More Rain... and 3 Caterpillars become 3 Chrysalises!

Greetings Thursday Thinkers! Another great day... Charlie started us off with a great meeting... complete with koosh behind the back-greeting, and the clothespin game! Great meeting Charlie! We had our first day on work board, and worked in reading related centers while Ms. Worthley met with readers! Indoor recess was not a surprise, and we played many of our favorite games... Connect 4... Sorry... Checkers... Legos! Serious fun!
We learned how to do P.O.W! in math! P.O.W! stands for "Problem Of the Week", and problem solving is a big part of mathematical thinking in second grade! Our math homework is usually problem solving... and this shows how math is very useful... math helps us solve problems! YEAH! Our P.O.W. problem today had 2 variables and 10 ladybugs! We started (as always) with a picture of the story to help us solve the problem! As the problems get harder, our skills at looking at a problem, and knowing how to organize (show) our thinking will become more important!
Our 3 "mystery" caterpillars have all formed into a chrysalis! Wow! That was fast! Rumor has it, this species of caterpillar remain dormant for quite a while.... we may host these guests for the winter... Cool!
Tommorrow is Lannashia's V.I.P. and I can't wait to learn more about her! Fun Friday tomorrow friends!

Corn and Caterpillars!!

Another busy Wednesday! Lannashia started us off with a great morning meeting! Students learned about listening center (paying attention to words that rhyme), sorted our spelling words, and added lots more words to our word list! The science table is bustling with our new caterpillars, new fish, and dissected bulbs! We thought the caterpillars were hungry (thanks for the dill delivery, Mrs. Deane) but they were really just beginning to make their chrysalis! What an exciting thing to see during the course of the day!
We also met our new student teacher from UMass, Kristin McCarthy, whose very excited to join our classroom. She'll be with us most Mondays and Wednesdays during our literacy block in the morning, and we look forward to hosting her!
We watched a video about plants, bulbs, and how gardens grow with our second grade friends in Mrs. Z's class, and we loved all the "together time"! We realized how much we've learned from all our scientific observations, and how excited we are to see our garden this spring! We revisited our tulip bulb graphs, and used the data to answer questions in math today, and realized how fluent we're becoming with our math facts in such a short time! Wow! Well done second graders. Great day!

Awwww Shucks... It's Farm to Table Time!

Well, another rainy day! While we definitely need the hydration... it did cancel our walking field trip to Mikes Farm. Though the trip was canceled, students still participated in the shucking of the corn! And shuck... we did! This is truly a community wide school event I hope continues! Students worked together shucking, while observing properties of the corn... husks, kernels, silk, cob, and made interesting observations (and found some interesting critters harboring in our bounty)!! Cool! We will eat the corn tomorrow at lunch... can't wait!
Mary had her very first morning meeting and made some great choices with Rockin' Robin (that always wakes us up), the tambourine greeting, and an awesome picture of the walking field trip to the farm... corn stalks and all (even though we didn't go). Great job Mary, and a great morning meeting! Mackenzie also had another nice math meeting as well! Well done Mackenzie!
We "rainbow-wrote" our spelling words (a new favorite word study activity), and wrote like scientists again in writing workshop, observing the inside of our bulbs, this time! Very cool... we generated some observations and vocabulary together, and then wrote and drew pictures of what we see, like a scientist would! Second graders made some excellent observations, and amazingly accurate pictures (with labels)! Well done!
Later, in math, we graphed the different kinds of bulbs that we will be planting in our second grade bulb garden! We remembered a proper graph must always have numbers, words, a title... and data... of course! Today our data was types of bulbs! Tomorrow we will review or graphs, and use the data to answer some questions. Soon after, we will tuck our beautiful little bulbs to bed in our garden, with anticipation of what spring will bring! Stay dry... see you all in the morning for Lannashia's first morning meeting! Tomorrow is a sneaker day... P.E. Can't wait!

Rainy Monday! Welcome Caterpillars!

Greetings Friends! Well, we need the rain, and we got it today! The rain canceled some walking field trip to Mikes Farm for corn picking, and it looks like we're supposed to get more rain tomorrow. Students and I talked about how we hope to go on our trip... if it's sprinkling or drizzly, we'll probably TRY TO GO! Please dress appropriately for a muddy farm... muck boots, rain coats, and nothing fancy! We'll see what tomorrow brings.
Today we learned how a good friend gives a second grade "buddy test" in spelling. We learned how to correct our friends work so that it feels "helpful" and not fussy. We also learned how to do Ed Emberly (drawing, writing, and sequencing... all rolled into one fun job)!! And we loved it!
Mackenzie began her week as math meeting helper, and I'm not sure we've ever heard a louder more articulate Mackenzie! WOW!!! Well done Mackenzie! You certainly rocked your first math meeting... looking forward to your next meeting tomorrow!! Awesome job! Speaking of math... we also did some graphing today. We talked about how important it is for a bar graph to have words, numbers, a title (that matches the data) and how neatness counts! Well done second graders!
We also aquired some new additions to our science area... our caterpillars! We have 3 all together, and boy... do they eat (and poop) a lot!! YIKES! We know these caterpillars are not monarchs, as they don't eat milk weed, they prefer dill, parsley and herbs (though they're not too fond of the fresh oregano from Ms. Worthley's garden). If anyone has an herb garden, and can offer some parsley or dill, our caterpillars would love it! We will observe them carefully to see how their life cycle progresses, and what kinds of butterflies they become! Exciting! Science ROCKS!

Friday... Big Day for Adan and Welcome to our Guest Athlete, Frontier Football Full Back Chris!!

Not only was it Fun Friday... it was a big day for our friend Adan... who was VIP, as well as our morning meeting helper! And what a day he had... He started with the Koosh greeting, and the ever popular clothespin game, but with a slightly smaller clothespin! VERY CHALLENGING, and made for a fun game! We also learned Buddy Reading the "second grade" way. Reading (eyes in the book), following along with your buddy, maybe even some talking (about your reading, of course), is what makes buddy reading so fun! Good readers "think" while they "read"... which makes our talking very useful, even important while we read!!
We also shared our science writing about gourds, and tried to match each writers gourd with the actual gourd itself, by using the clues in their writing. The more descriptive, and the more you write about what you see (like a scientist), the more we were able to make a good guess!
Since it's Friday, our guest athlete from the Frontier Red Hawks Footbal Team, Chris, joined us for read aloud. It was great! Well done Chris! Thanks to Chris, and all the Frontier athletes, for their volunteer efforts in our classrooms. We love it!
Finally, we ended with Adan's VIP! So many cool rocks, gems, special cards, and a great survey! Who doesn't look up to their dad... because he's FUN! Way to end Fun Friday Adan... Well done!!