The children were SO EXCITED to receive a response in the mail from the White House! Included in the packet was a letter from President Obama, photos of the President and the First Family, President Obama's answers to frequently asked questions, a map of the White House, and a photo tour of some of the artwork inside. We loved revisiting our citizenship unit and reading and learning even more about the President, his important job, and the amazing & historic White House!
Our cursive lessons have begun! The children are so eager to learn cursive handwriting and are doing their VERY BEST work during our lessons! They are doing a great job of sitting tall in their chairs, slanting their papers in the correct direction, holding their paper firmly in place with their guide hand, and tracing and writing the letters with smooth strokes. Their work looks great!
We took a few minutes during our short week of school to spruce up our classroom in preparation for our upcoming Valentines day celebration! Their lovable little owls are adorable!
As we continue to dig deeper into our Australia Unit, the children took turns "teaching" their classmates about the Australian animal they studied at home! Once again the children took ownership of their learning and became experts on a topic that they presented to the class. I am in AWE of the hard work and the real learning that took place as I watch my truly remarkable 2nd grade students talk about an animal that they might have never even heard of before! WOW!
Paige created a colorful poster along with her report about the cousin of the kangaroo, the wallaby!
Joe put together an informative Powerpoint Presentation about the Koala, and even used the laser pointer to share specific details!
We learned so much about the sugar glider from Meg's colorful and eye catching poster!
Frankie amazed us with his details about the enormous emu!
Emily showed us what the giggly kookaburra looks like in her shoebox diorama.
Alexandra taught us all about the thorny devil with her shoebox diorama that was complete with facts both inside and out!
Jovanni became a tasmanian devil expert as he shared his poster full of pictures and facts with his classmates.
Scott very creatively constructed a platypus out of a paper bag and straws!
Leo amazed us with a homemade blue tongued skink in a habitat full of facts!
Maggie wowed us with her quokka presentation, complete with two habitats!
In other news this week, the children took a DOG (Daily Oral Geography) quiz, using a US and World Map for support.
It was Scott's week to be our super star student! We enjoyed a visit from Scott's older brother John who dropped in to share some information about Scott's pictures, assist Scott with his experiment, and share why he thinks Scott is a star brother. We loved our time with him!
Here, Scott and John show the class how the center of gravity of a meter stick can change with the help of a few pennies to redistribute weight.
Scott began reading "Wump World" to the class before we headed off to PE class. We are so lucky to have such a bright, sharp, and funny fellow in our class this year! Scott adds so much personality and dimension to our classroom and we love working and learning along with him every day at school!
We finished our afternoon on Friday with a few more Australian animal research projects! Emma made a beautiful diorama to accompany her facts about a major predator... the dingo!
Joana chose great pictures and captions to highlight the life of the prickly echidna from start to finish.
Ryan made a lifelike model of the adorable wombat to go along with his terrific facts!
Curtis created a very professional looking presentation about the numbat that fascinated us with facts!
David made his frilled lizard do all the talking in his blabberize presentation!
Kurt answered all of our questions about Australia's 2nd largest flightless bird, the cassowary, in his Powerpoint presentation.
Natalie did a remarkable job teaching us about the clever lyrebird that can repeat the sounds he hears!
Tyler brought his diorama of the kangaroo around for the kids to get a closer look after sharing his informative research with us!
We have a few presentations to finish this week but our minds are literally bursting with facts after these terrific projects we have seen! What an amazing connection between the learning at home and in school!
In math, the children were exposed to subtracting two digit numbers with regrouping. We practiced this little poem to help us remember to begin in the ONES place, and to know when we should regroup (or borrow from the tens place). Please help us practice this same procedure during practice at home!
Our nonfiction reading lessons this past week focused on identifying the meaning of new words, and determining the author's purpose: to Persuade, Inform, or Entertain us!
It's hard to believe that February is already here!
Just a few reminders:
* We look forward to a fun Valentine's celebration in our class on Friday, February 12th. We will be making Valentine envelopes to hold our valentines at school. Please remember to choose valentines this year that do not have candy attached. Thank you!
* The Scholastic Book Fair will visit Dryden School this week! Our time to visit the book fair to create a wish list will be on Tuesday afternoon. The children will have permission to make purchases at the book fair during their lunch and recess times during the day.
* There will be a family reading night at Dryden on Thursday evening! Hop into your jammies and head to school with your family to celebrate reading with some great books before bed with your friends!
Thanks for checking in to see all we have been working on in 2nd grade!
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