Best of Heights!

Thank you to all of you who attended our special "Best of Heights Night".  It is so nice to see so many of you come out and support your children.  The students were so excited to share their work.

In case you missed it, here are some photos of the classroom.

This week we read about several different heroes.  We read about a woman named Dianna Golden who lost one leg as a child and went on to become a champion skier.  We also read about a boy named Rudy Garcia-Tolson.  He lost both of his legs as a young child due to some birth defects and he became a triathlete and a champion swimmer winning several medals in the Paralympic Games. 

Check out this link to hear about him:  Meet Rudy

We continued to learn more about the rainforest including the four layers and which animals live in each layer.  We even played a game to help us learn about the animals.

In writing, we wrote fun stories about aliens.  What would you do if an alien came knocking on your door?  

The countdown is on for the end of the year!!

How Do People Get Along?

Our essential question this week was "How do people get along?"  We read a story about two girls that played soccer and how they worked together to win a game.  We practiced summarizing stories and telling the point of view of the characters.

We finished our unit on time and money this week with an assessment.  These will be coming home for you to review and sign.  Our next unit that we will be starting next week is geometry.  We will be starting by identifying 2-dimensional shapes.

In writing this week, we practiced our opinion writing by writing book reviews.  We started the week by reading one of my favorite childhood books, Juilus.  We wrote a review of the book together.  Then the students each chose a book and wrote a review on it.

In science we looked at pictures of the rainforest and learned about the four layers. In social studies, we finished up our unit on the changes that occurred in San Francisco.

The class earned a compliment party.  They received 15 compliments from other staff members at school. To celebrate this achievement, today we watched "The Tale of Despereaux."  

Enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!!

The Best Part of Me

We finished up our poetry unit for writing this week by publishing our poems in the computer lab.  Then we mounted our "The Best Part of Me" poems.  The students were asked what their favorite body part was.  Then they wrote a peom about it.

In reading this week, our essential question was "What do good citizens do?"  One of our stories this week focused on Martin Luther King, Jr.  We were very familiar with Martin and what makes him a good citizen.  This story was about how Martin knew even as a young boy that there were some injustices in our country.  He learned about fairness and being peaceful from his father who was a minister.

We continued to practice counting money and this week began adding money.  We focused on lining up the money problems correctly.  Several of the students had some difficulty with figuring out the word problems and when to add or subtract.  We will continue to practice this skill.

We kicked off our Rainforest unit this week by reading The Great Kapok Tree.  We discussed the book and how the animals in the book did not want the man to cut down the tree.  In the coming weeks we will be learning more about the rainforest including the four layers and all about the animals that live there.

The class has earned a compliment party by receiving 15 compliments from other staff members and we have almost finished reading The Tale of Despereaux.    Therefore, as a reward we will be watching the movie soon.  Good job class!!

Have a great weekend.  Hope to see you at Opening day for baseball!!

Happy Easter!

Can you believe it is spring break time already?  In preparation for the holiday, we made cute baskets in the hopes of receiving some treats in them.  We also dyed easter eggs for fun!!

In reading this week, we discussed the elements of a folktale.  We read four different versions of "The Three Little Pigs".  We compared and contrasted the different versions of the story.

We continued our unit on poetry in writing.  We started the week by learning about Haiku poetry.  Then we worked on poems about our favorite part of our bodies and some fun poems using sound words.

We finished up our unit on solids, liquids and gases with an assessment.  In social studies we started discussing the city of San Francisco.  In the 1800's, San Francisco was a rural area and now it has become urban.  We will be learning about a tragedy that happened that changed the area and how the community came together to rebuild it.  

Enjoy your family time together on break!!

Super Mrs. Wells

Today was dress like your favorite superhero.  I'm not one to miss out on the fun so I joined in.

This week we did some research on weather.  We researched different types of weather like storms, tornadoes, snow and rainbows.  Then we wrote and presented reports to each other.

We started a poetry unit in writing.  We started by taking a nature walk and choosing some topics in nature that we wanted to write about.  We tried using our imagination and seeing things differently through a poet's eyes.  We learned about putting line breaks in our poems too.

In science, we did a fun gas experiment with Mrs. Taylor's gas. Then learned about how the particles look in solids, liquids and gases.  We created a model to help us understand this concept.

In math, we finished up with clocks and have moved onto money.  Several students still do need practice telling time.  Many get confused with the hour hand.  Whenever possible, try to practice at home.  We are doing really well so far with coin counting.  Next week we will start adding money and doing word problems involving money.

Our penny war for our playground is going great.  Our penny bucket is very full.  Great job parents. Next week, the bombing starts!!  Let's go 2-Wells!! Bring in those silver coins and dollar bills.  

Have a great weekend.

We All Just Wanna Be Big Rock Stars!!

This week we finished up our class book and it is on its way to be published.  I'm so excited to see the finished product.  One of our lucky students even designed the cover.

Since our book was complete, we started a new writing project.  We wrote a narrative about what it would be like to trade places with our favorite TV, movie or rock star.  The students had some great ideas like riding in limos, performing in concerts and just spending a lot of money.

This week we read poems about nature in reading.  We talked about how the poet shows his or her feelings in writing.  We found similies and rhyming words in the poems.  We also discussed the theme or message of the poems.  

We started practicing telling time in math.  This is a skill that needs some practice. Any practice you can do at home is very helpful.  The expectation is that second graders should be able to tell time to the nearest five minutes.  We played time bingo today for some extra practice.

In science we compared the properties of solids to the properties of liquids.  We found some similiarities like they both have color.  We also discovered that one thing they do not have in common is shape, liquid takes the shape of whatever you put it in.  In social studies we read about how communities get bigger and smaller when people move in or out. Sometimes, communities get run down and must be rebuilt.  The students were asked to take a run down community and decide whether to rebuild some buildings or fix them up. 

Today is the first day of spring.  Someone needs to let Mother Nature know that...snow is falling!!

Make sure you check out the class news page for the updated school calendar.

Spring has Sprung!!

After a snowy week last week, it looks like winter may be over.  Let's hope!!

Last week, in celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday, we read The Cat in the Hat.  We then wrote about what we would do if those two silly characters, Thing 1 and Thing 2, came to our house.  We wrote about they would get in, what they would do while they were there and how we would get them to leave.

This week we were introduced to several folktales.  We read some fun and silly stories that tried to explain something in nature to us.  In one story "Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky", the Sun wanted to invite his friend, Water, to his house.  Sun and his wife, Moon, thought that was the right thing to do since Water was their friend.  In the end, Sun and Moon could not live in their house because Water took it over,  The lesson of the story was about how important it is to have a friend.

We finished up our Measuring unit today with a Unit Test.  These will be sent home to be signed and returned.  Next week we will be starting on Time and Money.

We started working on our class book this week.  You should have received an order form for the book.  If you are not interested in purchasing the book, please just check no and return the form.  This needs to be returned in order for us to receive a free book for the classroom.  The title of the book will be How To Be a Good Second Grader.

In social studies we started a unit on How Communities Change.  In one of our lessons, we started with a new, small community where people were beginning to move.  These people had several different needs.  Therefore, we had to add things to the community.  For example, there were people moving in who had children.  So, we added a school and a playground.  

In science, we mixed liquids.  We predicted what would happen when we mixed shampoo, oil and glue to water.  Many of the students were surprised to see that the oil and water did not mix. 

Have a nice weekend.  Looks like rain...at least it's not snow.