Thursday and Friday

This new schedule has been kicking my rear-end! Almost every day this week I have been in bed by no later than 9:30. Which would explain why I have not been keeping up on my blogging for the week but, don't worry I will catch you up.

Thursday - The Substitute

This Thursday there was a sub in Jamie's room. She asked me if I wanted to teach all day, and of course I jumped at this opportunity. The week before she went over everything that I would be teaching on this day and I took very detailed notes! I arrived at Seattle Hill on Thursday morning and entered into her room and met the sub that I would be working with - she was great and super supportive! We went over the sub plans together and made sure we were both on the same page. As the students arrived I had them started on their entry task and stamped their planners. The day was off to a great start. Soon, it was time for reading - which also went very smoothly. The day just seemed to fly by. The only subject I did not teach was math because, I am still learning about the curriculum. During math I worked with a group of students on their money counting. Once math was over I had the students get ready for lunch and line up. On Thursday afternoons in Jamie's room is always factoid testing. I led the factoid testing and the students did better than I thought. If they get through all their factoid testing with time to spare they get some free time - which of course is a huge deal in the second grade. We got through most of the tests when I noticed that many of student where becoming very restless in their seats. So we did some Ms. Craig aerobics! Ms. Craig aerobics just gives students a little break - I had them run in place - do jumping jacks etc. but the catch was they did it with out talking. Very simple but gets the ants out of their pants. After we finished all the tests and corrected them - they finished early and had 20 minutes of free time. They day just flew by - and before I knew it , it was time to go home. It was one great day!


Friday - Grandparents Day and Buddies

On Friday, after spending all day in Jamie's room I spend the day with Amy. As you can tell by the title it was Grandparents day - oh man can you say chaos! But more about that later. I started the day off by teaching reading. Once, all the students switched in to their reading classrooms - I had the students get started and directed/managed the whole lesson. First, we did some Phonics work on the white boards then some grammar. After, we had phonics and grammar out of the way it was time for oral vocab cards, the students always enjoy vocab cards. Oral vocab cards are a story that include new works that students define from the context clues given in the story. The story was Tikki Tikki Tembo (which is a really fun story if you have never read it). They loved it - the version on the oral vocab card was a little different from the original, so we also read the original and the students helped me pronounce his name every time it came up in the story. After reading was Math and then the craziness of Grandparents day. Right before lunch all the grandparents began to arrive, as we walked out of the classroom and headed toward the lunch room students found their Grandparents. The gym was over flowing with people and so were the classrooms, it was quite the sight to see.

After lunch, the grandparents left and in the afternoon we filled in the students planners for the next week and read a book about Martin Luther King Jr. Once, we were all packed up, it was time fore buddies. Buddies is a sixth grade class that has been paired with a second grade class and once a week they come down to the 2nd grade room and do an activity with the second graders. Each second grade students is paired with a sixth grade student. It was fun to see how all the sixth graders interacted with the second graders. After buddies it was time to go home! Fridays in the Snohomish School district are always early release day.

Once, the students left I went through the Foss Science kit that I will be teaching starting on February 1st to both classrooms.

These are the highlights for the week.