Will Phil See His Shadow?

This week we made some predictions about Groundhog Day.  We read a book called The Groundhog Gets a Say. Then the students created a groundhog and predicted whether they thought he would or would not see his shadow.  No more winter...that's my vote!

 

 

 

Our essential question this week was How does weather affect us?  We read about tornadoes, hurricanes and thunderstorms.  To coincide with this topic we started research reports about weather.  The students worked with a partner to gather information from books about different kinds of weather. Over the next few days, they will begin to write reports from the information that they found. 



Some of the books we used from the library to do our research. 



 

We began the unit on length in math.  We started with an introduction to measurement by discussing what a standard unit of measurement is.  We did a lot of practice this week measuring to the nearest inch.  We will be measuring in other units like feet, yards and centimeters next week.

 

We started observing liquids in science by looking at two different liquids: water and glue and comparing and contrasting their properties.  We continued to learn about landforms in social studies.

 

Congratulations to the Snowmen group who won lunch with the teacher this month.  We will be having lunch on Tuesday of next week.  The new groups for the month of February have been named.  Good luck to all! 

 

 

Have a great weekend!





The Blizzard is Coming...

As you are aware I am sure...the first blizzard of the year is heading our way.  I hope you all stay safe and healthy.  This is a good time to mention to make sure your child is prepared with the proper clothing when coming to school.  On most cold days (I believe it's below 40 degrees) the students will have recess indoors.  But,sometimes they will go outside for recess and should be prepared with hats and gloves.  Also, the temperature in the classroom fluctuates a lot during the day.  It generally starts out rather cold and then warms up significantly and is pretty warm by the end of the school day.  For this reason, it is often a good idea to dress your child in layers.  Just a suggestion...

We started this short week discussing Martin Luther King, Jr. and the impact that he made on our country.  We read two books about him:  Martin's Big Words and My Brother Martin.  We brainstormed ideas of how we could make a difference in the world.  The students then wrote their ideas down.

We finished up our 2-digit addition and subtraction unit in math with an assessment today.  These will be coming home next week to be reviewed and signed.  Overall, the students did a good job.  We will still continue to practice the process of adding and subtracting even though we will be moving on to our next unit, length and measurement.

This week we read several stories about how people can help their community.  We read about a woman who grew up with no electricity in her home and when she became an adult she learned about solar power.  She then went into communities that had no electricity and showed them how they could use solar energy for power.  We practiced again finding the author's purpose and the main idea of a story.  

Mrs. Taylor taught us more about landforms and we got to play a game in social studies to practice locating them on a map.   In science, we did two fun labs.  In the first lab, we tested balls to see which one bounced the highest.  We were surprised to learn that the ping pong ball was so bouncy.  Then we did an absorbency lab.  We tested four different materials: a tissue, a paper towel, a wash cloth and a sponge to see which one would absorb the most water.  The sponge won!!

We read a fun book this week called I Wanna Iguana.  The boy in the book tries to persuade his mom that he should get an iguana for a pet.  The students then wrote a persuasive letter as well.  Look for that today in their take home folder.  Sorry!! 

Stay warm and safe this weekend!!

More on Top...No Need to Stop!!!

You probably have heard by now that the second graders are learning how to subtract two-digit numbers.  The following poem helps them to remember the steps when regrouping numbers.

This is a beginning skill so the students need a lot of practice to master it.  We will practice daily.  Overall they did a great job as seen in the past few quizzes they have taken in class.  

Our essential question in reading was "What can we see in the sky?"  We read stories that taught about eclipses and constellations, like the Big Dipper.  We practiced sequencing the story by writing about the beginning, middle and end.  We identified and defined compound words, too.  The students took a short reading that will be coming home for you to review, sign and return.  

In social studies this week, we began learning about landforms. The students created posters of the eight landforms we learned.  

 

In science we discussed properties of solids.  We compared different solids based on these properties.

Today, we had our Unity assembly.  The students were asked to wear the same colors as their book buddies.  All of the students made handprints that are displayed at the front entrance.  Have a nice weekend.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

This week in writing we wrote a How-To piece.  The topic was "How to build a snowman?"  The students drafted a "sloppy copy" of their how-to.  Then they worked in pairs to read over and try to act out the other's process to see if all of the details were included in the writing.  To make it even more fun, we created a "special" snowman to display them.

We are back to our Wonders program in reading this week with the start of a new unit.  The unit overview is "What have you learned about the world that surprises you?"  This week we learned about Isaac Newton, gravity, friction and other Earth's forces.  We also focused on figuring out the author's purpose.  We learned that an author write for three reasons: to persuade, to entertain or to inform.  

In math, we finished up adding two-digit addition and will begin next week with subtraction.  Look for two quizzes in your child's Friday folder that were taken this week.  The students did an excellent job!!

Calling Dr. Taylor....Calling Dr. Wells!!

Today Dr. Taylor and I performed our infamous annual Contraction Surgery.  We performed surgery on two patients:  Mr. Does Not (who wanted to become Mr. Doesn't) and Ms. You Are (who wanted to become Ms. You're).  Our medical students then got to perform surgery of their own.  Here are their patients in the recovery room.  

Have a great weekend!!!