End of the Year Second Grade Events!

End of the Year Second Grade Events!

No School Monday, May 30th - Memorial Day

Tie Dye Day - Thursday, June 2nd

Tuesday, June 7th - Rock and Roll School Sing!  8:40 am in the courtyard!

Tuesday, June 7th - Field trip to BEEC

Wednesday, June 8th - Field Day at the Park
9-12:00 am

Friday, June 10th - Harry Potter Day!

Tuesday, June 14th - Last Day of school early dismissal 11:45 am dismissal

Taste Test Winners!

Mrs. Schultz's class won the taste test award and we took home the carrot hat!  100% of our class tried carrots in the last taste test.  The children took turns wearing the hat throughout the day.  

Jacob models the Carrot Hat!

Annie Play

The Annie play at Academy School was amazing!  Our second grade stars Myah and Faith did a great job!  Here are a few pictures from the fantastic production!

The Cast of Annie

Faith as Sandy

Myah as a servant

Faith 

Myah

Vocabulary Bingo

WE LOVE VOCABULARY!!!!!  Pictures from vocabulary bingo game!

Literacy Breakfast March 3, 2016

On March 3rd, parents, family and staff members joined the second graders in our classroom for a literacy breakfast.  Here are some photos from that morning!

 

 

 

Animal Research Projects

The second graders have been researching animals as part of our science curriculum.  We have been integrating writing and technology projects with this unit.  Each child worked with a group to research an animal.  They read about their animals and took notes.  Then the children wrote reports and typed these into a presentation website called Adobe Slate.  Finally, the group collaborated on a group video to further share and demonstrate their learning.  The links below will take you to the videos.  Enjoy!

Elephants video    By: Anthony, Corey, and Jaida

Giant Pandas video  By:  Collin, Gage, Faith, David, K'alia and Jacob

Baboons video  By:  Abby, Braden, Caroline, Jaycie, Kamal and Myah


Thanks for visiting our class blog!

More Math help for homework..."The arrow way?"

Math!  What does it all mean?  Understanding the math language of number bond, tape diagram, and strategies like "The Arrow Way" to solve problems can be like learning a foreign language!  Check out this video to learn these terms that your child is learning in math in this unit!

video of math concepts

Writing and Science

  Writing About Science - Informational Writing Standard 2.2   

     The second graders embarked on an exciting new writing genre in the month of January! Integrating our science study of plants and animals, we have been writing lab reports as a way to inform our readers about science inquiry. This process started with writing a lab report together to learn the structure of this type of writing. We started by using a toy car and a ramp and experimenting with different surfaces to see what outcomes a surface change has to the distance the car will travel. Next, we worked in pairs to investigate our own questions about cars and ramps. Finally, the students integrated the lab report writing structure with our science unit by looking at bird adaptations. The question is which model bird beak works best for picking up bird food? Using tweezers, chopsticks and clothespins as model bird beaks the second graders tested their hypotheses and recorded their results while attempting to pick up beans (simulated beetles), yarn (simulated worms) and seeds. Which model beak do you think worked best? Ask your second grader what they learned from the results! Our final lab reports are hanging in the second grade hallway. Please stop by and check them out!

Anthony tests his hypothesis

Peter has a lot to say about science!

  

Jaida hard at work testing her hypothesis

Braden and Jaycee run trials

Faith records her results

Caroline, Myah, Corey and Jacob planting with Ms. Kathy

Math Strategies - video

I often have parents ask me about math strategies that we teach second graders to use for addition and subtraction.  Remember that second graders are just learning about place value and they are developing an understanding of how numbers work together to solve problems.  These strategies may seem cumbersome, but try to avoid teaching your child algorithm strategies (carrying and borrowing) as these strategies will come into play in later grades once students already have a strong place value understanding.  Clink on the links below to view videos I have made that explain the strategies we have been using in class to solve problems.

addition video:
addition strategies video


subtraction video:
subtraction strategies