Weekly News 3-7-25

 Weekly News for 2-P 3-7-25

     *Thanks for sending coats, mittens, hats and boots, plus indoor shoes daily!

*In math we started unit 8 and worked on money. We reviewed coin values and counted groups of mixed, coins using skip counting strategies. We made combinations of $1 and solved word problems involving money. Next up is telling time.

*In reading workshop we worked on how nonfiction writers organize their texts. For example, sometimes authors use a question/answer format. Others use unique patterns as they relay important information. Students are getting better at naming what pattern they see in a nonfiction text.

*We kicked off the annual Chickadee Award season this week and got to hear from 3 guest readers already. Students will hear all 10 books and rate them in their Chickadee booklets before the final vote takes place!

*We continued our Mystery Science unit on “Plant Adaptations.” In the lesson, “Could a plant survive without light?”  students investigated how plants need water and sunlight to grow. We set up an experiment with growing radish seeds in light and dark conditions. We will be comparing the seedlings to see what happens initially and then when all are placed in sunlight. Next we did a new experiment to investigate how different plants grow best under very different conditions, ranging from deserts to tropical rainforests. We have planted many seeds and are taking care to water them carefully every day. We completed our final lesson in this unit with a virtual trip into 3 special places at Death Valley National Park. Ask your kids to tell you which one they thought was the most interesting! 

 

*In writing we kicked off our third and final writing book of the year and began to learn about opinion writing. Students chose an opinion about school and supported that opinion with reasons and evidence. They felt this work was quick and easy after the longer research piece they just finished. Students revised their work and published final drafts, as always. Our grammar tie-in this week was adverbs.

*Our focus was on double consonant letter words in spelling this week. During our phonics time we practiced prefixes (un, re, pre, dis).

UFLI story leader....the kids love getting to be the "pointer" as we read the passage together.

Another UFLI leader

We worked on an opinion graphic organizer together first to get our thoughts flowing.

Planting seeds

We planted zinnia, spinach, arugula and cucumber seeds.

Mystery Science experiment

Book Club partners

Working on compehension work from book club

F

Black out Day!

Plant Watering!

We loved visiting the interesting places in Death Valley.

Mrs. Smith reads us a chickadee book.

Junie B. Jones getting her writing done!

Free Choice Friday fun

Mrs. Devin reads us a chickadee book in art class Friday.

Free choice Friday fun

Chickadee booklet sample

B

Busy writer

Our graphic organizer for opinion writing this week

Plant experiment - these radish seeds have been in total darkness.....they have sprouted but are yellow.....

Mrs. Devin read us a chickadee book in art Friday.

Even princesses have to write!

Clock practice

Writer at work!

 

Weekly News 2-28-25

 Weekly News for 2-P 2-28-25

     *Thanks for sending coats, mittens, hats and boots, plus indoor shoes daily!

*In math we reinforced our measuring skills by strengthening our ability to estimate accurately and use everyday objects to look to as benchmarks. We continued to relate centimeters to meters and practiced drawing line segments of varying lengths. We also solved word problems involving length. Each day we did review of double digit addition concepts as well.

*We kicked off our Mystery Science unit on “Plant Adaptations.” Our hook leading into the unit was the phenomenon of the superbloom in Death Valley, California. Ask your kids to tell you about it! In our first investigation, “How did a tree travel halfway across the world?”  students investigate the mystery of the koa tree, a type of tree that grows in only two places—islands halfway across the world from one another. We developed three different physical models of seed structures and practiced dropping them to see how structure affects the seed’s function in dispersing away from the tree. During our second investigation “Animal Seed Dispersal” we explored how the structures of seeds enable them to disperse, with a focus on seeds that utilize animal structures to aid in their dispersal. We developed a model of a furry animal (“fluffadoo”) and then used it to test how far seed models with different structures can travel.

 

*In writing we were immersed in week 2 of our photo essays on habitats. This week we revised by adding adjectives to describe our habitats, including definitions of habitat words and adding an appositive to part of our report. Then we turned to our editing checklist and final drafts. We worked really hard on this project and it’s great to see these second graders sustain a challenging project and show perseverance!

*Our focus was on -ou and -ow words in spelling this week. During our phonics time we practiced suffixes (ly, ness, ful).

Sample Habitat Report

Working diligently on a final draft

Another sample habitat report

Using the revised draft to create a finished product!

We added "photos" to our photo essays.

Writers at work!

Testing out our FLUFFADOOS with partners

We counted how many hops we could get in before the seed fell.

We tested two different seeds.

One was a pom-pom and the other was a bean.

We had to jump very carefully!

We tracked our hop count on a special recording page.

The fluffadoo was a model of a furry animal.

This is us making the fluffadoo model.

In math we did a standing long jump event!

We each got two do two jumps. 

The rest of us took turns marking and measuring the jumps.

Action shot!

We had to start behind the same line.

We measured each jump in inches and centimeters.

Lots of teamwork

Buddy Reading!

We went up to Ms. Moran's class this time.

Testing our seed models in science

We had 3 different seed models to test.

Our goal was to see how different seed structures help seeds disperse.

First we had to make the seed models.

Peer Review work in writing

We listened to each other's habitat reports to give feedback.

Lots of hands-on measuring in math all week!

Monday's snow was super fun!

Recording our thoughts about the "Superbloom" mystery in Death Valley, California