Mrs. Bianchi's 2nd Grade Blog: October 2009

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Our Mount Philo Trip

We had a fantastic field trip to Mount Philo on October 7! It was a gorgeous day and we all enjoyed our hike and the vista from the top of the mountain. Below are two brief videos - one with some snapshots of the trip and one with some kids talking about the trip.

Friday, October 2, 2009

What Happens During Morning Meeting

Every morning we have a morning meeting. This is a chance to bring the class together and get ready for our day. We always start with some type of greeting. In this video, kids are participating in the Koosh greeting. After the greeting, we read the morning message while the morning meeting leader points to the words. The kids edit the message by telling the leader how to fix the mistakes that I purposely make each morning. Then we do some calendar work and we're on to the rest of the day.

Lessons Learned from Swimmy

On the last day of the 2008-2009 school year, I had the pleasure of meeting with my new second grade class for the 2009-2010 school year. Now, in reality, the class wasn't really new to me nor were they new to each other; at a minimum we had spent every math class together for the past year. Despite this familiarity, there was something different and special about this half an hour that we spent together. I had chosen to read the book Swimmy by Leo Lionni to the group. In the story, a little black fish named Swimmy befriends a group of small red fish who are hiding because they fear that they will get eaten. Swimmy teaches the red fish to swim together in the shape of a large fish so that other sea creatures will leave them alone. Swimmy is the eye. His plan works and they all live happily ever after. As I often do when I finish reading a story to the kids, I asked them why they thought I had read this story to them. Several children raised their hands. The first girl who I called on said she thought that I had read the story because it is about creative thinking. I agreed and we talked about the importance of creative thinking for a few minutes. Then a boy raised his hand and explained that the story is about leadership. I thought to myself "these responses can't get any better." Then I called on a third child who shared that she felt that I had picked the story because it is about teamwork. I was and am overwhelmed by the profoundness of these first grade responses. If on their last day of first grade, these children can understand and articulate the importance of creative thinking, leadership, and teamwork, we all have a lot to look forward to during the 2009-2010 school year.

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Saturday, October 17, 2009

Our Mount Philo Trip

Friday, October 2, 2009

What Happens During Morning Meeting

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