Five for Friday

Today I realized that we have two (TWO!) weeks left before Thanksgiving break and then three (THREE!) weeks until Christmas break.  And, you all know what happens after Christmas right?  The year flies by!!  I took this to mean summer is right around the corner (don't burst my bubble!)

The weeks really do just keep flying by....here's a look at what we did this week in room 205 -

We're wrapping up our Mystery Genre with our real classroom mystery.  I use the GEMS Mystery Festival "Who Borrowed Mr. Bear?" for this.  They eat it up!

Students rotated through science stations to conduct tests on the evidence left behind.

After conducting science experiments on the evidence, students met at the suspect chart to make inferences and discuss the case.

We also worked on Author's Purpose this week and we made these cute little PIEs to help us remember that an author writes to Persuade, Inform,or Entertain.  Some of them are better artists than me...

This little craftivity goes perfectly with the posters we displayed to remind us of Author's Purpose throughout the year.  These are posted right by our read-aloud chair so we can reference them often.

In science, we learned about life cycles and had to do our favorite little "life cycle relay!"

For the egg stage students carried a plastic egg on a spoon to the finish line and back (without dropping it!)

For the larva stage, students crawled {like a caterpillar} to the finish line and back!

Students wrapped their legs in a pillowcase {chrysalis} for the pupa stage and hopped to the finish line and back.

For the final stage, the adult stage, students flapped their arms {wings} and "flew" as fast as they could to the finish line and back.  

This activity definitely helps the stages to "stick" in those little minds {and gets some energy out!} WIN-WIN!

We also reinforced Facts/Opinions with a little spider activity.  They always love how freaked out I get while reading about these horrifying creatures. ;)  I always find it interesting to see how the boys make very realistic {and usually specific types of} spiders, while the girls....well, let's just say they try to cutesify these creatures up a bit.

You see the beautiful flower on its back, right?  But did you notice its fingernails?  HAHAHAHA! 

But the highlight of the week was throwing a baby shower for one of our sweet teammates {and great friend!}  It was a book-themed baby shower.  If you want to see all of the pics, head over to my Instagram!

Whew! It looks like we got a lot accomplished this week despite being a "testing" week for 2nd graders.  Thankful for the weekend to try to get ahead for next week!