First Stop: Video News

Another great week has passed in second grade.  If you ask the kids, I’m guessing their highlight might have been our much anticipated reading party.  Given that we are a democratic classroom, the kids voted on what kind of a party they wanted.  Turns out, they wanted PJ’s, popcorn and a movie.  Little did they know, the “movie” was going to be an episode from the original (1970’s) educational series called the “Electric Company”.  Boy was it rad!

In addition to our reading party, we did lots of great, collaborative work this week in math.  We are learning some very challenging subtraction, where you need to subtract with zeros in the middle of the top number.  Some students actually took on the role of teacher, showing their friends how to do these kinds of problems.  The results were amazing!  Who needs adult teachers anymore?
In addition to working on some tough math, we experimented with awesome plant science!  We learned about pigments in flowers, by crushing up petals and extracting the pigments using rubbing alcohol.  Also, we learned how the xylem and phloem carry water and nutrients up through a plant, through the flower-dying experiment.

We are reaching an exciting milestone in second grade, as many kids are beginning to publish their first books.  Below is one proud student sharing his small moment book with the class.  This is one of many impressive pieces of writing that your children will complete throughout the year.  Stay tuned for an informal publishing party.

Finally, we were graced, yet again, by a fabulous guest reader, who read a book about Chanukah.  We are already getting excited for latkes!  I encourage everyone, even aunts, uncles, and grandparents to come in and read to our amazing class!

First Stop: Video News

REMINDERS FOR PARENTS

ALL SCHOOL FIELD TRIP THIS TUESDAY

PAJAMA PARTY THIS WEDNESDAY TO CELEBRATE REACHING OUR READING MINUTES GOAL!

Book Review by Ruby

We’re reading the book Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald.  Mrs. Piggle Wiggle just got a call because she is very good at teaching children how to like washing dishes and making beads and doing others tuff –Ruby

 KidBlog by Veola

I like math centers and writers workshop.

News From Mrs. Guttin

We have had yet another great week rich with learning, making, and exploring.  We have spent lots of time this week on revising, editing, and publishing our “Small Moment” stories.  Students have been working meticulously to publish their very best work.  You will either get to enjoy a preview of their book or the actual thing at parent teacher conferences!

  

Alongside our writing, we have been reading up a storm.  Students are settling in to our classroom, specifically our reading center time.  On various days they participate in guided reading, word work games, computer reading games, find-out-about non-fiction center, independent reading, and partner reading.  If you ask me, I think their favorite center is “Independent Reading”.

We did some great hands-on learning and exploring with plants this week.  During our science time, we explored different kinds of seeds from various fruits and vegetables.  Students took out the seeds, drew the shape, and counted them.  Later on they will graph the amounts of seeds on a bar graph so that they can clearly see the different between seed amounts.

We also got to go to the garden and harvest the last of the basil that we picked last year.  Sophie even discovered the seeds inside the basil flower!  Now, we will attempt to dry them and sprout them once again.  Once we harvested the basil carefully, we made pesto!  Yum!  Our room smelled heavenly.  Thanks Mrs. Woods for helping us make delicious food from our garden!

 

First Stop: Video News

Now that we have had a full week of school, science was back in full swing!  Our scientific week started out with the dissection of a seed.  During the dissection, we learned about the major seed parts; the plant food (cotyledon), seed coat, and baby plant (embryo) .

 

 

We continued exploring plants by planting seeds with our buddies that will grow in the fifth grade grow lab.

Then we had the chance to go to Blackstone Park and collect interesting nature specimens which later fueled much learning, discussion, and experimentation in class.  Thanks to Mara for coming along!

In Design Lab, we began our study on balance and motion by learning about weights, counterweights, and balance points.

 

We finished up our week with an awesome guest reader!

The second and third graders enjoyed listening to the book, The Shofar That Lost Its Voice, a story about a boy named Avi who was planning to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashana and for some unknown reason the shofar would not sound.     It turns out that the shofar was reluctant to let its sound be heard in our world since there are so many sounds here that are unkind. The students thoughtfully considered which sounds the shofar would be satisfied with in our world and which ones we should work hard to get rid of in order to improve our world.

In our learning about Yom Kippur, we focused on the custom of wearing white on the holiday as a way to get the image of a fresh new start for the new year. The second graders enjoyed our white clothing project while practicing some basic Hebrew vocabulary and conjugation of the verb wear!

First Stop: Video News

Quick note to parents: I send home school work to students throughout the week with hopes that you will look at it, learn about what your child is working on in class, and decide what is important enough to keep and what can be recycled.  It is my hope that through this work and through the classroom blog you get a window into what we are learning that week.

We had a busy week, as you can tell from our slightly hectic video news.  We are taking advantage of the few full weeks we have in October.

First I want to say thank you to all of the parents who were able to join us at Open School Night.  It was great to see familiar faces and welcome new ones.

We had a full week of learning in second grade filled with reading, writing and math.  In math, we are learning how to add large numbers vertically with and without regrouping.  Students got a chance to practice their math skills during our math center time with iPads, math games, and written practice.

 

We also spent some time in the garden during science time.  We observed, measured, and diagrammed our pea plants.  Additionally, after learning the meaning of the word “germinate”, we used a high-tech microscope to look at a the process of germination in a pea seed.  

  

In Design Lab, we used our creativity and teamwork to build a classroom sukkah!

