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

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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

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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:

Music Learning Summaries

Here is a link from Diana Burritt for the learning summaries in her Music class.

Music Learning Summaries

Week of January 18th

Hello Everyone, 

What a fun, sunny Friday to end the week. This afternoon our class had an opportunity to perform the dance they had practiced with Jeh Kulu at PE. The drummers and dancers will be performing again tonight at our international potluck. 

This week in Second Grade we:

• Finished up our Independent Writing projects.  We will begin a Narrative Unit next week.
• Wrote science stories to show how animals take care of their offspring. 
• Wrapped up our math unit on measuring. 
• Started "The Great Banana Experiment".  What great ideas your children had for trying to keep a banana from getting ripe to quickly.  Stay tuned for the results of our experiment. 

Report cards will come home with your child next Friday, January 29th. 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Nancy

Week of January 11th

Happy New Year!!  Sorry I missed posting last week.  I'm readjusting to routines just as the kids are doing:)

On Tuesday of this week we had Hands on Nature.  We learned a lot about air through a puppet show, acting out a skit and observing experiments done by our amazing Hands on Nature Moms: Janet and Julia.  These are some of the things we learned:
-All living things need air and get it in different ways:  frogs & people use their lungs; air enters worms through their skin; fish use gills; lilly pad uses it's leaves; dragon flies use tiny tubes on their bodies.
-Air is a gas and is made up of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
-Air is very strong.
-When you workout you take more breaths because your body needs more oxygen.
-Air carries sound and smells.
-Air helps birds fly by pushing their wings.

Ask your child about the different experiments they saw.

In math we are working with tools to measure distances.  We have learned about units we use to measure distances like inches, feet and yards.  Next week we will be working with proportions and fractions.

In writing we are working on independent writing projects and thinking about ways to improve our writing.  Examples of ways to improve are:
-sentence structure
-beginnings and endings
-letter formation and readability
-capital letters and punctuation
-independence and building stamina
-using the word wall for spelling high frequency words

In science the big ideas we have been learning about are:

-Plants and animals have predictable characteristics at different stages of development.

-Plants and animals grow and change.

-Adults plants and animals can have young.

-In many kinds of animals, parents and the offspring themselves engage in behaviors that help the offspring survive.

We are wrapping this up by creating a narrative storyboard that tells a story of how   parents feed, protect and comfort their young.  It will include pictures that show the similarities between parents and offspring and stages of development of the young.  Then we are off on our next unit:  Space Systems: Patterns and Cycles.

In the spirit of building school community and bringing cultural awareness to our school, SCS will be welcoming Jeh Kulu, a West African Dance group, to our school for a 4-day school wide artist residency program Jan 19-22.

Jeh Kulu is an educational group who will bring the language, culture, and dance of West Africa to our school.  Each classroom K-8 will have one “Jeh Kulu” workshop in the gym where they will experience live drumming and african dance.  Our Workshop will be on Thursday during P.E.

The Residency program will begin and end with a live performance.  On Friday we saw a performances to introduce Jeh Kulu and get us energized for the next week.   It was a wonderful performance that the students loved. They heard drumming and got to dance with the group. On Friday, January 22nd we will take part in a culminating school performances.  Jeh Kulu will also perform at the International Potluck dinner that is taking place Friday night, January 22nd.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Nancy

Last Blog of 2015

I want to thank everyone who was able to come see you child's schoolwork today.  I was glad to see that so many of you were able to make it.  The class was so excited to share what they've been working on in writing and science as well as their portfolio's so far this year.  Thank-you also to those who expressed how much you appreciated being able to come in and see what your child has been working on in school.  There's always something special about a parent coming to school:)I

Next week we are in school on Monday and Tuesday only.  We will be doing hour of code again on Monday as the students really loved this and it will give them some extra practice with coding.  Our "Voice Contest" will continue for the second time.  The class really enjoyed being able to show off their fluent reading.  We will have a special treat at the end of the day on Tues.  We are still in need of juice boxes.  If you are able to send these in, please let me know.

 I hope that everyone has a wonderful and restful break.  Beginning in January we will be full force starting new units in Reading, Writing and Science.  In math we will continue with our measurement unit.

