Snowman Estimation

The students in Room 3 and Room 9 estimated how many cotton balls would fit in each part of their snowman and then how many would fit in all. They then got to check their estimates and decorate their snowmen!

Working on Our Board Games

The second grade classes are working in partners to create their own original math board games!

A Guest Reader in Room 3

We had a special guest reader in Room 3 today--Emily came to share a winter story with us!!! As she read, we practiced making text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections.

A Super Week in Second Grade!

It's hard to believe that December break is right around the corner!
Here are some highlights from this past week:
-Working on making connections to stories--text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world
-Writing/finishing up our butterfly stories
-Looking at specific types of story problems (change-plus and change-minus) and discussing strategies used to solve them
-Starting to plan and create math board games with a friend from other class
-Dissecting flowers with Kim and Anna in Science
-Watching an exciting presentation by Mad Science

Weekly Update

We have had a busy week in 2nd grade! We have been exploring the idea of perimeter, so this week we put ourselves to the test. We worked in pairs to measure and calculate the perimeter of a variety of shapes on the blacktop. We got to decide if we would use cm, in, ft or yds to measure each shape. We talked about the importance of measuring accurately and labeling our math drawings. We also had a few butterflies emerge from the chrysalides. We released 3 healthy butterflies this week! Today one started to fly away, but decided to return. It landed on a 2nd grade friend's shirt. We know that's because her shirt was so bright and colorful. Room 9 has started to write stories about the life cycle of a butterfly through the eyes of a caterpillar. Room 3 will start their stories next week.

Monarch Release

Perimeter on the Playground

Room 9 Community Meeting

What a wonderful community meeting presentation of learning! Room 9 worked so hard on the acrostic poem and garage band song about metamorphosis and monarchs. A special thanks to Lauren and Kim for helping us prepare for this special presentation. The room was buzzing with excited energy all week!

Magnificent Monarchs and Perimeter Power!

Congratulations to Room 9 on a fantastic Community Meeting performance!!!
Highlights from the Week (11/16-11/20)
-Learning about perimeter and practicing finding the perimeter of a variety of shapes
-Using several measuring methods (yardsticks, footsteps, arm spans) to find the perimeter of the grass field
-Problem solving using the concept of perimeter (including designing our own grass fields)
-Continuing to visualize as we read independently
-Reading more of The Witches aloud
-Doing research about butterflies online
-Creating our own symmetrical butterflies

Art in the Classroom

We had art in our classroom today. We talked about symmetry and how butterfly wings are symmetrical in size, shape and design. Then we created our own Monarch butterflies!

Working on Perimeter

We used our perimeter skills to measure a fence that would go around the grass field. Then each student designed his/her own grass fields. S/He calculated the perimeter of each field to determine the length of the fence that would go around it.

Room 3 Presents...

The students of Room 3 did a fantastic job presenting their Autobiographies on a Box and acrostic poems using their names!
Other highlights from the week:
-Visualizing after reading independently (or with a partner)
-Writing directions on how to make our Autoshapes creatures
-Hearing more of The Witches, by Roald Dahl
-Reviewing measurement and learning about perimeter
-Continuing to observe the caterpillars, some of which have changed into chrysalides

Jack Prelutsky visit

A Great Week!

We had a busy week that ended with a bang! It was so neat to hear Jack Prelutsky personally narrate the symphony based on his book and then his visit to our school was even more exciting!
Other highlights from our week:
-Meeting docents from the San Diego Symphony and learning about how "Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant" was developed as a symphony
-Starting to visualize when reading independently
-Writing detailed directions for another second grader to follow to try to copy our Autoshapes creature
-Problem solving in math and sharing strategies with others
-Playing a new game called "Ghost" with the whole second grade

A Tour of the Symphony in our classroom

The docents from the symphony came to our room to help us get ready for our field trip on Thursday. They read us some of Jack Prelutsky's poems and played some of the music that will go along with it. We are very excited for Thursday!

Pumpkin Seed Counting

We couldn't believe how many seeds we found in each pumpkin! First we estimated the amount in each pumpkin. Then in groups of 3-4 we grouped and counted the total amount. It was interesting seeing the different strategies that each table used to count. After we checked the estimations to see who guessed the closest for each pumpkin. What fun!

The Bat Room

Thank you to Anna and Holly for helping us learn all about bats! We had a great time looking at specimens and making fun bat crafts.

Working on our Boxes

Here we are adding embellishments to our project, Autobiography on a Box.

Highlights from the Week (10/19-10/23)

Here are some of the exciting things that we did in second grade this week:
-Practiced visualizing with an African folktale called Buya Marries the Tortoise
-Read and listened to poetry by Jack Prelutsky
-Got our student portfolios ready to share with families at conferences
-Learned about Function Boxes and completed Fun Facts for 5 in math
-Worked on our Autobiographies on a Box
-Learned how to use Autoshapes on Microsoft Word and made creatures on the laptops
-Practiced and recited our October poem, "A Halloween Pumpkin" (see video below)

A Halloween Pumpkin Poem

Wild Things

The second graders and their kindergarten buddies created their own "Wild Things" and then wrote stories about their adventures!

Painting Our Boxes

The students have painted their boxes and collected pictures for their Autobiography on a Box. We are now in the process of putting everything together.

Highlights From the Week 10/12-10/16

Here are some of the things we did this week in second grade:
-Practiced visualizing with The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse, by Beatrix Potter
-Strengthened fine motor skills with guided drawings of an elephant and a tiger
-Finished reading aloud Wayside School and started The Witches, by Roald Dahl
-Discussed the meaning of the equals sign (=) and completed a variety of equations using the equals sign in different ways
-Improved our fact fluency with Fun Facts for the number 4
-Collected pictures online for our Autobiography on a Box

Just Hanging Out at Recess

Monarch Caterpillars Have Arrived!

The Monarch caterpillars have arrived in the Science Clubhouse! The second graders will be learning about their life cycle and hopefully watching all of the phases in action. Right now they are getting bigger by filling up on milkweed plants.

Another Fun Week!

This week's highlights (10/5-10/9)
-Continuing to visualize as we read. We read a Arabian Folktale called Feraj and the Magic Lute
-Starting to learn our October poem, A Halloween Pumpkin
-Working on independent workshop jobs
-Strengthening our math fact fluency with Fun Facts
-Discussing single digits and creating place value riddles
-Playing the Magic Square game
-Planning our Autobigraphies on a Box

Kate worked with all of the second graders to try a math challenge called The Magic Square. It was tricky, but exciting to watch the thinking process in action!

Autumn Fires Poem

A Busy Week in Second Grade!

Here are some of the highlights of the week in Rooms 3 and 9:
*Completing our Classroom Agreements
*Learning a new math game called Math Whiz
*Working on math fact fluency with Fun Facts
*Starting our visualizing journals
*Illustrating our Summer stories
*Doing a penny experiment in Science
and...We survived our first week of second grade homework :)

Second Grade Math Games

Room 3 and Room 9 have been getting together on Tuesdays and Thursdays to play math games together. This week we added a new game called MATH WHIZ into the mix. The students are really enjoying using their math skills and developing strategies to play the games.