The Word Wall is ready to go.

My desk is ready to go.

Name tags placed on the desks.

Meeting Area is ready to go.

     Preparing my classroom for 2 weeks stirs up a feeling of excitement for me! Summer is quickly coming to an end. The beginning of the school year is finally here. It is so exciting to be able to start over again. A fresh start for each child with a new teacher and classmates. I am reminded of how lucky I am to have a job and the job I love. I have been busy buying new things for my classroom for weeks. I have been pinning ideas from Pinterest since last Spring. Wow I can't wait to try them! I will keep you up to date as I introduce them to my new class. 

     The name tags are on their desks. 24 new students for me....14 boys and 10 girls! I can't wait to meet them all.

                                         June 13, 2012 Last Full Day of School "A Purplicious Memory"

I knew that I had something else I wanted to share. On the last full day of school my students dressed in every shade of purple to tribute my love of purple! It was a truly "Purplicious" day! I am holding a wonderful purple hydrangea plant given to me! <3

This video was made by 2 of my students and was recorded during recess using a Flip. I was so surprised! I will cherish it forever! :) They were so excited to give it to me. They told me that they wanted to make me a video because I made videos of them all year long. What a class! How lucky was I to have them?<3 Thanks  

Mrs. McGinnis, Theresa Hanson, and Paula McKenna

For the past 10 years my class and Mrs. McKenna's class have welcomed Theresa Hanson of Junior Achievement of America. She has taught our classes about Community. The children were engaged in many fun filled activities during the 5 week program.. On June 1, 2012 the children presented Theresa with beautiful cards and a plant. I would encourage any teacher to welcome a volunteer from Junior Achievement into their classroom.
Click on the link below to see our 5 week program Grade 2 Community with Junior Achievement of America.

http://animoto.com/play/WOB1Whf7Ux0hcyLH3aoFbw

On Wednesday May 30th we celebrated Field Day. Check out the Animoto video to see the fun!
It is so nice to see my students in a non-academic setting having fun!

 http://animoto.com/play/mCk5RXnuwhor00oyF3kb7g

I knew I had something more to say...

After listening to the book "Because of Winn Dixie" by Kate Di Camillo the students in Mrs. McGinnis' and Mrs. McKenna's classes wrote an "All About" book about their moms. In the story, the main character, who is being raised by her father, asks that her father tell her 10 things about her mother. The students were asked to interview family members to get information for their books. The books were titled "10 Things I Know About My Mother". Each book contained a dedication page, table of contents, 10 chapters, and a "Meet the Author" page. The children enjoyed writing, illustrating, and sharing their books. They especially enjoyed a chapter called "How To"... where they shared something their mothers taught them 
to do. Moms will enjoy the books forever!

~Irene McGinnis and Paula McKenna


This is a copy of the pre-writing interview sheet.

             

It took us a few weeks, but each student completed their book in time for Mother's Day! Here are some reactions reported by a few of my students. 

They were so proud of their books. Moms have told me that it was their best Mother's Day gift ever! 

Hello again,
We had so much fun making our "Silly Faces Spiders". It was another great idea that I found on Pinterest. They were asked to make their silliest faces! They were also asked what they would like Charlotte to write on her web? Please click on the Animoto video link below to view our latest video. I just love Animoto!

http://animoto.com/play/JEOwaH54VLaGMs2p3m06hg#

Hello again,

I pitched this great idea to my Art teacher Jean Norton-Ryan that I saw on Pinterest.
While reading Charlotte's Web in my class they are weaving her web in Art.
 What great collaboration! We are working on other ideas as well from Pinterest!
Stay tuned......

Jesse's Weaving

More Weaving

Niamh's Weaving

Ava's Weaving

Payton's Weaving

More Weaving

Keeley and Leo are weaving!

Henry's weaving

P.J."s Weaving

It's the 60th Year of Charlotte's Web!

Hello again,
My class started to read Charlotte's Web this week. They are quite excited! So last week I got a great idea. Well I thought it was a great idea. I decided to invite the children to bring in their e-readers with Charlotte's Web already loaded to read along with us. I have a paper copy available for each student as well. To my surprise...no one was able to purchase "Charlotte's Web" for their e-readers. I guess I was a little shocked. I assumed every book was available to download. So I'm on a quest to get someone to make Charlotte's Web available for e-readers. I tweeted Amazon Kindle,
Barnes and Noble Nook, Scholastic Books, and Harper Collins. Their responses were the same. At this time Charlotte's Web is not available. I can't help thinking what a great loss of revenue to these companies not to have such a classic book available as an e-reader. Maybe next next year? Please stayed tuned.

click on the link below to learn more about E.B. White the author of Charlotte's Web
http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/Kids/AuthorsAndIllustrators/ContributorDetail.aspx?CId=10499


One of my students received a Kindle for a Communion present last weekend. She brought it to school and a "When I Grow Up" by Kurt Zimmerman to our class. The students were so excited!

Ainslee is reading "When I Grow Up".

                                             
                                                Our first e- reader read aloud!

   

Hello again!

