Mary's Morning Meeting, and Odd and Even Numbers!

Wow! Our Monday started off with a great morning meeting lead by Mary and the Sandwiches song! Woohoo! That's what I call... a "WAKE UP CALL!! Nice job Mary! We enjoyed Boppity-bop-bop-bop as well and adjourned to handwriting. Writing workshop was all about the "personal narrative" with weekend stories, and we talked about (modeled) how to begin a story with a question. There are many great ways to begin a story... and sometimes writers start with a very compelling question! Well done writers!
Adan had his first math meeting this week and it was very IMPRESSIVE!! Well done Adan! We reviewed odd/even numbers and stretched our thinking into how even numbers work in "pairs" and odd numbers always have a "left-over". After a very lively lesson/discussion on what we remember about odd/even numbers and how they work, everyone practiced diligently and quietly (WOW)! Well done second grade... very impressive!
We ended our day with Ms. Kidder and some "Malawi research"! Ms. Kidder lead our work in technology on finding out more about our global interest in Malawi! We learned about their flag, their crops, their language, and so much more! Well done Ms. Kidder, thank you for contributing to our new addiction.... Malawi and supporting our world and our learning in such meaningful ways!
Wednesday will be a walking field trip to Sunderland Town Hall for a Veteran's Memorial Celebration, so, wear comfortable shoes... as we honor our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and all who serve our country!

Another Half-Day-Friday... and Adan Starts Our Day!

Friday... And Adan started us off with This Old Man, scarf toss greeting, and Boppity-Bop-Bop-Bop! Well done Adan! We jumped right into buddy-test after handwriting, and practiced our math facts on the white boards (our new favorite "done-fun" activity). We finished writing our summaries and spent much of the morning talking about what to include in a well crafted summary. After writing workshop many writers shared their hard work, and agreed to let Ms. Worthley send their summaries to the newspaper in the hopes of getting published! Cool! Have a great weekend! Turn your clocks back 1 hour this weekend! See you Monday!

Another Half Day.... Olivia's Morning Meeting!

Another half day for students, but a full and busy morning! Olivia lead us in a fabulous meeting and our new favorite game: Alibi! Well done! We spent most of the morning on work board and in reading groups after word study (th, ch, sh). We talked briefly about "things that went well" and "things we could do better" during work times, and focused on positive learning behaviors that foster our learning. Working independently is an important skill to learn in second grade!
It was nice to conference with many of you... look forward to seeing those who are yet to come!

Rebecca's Meeting and Writing Summaries!

A short day but a great one! Rebecca started us off with the Sandwiches song... and I don't think it's ever been sung with more enthusiasm! WOW! After that, it was the koosh toss greeting and our new favorite game... Alibi! Nice job Rebecca, great meeting and a great way to start our day. Following meeting we did our usual fantastic job with handwriting practice, followed by word study. We sorted our spelling words and went on a word hunt for more words that followed our digraph rule. Moving, reading, sorting and writing words is a great way to learn and remember! Well done second graders!
Following word study we took another critical look at our story "Don't Call Me Pruneface" (hilarious), and stretched our writing to include the "beginning, middle, and ending" of the story! Ms. Worthley read, as we listened, stopped, talked about the beginning, then wrote about it! We repeated this practice in the "middle" of the story, and at the end, of course, all while Ms. Worthley modeled what to include in your writing! Needless to say, we had a ROOM FULL of EXCELLENT WRITERS!!! The GOOD news is, everyone wanted to share at Author's Share... the bad news is, we had to limit it to three friends (though all deserved the honor today)!!! Wow! What a wonderful, short, but spectacular day!
Thanks to all who came in to conference today! Look forward to meeting with everyone tomorrow! Remember... another half day tomorrow and Friday (no lunch in school), noon dismissal! Cheers!

Peter's Meeting, Writing Reviews, and St. Jude's Mathathon!!

Great morning meeting Peter! Way to start the day! Pinky-handshake greeting, clothespin game, and Rockin' Robin... way to wake us up Peter! After meeting we practiced handwriting "paragraph-style"! Then came word study and ABC Order... always a challenge when many words begin with the same letter, and today... many words started with the same letter. Yikes! Thinking required...and thinking WE DID! Our rule is digraph sounds (consonants that are paired up and make a new, unique sound), and one of the only times you're actually allowed to stick your tongue out at your teacher! Saying th sound (the rude brother and sister) is the only time you can stick your tongue out at Ms. Worthley... and get away with it!! Well done second graders! We wrote our words in order, ABC order that is, and read our words to a friend.
Writing workshop was busy with a new kind of writing: reviews, soon to be summaries! We talked about the "big idea" in a story and wrote in our reading logs for the first time! Reading logs is another place where we write about our reading (obviously) and today we read Don't Call Me Pruneface! Very funny, great illustrations, great message! The writer did some interesting things that caught our attention, and we talked and wrote all about it! Kirsten and Olivia R. shared at the author's share (well done ladies) and students complimented their work while noticing things that "good writers do". Tomorrow, we'll stretch our thinking into writing summaries that include the beginning/middle/ending of the story.
Adan is our math meeting helper this week, and did a fantastic job running our meeting! After, we hosted Ms. Weinberger as she introduced the Mathathon project to the second grade! We convened together and talked about St. Jude's Hospital and how they help care for children (even when they can't pay for it). We were given math books to try and use math to raise money! Fun! This is a fundraiser that may offer prizes to friends who donate a high dollar amount... but in 2W (and 2Z) anyone who "tries" to contribute, and "wants" to do the math, will get prizes! That's right, you can raise money in the mathathon, but every friend in second grade wins when they participate! YEAH! That's the way we like it... everyone involved, thinking, and participating! Special thanks to Ms. Weinberger for this opportunity to contribute! GO MATH!!