Week of January 17, 2011

We had a very busy and exciting week in second grade even with another snow day. We continue working on reading strategies, and we are regrouping in subtraction (which we are doing very well at).

We finished our magnet projects and presented our plays with magnet puppets.

After reading Smelly Socks by Robert Munsch, we had a science inquiry where we had to build our own boats that would cross our "river" and carry "cargo" (pennies). Not one of the boats were even close to the same. All but one would float, and I think that one would have, but we ran out of time to make adjustments.

Another exciting thing in our room is the easiteach projector in our room. Here we are sharing Daniel's power point that his Flat Stanley emailed to us. What it does is make our white markerboard act like a touch screen computer. We have a lot to learn about them, but we hope to be using them more and more as the year progresses.

January 11, 2011

Snow day today. This is for all my second graders! Enjoy your day off!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0q7YhEnPXk

Week of January 3, 2011

We were so busy getting back in the swing of things from vacation, we forgot to take some pictures to share with you. In reading, we are working on comprehension skills and what you do to help you understand a story. In math, we are getting ready to regroup in subtraction. The students did a wonderful job regrouping!

We have started our new author study of Robert Munsch. He is so funny. We made "fake" clay cookies (we also decorated some real ones), just like in Mmmm, Cookies. We had a great time fooling the staff around the elementary. Don't worry, we didn't let anyone take a bite of our clay cookies.

We are looking forward to our field trip on Friday to the Civic Center in Des Moines. We are going to see Strega Nona, a musical based on the book by Tomie DePaola.

We did want to take a minute to show you some of the back packs the kids helped to purchase in Uganda for the kids there. We were so glad we were able to share with them.

Christmas Vacation

Our vacation time is almost over, and things will be back to the "old grind" soon in second grade. Teachers will begin with professional development on Monday, with students beginning again on Tuesday. In math, we will begin regrouping with subtraction. Many of us have mastered our addition facts and are now practicing our subtraction facts. Keep practicing those at home!

Even though we had a short week the week before Christmas, we did have great fun with a science inquiry lesson. After reading the book Sheep in a Jeep, students were given a jeep, a sheep, and books to create a way to make their jeep go the furthest without loosing their sheep- and without using the force of their arms and hands! We had some wonderful ideas and experiments, and the students did a wonderful job making adjustments after their trial run. They learned a lot about force, gravity and friction during our inquiry. We will be doing another one very soon. We will be making boats that will carry pennies across a "lake." We need "junk" for this - anything that the kids could make a boat from that will hold a "cargo" of pennies. We also are in need of cereal boxes for another science project. We need one box for every student.

We wanted to take a moment to thank all the donations we have had so far this year; of time, materials for our projects, parties, and our store. We could not do these things without you! We look forward to starting the new year and a wonderful second half of second grade.