WOW!! Cafe Sun!! What a show!

Greetings Friends!
Have you heard about the hottest new lunch-spot in town? It's buzzing with the best and youngest raw new talent in the area! Singing, dancing, mandolin and piano players, I think I even saw this new amazing rope jumping act! Not only are these kids cracking the books in the mornings....crunching numbers in the afternoon, running meetings, counting money, learning to tell time to 5 minute intervals (harder than you think in this digital world of ours)...they're also working their talent! That's right! These kids have serious talent! And for some students, art, music, and sharing their talent are the ultimate pathways to academic achievement! Get ready to be impressed.... it takes a lot of courage to be a first or second grader and walk out in front of your whole school, with "standing room only" full of adults you've never met before... and grab that microphone! Not sure I could have done it when I was 7 years old. Now that's what I call courage second graders! Taking risks... trying hard, new things and learning from the experience! Very impressive!

Greetings... And Some Catching Up To Do...

Greetings Second Graders and Families! We've had some amazing V.I.P.s lately and thought we should share! Kai, Clay, and Owen have all enjoyed their special moment talking about their families, favorite people and places, and even their second grade super powers! Careful listeners asked curious questions and made detailed comments and observations about our V.I.P.s.
We also thought Natalie deserved a "shout out" for her first week of "math meeting helper" duties! Sometimes it takes a lot of courage and composure to get in front of an entire classroom full of students and share yourself or run a meeting! Well done second graders! You all have ways of surprising us by rising to the occasion, whether you're leaders or listeners! Well done!!
Next week will be a short one for students, as they will have Thursday and Friday off from school. I've actually assigned a "regular" homework packet and am hoping your students will continue reading (15 minutes, or more!!) and practicing their math facts throughout the week. So... next week students should keep their homework packet, and bring to school on Monday! Enjoy your short week and long weekend friends!

Things we didn't expect!!

Purple hair, french braids, and one incredibly cool 'fro!!

Second Grade Just Might Be Crazy About Math!!

More skills practice on place value with base 10 blocks! Busy, fun, interactive day for us! Just the way we like it!

Power Math!!

Second graders have loved the addition of our "POWER MATH" block in the morning! We've successfully transitioned to base 10 blocks (from unifix cubes) and are becoming confident with place value! Representing numbers concretely with base 10 blocks helps us understand numbers. As we practice our skills we gain confidence and a common understanding about how numbers work...number sense!! We even went from ones, to tens, to hundreds today! Yay! Tomorrow we "build" some numbers to the hundreds place... and really see, touch, and understand tens, ones and more!
Owen did a super job as Meeting Helper (we sure liked the "cool dude" greeting!!) as well as math meeting helper...busy day, Owen!! tomorrow we begin our "math minutes" along with our math warm up! Next week, we begin a unit on time and telling time on both analog (the old fashioned way...) and digital clocks.
Writing workshop has been busy as many writers work to edit their "courage-writing" for the newspaper. As always we practice doing what "good writers do"... rereading and paying attention to the main idea in our stories.... while adding juicy details, of course! It's pretty busy in second grade these days... and that's the way we like it!

Happy New Year! Welcome Back To School!!

What a fabulous first day back to school! This new decade brought concentration, focus, and due diligence to our first day back. Most of us agreed that we liked getting back to work, being productive, and using our brain power!! Tomorrow is the first official day on our new work board.... so rest up and come ready to do what you do best!! Happy Monday Friends! Missed you and glad to get back in the swing of our routine!!