Have you ever thought of yourself as a Wild Animal? When my class visited Mrs. Nicolas' Technology class on Tuesday, May 1st, they got to answer that very question. Each student combined their human self with their animal self. Go onto the website listed below and give it a try. Please have fun looking at a few of the creations that are adorning our classroom.
 http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

Julianna

Ainslee

Henry

Kendyl

Niamh

Jesse

Hugo

Grace

Cameron

Ava

Melanie

Enjoy!

Hello again! What another fun week in second grade at I.B.E.S. After reading "A Curve in the River" by Ann Cameron my class collaborated with Mrs. McKenna's class on a project. I found this neat idea on Pinterest.
 http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/home-garden-projects/outdoor-projects/beach-crafts/message-in-a-bottle-672887/

Thank you to Disney's Family Fun for the original idea.

The children were so excited! They wrote letters imagining their letters would end up in a far off place read by an unknown person. Their letters contained jokes, "how to " information , pictures, and just the right amount of personal stuff.

Next we made our bottles. They added enough sand to cover the bottoms of the plastic bottles. Then they sprinkled glitter, added sea glass and shells. Their letters were gently rolled and placed into the bottles.

Finally we got both classes together to exchange their bottles. Take a look at our video made by Animoto to see the entire process.     

http://animoto.com/play/ezWZsUXMlqIwkG0CGuijiw

Read this related article about a message in a bottle from the Mayflower II!

http://www.wickedlocal.com/plymouth/news/x787561374/PLIMOTH-PLANTATION-Missive-from-Mayflower-II-crew-finally-finds-its-way-home#axzz1tHsTNsXM

Stay tuned for more exciting happenings!

Last night was the last night of my PLN course! Wow I can say with great confidence that we are all a little sad it ended. What an ending though! Each teacher presented their work with such passion and commitment. What class works an hour and a half passed the end time? We sat there glued to our seats as each one of us presented. I wrote myself a "to do list" after some of the presentations! I say to the next PLN class in July...the bar has been raised! To our teacher Bill Burkhead thank you for your commitment to bring PLN to Plymouth! You have opened our eyes to a new world.
Last night Dwaine Chilcot presented a wonderful video called "Caine's Arcade" during his presentation. Wow that was powerful! I tweeted that I would show it to my second graders today. I did. The kids were so engaged you could hear a pin drop. The applause at the end of the video was delightful. Did they see a little bit of themselves in the video? I think they did! The discussion which followed was priceless. It sparked their imagination to think that a kid could do that. Great plans were hatched for their summer vacations. My students encouraged me to post the video on my website so they could share it with their families. So I did! If you didn't get to see the video I encourage you to do so.

Mrs. McGinnis' Class April 24, 2012

Watching Caine's Arcade

     http://cainesarcade.com/2012/04/caines-arcade-short-film/

Hi everyone!
     I have been taking a graduate course called "Building Your Professional Learning Network: Networking & Collaborating Beyond Classroom Walls, Doors, & Limits" since March 20th. It has been an incredible journey so far. I now have a Twitter account and have sent out over 100 Tweets. I have this blog which is something still new to me. Bill Burkhead, my instructor has introduced our class to the use of technology and social media to build a network of fellow educators to learn from. We have had conversations with several educators using Skype. We even participated in several "Twitter- Live Chats!" He was very impressed with our ability to keep up with the pros. We've explored Pinterest, Google Docs, Google+, Igoogle, Drop Box, Diigo, and Livebinders so far.

Our instructor assigned us a Class Project: develop a 5-15 minute presentation on any form of social media that is new to you and has helped develop your PLN or classroom practice.

So I chose to look at Pinterest for my inspiration. I was looking for something to go along with the
book "Because of Winn Dixie". I had just finished reading it to our class. In the book the main character India Opal is being raised by her father. She asks her father to tell her 10 things about her mother so she can get to know her. We will be starting a very big project called "10 Things I Know About My Mother" after the April break. It is an "All About" book. They will be interviewing their mothers for the book. I was looking for a lesson for the class to practice their interviewing skills and the lesson I found was a perfect opportunity for them to do just that.

I found a great lesson pinned by a very generous teacher named Becky. It was called "The 10 Things We Learned About Our Classmates". http://www.dots-n-spots.com/?p=922 After reading "Because of Winn Dixie" with her 4th grade class they did this activity. I loved it!

I took her idea and adapted the lesson to use with my 2nd grade class. When I introduced the lesson to my class I challenged them to step out of their comfort zone and interview someone in the class that they really would like know more about. The children volunteered a list of good questions
and I quickly charted them down. We decided that we would post the questions around the room to use as a guide. They were encouraged to use them or come up with their own questions.
They were so excited! Each child paired up with a partner and began the interviewing.

Next they composed 10 new facts about their partner. Then each student made the paper doll template look like themselves. I had photographed photos of them which they trimmed and glued onto the templates. The facts and the picture were put together on a bulletin board to connect the students faces with the information from the interview.

 Finally their work was posted onto a bulletin board for the entire school to enjoy.

Enjoy our video! http://animoto.com/play/h7kRdVAMCIYttbhC1maFVg#

The possibilities are endless.....I have 2 other lessons pinned to do before the year is out. One is for a story called "A Curve in the River" and the other is for "Charlotte's Web"!
Stay tuned!
Irene:)

Welcome to my new blog! Please be patient while it's under construction!

Thank you :)