Being Good Citizens

Leaf Creatures

This week was full of new exploration--in reading, we talked about our star, the sun, and in math we finished a big chapter on different addition strategies. Students also learned about what makes a good leader, and how we elect leaders in our communities. We talked about how we will not discuss any of the election politics in class, but instead will do the election process by voting for things like our favorite book characters, or kickball vs. basketball for recess. We enjoyed taking out the social studies books for the first time--another new tool in our exploration of learning! We read with partners and then talked about what we read. We read the book Leaf Man and exercised our creativity by creating our own leaf creatures. Students also had the chance to celebrate their latest writing projects. They are a wonderful and engaged audience! We're looking forward to reading books next week like Duck for President, and voting on whether or not we think Duck or the Farmer should be the leader of the farm. Hope you all have a terrific weekend and enjoy this week's snapshots!

Exploring our Social Studies books

Celebrating our Writing

To be a good citizen....

Acting out stories

Though it was a short week this week, we were still able to learn a lot and have fun! We began our unit on citizenship, focusing on what it means to be a good citizen, and looking forward to what qualities good leaders should have to help their community, and how the process of voting works. We read a book about the Pledge of Allegiance, its history, and its importance in our country. In writing, we practiced a new technique to help us remember to take small steps in our writing: We acted out our stories! Though a quick activity, the kids enjoyed it, and it got their writing going on an active note. Next week, we look forward to working more with grouping in math, celebrating our next pieces of writing, and lots more about citizenship and government in social studies. Hope everyone had a great long weekend!

More acting

"I pledge allegiance...."

Air and Weather, Oh My!

We had another full week of learning! We had our first writer's celebration, and then learned how to take a tiny topic and start writing a small moment story. We began grouping with base ten blocks and are using what we know about 10's to add double digit numbers. In science, the kids had a blast--quite literally with a blast of water in some cases--doing experiments that taught them about the properties of air. Ask them about air pressure, air resistance, and compressed air. We learned about all of it, and had lots of fun doing it! This coming week, we look forward to beginning our unit on what it means to be a good citizen, which will lead into what leaders in the community are supposed to do, how laws are made, and what the process of voting looks like.

"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!