Happy New Year!

It was great being back at school after a long and restful winter break! The kids got right to work, and we accomplished a lot this week! Read on to find out the details!

 We started off with the children sharing all of the wonderful kind deeds they performed during their winter vacation. It sounds like they brought some smiles to other faces with their helpful gestures!

 With the arrival of the new year, it was a great time to review our previous reading goals and think about new goals we would like to achieve. I found this great idea on pinterest- the kids posted their goals on a class "parking lot" so we could see each other's goals, and see if there are any students who have similar goals who could support each other!

 The children LOVED their lesson in the LMC this week! As a kick-off to our Australia studies, they took a virtual tour of interesting locations in each of Australia's territories. Using neared, they were so excited to hop out of their seats and move the iPad around, which moved the image on their iPad accordingly!

 Another season, another photo of us with our class tree! It's hard to believe we are already well into the winter season! Not a leaf in sight.

 We moved further into our lessons in Geometry during math this week. The children reviewed the "rules" that all polygons follow (straight edges, closed shape, no curves, and no overlapping sides). We took a closer look at quadrangles and quadrilaterals (4 sided shapes including squares, rectangles, trapezoids and parallelograms). They did a great job of creating polygons using rubber bands on their geo boards.

 Luke and Joe show off their hexagons (6 sided shapes)!

 Curtis created a uniquely designed hexagon!

 We wrapped up our fiction unit in reading in December, and we were ready to dive into our nonfiction unit! The children learned about 3 types of nonfiction: biography, literary nonfiction, and reference books. They spent some time going through their book boxes to update their personal reading libraries with new, relevant material!

 During their independent reading practice, the children were challenged to read nonfiction books and determine which category of nonfiction they were. They also looked for nonfiction text features including subtitles, maps, photographs and captions, diagrams, close-ups, labels, table of contents, and an index!

Kurt was so excited to find an index in the back of his book, that he raced over to show me! This was evidence that the book he had found was a reference book! I LOVE to see this eagerness to learn!!

 More investigations with polygons! The children worked to assemble various shapes using triangles and rectangles!

We are ready to begin our unit comparing the land, people, and culture of the US with Australia. Here, the children are packing their suitcases and preparing their travel documents- including their passports and airline tickets!

 It was finally our travel day! The children lined up at our 2nd grade airport to board their 27 hour flight to Sydney, Australia. They passed through security and customs before boarding!

                                     

 We arrived safely and can't wait to learn all we can about the land down under! The children are also very excited to work on their 2nd (and final) home study project of the year- learning about a rare Aussie animal! We look forward to learning about these unique animals when the projects are due on January 27th. Thank you for helping support and build your child's excitement about their learning at home!

 As part of our nonfiction studies, the children reviewed the power of the good ole KWL chart. Before reading a nonfiction text about grasshoppers, children first shared what they already know about them and we added these to the "K" section. Then we thought about things we would like to know about grasshoppers and added them to the "W" section of the chart. Finally, we read the text and added new learning, as well as answers to the questions we had, to the "L" section!

 The children went on to follow this same process during their independent reading practice, choosing a book of their own to work with and learn from!

After reviewing our 2 dimensional shapes, it was time to move on to 3 dimensional shapes! The children displayed items they brought from home for our "Shapes Museum" and we decided which category they fell into - spheres, cylinders, rectangular prisms, or pyramids. Then we pulled out our Magneatos and worked to build a series of pyramids! We noticed that pyramids only have ONE base (rectangular prisms have more than one) and we learned that the pyramid gets its name from the shape of its base! (Ex: triangular pyramid, hexagonal pyramid, etc.)

Finally, it was Alexandra's week to shine as our super star 2nd grader. We were so happy to welcome Alexandra's dad in for a visit to our classroom on Friday afternoon! Alexandra demonstrated an experiment for us that involved water, milk, and a flashlight, and she showed us how water appears to be blue! She read us a great story called "Library Mouse," too! We are so lucky to have such a bright, focused, and hard working student in our class! You had a terrific week!