What an awesome and busy week we've started! Our new work board has lots of literacy jobs keeping us busy while reading groups meet with teachers! Buddy reading, Scholastic News, and ABC order... all important jobs, just to name a few! This week we learned about weather patterns and how storms work, as well as how to stay SAFE in stormy weather! ' Madelene ran one great morning meeting, sparkle game, and created a table to help organize our mathematical thinking! Well done Madelene! In math we stretched our learning about collecting and representing data. We practiced making and using "tables" and "organized lists" to solve problems! After all... that's why math is so important! Math helps us solve problems in our every day lives, and we couldn't live without it! We ended the day with our third grade friends in PE and what a surprisingly fun time we had! Well done friends! Tomorrow, get ready for a special Malawi project with Mrs. Stahaleck! Can't wait!

Popcorn-Tootsie Roll Friday!!!

What a wonderful Wednesday... starting with literacy, as usual! Reading groups, word work, and research writing have been the focus in 2W, along with work board. Today was catch up day! In math it was all about calendar math! Creating our March calendars was only the beginning! After making our March calendars, we used them to answer lots of mathematical questions reflecting a variety of areas of knowledge! Money (coin) counting, odd and even numbers, skip counting, and calendar math! What if you were given a quarter for ever day in March, how much money would you have? What if you got a dime for every day? Which would you rather have? Why? Lots to think about! Katie lead another excellent math meeting too! Talk about calendar math... Well done Katie! Justin's morning meeting was equally fun too! First, singing Sandwiches! Next, the ball toss greeting (challenging)! And everyone likes playing Sparkle! Great meeting Justin! Well done! In word study it was more work with r controlled vowels (or) and a lot more! Students used spelling words to create new words listening for rhyme, paying attention to context clues, and using dictionaries! In writing workshop we continued working with our All About books and learned about how to create a table of contents! Writing workshop was over before you knew it, and NO ONE was happy about that (just the way we like it)! Ms. McCarthy was also with us today and friends were able to work in a lot of small writing groups with teachers! David's writing goal today was to complete 2 pages in his "All About Snakes" book... And complete his goal... HE DID!! Well done David! So, naturally, it was only fitting for David to share in our authors circle! And... share he did! Well done David! I can not wait to read this snake book when you're done! Talk about illustrating skills!!!! Wow! Now that's how you close out a writing workshop! Well done everyone! Library tomorrow... PE (sneakers please, and Library (library books please)! Great Wednesday!

Snow Day!

Well, I guess the Snow Queen was right! A snow day today, with some actual snow!! Have fun enjoying winter's last hurrah out there! What was that groundhog thinking?????

One Monsterous Readers Theater!

We all agreed! This might have been one of the best Mondays EVER! Here's why... First, Ms. Nelms brougt in all of her favorite childhood classics to share with 2W! Wow! Can't wait to read some of her favorites from Roald Dahl to poetry, short stories, and even "how to" books! Awesome! Thanks Ms. Nelms! We also started our morning with handwriting practice, as we often do! Sitting like a writer and letting the chair do the work, with "6 feet on the floor" is the best way to begin your best handwriting! Is handwriting really all THAT important?? YOU BET! Taking care to make sure your letters land on the line, and are easy to read is very important business in second grade! During snack, we browsed some of the options in our "done-fun" basket of choices. It's always fun, and healthy for your brain, to work on puzzles, drawing, or problem solving! Done? Time for some fun! In math we practiced our skills in both addition and subtraction with regrouping! WOW! A lot to keep track of, and a lot of vocabulary to remember! Important stuff! If we can add and subtract double digit numbers, can we add and subtract triple digit numbers?? Let's see! Building on our understanding of place value and the operations of addition and subtraction, and how they work together is a BIG DEAL in second grade! Good work friends! BG lead morning meeting for the first time! Well done BG!! Our venn diagram wondered if there would be a snow day on Tuesday? What do you think (not what do you wish... big difference). Great job collecting all that data, BG! Later in the day, we were treated to a readers theater by 5 of our second grade friends! Parts were played beautifully, thanks to all our practice! Let's just say Aine played the part of Ms. W. the MONSTER beautifully! Niko's narrating kept the whole show moving right along too! Everyone enjoyed Trey's interpretation of Mom! Proving that indeed, no part is too small to "steal the show! What a crack up! Love the MOM-voice Trey (and was that a British accent I detected)??? The audience was clearly impressed, and followed with some good questions and comments (a true testament to their listening skills today)!! Well done audience! Katie lead her first math meeting and had a lot to do! Calendar, money, weather graphing, and today's magic number! Well done Katie! In writing workshop, we continued working in our "All About" books and learned about writing a glossary to include important vocabulary! We can't wait to share some of these "All About" books soon! We think you'll love them as much as we loved writing them! We ended the day in art with Ms. Stahalek today! We learned about Malawi, Africa and what a wonderful special place it is! We also learned we'd be writing to our very own pen pals! Kids just like us that live in Malawi! Now that's something to look forward to! Can't wait!