Five for Friday, on Saturday, which is actually what happens a lot....

This week has flown by! Last week, the first back after Christmas break, drug on forever, but this week disappeared. I am posting five random things from my week, some of them from school and some of them from home. I hope you'll head over to Doodlebugs and read about everyone else's week! I am so glad that Casey hosts this linky every week!

1. Family game night! Last Friday we met my folks for dinner and then came back to my house and played UNO! Talk about good for my soul! Both children took a friend with us when we went to dinner and then we played a wild and devious several rounds of UNO! It was the kind of night mother's cherish in their hearts.

2. Those crazy b's and d's! I have a cute little sign (oh gosh, I should have snapped a picture of that one too!) of a bed up in my cubicle but students don't seem to notice! So I taped some to my table! This is so normal in Kindergarten, and maybe even First grade, but I have Second and Third graders struggling with the /b/ and /d/ sounds! Sorry for the poor picture. What do you all do to help students with this? One thing I have started doing is reading their work back to them out loud and that seems to help sometimes.

3. McPherson Arts Council Children's Choir (MACCC) is headed for Nashville in less than 60 days now! I am so excited! This has been a very good experience for my child. They performed at the Legion's family night this week, and one song they sang was Rascal Flatt's Don't Let Go.  They dedicated it to their P.E. teacher who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident on December 20th.  She has not woke up yet. There were very few dry eyes.

4. Last week our church hosted a SIDS benefit. It was a really awesome experience. I love my church. I cannot lie, I don't always enjoy the truth, plain and uncoated in sugar, but I love it that my pastor is a straight up truth kind of guy.  Don't get me wrong, he's human, and so is everyone else in this venture. But this is my home and I love them for wanting the best for me. What is the best thing that you do on the weekend? 

5. Second grade! I am falling in love with this grade level. I have posted plenty about the reading group I had previously in Second grade! It was such a treat to watch them learn how to really use that mind and to do the research and get to work! Now I have a different group, and their learning level is not as high. Once again, this group has not researched yet. The operative word is yet. We jumped in this week. We started out by reading the book: Coyote Plants a Peach Tree. This book is an interesting mixture and fact and story and gives solid information about both coyotes and peach trees! I only two students in this group so I thought about having one research coyotes and one research peach trees, but since this is their first project, I decided we should stick with coyotes. Also...  they both were very interested in the coyote, and not so interested in the peach tree! After we read the book, we brainstormed some facts from the back of the book.  Then I turned them loose with their iPods and their writing journals. They had to find at least three facts and write them down. I had to really push one student to just start writing! I told him that I would help him put his facts into Second grade words. He said he only found one fact. But when we really looked at his one fact, it was four facts in one paragraph. I talked with classroom teachers to gauge ability and we decided that a mobile with facts would be a great starting place for these young researchers! I gave a lot of support on this project, but I was impressed with how well these students did at filtering facts, thinking about things on a deeper level, preparing to present. Unfortunately, we did not get their mobiles finished on Friday, so we will finish on Tuesday. 

This book is written as a story, but has facts inside the back cover and is filled
with facts as you read it. It is terrific combination of narrative and informational text. We loved this book.

These are the facts we gleaned just from the back cover of the story.
This got us in the mood to really start researching! 

Searching for facts on the iPod.Working hard.

  So the discovery of the week was this: I don't just love working with those Second graders who need to be stimulated, stretched and extended.  I love working with the students who are not reading at grade level.  I already know that I love whole class instruction. I am in love with Second grade. I thought I would never love any grade except for Kindergarten. Kindergarten was my first love, but this new love for Second grade feels empowering. I believe that I can grow even more and I can love any grade level when I have the freedom to teach in the ways that I teach best. I love the Second grade teachers and their support and encouragement. I might have them fooled a little bit, they think I can do just about anything. Everyone should have someone in their life that feels this way about them. Hmmm.... is there an analogy there? Maybe I should make sure I feel this way about all my students? And tell them often. Because if they are like me, they will rise to the occasion!