Our Fairy Tale Plays

Aladdin and the Magic Pickle Jar

Claynocchio

Clinky Clanky Tenbo

Jack and the Giant Sunflower

Prince Frog

Diary of a Worm...Tub

This week we received a container full of worms.  We prepared our worm tub by tearing up newspaper, adding old fruit and vegetable scraps, and topping it off with a little soil.  The purpose of housing these wriggly friends?  We are learning about how organisms interact with their environment, by observing our worms and how they transform the lovely habitat we made for them into rich compost.

So far, we have begun to build our schema about worms (their bodies, what they eat, where they live, and what they do) by reading fiction for facts.  That is, we are reading some great fictional stories that also can teach us about worms!  It is fun to see students arrive at the realization that fiction is not just for fun- some fiction can be informative!  We have already learned some fascinating wormlore, and dispelled some worm myths...  Did you know:

• Worms don't have eyes.
• Worms eat rocks!  Inside a worm's stomach, the rocks help to grind up food, and then the rocks are passed in worm's poop, which is called a cast.
• Worms have five pairs of hearts.
• If you cut a worm in half, the pieces will not grow into two new worms.  That's a myth!

We will continue to study worms next week, as we (patiently) let the worms do their work in our tubs.

We will continue after break to broaden this understanding of organisms interacting with their environment by researching some other animals that change or alter the space in which they live.  For example, beavers which create dams that alter the course of rivers.  A great home conversation, especially as the weather warms and changes from mammals, birds, even plants and bugs, become evident, would be to look around your yard or the park for evidence of animal or plant changes.  Do seedlings pop up in cracks in the sidewalk?  Can you see holes made by chipmunks or woodpeckers?

We will keep you up to date on the fun changes we see in our worm tub over the next month or two!  Happy worm watching!

Fairy Tales & Other Learning

This week, we kicked off a huge fairy tale unit in second grade!  During this unit, we will be reading and analyzing fairy tales.  We have been reading, watching, and listening to many fairy tales to really build our schema about how these stories are written.  In particular, we are investigating fairy tales for common elements.

Fairy Tale Elements

In addition to providing great opportunities for retelling, summarizing, and identifying the main idea of stories, this unit teaches students to analyze story plot, and to compare two versions of the same story written by different authors.

After we explore several different versions of Cinderella from diverse cultures and perspectives, we will compare their settings, characters, and beginning, middle, and end for differences and similarities.  Then, students will read and analyze several versions of other common fairy tales in book clubs.  They will present their findings to the class, and write an opinion telling us which version they thought was the best.

Finally, students will get an opportunity to apply these understandings, writing their very own fractured fairy tales.  Our final products will display our knowledge of fairy tale elements, story structure, character development, and writing craft!  This is such a great literacy project to end the year.

Other Learning

In math, we are building off our two digit addition knowledge to solve three digit addition (with and without regrouping) using decomposing. Stay tuned for an update when we post Educreations showing off our new skills!

In addition, we are continuing to build our comfort with time and money.  In second grade, students should be able to tell time to the nearest five minutes, and solve simple word problems involving change.

In science, we began a unit exploring how organisms interact with the environment with our own Worm Tub!  Stay tuned for a post on what we are learning through these wriggly creatures.

In Writing, we are beginning to write our Expert Projects (see previous posts).

In Word Study, we are concluding our parts of speech unit with Adverbs! Next week, we will review nouns, proper nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.  Mad Libs, anyone?

Marble Track Educreations & Other Learning

Check out our Educreation Presentations we made today to explain how our marble tracks work, and some of the learning behind this project:

Brady & Josh
Katie & Kailey
Sam & Olivia
Sophie & Brittany
Connor, Dylan, Isaaq, and Jordan
Dominic, Evan, Emily & Owen
Aidan, Kristen & Cassie
Emery, Hailey, & Kayleigh

We did a wonderful job using Educreations to publish our projects digitally!

Other Learning

We are also beginning to learn a 2-digit subtraction strategy that using decomposing to explain the process of regrouping more clearly before we learn the "traditional" algorithm after break.  Stay tuned for a post demonstrating how to solve the way we solve!

