"Fall" into Writing

One of the biggest accomplishments this week was starting our air and weather unit in science, and beginning to dive into our writing for second grade. The students learned about the writing process (Think of an idea, plan, write, revise), and really blew me away with their levels of description with writing. They are coming along so far and I can't wait to see what they will have as a finished product next week! We also had lots of fun with our science experiments this week. Students got to hypothesize about what they thought would happen when I put a ping pong ball on the top of a hairdryer and turned it onto the low and then high settings. Then they observed and drew pictures of the experiment. They also got to try one on their own by predicting which object would travel furthest on their desks: a styrofoam ball, a cotton ball, a feather, and a piece of tissue paper. We then talked about our findings and results and discussed what we've learned about air so far. Air is invisible, and it takes up space. It also can make things move. Looking forward to seeing you all at conferences this coming week and the week after that!

P.E.A.C.E.

This week we began so many more new second grade things! We learned what good scientists do: ask questions about the world around them, use what they know to make a hypothesis, and try experiments again and again, looking carefully at results. We also began writing "small moment" stories. Students got to read a story about The Veggie Monster, where a little boy has to eat a whole THREE peas for dinner. Then we brainstormed ideas of what we could write for our own small moments. You can see some of their ideas below. We ended the week with a fabulous PEACE assembly, where we got to see a book about peace performed by some of the upper classmen. We saw the kindergarten classes walk in with the eighth graders. We showed our Responsibility and Cooperation during the assembly by being safe, quiet listeners! Overall, another fun week of learning!

Tiny Topic notebooks

Math groups!

Second in September

Math small groups!

What a fun and action-packed first FULL five-day week of school! We started lots of new things this week and had wonderful adventures, including time-traveling into the year 2076, where 85-year-old Maryn told a story she'd heard from her own dad when she was a little girl (our literary theme is family stories passed down throughout history). Other highlights included International Dot Day (Thursday), where we read the story The Dot and made watercolor drawings using only dots to "make our mark" on the world, and filling out our Hopes and Dreams for this year.

Hopes and Dreams

The "ake" word family

This week also marked the start of math. Most everything from this week was all review, although we did introduce something called Number Talks. Ask your child about it--the kids love them, and Number Talks are a GREAT way for the kids to 1. share how they see numbers adding up, and 2. they are exposed to different thinking and strategies for math.

We ended our week with introducing a new Daily 5 station--working with words. Part of this station is creating spelling words all in the same word family using either a "Build a Word" board or play-dough. The kids did really well and were excited to participate.

Here's to a wonderful weekend and another week full of exciting adventures ahead!

The Dot 

More Word Work

More Dots

Welcome Back!

I can hardly believe we are here in SECOND GRADE! I hope everyone had a restful summer break and are excited to be back. I know that I am, and the kids sure seem to be as well! We did a lot of reviewing of expectations and procedures in our classroom, and learned how to take care of each other and the materials in our room.

We also spent some time building community in our class. Thankfully, the rain didn't keep our spirits down, and we were able to get outside for recess for every day except for the first day of school. We got to go outside and even play a class-wide game of Red Light, Green Light to practice listening and following directions. The kids did well!

We explored dominoes, other math tools, and were introduced to read-to-self time and decorated our second grade book boxes. Next week, the students will learn all about Right Fit books, and we will already begin regular lessons in math and reading. We also welcomed two new students to our class, and enjoy having them as part of our community here in 208! Thank you once again for entrusting me with your energetic learners for another year. We are all ready to go for the gold!

Have a Great Summer!

Wow! The end of another school year! These students have grown SO much, and every parent/guardian/caregiver should be extremely proud of your student. Each of them has been a wonderful part of our classroom community this year! We have grown in sharing, caring for one another, and helping each other. This last week, we celebrated our works of writing (typed on the computer!), spent time reading, and drawing shapes outside with sidewalk chalk. These students have learned so much this year, and I'm excited to work with all of them and all of you next year. Have a great summer, everyone!

Beginning to Reflect

It is so hard to believe that we only have ONE more week of school left in the 2015-2016 school year! I have been SO privileged to work with each and every student in this class, both in ups and downs, throughout this year. They are an energetic, caring, cooperative group, and the growth they have shown is amazing. I am infinitely proud of them, and they should be proud of themselves, too! Their desire and excitement to learn and apply our concepts to the real-world is inspiring! Our butterflies were released into the wild last week, but these students keep coming to show me new caterpillars that they find, and compare those caterpillars to the butterflies we hatched. They will say things like, "Look, Maryn! This is in the larvae stage!" Yes, they are (don't worry--we always put the caterpillars back outside into their natural habitat, as much as we may want to keep them and see them hatch :) !

In our reading groups, I see students eager to help one another out. When we get stuck on a particularly difficult word, I will say to a student, "Would you like coaching, or time?" If the student says "time", we give them more time to figure it out on their own. If they say, "coaching", then the other students will offer suggestions of different "Fix-It Felix" reading strategies they know. Seeing the students so willing to help each other out and seeing them growing so much in their independence of learning is such a privilege! On that note, here are some highlights from our week:

Final Graphing activities!

Daily 5; helping each other with a hard word!

Field Day!

It is no contest--the highlight of this week for the students was FIELD DAY! We had such a fun and successful Field Day, thanks especially to all of the parents and family who came to have lunch with their child and to those who helped out with the events. On the academics side, we are doing lots of interactive learning. We started our final reading unit this week, did lots of graphing and data gathering, and got to make shapes in groups and find things of different shapes around the room. We also said good-bye to our butterflies, as the last one emerged from its cocoon today (Thursday). Hoping everyone has a restful and fun four-day weekend! I will let these Field Day pictures speak for themselves: