Getting Ready for Year Number Six!

My sixth year of teaching in California begins in a few weeks and I'm excited to get back in the classroom. I've enjoyed every minute of my summer vacation! 

A few highlights from my incredible summer break - 

What's a teacher to do on the last day of school? Head to Lake Tahoe! 

After a few relaxing days at Tahoe, I was back in the city to teach summer school. I taught a three week Wild Weather class and some hip hop dance classes. It was my third summer teaching at SummerGATE and I would recommend this program to anyone! 

The morning after summer school ended, I hopped on a plane for a 21-day adventure in Europe. I had way too much fun! I spent time in - 

Warsaw, Poland:  

Prague, Czech Republic: 

Paris, France: 

Rome, Italy: 

and Berlin, Germany: 

My trip wouldn't have been complete without a stop in Indiana to visit friends and family! I planned my trip home around my 10 year high school reunion. It was so nice to reconnect with old friends.

And now, it's (almost) back to work! 

School begins August 19th and this is what my classroom looks like right now. I think I'll stay away until next week and enjoy a few more days of summer vacation! 

Even though I'm not working IN my classroom just yet, I have school on my mind. I got a little too excited about these Dr. Suess goodies I picked up in the Target Dollar Spot this afternoon. I can't wait to put my classroom together next week! 

ABCs & 123s, 

Heather

Working on the Assembly Line

We started our economics unit last week and it is always a class favorite! Every year my students create their own business, produce goods, offer services, make advertisements, create business cards, film commercials and set up their stores at our annual class market. 

My 2nd grade students are the producers and the first grade students are the consumers. 

Learning how to efficiently make goods requires a lesson on the assembly line! Take a look at what we did last week to learn about this old manufacturing process: 

We watched this short video about Henry Ford and the Model T to understand the need and importance of the assembly line. They love black and white videos!

A lesson on assembly lines would not be complete without showing the clip below. My students could not stop laughing at the video and asked me to showed it again. Good, old fashioned humor!

After learning about the history of the assembly line it was time for us to try it out for ourselves by making greeting cards. I put the students in groups and gave them each a specific job: 

Step 1 - Fold the paper in half. 

Step 2 - Glue on the girl or boy paper. 

Step 3 - Write Hello! on the front cover. 

Step 4 - Write Love, on the inside. 

Step 5 - Write Created by 2A on the back. 

Step 6 - Inspect to make sure each job was done correctly & fix any problems.

Finally, each student created a flow chart showing each job in the assembly line. 

They loved passing the card down the line to the next student as they raced to complete as many cards as they could. They are well on their way to becoming successful business owners. 

Heather

Sparkling Eyes, Haikus & Worker Ants

My spring break was filled with family get togethers for Easter, wedding shower and bachelorette party fun for one of my sisters, and a few days in my mom's kindergarten classroom. (Yes, I spent hours inside a school building on my spring break...) 

After a fantastic (and busy) spring break with family and friends, I've been back in school for almost a week. This break was exactly what my students needed. They came back to school sweeter than ever and ready to learn. 

If you're ever in need of a confidence boost, just spend a day or two with 2nd graders. These kids crack me up and make me smile every day. 

Some stories from this week...too cute not to share!

1 - A few days ago as my class was entering the room, one student stopped and looked at me like she was going to ask a question. She stood there for several seconds. I said, "Can I help you?" Her response, "Oh no, I don't need anything. You just look so pretty." 

2 - As we were working on haikus in writing workshop time today one boy raised his hand and said, "Miss Schneider, your eyes just sparkle!" (You never know when they raise their hand if what they are about to say actually pertains to the lesson...)

Speaking of haikus - look what I caught a few of them writing in their notebooks. Melts my heart...

3 - We've been learning all about non-fiction text features the past few weeks. Today's Time for Kids magazine was all about ants. They loved watching youtube clips of ants carrying objects several times their own body weight. Later in the day some students were finishing an art project, while a few others were helping me put papers in ABC order. It was then determined that I'm the queen ant and my students are all the worker ants. I just tell them what to do and they get to work...hilarious! 

 

We're one big happy colony in 2nd grade! :)