5-13-22

 Weekly News for 2-P 5-13-22

*Remember to send an extra snack for Run Club on Wednesdays!

*Tissues are in high demand. The spring cold has hit us and we are going through a box a day.  We would appreciate any donations! 

*Chewonki visits us next Tuesday morning for the “Owls of Maine” presentation! 

 

*In math we completed the Unit 9 assessment work and are pecking away at the end of year assessment in small chunks.  Every day we are working on refining key skills; problem solving, time/money, math facts and the regrouping algorithms (partial sums and trade first). 

*During reading and writing workshop we integrated our science focus.  At the beginning of the week we investigated bird beaks and bird feet. We used a special visual tool to help us identify what type of beak/feet a particular bird has and how we know what they eat from this information.  Then we tackled our first research project on a seed eater; the blue jay. We read many books and each got our own research packets about blue jays. It was fun to watch several videos to learn more and see these birds in action.  We also listened to their calls. Students learned how to take notes on a graphic organizer. Next we practiced how to organize a report with a topic sentence, details and a conclusion. It was key to figure out how to take notes and turn them into complete sentences.  Second graders practiced drawing accurate blue jay pictures with how-to drawing guides.  We are in the process of final drafts for our reports and will each be making a pop up blue jay project! Next up is a bird of prey - the owl.

 *We had a great visit to the Outdoor Classroom on Monday with Ms. McCauley. After checking out the beautiful changes to the space, including new seating areas and a butterfly garden, we took a walk through the woods and explored fallen logs.  We found all kinds of interesting life and recorded our observations with partners.

*Our spelling focus was digraphs.  Next week we will do more r controlled vowels. In grammar we are getting familiar with adverbs and working on root words. We continue to practice editing for capitalization and punctuation every day.

Ms. McCauley teaches us about what we might find when we explore under logs.

Look at the new seating area in the OC!

We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in the OC!

The Butterfly Garden

Exploring Fallen Logs

Looking for life!  Ants found!

Bark beetles located!

Naturalists explore in groups!

Mrs. Devin had us paint birds in Art.

Artists at work....

We even collected some trash while we were exploring in the woods.

Taking notes on the blue jay

Using a guide to help draw an accurate blue jay

Taking care to do a second draft drawing to make improvements

Quality!

Blue Jay Anatomy Work

We learned how to use a notecatcher (graphic organizer) to keep track of our facts.

We played a super fun tic tac toe math game Friday.  So simple but the kids loved it....

and practiced facts that make ten and LOGIC!

Hard work!

On Friday students worked so hard to do final drafts of their blue jay reports on the special pop up paper.

To win the math game you have to get sums of 10 in a row!

Gluing reports on with care....

Drawing the pop up illustration of a blue jay

Proud writer and scientist!

Rough draft of our reports.

Students had to organize themselves through many steps.  Proud of them!

The pop up awaits the blue jay!

A final product - well done!