April

We have had a busy two weeks and are looking forward to our week off. 

In Writing we are working hard writing poems.  They have written some good ones so far.  We will publish a poem when we come back from vacation.

In reading we have been reading just right books and focusing on comprehension.  When we come back from break we will begin book clubs based on Book Series.  Our main focus with these books will continue to be comprehending what we read.

Last week we had Hands on Nature.  We learned about clouds.  We talked about the different kinds:  Cumulus, Stratus and Cirrus.  Students drew clouds and then shared them with the rest of the class.  We had a puppet show to learn about the different types.  Students played a game where they drew a certain cloud on the white board and their groups had to guess the kind.

For the last two weeks we have had an Artist from the Flynn, Joan Robinson, come in and work with the students.  We are focusing on our Long Ago and Today unit and incorporating pantomime.  We practiced pantomime while learning about homes from long ago and compared them today.  The 2nd week, we focused on schools of long ago and compared them to our schools today.  We will meet with her two more times and will talk some more about schools and then talk about jobs they had long ago.

In math we have been working on measurement using the metric system.  We talked about centimeters and meters.  We are also doing problem solving with fractions and talking about fair shares.  We have worked with halves, thirds and quarters. 

Last Friday we managed to dodge the snow and rain and had a great day at Shelburne Farms! We visited the lambs and chickens, collected sap, made felt balls, carded wool and made bracelets and played games. It was a really fun day! Thanks so much to the parents who joined us for our field trip.

Today we went to the Flynn and saw a wonderful show, "Peking Acrobats".  The students were so engaged and enjoyed all of the wonderful acrobatics that took place during it.  It was enjoyed by all.  Ask them all about it tonight. 

Check out our photos from the last couple of weeks:)

Have a wonderful break,
Nancy

A free digital slideshow by Smilebox

Week of March 28th

I can't believe that the month of March is over.  It flew by!!

This week in Reading and Writing we wrapped up our Informational Text Units.  Students shared their Informational text books with their table-mates.  Each of their table-mates made a comment on their writing which was added to their books.  Everyone did a nice job sharing!  Check out the photos in the Smilebox.  Next week we will begin a unit on Poetry. 
 
In math we are wrapping up our unit on geometry.  This week we made quilt squares and small quilts and looked at how many lines of symmetry they have.  Next week we will be looking at the fractions, halves and wholes.

We have finished our Science Unit on Patterns in the Sky and on Earth.  To wrap it up, we created phases of the moon with oreo cookies.  Check them out in our Smilebox.  We are now moving to a Social Studies Unit, Changes over Time.  We will be comparing how things have changed from long ago to today.  We will also have a Resident Artist visiting us Flynn Theater.  She will work with the class for 4 sessions on the next 4 Wednesday's that we have school.  She will work with students to do some pantomime and freezing activities related to Long Ago and Today.

Next Friday we will be going to Shelburne Farms for a Field Trip.  Please pack your child a lunch on that day as we will be eating at the farm.  Thanks to those of you who volunteered to chaperone our field trip on next Friday, April 8th. We'll leave school on the bus at 9:15 and return by 1:45. If you'd prefer to meet us at the farm, we'll start at the education center at the Farm Barn at 9:30.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy

This free digital slideshow created with Smilebox

Week of March 7th

Hello families- 

There's certainly an element of spring fever this week! It's been a fun, energized week of second grade. 

Highlights of the week include:

• We had Hands on Nature this week.  The topic was water this month.  We saw a puppet show, learned about the water cycle, drew our own water cycles in our Hands on Nature journals, tried out our own experiment and witnessed several experiments led by our Hands on Nature Volunteers.  Thank-you Janet and Julia for coming in and helping us learn so many things about water.  Ask your child what they learned.
• Working on addition strategies, counting money and 3-D shapes in Number Corner.
• Learning about two dimensional shapes. New terms that you can reinforce at home include quadrilaterals, triangles, parallel lines, vertices, sides, parallelograms, trapezoids, lines of symmetry and the list goes on! 
• Adding focus statements and more elaboration to our informational writing pieces. As well as making sure our writing will make sense to the reader.
• Continuing to record the phases of the moon on a classroom chart as well as in our Science notebooks.  We also have started thinking about patterns happening throughout the year in nature.  
• Reading more informational books and practicing comprehension strategies to help us learn more from the books we are reading. 
• Continuing to read "BFG" by Roald Dahl.  Hoping to finish this book up next week.  We're at the most exciting part of the book!

