Bird Watching at Jefferson County Park

On February 1st, the 2nd graders at Libertyville Elementary went bird watching at Jefferson County Park.  We started our day by looking at different pictures of birds we might see while at the park.  We ventured outside to feed the birds sunflower seeds in the shell, sunflower seeds out of the shell and peanuts.  When we were finished feeding the birds near the bird blind, we sat inside and waited for the birds to come and eat.  Here is a list of birds we saw:  junco, pine siskin, female and male cardinal, blue jay, female and male purple finch, nuthatch, chickadee, goldfinch, red bellied woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker and a tufted tit mouse.  We then set out on a trail walk with binoculars so we could see birds up close.  After lunch, we played a game of guessing the beaks and feet of various birds.  Finally, we took one last trail walk.  We would like to thank Therese for teaching us all about birds!!!!  Thanks Toad!!!

100 DAYS SMARTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2^nd graders at Libertyville Elementary are 100 days smarter!!!  We celebrated the 100^th day of school on January 31, 2012.  We did lots of fun activities including seeing how many times we could do certain tasks in 100 seconds.  Those tasks were:  how many times we clap our hands, how many times we could say the alphabet, how many times we could hop up and down, how many times we could write our name and how many times we could sit and stand.  The funnest and most challenging activity was building something out of 100 Legos!!!  Each student was given a baggie with 100 Legos and they had the task making a creation out of ALL 100 Legos!  After students were finished with their creation, they had to write about it and tell what they would do with their creation if it were life-size.  Below are pictures of students with their 100 Lego creations!  Enjoy!!!!

Santa Has No Suit!!!!!

The students received word Santa doesn't have a suit for this year.  He forgot to get it cleaned after last year.  Mrs. Claus was busy baking and making the elves' suits, that she dried Santa's suit too long and it shrank!!!  Students designed a new suit for Santa and wrote him a letter to try and persuade him to choose their design for his suit this year!  I hope you enjoy our designs!!!  Some are original, while others are very creative!!!

PBIS

The other morning during our weekly professional development time, we were introduced to PBIS, or positive behavioral interventions and supports.  This is a proactive, systematic process for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviors in order to create a positive school environment in which teaching and learning can occur.  Fairfield Middle School is currently in their 2^nd year of implementing this program.  Our elementary schools are in the process of implementing this program.  As Mrs. Strickler and I were driving back to Libertyville after professional development, we started talking about what approaches we could take in our classrooms to head towards this implementation.  We both felt that it ties perfectly into the 7 Habits of Happy Kids.  Mrs. Strickler stated, “I think I’m going to have all my kids start on red and move their way to green.”  As I comprehended what she said, I thought, I bet I could get this to work with my cube system.  So I said, “Maybe I will try the approach of having my students earn their cubes and reinforcing positive behavior, instead of taking cubes and drawing attention to negative behaviors.”  So when we got to school, in our classrooms we told our students we were turning our behavior system upside down!  I have seen great changes in the attitudes of my students and myself as their teacher.  My classroom associates are on board with the new system as well.  It is going to be a lengthy process to get used to and to have the students adjust, but in the end, my students will become more positive and it will make me a better teacher, because I have to be on top of looking for the positive behaviors.  It will be a journey, but in the end it will be worth it for everyone in my classroom, children and adults.  For more information you can go to this website to read up more about PBIS.  http://www.pbis.org.  For more information about the 7 habits mentioned, you can go to this website. http://www.seancovey.com.

Classroom Funny!

Today in our math boxes we had the question:  Tomorrow I will get dressed for the day.  (Circle one).  Certain, Likely, Unlikely or Impossible.  Grace says laughing, "It's definitely not impossible!"  Sophie giggling says, "And I don't think it's unlikely!"  It made me giggle and they knew that it was "certain" they were going to dressed tomorrow.

Leaping and Learning!

We have been so busy learning that I haven't had a chance to update our blog!  We have done so much I don't even know where to begin!  Since our last entry we were learning the steps of Daily 5 and building our stamina.  We can now choose our own rotations and are independent at doing our rotations.  Our stamina has gone from 3 minutes to 20 minutes!!!  We are all improving in our reading and I'm in the process of getting some things together for some of our struggling readers and will be sending those home real soon.  As many of you know we are starting our standards based report cards this year in 2nd grade.  It has been a long process, and we are still in the process of getting it all together, but we are very proud as a 2nd grade team of this wonderful accomplishment! 

Here a few reminders of what is coming up:

October 25-Field Trip to Jefferson County Park for Reading Incentive

October 28-Trip to Fairfield Convention Center for a showing on Mark Twain

October 28-Libertyville Firemen visit our class for our monthly visit

November 1-Early Dismissal @ 2:15 for parent/teacher conferences....Conferences will be from 5-8:30 pm

November 3-Early Dismissal @ 2:15 for parent-teacher conferences ......Conferences will be from 5-8:30 pm

November 4-NO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daily 5

Garret listening to reading

 The second graders at Libertyville Elementary have been building their stamina while practicing the components of the Daily 5.  We have been learning to "Read to Self", "Work on Writing", "Listening to Reading" and "Reading to Someone".  We are getting ready to add the last component of "Working on Words" this week.  Students have learned that it takes time to build your stamina and do one thing for a period of time.  We have built our stamina to 12 minutes!!!  We started at only 3 minutes!  Below you will find some photos of the students building their stamina for Daily 5.

Grace & Hailey reading to someone

Brynley & Brad reading to self

Wyatt & Nate reading to someone

Kylie working on writing

Teddy, Sophie & Emma reading to self and listening to reading

Logun listening to reading