  

This week in Writer’s Workshop, we began working on our first long term writing project.  Students will be writing, editing, and publishing a “Small Moment Story” which is a true story about an important moment in their lives.

 

We look forward to another half week of school!

First Stop: Video News 

Student Blogger:

“This week we wrote a Biopoem. A Biopoem is a poem where you write all about you.” – Eli

Student Book Reviewer:

“I read the book, Bone.  It’s a very good book.  It has the amount of pages as a chapter book but the pictures are like a picture book.  It’s perfect for grades 2-3.” – Ronan

From Mrs. Guttin…

We had such a fabulous week of learning that I was so involved, and forgot to take a lot of pictures.  Aside from the few you see below, words and video news will have to suffice today.  We continued to get into the swing of things in second grade this week.  

In science, we learned what it means to observe something.  We used our magnifying glasses to look closely at plants and other things we found in the garden.  Students then wrote down their observations in their science journals.  Our first science unit is the life cycle of plants.  What better way to learn than to actually experience watching a plant grow in our very own garden!

 

We worked very hard as readers, writers and mathematicians this week as well.  This week during our reading time, we focused on two decoding strategies, sounding out the words or chunking out the word.

In writing, as Eli mentioned above, we wrote a poem all about ourselves called a Biopoem. You are in for a treat when you visit our classroom on Open School Night.

In math, we are continuing our work with place value, and we are also comparing numbers and counting larger numbers.

Thank you, parents, for helping out with the first week of homework.  All the kids felt good about it and said it went smoothly.

Have a great weekend and a wonderful Rosh Hashanah!

We have been busy in second grade Judaic Studies doing a great job of recalling the Hebrew letters and how to read them after the summer break. Additionally, the students have been hard at work learning how to write the letters in script form.

Rosh Hashana is on the way and we have learned lots about the holiday.We have had great fun acting out many of the holiday activities and then guessing which holiday deed our classmates are doing.

 

We have learned many of the blessings/Brachot that we say on the holiday. We have done picture/blessing match up activities including playing memory with them.

We have learned about the Shofar through an inquiry based method in which the students began by thinking about what they already knew about the Shofar and how it’s made. Then we generated a list of questions that they wanted to find the answers to. The students were very curious about whether the shofar is naturally hollow or if there is a man-made process by which this happens. Through independent research on the Ipad, the students gained an excellent sense of how a Shofar is made.  Ask your child for a description of the shofar making process; they have quite a bit of information about this topic!

The second graders love to blow the Shofar and we have some expert Shofar blowers in our midst!

Parents:  Please check in on your child’s homework the first couple of weeks and help them get in to a regular routine.

First Stop: Video News

Student Blogger:

“I like writer’s workshop because I like writing!!!!!!!!!!!” – Ruby

Student Book Reviewer

“Elmer and the dragon is about a boy and a dragon and they get stuck on an Island and the boy goes down the path to try to find water and food.  They eat lots of tangerines.” – Ivy

From Mrs. Guttin…

We had another fabulous week in second grade learning the routines and being introduced to lots of fun new things.  Students had a lot of time to read independently, with a partner, and with me.  Kids are learning how to choose a book that is “just right” for them, and also how to find a comfy, quiet spot to settle in to with a book.  Also, kids did a great job with their reading homework the first week.  We read a total of 901 minutes in only one week! 

We also had a taste of our Reader’s Workshop Centers, and got to experience our “Word Work” center, where we play games and do activities that help us better understand specific spelling and phonics patterns.

We dove into our math curriculum this week.  For those of you who don’t know, we use a Singapore-style math curriculum called Math in Focus.  This curriculum encourages a deep understanding of foundational mathematical concepts.  The goal is that with this deep understanding, students will be able to figure out more complicated math problems later in life.  Some things you can be doing to support math at home with your child are counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s, practicing single digit addition and subtraction facts, and using math in the real world.  

 

Please stop by and sign up to be a guest reader in our class!  Our first guest reader was fantastic!  We cannot wait to see who it will be next!

First Stop: Video News

Each week we will have a few different newscasters telling about some things we did that week in school.  Enjoy!

Student Blogger (Each Friday a different student writes about one thing they really enjoyed or learned that week in school.)

“We had a aosume reses today” – Atticus

Student Book Reviewer (Each Friday a student will review a book he is reading or a book we are reading together in class)

“Our class read a book about a kid that wonted to save a dragon, but he had every day supplies.  I liked the book.” – Yasha

Now, onto some teacher-presented news…

We had our first design lab this week.  Kids were introduced to our new building and prototyping materials, and were asked to choose a material to build one thing to show something they did this summer.  They really let their creative juices flow as they built pools out of legos, flowers out of pattern blocks, and camp cabins out of Lincoln Logs.

We had the great pleasure of spending our first morning in the garden with the help of our garden teacher, Mrs. Woods.  We observed the growth of some of the plants that students planted last year when they were in first grade.  We picked and tasted some yummy kale, and we picked a patty pan squash, that we will later cook and eat.  These kids are weeding machines!  They really know how to dig in and get their hands dirty.  Soon, we will plant some fall seeds!

Students also got the chance to practice their writing skills by writing a story about their summer vacations.  Kids really had some fabulous experiences this summer, and it was wonderful for them to share their stories with the whole class.

Reminder:  Please send in your parent interviews. 

Also, homework is starting this week with Reading Minutes.  Please look out for your child’s homework folder and help him/her develop a homework routine at home.