Amazing Lesson

I have successfully completed my first week of teaching the 2nd grade! I am absolutely in love. We are beginning an author study on Kevin Henkes which is so awesome because I have studied author studies at UNLV. The book we reviewed today was Chrysanthemum (just like the flower) about a little mouse who gets made fun of because her name is too long and different. The students loved the story.

First,  the mentor teacher and I read a letter from our mothers about where our names came from and why our parents chose those names for us. (The students received this assignment for homework-ask your parents where your name came from).

We then did a little activity where we had all the students' names written on sentence strips and cut up letter by letter (vowels in red, consonants in blue). We put them in plastic baggies and passed them around the class. Students had to sort out the letters to spell their classmates names. It was hard for some of them, but a great way to learn names. To make it easier you could give them their own name.

Once they completed the sorting part of the assignment they glued that person's name on a piece of construction paper and gave it to the person. We then began to make circle maps about ourselves including pictures and words of our favorite things and places to go. This tied into a noun lesson we had done earlier in the morning. How AMAZING to combine lessons and make connections to each other and the teacher. I will definitely be using this in my own classroom :)

I am also making my first scholastic book order in the eyes of a teacher and man is it hard to choose! There is a Kevin Henkes pack available that I am purchasing so I can complete my own Chrysanthemum activity.

Until Later,
Amanda