Enjoy,
Nancy

A few pictures from the sharing time:

Week of December 7th

This week in reading we are working on our fluency.  We are working on scooping words into longer phrases.  We are talking like characters while making our voices match the mood and reading at a "just right" pace.  To help us with this we have been playing a game that we call, "The Voice".  Students take turns sharing a passage of their reading out loud and then the class picks the person they think is most fluent.  We have 6 winners who are moving on to the semi-final and then we will have a final round.  The class is really enjoying this and they are becoming very fluent readers with their book.  Ask them about it:)

In writing we are writing book reviews that we will share with our families next Friday.  We are stating our opinion about a part of the book and sharing examples to support our opinion.  We are excited to share this piece of writing along with our informational text writing and some other things we have done this year.  We will be doing this at 8 am next Friday.  Invitations are in our Friday folders.

In math we finished up Unit 3.  This week we made graphs with data about M&M's and analyzed this data.  Next week in Unit 4 we will focus on standardized units of measurement.

In Science we continue to look at unique features of animals and how they help them survive.  We explored with camouflage this week as well as doing experiments to see why certain beaks are used to eat certain foods and also at the differences of various bird feathers.  Next week we will be wrapping this unit up. 

This week we participated in the Hour of Code.  The site we used can be accessed from the Library Links on the School's webpage.  Students wrote lines of codes moving Star Wars' characters around.  They really enjoyed this time.  For more information about Hour of Code or to allow your child to work some more with it, you can go to the Library links page and click on the link.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend,
Nancy

Week of November 30th

I hope everyone got a chance to have a restful Thanksgiving break!

This week in math we are wrapping up our problem solving activities. Next week we are going to be working with data and graphs.  In number corner we have been taking surveys and talking about the data.  We took a survey looking at 4 colors and deciding on our favorite of those four.  We also took a survey of our favorite Red Clover book that we have read.  Blue was our favorite color from red, blue, green and purple.  It got 7 votes.  "Blizzard" is our favorite Red Clover book so far with 14 votes. 

In reading we are working on fluency.  We are practicing rereading different passages and thinking about how the character would sound and how that character feels to determine the voice we would use to read it.  We also talked about looking out for punctuation and how it tells us that we need to have a natural pause as we read.  Our theme for this unit is Fairy Tales and Folktales.  The week before break, we will also be doing some reader's theater. 

In Writer's Workshop we are continuing with Opinion pieces and writing about books.  We are writing our opinions about characters in the book, favorite parts, pictures, the title or the cover.  We are working on Introducing the book we are writing about, giving our opinion, giving reasons for that opinion, using evidence to support that opinion and thinking about the audience.  We will be sharing a piece that we publish over the next couple of weeks with families on Dec. 18th at 8 am in the classroom.  Invitations will go home next week.

In Science we are continuing to look at unique features of animals. This week we read several books with information about different animal features.  Next week we will think about these features and how we can use them to create other things that will help solve problems. 

Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy

Hands on Nature and Reading Celebration

This week we had Hands on Nature.  We learned about the different types of rocks.  We has and a puppet show and we learned that igneous rocks are formed from magma and lava and an example is granite.  We learned that sedimentary rocks are formed sediments like sand and shells and an example is sandstone.  We learned the metamorphic rocks are made from heat and pressure and an example is gneiss.  After the puppet show we had 2 stations.  In one station they looked at rocks closely to see how they looked and felt.  They used this information to identify sandstone, slate, gneiss, marble, pumice and obsidian.  In the second station they made their own fossils.  They did this by making a ball with some dough and choosing a shell or rock and pushing it into the dough.  Lastly they went on a scavenger hunt in the classroom to find items that were made from rock.  Some examples they found were computers, pencils, glasses, and windows.

On Thursday we celebrated the end of our Non-fiction unit in Reader's Workshop.  Over the last few days, students became experts on a topic by growing their knowledge from multiple texts.  They used the information that they learned about and shared it with the rest of their classmates in a tour around the classroom.  Ask your child what they learned from the other experts in the class.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy

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Week of November 2nd

I apologize for not posting to this blog the past couple of weeks.  I will try to get back to regular weekly posts.  

This week we are wrapping up our non-fiction writing unit.  We celebrated our hard work and shared our stories on Thursday with our classmates.  Next week we will begin a unit on Opinion pieces.  Check out the pictures from our share.  In December we will invite parents in for our Opinion piece celebration.  Stay tuned for details.

