Weekly News 2-16-24

 Weekly News for 2-P 2-16-24

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

  *In social studies our Studies Weekly magazine focused on what services the government provides for us. Through short videos and articles we learned about recreation departments, libraries, schools, fire and police departments. Students worked in groups to discuss and chart out their learning. 

     *In math we did lots of work on using strategies to add double digit numbers (number grids, base 10 blocks, open number lines). We learned about ballpark estimates (adding with friendly numbers that end in zero) and learned the partial sums algorithm (a method for regrouping that encourages mental math and a strong sense of place value).  

* During reading workshop we continued to read biographies. As part of Black History Month we read texts about Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, Rosa

Parks, Mae Jemison and Ruby Bridges.  Students had more time to choose biographies that were of interest to them in “Pebble Go.” Second graders made posters to share their knowledge and recorded facts in their reader’s notebooks.

*We completed our final informational writing projects, combining our knowledge

of force and motion with our “all about book” skills, to create a specialized book

on a topic of choice. Then we turned to a new genre, opinion writing. We did a lot of practice with forming opinions and now are learning to write a paragraph about our opinion, with reasons that support it.

*We completed Mission Invasives with Beth and Curtis, by taking a close look at the data we collected. As a class, we discussed whether we had evidence to

prove that there are unreported invasive species in New Zealand. Since the data showed no unreported invasive species throughout the mission, we concluded

that the hypothesis was false. We each wrote out our thoughts and will send our thinking to Beth and Curtis. 

 

*Our spelling focus was on words with short and long -oo.  In phonics work we tackled dipthongs: oi/oy and ou/ow. Ask your child to tell you about the secret passcode on our classroom door!

On Monday both 2nd grades participated in a special project with Ms. Mcauley -the outdoor classroom teacher.

We planted native Maine seeds and topped them with a layer of sand.

Then we planted them outdoors in a special frame.

For 100s Day we worked in group to make a chain of 100 things we have learned in 2nd grade!

We also did some thinking about If I Had 100....

We listed 100 things in small groups in under 10 minutes!

We made valentine's holders.

We decorated them with hearts and doilies.

A finished product

Career Day - cat trainer!

Teacher!

Queen

They loved the parfaits!

Kids love opening their cards.

The spontaneous "thank yous" heard all around the room are the best.

Back to work - cutting out shapes to build other shapes

We did lots of measuring in math as well.

Cat trainers have to find creative ways to carry their cats! 

We made lots of shapes.

Our new Promethean Board is amazing~

The kids are loving it.

Sports Day!

We dipped our toes into opinion writing.

We continued to read biographies for Black History Month.

Playing a UFLI game to practice new patterns

As we learn more and more vowel teams that can be used to make certain sounds, the kids love a new "secret password" on the door - they have to tell me the sound or sounds as they enter!

Here's our 100's chain 

Cozy Day

Sister picture!

Doing some proofreading work

Practicing our high frequency words

Comfy Crew

Fancy Crew

Our final livestream with Beth and Curtis was this week.

We decided the hypothesis was false.

We tracked native, endemic and invasive species.

During all the fieldwork we only saw reported invasive species.

FANCY!