Thanksgiving

It is always so fun to read how the students cook up their Thanksgiving turkey. Some of the students this year even wrote how they would shoot and gut the turkey and then get it cooked-in the microwave! We enjoyed making our own butter and trying it on pumpkin muffins. We also learned and played some old time games to finish up our short week.

i-Pad Turkeys

In 2nd grade we have fun disguising a turkey and writing about it but this year Integrated Technology showed a great app and project doing this using our i-pads. What a great way to update this activity and the class loved doing this. They used their typing skills next to describe the turkey.  The students would not allow me to even use a push-pin in their picture to display their work because they did not want a tiny hole in their project-what a hoot!

Magnets

We have been exploring the push, pull, and properties of magnets. We worked in stations to test our magnets and decide what makes a magnet attract objects.

Pumpkins and Halloween

We finished the month of October with the Red Ribbon Parade, Spider Research and poem writing, our annual Pumpkin Investigation, and of course our Halloween costumes. It has been a busy but productive month! You can check out more of the pictures on the classroom website.

Animals

We continue to learn about animals and their adaptations. The students researched and presented facts on their chosen animal. They did a wonderful job learning how to organize their research, import a picture, and type a great report.

I have added new pictures from our Langwood field trip to the class website. Check out the additions. Thank you Julie Crawford for the pictures and accompanying us for our day of fun and learning!

http://www.morning-sun.k12.ia.us/2nd/mrsmacsclass/Animal_Field_Trip.html 

The students experiencing how animals' eyes work.

Field Trip Fun

Langwood

We have been studying habitats in science and were able to learn more  during our animal field trip to Langwood Education Center with Louisa County Conservation. We caught insects and frogs, made casts of animal tracks, learned about animal skeletons, and played the prey and predator game. We even had to fish out shoes stuck in the mud!!! I am posting more pictures on the classroom website as I get them but here is a quick look at the fun.

Recovered the sunken, mud covered shoes!!!    

                                                   Tuckered out from a busy day.    

Hatching Butterflies!!!

We were greeted first thing Monday morning with our butterflies "Herky and Hawk" fluttering around our net. We were excited but bummed that we did not get to see any of the hatching from the chrysalis ourselves. Thank goodness for technology and being able to show a quick video snip of what they missed. Our classroom butterflies are now on their way to Mexico to overwinter.

Don't Play the Bully Game

The students enjoyed an assembly with magic and information to remember with Dennis Regling presenting Change Your School: Don't Play the Bully Game. Our PTO paid for the program which kicks off our year and the school's  Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

 

Egg-Larva-Chrysalis & Pupa-Adult

We were fortunate enough this year to get a couple of Monarch caterpillars or as the students have learned, larva from Patricia, who faithfully watches for them every year for me.  The students were able to journal and draw the life cycle and even clean up some frass!  When we received our larva they were close to the 5 cm. so I knew we wouldn't be feeding and cleaning for long and sure enough Monday our larva changed into pupa with a new chrysalis covering.  This is such an exciting scientific wonder to watch.  They have enjoyed learning about this life cycle, what they eat, how they lay their eggs, and then how they emerge from the chrysalis. We will update our post when they hatch and we send them off to Mexico. By the way, the class named them appropriately Hawk and Herky with their distinctive black, yellow, and white coloring. Quiz your student on all of their Monarch knowledge!

Math Stations

We start our math with a mini-lesson and then have whole group or station work.  I like to use stations to work on our math because it gives me an opportunity to work with small groups of students. Working with smaller groups helps to differentiate the teaching to have extra time with struggling students and accelerate others.  This also allows students to work at their own pace and level on the computers on IXL at http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-2. This program is aligned to the Core and works with all of our standards. The students also work on their fact work on XtraMath at http://xtramath.org  program and then various hands on fact games and ipods with Pop Math.

Baked Seeds!!!

Baked Seeds!!!

I love Science and all of the inquiry and learning that goes on with the exploring that takes place.  We always plant seeds in the fall in our room because it is warmer than it is in the spring and I always have better luck with the seeds germinating and growing. We had a slight problem this week. When we checked our seeds - nothing had happened by Monday. The students didn't think anything of it because when they predicted how long it would take for them to grow they thought they needed to wait another 3 weeks. I happen to know that the lima bean seed will usually start to show roots in a couple of days - so I was worried. The plants have always sat in between the window and the blinds - problem was we were fortunate to get new shades this summer and they block out most of the light and are heavy duty. Hence, a little oven was formed and our beans were cooked. The containers were almost hot to the touch. I decided I had to replant Tuesday and told the kids what had happened. They were extremely excited to see roots starting by the end of the week and have been journaling the growth. The students enjoyed learning about seeds and were able to dissect 3 different seeds and see the tiny new plant inside and take the seed coat off. We have also explored the plant parts and some didn't really appreciate the chives smell in the room but were fascinated to see all the parts of my cherry tomato including a tiny flower and right next to it the beginnings of the little fruit starting to grow. Next we will explore seeds and decide how they could be moved and try to identify them. They will also decide if the size is related to the size of the fruit/vegetable. Make sure to ask all about our exploring.

