Another full week of school. Yeah! It would be nice to think spring has finally arrived, but this is Iowa, and so we better not hold our breath! In reading, we have been working on asking questions to help us understand our stories better. Wow! Second graders can ask really good questions about what they read!

In math, we have started our unit on counting money and my second graders have amazed me again. They are doing a super job counting money, deciding whether they have enough money, and figuring out change.

We finished up Friday by reading Scrambled Eggs Super by Dr. Seuss. We made scrambled eggs, and even the kids that didn't think they liked scrambled eggs tried them! Way to try new things, Second Graders!

Next week will be a busy one. We will be celebrating Dr Seuss' birthday on Wednesday, and we are making pillows on Tuesday for kids in our hospitals. If you have sewing skills, we could sure your help. Even if you don't, we could use parents to help cut, tie, and generally supervise kids. Our project begins at 1:00, so come and join the fun!

Lastly, conferences are happening soon. We will be sending notes home, but we generally keep the times and days the same as your fall time, unless you let us know differently. Please give us a call, or send a note if you need any changes.

Week of February 7, 2011

Well, we finally had a full week of school, and we are getting back in the swing. We have been learning how to talk to our book with sticky notes in reading. We have done an excellent job writing questions, making predictions and writing about what we think.

In Math we are getting ready to finish up regrouping with addition and subtraction, and we will be moving on to money and time. Parents, whenever you can, have your child count the change in your pocket or bill fold. It is great practice.

One of our highlights this week, was the trip to the Civic Center in Des Moines. We saw puppeteers preform three book from the author Leo Lionni. We really enjoy seeing the performances there and want to especially thank the generous gifts we received to be able to do this.

Kids, don't forget your Valentine's boxes tomorrow - it's party time!

Week of January 24th and 31st

Well, another snowy week is keeping us off track in our learning. We have missed over two days this week because of the snow. But, we are doing a very good job in our math with regrouping when we subtract. Hopefully, if we can keep the snowstorms away, we will be finishing up this unit very soon.

In reading, we have done very well in our MAP computer testing. We continue to work on comprehension and reading skills.

We did have time for some fun last week. It was our 100th day of school. We went around in small groups to several centers. We built with 100 Lego's, we played 100 bingo, had a hundreds race on the overhead, and many other activities. Our celebration would not be complete without our annual 100 balloon stomp. Second grade was the winner among first and third grade in stomping our balloons in the shortest amount of time.

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.