In word study, we are finishing our parts of speech study with nouns, adjectives, and now verbs.  Next week we will learn adverbs.

In writing, we are wrapping up our Book Reviews (opinion writing) by recording them using photobooth (Anyone remember Reading Rainbow? That's our theme!) Next, we will practice informational writing with our Expert Projects.

In preparation for expert projects, we are studying informational texts this week, keep a close eye on organization.  Second graders are expected to identify not only the main idea of an informational text, but the topic or main idea of specific paragraphs within a text.  Identifying the topic of each paragraph helps us to further see the connection between each section, and how those details contribute to the whole meaning of the text.

Marble Tracks... Completed!

We worked hard the past two weeks to apply what we learned about forces and motion to our Marble Tracks!  Check out our completed tracks!

Thank you for all the donations of cardboard rolls and masking tape!  See a previous post, here, to see what we learned while making our tracks!

Two Digit Addition Strategies

In second grade, students are expected to solve two digit addition and subtraction problems. This week, we have been focusing on adding up to four two-digit numbers using place value and properties of addition.  So what exactly does that mean?

• Place value strategies: Splitting a number into tens and ones (decomposing) and adding the tens together, the ones together, and then adding your two sums to get your total.  In later grades, this is called partial sums.  Many of you have seen this strategy on our Educreations.

• Properties of addition: We use the commutative and associative properties of addition (though not by name,) to decide what order to add two or more numbers.  We worked on many addition shortcuts at the beginning of the year, so when adding the numbers  

6 + 4 + 6

students might decide to add 6 + 4 first, because those are making ten pairs, OR add 6 + 6 first, because those are doubles students should have memorized.  This freedom allows students to answer problems more quickly by avoiding math facts that are more difficult.

Take a look at our recent Educreations to see how we are doing solving four two-digit addition problems.  One of the biggest obstacles students face is not solving a multi-step addition problem, but getting their basic math facts right!

Informational Writing

We are gearing up for our Expert Projects- projects where students write about a topic they know a lot about!  This is a great unit for students to practice their informational writing skills.  In second grade, students are expected to write informational paragraphs introducing the topic, with facts and details (at least 3!) and with a concluding statement or section.  Here is our anchor chart to help us remember how to write a paragraph!

In addition to practicing our informational writing skills, we will be revising and editing our work (with peer and teacher assistance) and focusing on our writing goals during these projects.  We can't wait to show off all of our expertise!

Parent Experts!

Thank you to all our parents who volunteered to come in and share their expertise with us! We learned so much and had a ton of fun.  Here are some priceless pictures from the last weeks.

Mrs. Bohn teaches us yoga!

Senor Sturtz taught us spanish!

Mrs. Martin-Shaheen taught us how to sew!

Mr. Wallen taught us about playing the trumpet!

Mr. Willis teaches us about being a Marine

These presentations helped us realize that everybody can be an expert about something! Thank you to our parent experts for taking the time to come in and share their expertise!

Teaching Independence

One of the most important parts of my job as a second grade teacher is teaching independence to 7 and 8 year-olds.  This can be difficult at times, but independence is such an important virtue.  Here are some ways you can help bridge the home-school gap and help your child learn independence this year:

