Alchemy Room: Second & Third Grade 

In our classroom, students’ ideas and interests are respected and included in our daily routines as much as possible.  Most of the structure and routines of our day have been influenced by student ideas and suggestions.  Here, they feel empowered, respected, and an integral part of the learning process that happens on a daily basis.

When students enter the classroom, they read a book from their book boxes to practice fluency.  Afterwards, they complete a list of morning “chores” before we all come together for yoga.  We spend fifteen minutes warming our bodies and brains up by doing yoga stretches and poses.  Students also have an opportunity to be the leader of our yoga time.

Below, is a brief description of each subject area, as well as some examples of activities we have done this year.  Each subject is listed in the order it would occur in our daily schedule.

Mathematics:

Math in our classroom, as with all other subjects, stems from student interests as much as possible.  We work in groups, as a whole group,  or individually depending upon the students needs and progress.  Students are allowed to work at their own pace and up to their maximum potential, even if it means working on concepts above their grade level.  One of our most recent projects this year evolved around an interest in currency.  Students brought in currency, but then we learned about money in other ways by counting change, making change, and earning money for a culminating project.  Students earned a weekly “allowance” and used the money they saved at the end of the year to buy supplies for their gingerbread house.

Reading:

Our reading lab is taught through a Readers’ Workshop approach.  A skill/strategy is taught at the beginning of the block to everyone, but is practiced either individually or in small guided reading groups throughout the lab.  Students create their own work schedule by choosing what they want to do for each of our four group time periods.  The rest of the lab time is broken into the following categories:

·    Guided reading groups:  students are grouped for a small part of the time according to their instructional reading level and are taught word study concepts, comprehension skills, and word attack strategies using authentic literature (trade books)

·    Literacy corner activities:  these are areas where students practice skills that have already been taught, continue their interests through further research, or write for fun. 

·    Journaling: students either write about the topic of the day, or choose their own topic

·    Independent Reading: students read independently and keep track of their reading in a separate folder. 

Writing:

Writing is taught through a Writer’s Workshop approach.  We begin with a group meeting to learn about concepts that apply to all students.   Some of the concepts that have been taught this year include steps of the writing process, forms of prewriting, putting voice into your writing, using “muscular verbs”, basic grammar and mechanics, and dictionary skills (among others).  Students spend the majority of their time writing, but are also allowed to discuss their story with other students for ideas or to request a teacher conference.  Students are encouraged to try various forms of writing.  This year we have written fairy tales, short stories, and are currently working on mysteries.

Subject Studies:

Students work on projects related to their own interests and the science and history concepts from our curriculum are integrated into their studies.  Researching, writing a story or report, or just reading about the subject that interests them most are activities students do during this time.  At the beginning of the year, we listed students’ interests on a chart.  The first interest students chose was ships and boats.  We spent several weeks learning about ships and boats through research, floating experiments, and specific assignments related to the topic.  Currently we are learning about dragons, reptiles, Chinese culture and geography.