Math Fun (for parents too!)

I had the wonderful opportunity a couple of weeks ago to travel to Indianapolis, IN with several of our great St. Mary's teachers to attend the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference.  We had a fun time talking about math and learning about new programs and strategies to share with our colleagues and students.  One quick resource that you can use right now is the Everyday Math website with examples of how to work problems in a little different way from the traditional method that you may be used to - click here for the link to  Everyday Math Parent Resources (then click on the free family resources page and then one of the algorithm pages).  Please let me know if you have any questions about this - glandaiche@stmarysschool.org.

April Book Club - Celebrating Poetry!

This month is National Poetry Month and our 2nd grade book club celebrated by sharing some of our favorite poems.  See the Smilebox with photos from our meeting and go to my delicious page for activities using poetry...Delicious page http://www.delicious.com/smsresources

Personalize your own thank you

"On Stage" video

Here is the link to a download of the video Mr. Tanner made of the "Angelina Ballerina" performance of the "On Stage" Enrichment Cluster - Link to download of play

Pippi Pictures

Whew! Last week was so busy! It started with the field trip to the Pippi Longstocking play at the Cannon Center and, although I didn't go on the field trip, I loved reading about Pippi with the second graders before they went. Mrs. Collier and I were talking one day at the copier and came up with a "book hook" and descriptive drawing activity based on the original Pippi Longstocking book. The smilebox below includes the girls and their Pippi drawings that they drew before they read about her (except for some who had already read her books or had seen a Pippi movie!). From all of the talk after the girls returned, it sounded like they had a great time at the play:)
Last week also included my attending a presentation hosted by St. Mary's by the author of a book called, Hamlet's Blackberry by William Powers. The author talked about how important it is to have a "balance" in our lives with all of the amazing technological tools available to keep us "connected" all of the time. It is an interesting read!

Customize a picture slideshow

Mythology Overview

Second grader Jessica J. created an informative power point presentation for her class on Greek Gods and Goddesses. She shared clip art pictures of different gods and explained what they represented. We all appreciated her hard work and enjoyed her interesting lesson.

Monster Exchange

All of the Second Grade students participated in a descriptive writing activity that involved them drawing a monster on the computer and then writing a clear, concise description of their monster to share with a friend.  The girls exchanged their descriptions and tried to re-create their friends' monster.  Each classroom voted for their "favorite" monsters and twenty were chosen from the second grade (click on the Smilebox below to view those that were selected).  These twenty monsters are being shared with a class in Illinois that we are paired with through a collaborative online project.  We will soon try to replicate the other classes' monsters and they will try to copy ours.  This would be a fun activity to do at home with a sibling, neighbor or friend describing something new or even an everyday object from around the house!

This free digital slideshow generated with Smilebox

"On Stage" Performance!

Here are some highlights from the Enrichment Cluster Showcase performance of "Angelina Ballerina" -

This free scrapbook generated with Smilebox