Beautiful Monday and Emma Measures Up!!

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!! Our bulb garden is showing real signs of life as we creep our way closer to spring! Olivia started this amazing spring day with her morning meeting... Chicken Lips, tambourine greeting, and a great round of "sparkle"! Well done Olivia! We moved right into word study keeping our unit study words from last week. That's right, while we worked with dictionaries last week (guide words, meaning, spelling and structure) this week we'll focus on the meaning of each word and how it relates to our mapping unit. Writers worked on weekend stories and really practiced what they learned about WOW words last week! Two friends shared their great personal narratives and modeled how they exchanged "boring" words for "WOW" words! Well done writers! Soon after writing, it was all about work board and reading groups with Ms. Worthley and Emma! It was easy... EASY... for me to say that... today, without a doubt, was one of the most OUTSTANDING mornings we've had in a long time! No "sleepy heads" or passive learners! Everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed all morning! Working with effort, raising hands, contributing, really participating with enthusiasm! Well done everyone! Awesome! After Olivia's math meeting, Emma introduced a new unit on measurement today! We started by talking about what we know about everyday things we measure. We then began thinking about the tools we use, and talked about both standard and non-standard units of measure. Emma taught us how to use both sides of our ruler, using inches and centimeters, and the importance of measuring accurately and carefully! Great introduction Emma! We can't wait to learn more as you take us on this journey into measurement and mapping!! Tomorrow, PE, sneakers please.
Make sure this Thursday night is on your calendar!! Arts Night at SES! Students should be at school no later than 6:00-ish and report to their classrooms no later than 6:15. This is one show you DON'T WANT TO MISS!!

Ethan's Meeting, Lannashia's Sharing, and More with Dictionaries!!

Another half day for students yet we managed to get a lot of work done!! We strarted with Ethan's morning meeting... Chicken Lips, Sponge Bob greeting, and the ever popular clothespin game! Well done Ethan! We jumped right into some morning math with P.O.W. and solved a tricky story problem using 3 variables! As always, we show our thinking with picture, words, numbers and the answer... I can't wait to show Ms. Weinberger our great work (wink, wink)!! Lannashia shared some very special gems (diamonds?) and a lovely handmade box that she stores them in! Nice job Lannashia! Much of the morning was spent in dictionaries too! We practiced looking up words using guide words, paying close attention to their meaning and spelling. After that, we jumped right into work board and reading groups! We even had some time left for recess... even though it was a half day! Nice work second graders! Another half day tomorrow friends! Looking forward to conferences with everyone!

Charlie's Meeting, Maya's Sharing, and Dictionaries!!

Greetings! It may have only been a half day, but we filled it up with lots of activities...starting with Charlies morning meeting! Well done Charlie, and great singing (and effort!!) by everyone! We sounded awesome! Next we snuck in some extra P.E. with Ms. Gebo... a great way to begin a busy day! Maya's turn to share was today and she showed us some of the most adorable pictures of when she was a baby and some special places she visited with her family! Well done Maya!
We learned all about "guide words" and used our dictionaries to locate some of our spelling words. Challenging! We'll continue exploring dictionaries this week and stretch our learning and understanding of how supremely cool dictionaries really are! We also added to our WOW Word Wall, replacing "sad" and "happy" with more exciting words full of emotion and excitement! Well done second graders! I enjoyed meeting with many parents today, and look forward to sharing more with you all tomorrow!

Opera Tuesday and Olivia Shares!

Greetings Opera Lovers! You're in good company today, as Sunderland Elementary hosted the Metropolitan Opera's very own Mr. Devlin....amazing baritone opera vocalist! WOW! Old Man River never sounded so good, and LIVE! Many thanks to our musical director, Ed Hines for coordinating this wonderful event for our school and exposing our students to the sounds of these very special live opera performances! That was certainly one highlight today... along with Olivia's sharing! Great job Olivia, New York City sounds like one exciting place, especially when seen from the Empire State Building! Great photo of what must have been a very special birthday trip to the city! We also talked more about WOW words in writing workshop, and will finish building our WOW Word Wall tomorrow with Emma.
Half day tomorrow, Thursday and Friday friends! Looking forward to seeing everyone at conferences and sharing all the great work your students are doing every day! Second grade is truly a special place!

Weekend Stories with WOW! Words, and Olivia's Math Meeting!

Nice to be back after an unexpectedly long weekend!? We got right back into the swing catching up on some of our Friday jobs, and then jumped right into writing workshop with weekend stories (personal narratives)! Emma lead our writers meeting with a lesson on WOW!! words! Yes, words that pack a punch! Words that make a writers story JUMP off the page and paint a picture in the readers head! We generated a list of WOW! words after reading Emma's weekend story, and then, gave it a try ourselves! After writing, we shared our practice with WOW! words with Mary and Olivia, and will continue our work with WOW! words in writing workshop tomorrow! Charlie shared some super cool collections, beginning with a pocket watch and ending with some rare coins! Well done Charlie! Olivia ran her first math meeting of the week and moved us from March right into April ( a lot of work!). Well done Olivia! We finished up some work on our time books in math and practiced counting money with all the earnings from our friendship pin project! Well done second graders! Another fun day full of friendship, challenges, and learning together! PE tomorrow... sneakers please!

Dancing and Drumming... Sharing, and Summaries!

Amazing Thursday! WOW! Tony Vacca, our guest artist lead several classes today in drumming while his partner Abdu lead African Dance workshops as well! YEAH!!! It was a good day to be a Sunderland Elementary School student! Second graders started the day with a drumming workshop with Mr. Tony Vacca, and got to put our hands on many different kinds of instruments while learning about their sounds!
We were also lead by Abdu (who just got off of a plane from Senegal yesterday) and learned many African dance moves! So fun!
When we arrived back in class, our friends Mackenzie, Mary, and Rebecca shared items that they all happen to have made! Now that's what sharing is all about!
We also practiced summary writing in writing workshop with one of our favorite stories about friendship... Yo? Yes! by Chris Raschka! Well done second graders! Our day ended with an all school assembly with Tony Vacca and the amazing moves of Abdu and his African dancing! I want whatever Abdu had for breakfast... because that was unbelievable... truly UNBELIEVABLE! Tony Vacca was amazing, so much talent and he shared it with us all! Thanks again, PTO, for another OUTSTANDING enrichment opportunity for our students! Great day!