Spotted in 2nd

What a wonderful week one in second grade! Feels good to be back in second, after a decade in first. There is so much I love about teaching first graders but second graders ROCK! 
Our theme at school this year is 'Our Passion is Learning'. Here is my new team with our new shirts:

We decided to make our 2nd grade theme 'Our Passion is Making Connections' and used Scrabble letters to decorate:

After a successful Meet the Teacher night (I made a cute tag with a recorded message and a glow bracelet attached - and found out later one of my students slept with it, he liked it so much) 

it was time for the FIRST DAY OF SECOND GRADE!

On the first day, we watched a Kid President speech about the first day of school. 

My students LOVE listening to the wise words of Kid President! Later we watched a youtube video describing the game Scrabble. Students used paper Scrabble letters to make their name and add up their score. Next, we took our names and connected them to make our classroom Scrabble puzzle! I was pleased that a student declared he earned 50 extra points for using all his letters. It was a fun, engaging activity for our first day.

I am thankful we are encouraged to spend most of week one establishing community in our classroom. I completely agree that the better the foundation is built in the classroom, the more likely we will have a balanced year together. I found this amazing pin on Pinterest with the BEST book! I literally rushed to the Grapevine Library to snag it! It sums up exactly how I've felt all summer: You're Finally Here! and keeps asking Where have you been? It was a fun read and students wrote telling me where they have been this summer. Next year I hope to use a few more parts of the plan. 

We spent time playing 'getting-to-know-you' games,

sharing about ourselves in Circle Up, listening to each other while speaking from the Share Chair... plus we reviewed Daily 5, the basics of Writer's Workshop, reviewed making 10 in Math and blogged our Popplet in Kidblog showing what we know, safety in Science and communities in Social Studies. 

I am enjoying getting to know a new group of children, although I am familiar with most of them from last year. One of my favorite activities we did was they made 'Second Grade Selfies' to tell me about themselves. CUTE!

After they created their selfies, I passed out their iPads (we are a digital classroom and have 1:1 iPads - it's AWESOME). We discussed digital expectations and how to use a few of the basics, including the camera and how to use photos appropriately in class. Students took their own selfie and made it the background for their own iPad.

WHEW!! What a busy first week in second grade...and those were just a few of the highlights! I'm excited for the rest of the year!! Next week I expect to get my Donor's Choose order and I'm working to prepare my Maker's Space for PLT time. More to come on that and how I'm designing our PLT (Personalized Learning Time). So, tell me...how was YOUR first week back?