How are Families the Same and Different

This week our focus was on comparing families around the world and how they are the same and different.  We read stories about how families celebrate holidays differently and how they eat different foods.  In one story, a boy was playing football (soccer) at his friend Alejandro's house.  He was invited to stay for dinner and was concerned about eating some of the foods because they were different than he was used to.

We are still learning and practicing different strategies for adding and subtracting.  Utilizing different strategies is meant to help with math, but it has been kind of confusing as well.  Remember, this is a new way for your child to think in math.  If your child is having a difficult time with homework, just jot me a note to let me know.  

In writing, we have started drafting a narrative story.  We are learning the writing process and the steps to take when writing a story.  We started with planning the story and began to draft.  We also discussed different strategies for spelling when writing.  

In science, we are learning various landforms.  The students created a flip book with the definitions and pictures that they drew.  Next week, we will begin to create a 3-D model of different landforms.

Have a great weekend!

Off and Running...

First, I would like to thank the parents for attending Back to School night.  It is always nice to see so many faces.  We have such a great community that cares about our students and our school.  Please remember that if there is any question you have or concern, you can contact me at time. 

So this week has been a whirlwind.  The students completed MAP testing in reading and math.  You will see these results during the fall conference in November. 

We started our first week of wonders with the essential question "How do friends depend on each other"  We read a bird named Little Flap who was afraid to leave the nest.  His friends encouraged him to try and said they would help him. 

In math, we started our focus on addition strategies.  We learned how knowing double facts can help find the facts that are near those facts.  We also practiced using a ten frame to show that adding numbers from 10 is easier as well.

To start off in writing, we talked about how our writing time will look and what the expectations will be.  We also brainstormed ways that writers get ideas.

In science, we started our Earth system unit.  The students used the Chromebooks to research a landform and define it. 

Today we had our Team Building day.  We had several stations with fun team games.  There was a bean bag toss, hula hoop race, tug of war, relay races and our favorite, a parachute.  We had a fun afternoon and worked so well together!

The First Week of School!!!

What a great first week of school.  The students and I have begun to get to know each other and we are off to a great start.  I can't wait to see how well these student progress throughout the year.

This week the focus was on our monthly theme...Be Determined.  We read a book called The Most Magnificent Thing.  We read about a girl who wanted to create the most magnificent thing and kept trying until she was able.  We brainstormed some ideas about things that we would like to overcome or have overcame.

We also read a book called Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, about a girl whose grandmother taught her to stand tall and be proud of herself despite the fact that she was short and had buck teeth and a voice like a bullfrog.  The students then wrote about why they liked themselves and drew a self portrait.

One of my favorite activities that we do every year is read about bucket filling and dipping.  In the story How Full is Your Bucket, a boy learns from his grandpa about the invisible bucket he carries over his head.  Every time someone does something that makes him feel happy, drops go in his bucket.  Every time someone does something that makes him bad, drops come out of his bucket.  The students immediately understand this concept. 

This year the students will have me for science and Mrs. Taylor for social studies.  As a introduction to science and working together as a group, we did a fun activity called Saving Fred.  Fred is a gummy worm that does not know how to swim yet refuses to wear a life preserver.  Unfortunately for Fred, his boat capsized and he was stranded on top of his boat and his life preserver was trapped underneath the boat.  The students needed to work together to save Fred....with one major stupulation...they could not touch Fred, his boat, or his life preserver with their hands.  They had a lot of fun and worked together to find solutions to this problem.  

We really had a great week.  I am looking forward to a fun and exciting year!

Field Day Fun

We are winding down the year. This week we continued to read our beloved book Chatlotte's Web. We also started learning how to write in cursive. I will be sending home the cursive packet in case your child is interested in practicing over the summer.

We finished up our Geometry unit in math and have been practicing analyzing data with pictographs. We have a few more lessons on bar graphs and then our math for the year will be complete. 

Today was our annual field day. We had a beautiful day and a lot of fun.

Only a few more days!!! 

Imagination!

Where can your imagination take you?  That was our essential question this week.  We read several poems about using your imagination.  We practiced finding the author's point of view.  One of the poems we read was about how a girl can take a simple brown box and make it so many things by using her imagination.

In math this week, we started using arrays.  This is a beginning introduction to multiplication.  To help us learn arrays, we played a few math games.  One of the math games we played was called "I Spy Arrays".  Different arrays were hidden around the room and the students needed to find them and identify the array and the multiplication fact.  

The students were given another fun challenge in science this week.  How long can you make a paper chain with one piece of paper?  The students worked in pairs and were each given a 12 x 18 piece of paper.  They were given about 30 minutes to create the longest paper chain they could.  It was exciting to watch their thought process and how they worked together to achieve the task. We had some pretty long chains, but in the end there was one clear winner.  Congrats second graders on a job well done.  

This week we had our last Health class and our last Library class.  If your child has not returned his or her library book, please see that it is returned to avoid a penalty fee. 

Only one more full week to go...hang in there!!

Philadelphia Zoo Fun!!

This week was our field trip to the Philadelphia Zoo.  Luckily, the weather cooperated and we had a great day.  We started our trip with a class called "Save Our Species."  We learned about how animals become extinct and that the beloved gorilla is one of them.

We had a lot of fun exploring and identifying the animals that we learned about in science.

This week our essential question was "How do we use money?"  One of our stories was "The Life of a Dollar Bill."  It showed how a dollar bill goes from the beginning of its life being printed to the end getting shredded. We also read about the history of money.  Did you know that people actually thought it was a good idea to use rocks as currency?  

In keeping with second grade tradition, we started reading Charlotte's Web.  To go along with this theme, the students were given a STEM challenge in science.  Each group was given the task to design a pigpen that Wilbur must be able to stand in.  They were very impressive especially the group that not only made a pen but gave Wilbur a gate to get in and out.

Have a great weekend!! Happy Memorial Day!!

Thank You

Thank you to all of the parents who took time out of their busy lives to come to Best of Heights Night.  The excitement on the students' faces while proudly showing their work off to you is priceless.  The students really do work very hard daily on the many things they do each week and they really do deserve praise for the things that they do.  While it is impossible to showcase everything, I hope you enjoyed what you did get to see.

This week in reading we talked about how we use energy.  We read stories about different ways to produce energy like from wind or from the sun.  We even read a story about a group of students that powered their laptops by riding bicycles.

We wrapped up our plant experiement in science.  We concluded that our plants grew the best if they had sunlight and water.  Check them out...what do you think?

We also had some fun learning about pollination in science.  Each student was given a "bee" and needed to go from flower to flower and collect pollen (cheese balls).  They were not permitted to lick or wipe off their fingers.  By the end of the pollination, each student's fingers were covered in "pollen".  This showed them how pollen is spread among flowers and how they stay pollinated.  

Our field trip to the zoo is coming up. Keep on the lookout for information coming home about the trip and the permission slip.  Have a great weekend!!