• When your child asks for help spelling a word, don't give it to them right away!  Instead, ask "What sounds do you hear in the word?  Do you hear any words you know how to spell inside that word?  Where might you find that word in our house?"  Encourage your child to build strategies for spelling words that don't rely on you- but rather on their own initiative and problem-solving.  If they spell the word close to correctly (or even in a way that makes sense phonetically) praise their attempt.  You don't even always have to correct their mistakes, which can negate the effort they put into spelling the word independently.
• That goes for any school work! If a child needs help on math, ask "What would you do first? Can you start the problem? Which part is tricky for you?"  The more you ask your child to explore the roadblock s/he is encountering, the more you encourage your child to reflect on the difficulties they are facing, and find a way around it.  In fact, usually this method will help students realize they CAN solve the problem on their own!
• If a student is frustrated or upset, I always ask what the problem is, and then ask the student "How could you go about solving this problem?"  Asking the student to take ownership for tackling the problem instills a sense of efficacy in the student.  The last thing I want to do is take over and solve the problem for them, unless teacher intervention really is necessary.  Let them try two or three attempts before jumping in and suggesting your own. And always make your child do most of the work to solve.
• Wait for your child to ASK for help before you jump in.  And that doesn't mean stating that they are stuck.  When students TELL me "I don't know how to sign onto Scootpad" I might respond, "hmmm... that is a problem.  Well, thanks for sharing that with me."  I encourage students to learn that I will always help them find a solution if they ASK for it.  Besides just being polite to ask, it lets students know that I will not swoop in and solve all their problems, that I expect them to (and believe they can) try to solve the problem on their own.
• Let your child be the authority on school! If you have a question about your child's classwork or assignments, ask your child first. This lets them feel a sense of responsibility for assignments or information that is communicated.  If they are unsure, a probing question such as "Well, how do you normally do this?" or "What would your teacher tell you if you asked this question?" can draw out more information.  Then let your child know you appreciate his or her aid in solving your problem!
• Let them fail.  It's okay if your child tries a strategy that you know is doomed to fail.  As the saying goes, we learn more from our mistakes. Protecting them from failure costs them valuable learning experiences-at an age where mistakes are not all that fatal.  Once they fail, tell them "That was a good try," and give a few suggestions.

These are just a few tips to teach independence.  Remember, you can't just expect your child to be an independent learner... but you also can't just do it all for them!  Teaching independence is huge at this age, and any work you put in now will have a huge impact on their future learning!

Great Questions for Independence:

• How would you normally do this?  What would you do first?  
• Can you try a strategy, and then ask for help if you still need it?
• What can you do to help solve this problem on your own?
• What parts are hard?  What parts are easy?

Student Led Conferences & Educreations

Thank you to all our families who participated in Student-Led conferences!  We practiced so hard and did some really great reflection that will help to steer our growth goals as we head into the second half of the year.  Whether at home or at school, I had many great compliments on how well the conferences went.  Thank you for giving your student this opportunity to share the wonderful things he or she is doing in class.

Many parents remarked on how neat the Educreations presentations were.  Educreations is a great app you can download on your Ipad to create whiteboard presentations with voice-overs.  We have been using them to show what we know how to do in math and in reading.

As we continue to use this app to record ourselves, you can check out your child's work by going to www.educreations.com and asking your child to sign in using his or her lunch number and the password hte105.

Thank you for making this such a valuable reflection and learning opportunity for our class!

1,000 cm Marble Tracks & Learning Points

We have officially begun building our marble tracks!  After working hard these past few weeks to learn force concepts and measurement skills, our class was so excited to start.  Thank you for sending in the wrapping paper rolls, paper towel rolls, masking tape, and other supplies.  Below is a picture of our first day- not as messy as I had thought we would be.

Our class begins the great marble track project!

This project is a great culmination to our learning.  In second grade, we learn that a force is a push or a pull, and explore how an object starts and stops moving, changes direction, and changes speed.  We explore the concepts of gravity, friction, and momentum and their practical application, but are not responsible for remembering the terms and their definitions.  All of these concepts are applied to our marble tracks.

In measurement, we studied the difference between the us standard units (inch, foot, yard) and metric units (millimeter, centimeter, meter) and developed a comfort distinguishing between them.  We established reference points to help us remember about how long each unit is.  Finally, we practiced using a ruler correctly to measure in both inches and centimeters.  We also used this as an opportunity to problem solve- what if an object is longer than our ruler? How might we find out how long it is?

In addition to providing us an opportunity to practice the skills and apply the concepts we have been learning in math and science, these projects are a great illustration of the design process and trial and error.  The amount of failure we encounter with these projects is staggering- every new twist or turn or ramp has to be tested, redesigned, tested again, and on and on.  I love seeing how resilient and motivated the students are to continue trying again and again.  They also must make their track structurally sound- sturdy enough to move every day.  Finally, students are learning valuable lessons on teamwork.

We hope to finish out tracks by Friday, February 21st, and I will keep families informed of a "publishing" celebration for these projects :)