Global Read Aloud 

Our school is participating in the global read aloud this year and I couldn’t be more excited. The book for 2nd and 3rd graders is The BFG by Roald Dahl. With fun made up words and fantastical elements, I can’t think of a better book than The BFG.  During a portion of our reading block some students from all three second grade classes come to my room for a reading small group. Over the next few weeks I will read aloud The BFG and we will discuss it. While that is something we could do with any book, what makes this book […]

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Fall Foods Near and Far

Fall has finally arrived! Besides the onset of cooler weather, wearing cozy sweaters and acclimating oneself to back to school routines, there is my favorite fall tradition of going apple picking. What made this fall even better was hearing from my family in Finland. They may not have gone apple picking, but they were gathering food as only the Finns can do. Back in the States, it doesn’t matter where I go, all that matters is that each fall I find a weekend to go and fill a bag with more apples than I could ever possibly consume on my own. […]

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Family Connections

This week in school my students read a informational text about family. During our readings of the selection we took a close look at the family to better understand and learn more about them. We asked questions like, what kinds of things do they like to do? How many people are in their family? What hobbies do the people in the family have? There was so many great points to look at and compare to students’ own families. This story was also a perfect opportunity for me to make a connection to global learning. How could I do this? Well, I […]

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The Hills Are Alive

One of my favorite experiences this summer was going on The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg. Not only did I get to spend the morning listening to the music of my childhood, but the scenery was breathtaking! There are several tours to choose from but our family opted for the morning half day tour. We spent the morning touring different places used for filming the movie both in Salzburg and outside the city. Some of the sights we had seen the day before when we walked around the old town area and we didn’t even realize it! There was […]

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Windmill STEAM Take 2

After visiting Spain last spring, I was hoping to have my students complete a STEAM project connected to the windmills of La Mancha. Unfortunately, with the craziness of testing time, then the end of the year, the project never got off the ground. While we did many other great Spain activities and talked about the windmills made famous by the book Don Quixote, I couldn’t stop thinking about the STEAM project that wasn’t. Over the summer while in Amsterdam my obsession with a windmill STEAM project returned. My sister and I took a day trip outside the city to Zaanse […]

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Flexible Seating with Students

Whew, we all survived the first few days of a new school year! It has been a great start to a new year in a new grade thanks in part to flexible seating. Although it has only been a few days, flexible seating is proving to be the best thing I could have done in my classroom! Students are engaged, working, and seem happy with the flexibility and responsibility of picking how and where they sit. After practicing using different seats, I thought it would be fun to graph what students think about their choices so far. After our morning meeting, students […]

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Positive Points 

As I gear up for another school year I am excited at the opportunity to try out new things. New seating styles, new room arrangement, and new approaches to classroom management. When I traveled to Spain on a professional development trip last February, I had the privilege of meeting with teachers and watching them in action. In a second grade classroom I visited, a teacher use a positive behavior system where my immediate thought was, genius! During lessons the teacher would call on students. After the student had participated she would call out “point”. The student would then quietly stand up, walk […]

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Teacher in Moomin World 

With the start of school right around the corner I thought it would be fitting to write a post about the most child friendly place I visited in Finland, Muumimaailma! Moomin World as we would call it in English, is a magical place, but before I get carried away let me give a little background on what the heck Moomin actually is. Moomintroll is a white, hippo looking character created by Tove Jansson in the 1940s. Moomintroll and along with his family and friends grew in popularity over the years and can now be found all over the world. The […]

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Flexible Seating for Flexible Learning

As a new school year approaches I am preparing for new challenges and new adventures. This will be by first year teaching 2nd grade, so there is a lot for me to learn before my students come through the door for the first day of school. This summer, besides pouring over curriculum to familiarize myself with the differences between 3rd grade and 2nd grade skills, I am also preparing my classroom space as well. Deciding on classroom layout is one of my favorite things to work on over the summer. It is a time when all things are possible and all […]

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Turku Medieval Festival

This summer I was lucky enough to be in Turku during the final day of their big medieval festival. Along with my sister, our family who live in Turku, picked us up from the train station and brought us right to the festival. It was quite the introduction to Turku! We had a great time wandering around from stall to stall. Many of the people were dressed in medieval clothes, helping to create a festive atmosphere. There were all kinds of handicrafts, food, and goodies to be bought, all of which were set for the time period. There were also […]

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