Field Day... Last Day... What a Day!

What a day! Filled with mixed emotions, outdoor festivities, indoor clean-up and thoughtful reflection... Let's start with field day and "tail tag"! Students tucked in their penneys, and prepared to try and steal penneys from other friends in one raucous game of tag! Clearly warp speed and cat-like reflexes are skills needed in this fast paced game of tag! As you can see, we live in the most beautiful land in the country with all those green hills, blue skies, and adorable second graders! Next up! Noodle hockey! All our activities were chosen and lead by our 6th grade class, and what a stunning example of leadership and supervision they provided! As you may have noticed, we're a bit competitive, and we like a challenge, so we play hard... but fair! Always fair! Next up... sponge tag! Imagine tag... but with one big soaking wet sponge doing the tagging!! Another great game lead by Elizabeth, one of our 6th grade graduates! Next game... "drip, drip drop"!!! Imagine duck duck, goose, with a cup of water over your head! All the same rules apply, and this was one fun game of chase! With the added pleasure of dumping a cup of water over a friend's head! Super fun! As you can see, this was one fun filled day full of outdoor activity, healthy exercise, and the perfect way to enjoy friendship as we prepare for summer vacation! After Field day activities had settled down, and our room was cleaned and packed up, it was time to savor our last moments together! With our dear friend, Katie, returning to Korea, students took a moment to honor their friendship with this very special girl, and acknowledged her value and importance to our group! SHE WILL BE MISSED! Next, and in our last moments together, students passed the "talking stick" as they shared some thoughtful reflection, warm memories, silly moments, treasured friendships, all full of tender emotion! Oh my! When you have 17 second graders sharing their thoughts and memories... and about 10 of them are moved to tears at the idea of losing a friend, changes in routines, and the closure of something very special... then you know it was a good year to be in second grade! No joke, I've never seen so many students shed a tear over our last day together. Now THAT is something special.... extraordinarily special!! And the buses came... as they always do... to take them away. But this day was harder, different, goodbyes didn't come easy today. And they're off... I wish you all a very relaxing summer full of play and challenge! Learn something new, make new friends, and never forget the door is ALWAYS OPEN next year if you want to pop in to 2W!!

2W Gets Ready For Summer!

Greetings Friends! On this, our last full day together, we decided to try out the new camera for one last "blog hoorah"!! This has been one wonderful ride together this year, and I have completely enjoyed every minute of your students!! We had one relaxing day together to reflect on all our learning, while having a little fun along the way too! We enjoyed our last day of "work board" together and especially liked working with learning buddies today! Working with buddies reminded us of all the friendships we've formed this year. Especially how important it is to work together and cooperate with each other!! At morning meeting it was especially poignant as each friend greeted the other with the "Did you know..." greeting. After some thoughtful reflection, students greeted each other warmly, while expressing a kind word, compliment, or observation we've discovered about our learning! It went a little like this... Did you know you're one of my best, best, best friends? Or... Did you know you are really good at math and I'll really miss you when you leave? Or... you are a very fun friend to work with... Very touching! Every chance this group gets... together.... they RISE TO THE OCCASION!! Every time! (Be still my heart... how can I give these amazing students away???) After some fun in math and brainpop jr. Everyone was reminded that they can use brainpop all summer! If you want to keep sharp, and start 3rd grade with confidence and "swagger", make brainpop a little part of your summer and remember all those important concepts and math language we learned this year!! Next we had a friendly word building contest! How many new words can you make from the letters in the words... Moving letters around we made as many real words as we could think of with our partners! What team work, and lots of fun! Partner work is so good for students in so many ways! Talking about your learning and thinking as you accomplish a task together really works many parts of your brain! Just the way we like it! Partnerships also mean we work together, listening, contributing, and turn taking! Well done friends! We have grown and matured as a group and as individuals as well! I'm enormously proud of each and every one of you. Individually and as a group! We've accomplished a lot, and I hope you never look at a button without feeling some pride in your work this year in second grade!