GeoState Projects

The second graders are hard at work brainstorming and designing their rough draft of their Geostate Project. There are some students absent and also there was one group that was not ready for pictures of their brainstorm.  Their pictures will be added to this post tomorrow. Included in their models are the types of landscapes, houses, stores, population sizes, and resources you would find in a rural, suburb, and ubran community. 

Day of Play and Growing Change Spring Dartmouth Students

DBS second graders are enjoying their Day of Play that they had before the April Vacation.   The spring semester of Dartmouth students also came to teach a lesson about plate techtonics, earthquakes, and volcanos on that Friday before the break as well.  The second grade students loved this lesson that included jello, marshmallows, tooth pics, and some cool eruptions using baking soda and vinegar!

Parent Job Talks

Here are a few of the volunteers that the second grade was able to listen to, during the parent job talk week. We were very happy and excited that parents who were managers, engineers, proffessors, nurses, physical therapists, architects, builders, machanics, and electricains came in to our school to share their knowledge and profession with our classes!  Thank you again to all who are in the pictures and to those who are not.  The students loved the presentations and were very proud of their family members.

Week of April 22nd Update

Hello Second Grade Families,

I hope everyone had a fun break.  The class and I have had a busy week back.  Here are something concepts the students have been practicing and working on:

In social studies that students are well into another project based learning unit.  In the last three days the students have been divided into four groups to design and create a geo-state model.  In this model the students will show the differences in landscapes, populations, as well as resources in rural, suburban, and city communities.  Their brainstorms and first designs look wonderful!

In math, the class is continuing to practice counting and identifying coins and being able to add all kinds of coins up to 100.  The students are also learning about how much change back they would receive in a transaction with different dollar and cents amounts.  The class is also continuing to progress learning about different fractions like ½, 1/3, ¼, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, or 1/8.  Throughout the rest of the year the students will also continue to strengthen their measurement skills of using centimeters, inches, feet, and yards.

The students have been doing an incredible job reading.  I will be giving out prizes at the end of the school year for the top readers (starting from this week after April break until the last week of school).  All the students in the class have made so much progress with their fluency and comprehension of the stories we have read together, the books they have read independently, as well as in small groups.  Everyone should be very proud of their dedication and hard work. 

We only have 6 more spelling quizzes for the rest of the year.  We will not do a spelling quiz on the last week of school.  The kids have been doing a fantastic job sorting their words and practicing their spelling concepts.  Their quizzes have been awesome!

The students are now transitioning into writing opnion pieces.  The students will be writing about their favorite season, what they think is the best pet as well as many other topics pertaining to their opinion.  Currently hanging on our bulletin board, are the informational writing papers about the person each student learned about at the 5^th grade biography fair, and their animal report they completed before the vacation.  Come check out our board if you haven’t yet!  The students did fantastic water colored paintings of their animals, as the cover page to their animal report.

The students have been continuing to learn about the parts of a plant and how photosynthesis happens to make a plant grow.  (Unfortunately our mystery science chia pets did not grow and the week vacation probably did not help).  However the students will still have other opportunities to watch plants grow in other classroom activities and through growing change before the year is done.

The Friday before break I handed out a Seesaw activation code for parents to look at their students work for the remainder of the school year.  Thank you to those who have already activated their parent app through your cell phone or computer.  If you lost your code or it is not working properly, let me know so I can make sure you can access your child’s work.

We will be going to the HOP on May 6^th to see a play about Jane Goodall.   Thank you to those who already turned in their money to me or to Mrs. Wood.   If I could get all the field trip money by next Wednesday, May 1^s that would be great.

Just so parents are aware, the students have been discussing with Mrs. Garfield (our school counselor) the importance of knowing your address and home phone number in case of an emergency.  Mrs. Garfield has also been teaching and discussing the importance of knowing adults, you can trust in case you are in an uncomfortable or an emergency situation.   These are very important and big topics for second graders and they have been doing a wonderful job in class council.