Thanks for continuing to send in boots for our muddy playground and snow pants/jackets for the cooler days. 

Dynamic Dates will be coming home in the Friday Folders. Let me know if you have any questions! They're due by Tuesday, March 15. Team Firefly is looking forward to enjoying lunch and milkshakes with our lucky winners! 

Conferences are in just over a week! Here's the link to sign up if you haven't had a chance to already. Feel free to email if the dates and times don't work for your schedule. 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Nancy

Week of March 1st

Hello families, 

We've had a short, but great first week back from break. We've been getting back into the rhythm of school and starting some great new things. 

A few highlights of the week include:

• Starting informational writing projects (topics vary from underwater disasters to puppies to babies to Star Wars). 
• Starting an informational reading unit and finding books that teach us new things and make us say "Wow!"
• Observing the phases of the moon and making predictions for what the moon will look like next. Please note- we're not trying to explain how the sun/moon/planets interact, we're trying to have the children observe, notice, question, hypothesize, etc. They're coming up with great theories and working really hard! 
• Beginning a math unit on geometry. 
• Celebrating Read Across America Day. 
• Practicing flexibility with our wacky schedule, lack of snow and chilly temperatures!

It's been a wonderful week! Have a great weekend,

Nancy

Week of February 15th

Hello all-

We had a busy, fun week before break!

Highlights of the week included: 

• Wrapping up our narrative writing unit with a small publishing party this morning. 
• Learning about sound in Hands on Nature. 
• Continuing our read aloud "BFG".
• Wrapping up our math unit on place value up to 1000. 
• Traveling to different parts of the world via Google Earth, Telling Time Bingo (ask your child who won), and adding 2-digit numbers into our bank using base ten pieces in Number Corner.
• Preparing for Read Across America Day (March 2) by making hats and a poster to share with the school. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week- we're looking forward to a great stretch of learning when we get back. Just a gentle reminder that teachers have inservice on Monday, February 29th and students start again on Tuesday, March 1. 

Have a wonderful break,

Nancy

Week of February 8th

Hello all- 

First of all- our Valentine's Day celebration will be on Monday. Thanks for sending things in! 

Conferences are coming up in about a month and we've set up our sign up here: Conference sign-up

Please remember to click "edit" and then "save." If none of those times work for you, then please send me an email and we can find another time! 

Highlights of our week included:

• Learning about place value, efficient grouping and money in math. 
• Traveling around the globe via google earth and solving math story problems. 
•  Hands on Nature:  We learned about sound with a puppet show, acting out different animal sounds and movements and exploring with various tools that make sound (tuning fork & painter's stick).
• Celebrating the Chinese New Year by creating dragons in art. 
• Continuing our character study and read aloud of The BFG. 
• Valentine's Celebration!

I'm looking forward to a great week of school next week before break. 

Have a great weekend!

Week of Feb. 1st

Hello families- 

I almost wrote happy spring... but....

Even with the bizarre February weather, we've had a super week of second grade! 

This week marked our 100th day of school (today!) and we celebrated with a visit from "Zero the Hero," a math game looking at numbers in the hundreds and some fun projects.  The fun projects went home with them today! 

Other highlights of the week included:

• Continuing our narrative writing unit by revising to bring our stories to life. We've talked about adding dialogue and slowing our stories down.
• In reading we continue to talk about How Readers Grow!  We talked about Thinking about the text as we read and being able to retell it.  We also talked about how to infer while we read.  
• Continuing our place value unit and learning numbers up to 1000. 

Our celebration for Valentine's Day will be on Friday, February 12th.  Thank you to the parents who volunteered to bring something in, We are still looking for someone to send in some fruit.

We were supposed to preview the book fair on Monday and purchase on Tuesday, but the book fair has been delayed due to snow in Boston, so I'll keep you posted.   I'll send out an e-mail with updated information.

Have a great weekend,

Nancy

Photos of us celebrating the 100th Day: