2nd Marble Party and Some Weekly News

Yes, the second graders have already earned another Marble Party.  They are super thrilled that it only took 8 days this time.  It is a testament to how hard they have been working.

They voted to have an electronics party!

We will have the party after lunch on Friday, September 29th.  Students are welcome to bring electronic devices from home to use during that time.  They are responsible for them and will be able to choose school appropriate activities.  Students have access to chrome books in the classroom, they can use that for their electronic device also.  They may also bring games from home that they would like to play.

Progress reports came home yesterday.  Many students have already returned signed reports.  Please sign it and return by Friday or you can write a note that you have seen it.

Volunteers - I can use volunteers to work with students from 11:45-12:30 on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  If you would like to volunteer you are welcome to come in other times as well.  I will have other things you can help with.

Field Trip - we have a field trip coming up in October.  The note is coming home today.

We are learning about maps and making maps right now.  We will also be looking at different land forms. Students have had the opportunity to practice using a compass.

I am very proud of the second graders.  Each week they become a bit more remarkable.

How Does a Ladybug Fly?

Second graders studied this clip of a ladybug lifting off of a blade of grass.  After making observations and drawing a model of the ladybug they had a few questions.  The observed that the ladybug appeared to have 2 sets of wings, red and black.  They asked if the ladybug needed both sets of wings to fly?

We decided to investigate that question.  Students studied the video and their model and created 3D models of ladybugs.  Here are a few of them:

Before we conducted our test, students made claims about what they thought a ladybug used to fly. They gave evidence for their thinking to prove their claim was correct.  Here is how the class was divided in their claims:

Students decided to test the ability of their ladybugs to fly one windy day by throwing them like paper airplanes.  We measured the distance they traveled.  The farthest went 12 feet and the shortest distance was 7 feet 10 inches.

We returned to the classroom and discussed our findings.  I asked the students if our investigation helped us answer our question.  They all agreed that it hadn't.  I asked how we could change our investigation to answer our question.  The answer was to get live ladybugs, take the red wings off of one and the black wings off of the other and see if they could fly.  Since that wouldn't be very kind, we went back to our video and studied it carefully.  We also remembered that we had read that a beetle (a ladybug is a form of beetle) has a protective covering over its wings.  With that information and our video.  We decided that a ladybug flies with its black wings.  It lifts off the red ones to allow the black ones to fold out. Our evidence came from observations from the video and our research.

During this activity, students did a lot of writing, drawing, thinking, questioning, observing, planning, computation and problem solving.  They were acting as scientists using all they tools they had available to them.

Students did a great job on this activity.  Even though our investigation didn't help us to answer our question, we leaned a lot.  Sometimes scientists have to reevaluate their plan and that's okay.

2nd Letter from your Second Graders

Your second graders worked together to write you a letter about the past week.

1st Marble Party

Each day students are working to be on task and excellent role models.  When the whole class is on task, they get marbles.  As soon as their marble jar is full and mine is empty, they get a marble party.

Yesterday the second graders earned their first marble party!  Here is what they voted on:

On Friday, September 15 they may bring either a stuffed animal, a pillow or a blanket to school. Whatever they decide to bring MUST fit inside their backpack.  From 1:30 to 3:00, students get to find a cozy place in the room and read with their item of choice.

They earned their first marble party in 15 days! I am very proud of their hard work.

Week of 9/11/17

Student have reading homework coming home today.  Inside of their home folder, you will find some instructions and an example for how to fill out the fluency homework.  Your child should have a reading passage with a graph on the back that they can practice each day.

I'm hoping by including this in your home folder that it will be easier to keep track of than if it was in its own folder.

Students have their second spelling test tomorrow and a comprehension test.  They have been learning about the artist, Miro and have created their own art that will be on display tomorrow.

Students are learning about the diversity of life in science and we are working on alphabetizing and writing complete sentences. Some students are working on adding descriptions to their writing.

Week of 9/5/17

Students are doing a great job learning the routines.  We are beginning to get more learning done each day.

The second spelling list and phonogram list went home yesterday.  Today I will send home math papers that have concepts they will be tested on tomorrow.  Normally these will come home on Tuesdays, but it didn't work out this week.  We have been practicing these concepts in class so just a few minutes of review should help them for tomorrow.

I will also be sending home pictures today so look for those in backpacks.

Many of you informed me of how your volunteer availability.  Soon I will be sending home exactly what is needed in the classroom and you can let me know what works for you.

Right now we are practicing making ten for our facts.  We are practicing modeling numbers using tens and ones.  Students learned a new way to model those today.  If you ask them how to show you a number like 37, they should be able to draw the model for you.  We talked about how 2nd and 3rd graders use models like this to help them see the numbers.

Next Monday the 11th reading homework will come home.

I'm excited about this year.