Gobble, Gobble!

 Thank you, Arantza and Marisabel!

This year, I feel like I have more to be thankful for than ever, ever, ever before. I am graced each day by the presence of 16 lively, bright, unique students with special gifts to offer me and every other class member. I am humbled by a lovely, welcoming parent community who is willing to give and give. I am lucky to work in a kind, wonderful professional climate.

I think our second graders said it best in response to my question on the Morning Message "What's one thing you're thankful for in school?" Responses were mostly along the lines of: we're kind to each other, we are welcoming, we are nice, we are friendly, we have fun. Life is good in 2B.

In this spirit of Thanksgiving, Marisabel (Arantza's creative mom!) volunteered to facilitate an ADORABLE Thanksgiving craft for our second graders this week. She enabled our students to be festive and start their day off with some Thanksgiving fun. It was clear that her (and Arantza) has spent quite some time carefully preparing the tiny turkey feet, pairs of googly eyes, colorful neat feathers, and little orange beaks so that each student could make their own fun bird. They are complete with clothespin stands glued on the back to make a fun decoration for a Thanksgiving table, or what have you. On the back of their turkey's body, each student wrote one thing they were thankful for. I got a kick out of "I'm thankful for video games" and was warmed by many "I am thankful for my family and friends because they love me"s.

 Happy Thanksgiving!

 Some silly turkeys, for sure.

Solids, Liquids, and Parents

This week marked the start of our first science unit on States of Matter: Solids, Liquids and Gas and it quickly became clear that 2B is crazy for science!  Students are revved up about their investigations, observations, working in cooperative learning groups where everyone plays an important role, and making new discoveries about our natural world.

I loved the moment when Kaelan raised his hand this week and said "I just know this is gonna be a fun day!" And it was. On Wednesday, we had the special opportunity to involve our parent and family community in our science lesson for Parent Visitation Day. Our mission? To apply what we observed the previous day about various properties of solids to THE TOWER CHALLENGE! The students morphed into engineers and were responsible for constructing towers while also being able to articulate why certain objects made a "good base" or a "good top of the tower." What I liked best, though, was that our parent community was invited to take the challenge with their student, as well in a shared investigation. As I drank in the picture of parents twirling aluminum foil and wires and manipulating cloth squares and plastic containers, I thought that my classroom just felt 'right' at that moment. 

Our students were proud and deeply engaged in their work as engineers and I ended the day feeling confident that our parents got a healthy dose of what life in 2B feels like, looks like, and sounds like: the electric energy of active children (and teachers!!), various solid manipulatives strewn across desks with notebooks open to charts and tables, and the busy hum of thinking brains filling the pale blue walls.

Vote for SOMEBODY!

On the morning of November 6, I woke up giddy and wide-eyed at 5:00 am (a whole 45 minutes earlier than I usually rise!). I couldn't wait to exercise one of my most favorite freedoms, the right to vote. Admittedly, it's only my second time voting in a presidential election! As much as I couldn't wait to vote,  I really couldn't wait to share some Election Day learning with our second graders and was ecstatic at the questions and buzz in Room 2B about Election Day leading up to it. I was impressed and proud of how aware and informed our students are at such a young age.

As I walked out of my local middle school, ballot cast, I felt tears well up in my eyes. I don't know if it's because now-this year, for the first time-I have an audience of 16 in front of me, learning and growing before my eyes, and I felt like there was just so much I wanted to share with them....
-about democracy and our freedoms
-what it FEELS like to be able to vote
-what makes our country exceptional
-that we have the right in this country to disagree and hold strong beliefs and stand up for them and talk about them!
-the aspirations and accomplishments that they have to look forward to as our future leaders

So, after we tallied up our predictions on our Morning Message about which candidate we believed might win (Obama had more tallies), we greeted each other as follows: "Good Morning, Future President ________" (student last name). Our second graders giggled and scoffed playfully at this greeting, but I stopped them for a second. The room got quiet. And then I told them we are greeting each other like this today because I want you to know that you CAN be our nation's leader one day, and that's one of the beautiful things about our country, and I have no qualms that you are each brilliant and capable. We were pensive and silent for a moment. I watched the students drink this in. Still giggles during the greeting, though, which was rather fun.

Next, we quietly took our seats in front of our SMART Board and watched this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVkfNUxRh7g

Throughout the day, students participated in a mock election (Obama won it) and students voiced questions and wonderings about the election. Trying to explain the electoral college in response to Karsten's question of: "what if there's a tie?" was quite interesting! Then, students learned more about the election process with a read aloud: Duck for President by Doreen Cronin, complete with a duck puppet!

All day, students tried to figure out who I voted for. I explained the importance of listening closely to both candidates, asking and researching questions, thinking about what beliefs we each personally hold most dear, and keeping votes private-especially as their teacher. Still, Eli came up to me at the end of the day and said "Ms. Baier, I think I've got you figured out..." and to this I sang, "I'll never tell!"

Ms. Baier is Missing

After a totally wacky week, why not making it wackier by hosting a guest teacher!? The evil substitute from Harry Allard's acclaimed picture book, Miss Nelson is Missing actually APPEARED in Room 2B on Thursday morning. When Ms. Baier inconspicuously disappeared after music and before Read Aloud time, none of the students thought anything of it! Mrs. Fraser cracked open Miss Nelson is Missing; our second graders love this series of woeful days at school with an evil "sub." Students laughed and screamed at the parts when Miss Viola Swamp, the dark, hideous substitute appeared. But never did they think that she was lurking just outside the classroom, waiting to storm in.

Miss Viola Swamp thought she would be greeted with terrified screams when instead, she was greeted by shrieking giggles and surprised stares. Miss Swamp stormed in the room and demanded attention in a gravelly voice, cloaked in all black with witch-like leather heels, black lipstick and eyeshadow, and a vampiress wig the color the midnight.

Her alibi? That Ms. Baier had to leave suddenly, terribly sick. Her job? To introduce students to their Reader Response journals, teach them the expected format, and give them their first formal assignment in it: How is the Viola Swamp in your classroom similar to the Viola Swamp in the book Miss Nelson is Missing? How is she different?

A sample of a student response:
"The Viola Swamp in our room and the Viola Swamp in the book are both creepy. They both wear black and they both YELLLLLLL!!!! The Viola Swamp in our classroom is different from the one in the book because she is bad on the outside but good on the inside, because she's Ms. Baier."

I thought I'd have them FOOLED more than I did!!! (Couldn't help but smile at the expressions on their faces; it gave me away!) Alas, they saw through the facade. Still, it was tons of fun to dive into character in the spirit of Halloween, a favorite read, and the beauty of bringing books to life.