Maggie is a STAR!

Maggie was our super sparkly super star this week! We loved seeing Maggie's photos from home. We heard all about her awesome cousins! Maggie's mom and dad popped in on Friday afternoon to help Maggie with her experiment. She showed us 3 liquids that all had varying density (water, vegetable oil, and corn syrup). Maggie dropped a few paper clips into each cup and showed us how the density (or viscosity/rate of flow) affected how easily a magnet was able to pull those paper clips back out. The water had low viscosity (the paper clips moved easily through it) while the corn starch had high viscosity (the paper clips moved slowly through it). What a cool experiment! Maggie read "The Emperor Penguin's New Clothes" to the class after we all took turns sharing why she is an amazing girl! What a great week you had, Maggie!

Grammar Update

We practiced pronouns and quotation marks this week. Students learned that pronouns are "mini"nouns that are less specific, but can take the place of the intended noun. During our quotation marks practice, we made sure to identify the specific "talking word" in the sentence before inserting quotation marks. The children noticed that words such as: responded, asked, shouted, replied, and answered also let us know that somebody is speaking!

Reading Update

Our reading this week focused on life in the desert. Our main story was called “Dig, Wait, Listen: A Desert Toad’s Tale”. Students practiced summarizing the main events of the story and identifying the author’s purpose for writing it. We discussed 3 main reasons that an author may write a text: to persuade us, inform us, or entertain us. By looking at clues from the selection, we were able to decipher that the author’s purpose was to teach us about the life cycle of a desert toad. We learned that the toad burrows its way deep underground where it can stay moist until the rain falls. When it hears the rain, it digs its way back out to lay eggs in the new puddles of rain. The eggs hatch into tadpoles the tadpoles develop into toads, and the process begins again. Our vocabulary words of the week included: lengthy, burrow, ranger’s, warning, distant, and beyond. The children were eager to identify the various examples of onomatopoeia they found throughout this story!

Math Update

We continue to work our way through our unit on measurement, and have begun to explore the concepts of perimeter and area. The students practiced measuring distances with a tape measure- including the distance around their neck and ankle with the help of a neighbor! They went on to practice measuring the perimeter of other common items in the classroom. We used the shapes the children brought from home to trace, measure, and add together in order to find the perimeter, or the distance around it. We delved a bit into the units of miles and kilometers. Together we practiced adding and comparing greater distances using cities on a map. The children enjoyed trying to find the shortest route between cities. It was great practice adding 3 digit numbers -with regrouping! The students also had an opportunity to trace different items onto inch and centimeter grid paper as well as explore different measuring tools. Finally, the children used centimeter grid paper to figure out the area inside a shape. We noticed that the unit changes a bit into SQUARE centimeters when measuring the area.

2nd Grade Authors!

Over the last few weeks, the children have been working on writing narrative stories! In our narratives, we are highlighting a problem and a solution. We are incorporating a beginning, middle, and ending. The children are having fun including dialogue and juicy describing words as well! Hanging in the hall you will find TWO narratives the children have written. One was a problem that happened to them personally, and another was a tale about a leprechaun. Make sure to take a look at these amazing stories when you come to school for conferences this week!

Ben is a 2nd grade STAR!

Ben had a terrific star week last week. We enjoyed looking at the poster and baby picture he brought in! He was such a cute little fellow! Ben's mom came in on Friday afternoon to do an experiment with him for the class. He showed us how and why an onion makes you cry! (Poor Ben, he really did it!:) Then Ben shared the narrative story that he just finished writing last week called, "The Wrong Burger." It was an awesome story about a time when a very hungry Ben ordered a cheeseburger, but received the wrong one! We all took turns sharing why Ben is a star. It's unanimous, we love having such a hardworking, personable, and humorous boy in our class this year!

Math Update

We have jumped right into Unit 9, which is all about measurement! The children learned about standard units of measure, and how important it is to use a common unit when measuring an object or a distance. We studied the yard and the meter. The children reviewed measuring with inches, feet, centimeters and decimeters. We developed a table of equivalent linear measures, splitting it into two parts: the US customary system and the metric system. Its so important for the children to become familiar with both sytems. We looked carefully at the measurements on each side. We noticed that an inch is 1/36 of a yard and 1/12 of a foot, a decimeter is 1/10 of a meter, a centimeter is 1/100 of a meter, etc. We looked carefully at a ruler and counted the segments in between the inch marks. The children identified these sections, for example: 1/8 of an inch, 1/16 of an inch, 1/10 of a centimeter. They practiced measuring to the nearest half inch and half centimeter. Finally, the children explored the concept of perimeter. They measured the length of the sides of a variety of shapes and added them together to find the distance around the shape.

Reading Update

Time is FLYING by! Last week we reached the end of Unit 4 in our Treasures curriculum. The students took their Unit 4 test last Friday at school. This was a huge assessment that contained a listening comprehension piece, two written extended response answers, and several additional multiple choice questions that covered reading comprehension, grammar, and phonics. We spent time during the week reviewing before the children took their assessment. I am will go over these tests with you at conferences next week!

Math Update

In math this week, the children practiced using fractions to name parts of a collection. They learned about “equivalent fractions,” and identified fractions that mean the same fractional part of the whole. With fraction cards, the children worked to find pairs of equivalent fractions. Finally, we specifically found equivalent fractions for ½, including 2/4, 3/6, and 4/8. The children noticed that when the numerator increases in these fractions, the fraction equals MORE than half. When the numerator drops from the halfway mark, the fraction is LESS than half! The children practiced finding equal groups by creating arrays with counters, and were challenged to identify 1/2, 2/3, 3/5 etc. of the group. Our unit on fractions ended this week with our assessment on Friday. We are looking ahead to Unit 9!

Grammar Update

The children worked with contractions this week. They carefully combined two words with an apostrophe to make one word. Many of the contractions we worked with this week lost their "o" in "not!"

Reading Update

Our theme of the week was Animals Habitats and Homes. Our main story was called, "Nutik, the Wolf Pup." It is about a young Eskimo boy who takes care of a sick wolf pup. The boy’s sister was rescued by wolves, so we were able to infer that the boy and girl know a lot about wolves and were repaying the favor. Our comprehension strategy was making inferences, so as we read the story we mixed what we read with what we know to better understand the story. We inferred that the wolves trusted Amaroq and his sister to nurse the pup back to health, or else they would have made an effort to get their pup back. The children not only read the words in this story, but they read behind the words as well. New vocabulary words included: beloved, glanced, gleamed, noble, promised, and wiggled. We looked closely at word parts and inflected endings this week- words that end in 'ed' let us know that they happened in the past!

Ella is a star!

During Ella's star week, she had two special visitors, both her mom and her dad! They helped her perform her experiment and Ella read a fun story to the class called "The Princess and the Pizza." We all shared why we think Ella is a star! She is sweet, kind, caring, and helpful! She always has a smile on her face and she never gives up. We love having Ella in our class this year!!