What a Week!!

It is was a great week for students to reflect on all of their amazing work.  Thank you to everyone who could join us for the Expert Writing Fair on Wednesday night.  It was so exciting to see students sharing their work and receiving such thoughtful feedback from their families.

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to create programs for our Lego robots.  Then, we shared our robots and programs with visiting students from Mrs. Christiano's class.

We also said "goodbye" to a classmate who is moving.  Best wishes at your new school!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful vacation!  See you in March!

Expert Writing Fair

Just a reminder that we are participating in the EMES Expert Writing Fair on Wednesday night from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.  Students have been doing excellent work putting the final touches on their writing pieces and they seem excited to share their work.  Hope to see you all there!

Four Winds: Snow!

We had another wonderful Four Winds lesson on Tuesday!  This month, our lesson focused on snow, which connected well with our previous weather unit.  We watched a puppet show, made snowflakes, and went outside to take a closer look at snow with hand lenses.  Then, we worked in teams to make different types of snowflake shapes with our bodies.  Check out some of our "snowflakes" in the photos below.  Thanks again to our fantastic Four Winds volunteers!!!

Second Grade Math

We have been busy learning many new skills and strategies and using a lot of different math tools, such as visual cluster cards, base 10 blocks, place value dice, and Cuisenaire rods.

Second graders have been working on using a variety of strategies to solve addition and subtraction number stories.   We have explored different ways to show our understanding of how to add or subtract 10s and 1s by using base 10 blocks, drawings of base 10 blocks, equations, and number lines.  Students are making great progress with "keeping one number whole" and then adding or subtracting 10s and 1s.  We have also worked on unknown change problems in which students need to figure out the number that was added or subtracted to get a new number. 

We have also been exploring what it means for a number to be even or odd.  We have been dividing numbers into pairs and equal teams as part of our learning.

Students have also continued working on skills, such as adding 10 or 100 to a number, building and comparing numbers into the thousands, and telling time to the nearest five minutes.

We are having fun using our new Cuisenaire rods.  We have been using them to practice our +1 and Make 10 addition and subtraction facts, explore place value, and build numbers.  We will continue to use these wonderful math tools throughout the year.

The photos below show one of our favorite dice games that helps us understand expanded notation and how to write and read numbers up to 9,999.  The third graders sometimes join in this game as they transition back to our classroom for snack time.

Classroom News

This week, we have been working hard to "lift the level" of our information writing.  Students had the opportunity to have a peer conference.  It was wonderful to see everyone sharing their work and receiving helpful suggestions and praise from their classmates.  Please remember to mark your calendar for our Expert Writing Night on Wednesday, February 19th from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.  At this special event, students will be able to share their final, published draft of one of their "expert books" with their families. 

We continued our work with magnets this week with a fun experiment called, "How Close Can You Get?" in which we had to compare the strength of one, two, and three magnets.  We are working on writing hypotheses, recording results, measuring, and writing conclusions based on what we have learned.

We will be having a classroom Valentine's Day party on Friday, February 14th in the afternoon.  Please let me know if you are interested in helping out with food or drinks for this celebration.  During this time, students can exchange Valentine's cards if they wish.  If your child chooses to participate in this activity, please help him or her to bring a card for everyone in our class. 

Can-struction

We decided to build a castle with the 101 cans that we collected.  Thanks to everyone who donated cans for this special project!  The food will go to the East Montpelier Food Shelf.

     

Magnets, Lego Robotics, Expert Books, and More!!

It was a short, but action-packed week!

We have been working on adding descriptions, facts, explanations, and details to our "expert" information books.  On Wednesday, February 19th at 6:00 pm, we will have an Expert Book Fair at EMES.  Students will have an opportunity to share their "published" final drafts with their families and to talk about the process of creating these books.

Our class has been learning about magnets as part of our Forces and Magnets unit.  Last week, students started their magnet posters.  This week, we have been trying out different types of magnets, discovering what happens as they attract and repel,  and learning about what types of materials are attracted to magnets.  During this unit, we will learn more about scientific method and participate in several experiments that will take us through the various steps in the process.

On Friday, I led students in a movement activity, in which they worked with partners to move like magnets attracting objects.  Partners took turns "being" the magnet and an object that a magnet would attract.  We also shared our learning through a "circle pass" activity, in which each person shared the type of object they chose.  I have created these movement lessons based on my previous work with a movement/dance specialist as part of the Words Come Alive course through St. Michael's College and the Flynn Theater.  Our class has been using movement lessons throughout the year to incorporate kinesthetic learning into various academic areas, such as science and social studies.

On Friday, Ms. Arlyn joined us again for a Lego Robotics lesson.  Students worked with their partners to build their new Lego robots.  Each team had to chose which one of the three different design challenges that they would like to try for this next five week session.

During literacy time, our class read a book called Canstruction Creations that told us about the history behind Canstruction projects, how people design and create their structures, and how the project helps others by donating the cans of food to people in need.   Our class is excited to participate in the Can-Struction competition at EMES next week.  Please send in donations by Wednesday, January 29th.


Important Dates:

Monday, January 27th- Yoga with Amy (Cyrus' mom)- Please bring a mat if you have one.

Wednesday, January 29th- Can-Struction-  See the EMES newsletter for additional information.  Please send in donations by this Wednesday for this wonderful project to benefit the East Montpelier Food Shelf.

Friday, January 31st- Homework due date and Report Cards are sent home

Wednesday, February 19th- Expert Writing Fair for grades K-6