Planting the seeds in cd cases - for easy examining of the plant parts.

Finally-roots have emerged!

Reading Series

A New Reading Series

We are fortunate this year to be able to have a new reading series McGraw-Hill Reading Wonders. It has been a long time since we have had new reading material. It finally arrived right before school started. It is all aligned to the Common Core State Standards and has all the components for Language Arts and has many on-line, digital sections for additional practice. We will have reading groups with leveled readers for differentiation, a Reading/Writing Workshop text, and a text for Literature Anthology. Our first lessons dove right into fables and then informational text using expository text examples - wow it is rigorous!  To go along with our learning of expository text and facts, we wrote our own informational piece called "Who Am I". The students listed facts about themselves and drew a picture then, everyone was to guess who the information was about and underneath was an actual photograph of the student. They really enjoyed this activity and I am glad that it happened to work right in with the text example. The students are still looking and guessing who the authors are in the hall.  

 

Welcome 2013/14 2nd Grade Class

A new class, a new school year and new faces. I have a great class and I am so excited.  We had a  busy first week of school with rules, activities, and getting used to being back in school. 2nd Graders have homework and so much to learn and do to get them ready for upstairs and the big kids. They are always so excited for text books and they are really enjoying the new playground.! The students brought their "forever" book and presented to the class this favorite book. I then use this picture for our Student of the Week. We also sang to Mrs. Bryant and made birthday cards - 102 and we love you! 

National Symbols

It is the end of another Social Studies Unit and the students worked on a group project. This project included doing research digitally and in books along with making a poster for display and including a powerpoint slide show to present and teach the class about their symbol. It was the first time that the students made slides for a powerpoint and did a great job. Make sure and check out all 5 group pictures on the classroom website. They all did a wonderful job on this project.

http://www.morning-sun.k12.ia.us/2nd/mrsmacsclass/Feb_Photos.html 

Groundhogs and Chinese New Year?

What do these two have in common? Not really anything other than the students learning about them the last couple of weeks. Each week we used nonfiction and some fiction reading during Daily 5 to learn more about groundhogs and Chinese New Year. Then, the students used their new knowledge to write two different pieces. They first wrote in 1st person as a groundhog and showed a map of their home. Some students decided to add extra things to their burrow to make it more exciting but all added the bathroom that they found very interesting that the groundhog had in its burrow. The next week, they wrote an information piece to teach others about Chinese New Year and made a paint-strip dragon to add to their story. Both turned out so cute!

100th Day

It's a beach day of going coconuts for the 100th day. The students arrived in summer wear (getting ready for recess with snow pants took a little longer today) and a hallway decorated with palm trees and hanging doodads, including our doorway with a grass skirt to walk through. The PTO provided this along with a pencil, colorful lae, going coconuts sticker, and fun beach snacks. We were able to make "shell" flakes in our room to look at symmetry and our own shell necklaces. The day ended with games in gym with the other lower elementary classes. See more pictures on our website.

How Many Ways Can Your Represent a Number?

The students picked a number between 21 and 99 to make a pizza number representing different ways to show their number. They had to write it with number words, in standard form, expanded form, place value, with base 10 blocks, coins, and show ways to arrive at their number. A great way to show number sense.

Look What's Hiding in the Snow!

I love this writing project. The students think of an animal or object and make a list of clues to describe it starting with a broad and general tip and ending with a clue that is easy. They really have fun writing and drawing in secret and making their animal hidden on the paper and then using whiteout to hide it with an acetate liner. Thank goodness for classroom volunteers that can have students go to another room to work in private on this very secretive writing project. They then love presenting to the class their clues and see if the students can guess the animal or object before the last clue and then show the item hidden under the snow. Don't forget you can see all of the students with their projects on the January Picture page of our classroom website. Thanks to Christinia Bainbridge for thinking of this project.

         

            

Goals, Goals, Goals

We are always setting and discussing goals wether it be during a writing or reading conference or for our math facts. To start the new year the students again looked at goals for themselves and how they can set goals for home, school, the community, and world.