Modern Dance and Nurse Jeannie!!

Wow!! So busy! Let's talk about fun Friday! Where do we begin? Great meeting Kaela! I think sparkle might be my all time FAVORITE meeting game! Buddy test went well, and we are now all experts on the digraph "sh"... next week, another popular digraph "th". Nurse Jeannie stopped in to share a super cool experiment highlighting the importance of fluoride! We swirl with fluoride every Thursday... but why? Well, as Nurse Jeannie clearly showed us (with the help of her handy dandy sidekick, the hard boiled egg, fluoride makes calcium STRONG!! Without it... our teeth would just, sort of, flake away! Fluoride makes teeth strong, and proper oral hygiene make for a happy, healthy mouth!! GO TEETH!! Thanks Nurse Jeannie! Great lesson!
After talking about good book choices in quiet reading, we were off to a special event... modern dance! And the dancers were students! Boys and girls just like us! The music and choreography was very cool! Every eye was glued to every dancer, as they skipped and danced through the gym! Thanks PTO! Another special treat to enrich our learning experience in the arts!!
In math, we learned more about fractions and compared parts. Is one third more or less than one fourth? Would you rather have one third of a piece of pie, or one fourth, and why? After creating our apple pies, we made careful observations about what the pieces looked like, and how they all go together to make one whole pie! Using language to explain our math thinking can be challenging, but that's why we do it! Well done friends! We ended math with Juan's last math meeting of the week, and it was the best one yet! Well done Juan! Next week, James takes over that very important job in the classroom! We ended the day with work board and catching up on all our unfinished business! Students worked very independently and thoroughly this afternoon! New work board Monday! New centers, can't wait! Have a great weekend friends!

Jake's Meeting and Martin's Big Words!

Howdy Thursday Thinkers! Nice one Jake... and way to start the day with a great morning meeting! Greeting friends with "cranky old man" voice, and army sergeant voice was exciting! The new guess who game was also great! Next, it was on to word study and working with our digraph sh. Using context clues we sorted our words and paid close attention to where in the word the "sh" was located! Next, it was on to writing workshop with Martin's Big Words. A wonderful story highlighting the power of our words, and how words can trigger certain responses! Try love over hate, peace over war, and freedom over segregation! Well said! After that we chose certain words for our word art project with craypas and water color paints! Great work everyone! We enjoyed two new sports related browsing boxes at quiet reading time today, which were very well received by many second grade readers! About time, eh Jake??? Finally!! Yay!
In math we reviewed our learning about halves, thirds and fourths and equal parts. Using a variety of shapes we expressed what we learned by dividing shapes while matching important vocabulary with pictures. Thinking, thinking, and even more thinking!! Juan ran another stellar math meeting, complete with money, calendar, weather graph, and "days in school"! Nice Juan!
We ended the day with work board and put the final touches on our word art with bright colorful water color paints! What a great day! Fun (finish-up) Friday tomorrow! Can't wait!

Tia's Meeting and Writing Paragraphs... M.L.K. Style!!!

Greetings Friends! Second grade sure was busy today! Tia started us off with a very "sparkley" morning meeting! Well done Tia! We used our spelling words to sort all our "sh" words and used dictionaries to find meaning in our bonus word, the "sh" rule breaker, compassion. Well done! In writing workshop we read more about the life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, and used our learning to write paragraphs. A very special kind of writing where all the sentences support a topic. We had many wonderfully crafted paragraphs, and some amazing topic sentences, right Danny?! Our sharers today were Tia and Kaela, though we had many eager, willing volunteers! More writing tomorrow, with a special project too!
In quiet reading we enjoyed more age appropriate biographical stories about the civil rights movement and Dr. King, along with other great second grade book choices (Arthur, Beverly Cleary, Andrew Clement, and many more)!
In math we introduced fractions with some very important vocabulary (halves, two, thirds, three, fourths, four, whole, and equal parts)! Students practiced what they learned about equal on the smart board today, and we will stretch our learning even more tomorrow! We ended the day talking about what a "good friend" would do when another needs help cleaning up. Very thoughtful discussion, and issues of fairness, choices, and friendship were discussed. So... next time it's indoor recess, and you have a choice to help a friend clean up some blocks, or.... wait in line assuring your "first in line" status, I wonder what you will choose? Hmmmmm. Very tricky, but productive dialogue! Well done friends. It's truly clear how much everyone in 2W cares about each other. Impressive! Tomorrow, library, remember to bring books in from home so you can get more!

Welcome Back... 2012!!

First day back to school, first day together this year, and first meetings of the year for Danny and Juan! What a great beginning friends! Danny started our day off with one very efficient, early morning meeting! Nice job Danny... I could tell right then and there that it was going to be a great day! We introduced our new word study principle, digraph sh, and generated word lists, paying close attention to where the "sh" was within the word (beginning, middle, or end)! Well done friends! In writing workshop we learned how to use think sheets (graphic organizers) to help organize our writing. Especially handy when you're not sure what you even want to write about! Also great to help remember all the important parts of a particular story (sequencing events and including important details)! Many used think sheets today, and used them well! Ms. Worthley pointed out the difference between the kind of writing on a think sheet (ideas, thoughts, perhaps incomplete sentences), and the kind of writing in a story (complete sentences with capitals and punctuation)! Well done writers, especially those who used your think sheets today!
We checked out our new book display, full of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stories, and enjoyed reading many of these books today! Quiet reading went very well, and while there were few reading groups today, we did make sure to enjoy our quiet reading time (even if we had to tuck it in this afternoon)! In math we reviewed place value and practiced our High, Low, Middle game with playing cards! Students first worked alone (good practice) then partnered and worked cooperatively with peers! I must say, for our first day back, we were remarkably focused and on task! Now THAT'S how you start a new year of learning, with effort, and focus! Well done! Juan ended our math block with his first math meeting of the year and it was great! Well done Juan, paying close attention to every detail... days in school, calendar (yes, he even remembered to say 2012), money and weather graph! Nice job Juan!
We ended our day with an All School Sing in the cafeteria hosted by Mr. Hines! It was sort of like a "dance-sing", really. Starting with the Macarana, we followed with Yellow Submarine (a favorite) and many more! Great day friends! Keep up the good work tomorrow! Solid start for 2012 second graders!