In math we began a new unit this week.  Our New Unit is "Addition & Subtraction Within One Hundered".  This unit focuses on strategies for multi-digit addition and subtraction within the range of 0 to 100.  The first module emphasizes the number line model and encourages students to develop the strategy of using "skip-jumps" based on multiples of 5 and 10.  The second module continues to use the number line as a computational tool through which students add and subtract 2 digit numbers.  the third module focuses on addition and subtraction, but uses the base ten structure (collecting ones and tens).  The fourth module requires students to determine the frequency with which various colored objects appear in a bag and to graph the data.

In readers workshop we continue to work with non-fiction books but our focus is on comparing texts on the same topic.  We have talked about how experts grow knowledge across books by noticing parts that go together and adding to what we already know.

This week we wrapped up our Physical geography unit working on a map journal and talking about the compass rose and the directions; north, south, east and west.  Next week we will begin our first science unit.  We will be looking at various animals and noticing their unique characteristics and how humans have adapted those characteristics to help solve problems that we have.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy

October Hands on Nature

It was great seeing everyone at conferences this week!!

This week we had Hands on Nature.  We learned about erosion and the agents that contribute to it; water, wind, gravity and glaciers.  We had a puppet show that taught us this information.  We did several experiments to see how  like shaking a container to mimic a rolling river see what happens to rocks compared to a still stream. We tested what kinds of water will have the biggest impact breaking soil down.  We did this using a dropper, baby bottle and sprayer and testing it to see what breaks down a pile of flour the most.  We did the same kind of experiment with wind.  Ask your child about what they learned.  I'd like to thank Janet and Amy for coming in to teach the class!!!

Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy

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Mentors Needed!

EVERYBODY WINS MENTORING PROGRAM NEEDS MENTORS!

The Everybody Wins mentoring program pairs adults with students grades 1st - 5th. As a mentor you will spend one hour a week reading and playing games with a student. You provide the inspiration to help a child develop a love of reading that will last a lifetime, Everybody Wins provides the books and support to all mentors!

At SCS our pairs meet on Wednesday's during a student's lunch/recess time. We currently have more students than mentors and I hope to have all students who want to participate in this program matched up as soon as possible.

Interested in finding out more? Check out the EW website: http://www.everybodywinsvermont.org/index.html

And/or contact the Site Coordinator for the school, Randy Sweeney (shelburne@everybodywinsvermont.org)

Thanks for considering being a part of this rewarding program!

Week of October 12th

I hope everyone had a nice long break last weekend! 

This week in math we have worked on measuring with unifix.  Our measuring theme was based on the book, "Jack and the Beanstalk" so we measured giant size beans (receipt tapes cut to different sizes).  We also talked about what perimeter is and measure the perimeter of different size garden beds cut out of paper.  Next week we will work on using a number line to help us add together 2 digit numbers.

In Reader's Workshop and Writer's Workshop, we are now talking about informational text (non-fiction books).  In Reader's workshop we have looked at informational text and talked about how we grow knowledge when we read these types of books.  We he book practiced looking through a book and thinking about what would teach us about.  In Writer's Workshop, we are now writing books that teach the reader about something.  We have some books being written about how to take care of pets, how to ride a bike, how to play minecraft, and books on different types of animals. 

In Social studies, most of us got on to google maps and looked at where our houses are located on a map.  Some of the students had some difficulty getting signed in and will check this out next week.  On Friday we were fortunate to have our Technology Integrationist come in and show us how to use Google Earth on the ipads. 

I look foward to seeing everyone next week for conferences.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Nancy

Writing Celebration and Dav Pilkey Visit!

Oops, just realized that I never posted this last week.

Today was a very busy day.  Students have worked hard this week preparing a piece of writing to share with their classmates.  I mixed tables up some today so that students could share with a different group than they did with our first share.  Each child had the chance to read the story they wrote and revised.  They also had a snack to eat as they listened.  I would like to thank Sara Hughes for sending in our extra snack.  The students really enjoyed it as well as listening to their friends stories.  Some students came dressed as a favorite character in a book that they have read.  As one student said, "We are all dressed as a character because we all wrote about ourselves in our books."  So in actuality, we were all dressed as characters:) Photos from our event will be posted soon to this blog.  Next week we will start our new unit of writing informational books.

Today we also had a special guest visit the school.  We had the opportunity to go down to the cafeteria and listen to Dav Pilkey, author of the "Captain Underpants" books.  He spoke about his difficulties in school growing up and this lead to what he does today.  Each student also received a special cape and wore it during the assembly to show their support for what Dav does.  The class was really excited to see him!  Photos from this event will be uploaded soon as well:)

I hope everyone is able to enjoy our long weekend!

Nancy

Here are the photos:)

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