As always, if there are any questions or concerns please feel free to email me.

Thanks so much and I hope everyone has a nice night.

Sincerely,

Ms. Mac

                                                                        

Week of April 8th Update

Hello families of the second grade class,

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and enjoyed the spring weather on Sunday! Thank you to all the parents who came in last week to talk about their jobs.  We had a variety of careers and lots of engaging and interesting presentations for the students! THANK YOU SO MUCH PARENTS!!! The students really loved it and we hope everyone got their big thank you card, in one piece on Friday.

This week we do not have spelling words, but I will be collecting the reading logs on Thursday so that I can add up all the minutes of reading each child has read for Friday.  Students will be getting certificates for their reading goals and achievements.

Wednesday, there will be a substitute teacher because I will be carrying out the reading assessments and testing.  I will update parents on their child’s reading progress in the following weeks.

Thursday at 9:30 am the students will be watching the 4^th and 5^th grade’s play of Junie B. Jones Jr for a dress rehearsal run through. The evening performance will be from 6:30-7:30 pm Thursday April 11^th.

Friday is going to be a day of play for the students.  This is where children will direct their own free play as well as solve their own conflicts and dilemmas without teacher input.  We of course will oversee and observe the social interactions, but we are not to step in or solve a student problem for them.  You will be receiving another handout about this tomorrow.  Children may bring in a game or toy, but they must be responsible for that item.  Electronics like phones, Ipads, or robots are not permitted for this event.  On this day, the second and third grade teachers and other educators who organize “What I Need” reading groups will also meet to reflect and discuss how each stage of supports transitioned throughout the year.  We will use this year’s discussion and reflections to plan for next year.

The second grade classes also have a new group of Dartmouth College students coming into our room for another round of Growing Change lessons.

The students are finishing up their final drafts of their Animal informational Report as well as their papers on who they learned about at the 5^th grade’s Biography Fair.  It will be a busy but fun week ahead! These will be on our Bulletin Board later this week and after we come back from April Vacation.

If there are any questions feel free to email back.  Have a great night everyone.

Sincerely,

Ms. Mac

Week of April 1st Update

Hello families of the second grade,

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the parents who are coming in to talk about their jobs tomorrow and Thursday.  The kids are very excited about it, as we start our Community Project Based Learning Unit.  It is great to have our experts in their field come in to show students how important every type of job is for the community.   

I also wanted to share that I sent home a notice about the school's snack program.  Unfortunately, because this is a fedral program, the notes from parents that I got saying they DO NOT WANT their child to have the snack bag does not count.  The cafetaria should not have been charging you, since you gave me the letters.  However, If there are any parents that DID HAVE STUDENTS eating the snack bag THAT DO NOT WANT THEIR CHILD SIGNED UP or HAVE ALREADY STOPPED -please fill out that form and return it so we have the official and professional papertrail.  

The students have been deddicated with their reading logs, spelling words, and writing their informational paper about an animal they choose.  This is the longest paper that the students have worked on so far.  This paper will have five paragraphs on their animal's habitat, physical appearance, adaptations, family life, and any interesting facts they'd like to include.  The students had to take notes from texts, organize their information, and finally type it.   They have worked extremely hard on these writing assignments and I am so proud of them. 

In math the students are getting exposed to fractions.  We have been covering 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, and 1/6 in our Calendar and Number Corner learning.  The students have also been identifying geometic shapes that are two dimensional and three dimensional.  The class has been practicing identifying vertices, sides, edges, faces, and have been learning about area as well. 

The students have also been practicing their independent reading skills.  This is in addition to their small structured reading groups.  The students has been independently trading their books out and trying different themes and interest books that are at their level.  They have done a wonderful job!

As always, if there are any questions feel free to email back.  Have a nice night everyone!

Sincerely,

Ms. Mac

Canada Maps

The second grade students have been studying Canada.  The class has learned facts as well as historical events that have happened in different provinces and territories.  Each student is proud of their labeled and complete map, of the country north of the USA!