crayons that don't get along, but when a little girl buys them and makes a picture using them, they see how they are each unique and bring something to the whole picture.

After reading and discussing the book, Stephanie sent her kiddos over to us. As students worked on decorating their own unique crayon, the ITS's on my team and I helped record each student (Croakit!) and their unique characteristics. It was very helpful that they had them written prior to coming to us. Then, each student created a QR code (QR Stuff) of their voice recording.

Here are a few hanging in the hall. Ready for open house next week!

The cute sign is from Me and My Gang!

Word Work
Students used the letters from Second Grade is Fun! to create as many words they could using the letters. Click {here} for a copy of the letters.
They made a class poster of all the words they had found. Then, they posted it in the hallway for others to add to it . . . interactive activity for the grade level.

Math: Graphing Our Friends (data collection)

Stephanie took a picture of each student on the first day and added them to the document for gathering data. The 2nd day, she did a mini lesson on types of questions to write and a quick review on tally marks.  

Students created a question with just 2 choices. As students walked around they could check off the picture of the person they had just asked. This made it easy for students to learn the name of each classmate. The pictures are going to be cut off and the tally sheets posted on some fun papers for a background. Now she has some fun data to discuss and a great way for everyone to get to know each other.

Two Bad Ants - great for inferencing and descriptive language.
We have an amazing outdoor learning environment. Students watched the expectation video and then ventured out to the space.
Each student was given a Nature Walk booklet for writing down 2 facts while out in the environment. This is a great time to talk about NEVER tasting anything unless the teacher has given you permission. Click {here} for a copy of the nature walk booklet.
The booklet was then glued in their science notebook.

It was a great day full of collaboration, connecting and building a classroom community!

(We even had some teachers celebrate the 3rd day of 3rd grade.)