The Living Statue Gallery was a GREAT success! The second graders worked very hard on this project and felt proud of the result. Thank you to all of the parents who came and visited the many living statues. The speeches that the second graders wrote will go home in an end of year portfolio. If you have any more photos that you'd like to share, please send them my way.
We spent some time learning outside last week to take advantage of the beautiful weather. We did both a math lesson and our word work on our rooftop space. On Monday, groups of four measured each other's long jumps in inches and centimeters using a tape measure. The students cycled through four jobs to do so: jumper, measurer, line judge, and marker. We later analyzed our data and found that the median (middle) jump for our class was 57 inches. On Tuesday we practiced spelling words with suffix -tion. The students used sidewalk chalk to write the words in fun and creative way. Some children wrote stories and sentences. The included photo says, "I wonder who is going to win the election."
Reading nonfiction makes us smarter about the world around us. It can take us to places we have never explored before like the bottom of the ocean or Amazon rainforest. Reading nonfiction is very exciting! We began a nonfiction reading unit last week. We started by sorting a collection of nonfiction books from both our classroom library and the Lim family library. The second graders grouped the books by subject, for example: nature, science, insects, transportation, etc. Next, we explored various features of a nonfiction text: caption, photograph, heading, subheading, glossary, index, etc. We learned that nonfiction texts are full of information and there are various features to help us learn more about the topic. Children asked for specific topics to read about. We checked out more books from the library. The topics range from flowers and dolphins to the Incas and ancient Egyptians. Finally, we took notes on post its to develop our thinking as we read. We will continue this work next week.
On Friday the second graders learned about a new project they will be working on in the coming weeks. All first and second graders have the chance to use the new maker space this year. The maker space is located in the learning lab. It's a space for children to problem solve and build together. Our maker space challenge is this: design a maze to exercise Cookie's mind and body. We've noticed recently that Cookie is getting into trouble in our classroom; she tries to escape into the hallway, climbs on tables, and chews headphone cords! We came to the conclusion that Cookie needs more mental stimulation. So what better way for the second graders to spend their time in the maker space than by designing and building a maze for Cookie. We will starting planning on Monday.
Would you and your family like a pet for the summer? If the answer is YES, then we'd love for you to take Cookie. She is a sweet, friendly rabbit who loves to explore and play. Let me know if you're interested. Cookie spent the weekend at Ms. Gillespie's house and she made herself right at home!
Your second grader took home his/her math journal last week. You may have noticed that there are quite a few unfinished pages. We supplement our math curriculum with other activities, games and projects and thus, do not have time in our school year to complete the entire math journal. Your child can continue to work on this at home to improve his/her math skills. There are a lot of good practice pages and corrections to me made. We started Volume 2 in the classroom and will send it home at the end of the year.