4th Grade Buddies! Woohoo!!

Greetings Thursday Thinkers! Charlie started our day off with a great morning meeting... complete with koosh greeting, "This Land Is Your Land" and our new game: Alibi! Well done everyone! We found a lot of "great work" during word study too! Work board was full of literacy activities that challenged our thinking and stretched our understanding of Christopher Columbus. We also worked together with committee members when help was needed!
Math could not have gone any better! When asked... on a scale of 1 to 5 (1, hated it... 5, loved it, went great) second graders agreed! Today, math was a 5! Well done friends! We stretched our thinking and coin counting skills with a fun activity called "Today's date in money"! We made today's date in money 3 different ways! Nice practice counting, writing, using the cents sign, and thinking/talking about money ( I mean... who doesn't like money?). Nice work second grade!
We ended our day with our 4th grade reading/project buddies! They will join us in our letter writing project to Malawi students, and share our enthusiasm in trying to make a difference with our new African friends! Mrs. Bolte and Ms. Worthley have lots of fun ideas and activities that will help foster this special global connection with Malawi! Can't wait until the next time we get to meet and work with our super cool 4th grade buddies! Woohoo!

Lannashia's Meeting... Great Work... and More Money!!

Howdy Folks! What a beautiful Wednesday we had! Outstanding work, friendly, helpful behavior, cooperative games, and awesome outdoor weather!
Lannashia started our day with the tambourine greeting (nicely done) and the Sandwiches song (a personal favorite) and the ever popular clothespin game! Well done Lannashia! We built our words (mix and fix) and couldn't help but notice some "great work". Charlie agreed to allow us to see what made his work so impressive (neat handwriting, words spelled correctly, followed directions) and we all talked together about doing our best quality work! Nice! We wrote in our dialogue journals for 20 (pin-drop-quiet) minutes. I look forward to seeing what's on your mind, writers, and writing back to you! Work board could NOT have gone any BETTER! Friends worked hard on their literacy activities while Ms. Worthley met with readers. Lots of cooperation and accomplishment today! Well done second graders!
In math we continued to practice counting coins and reviewed important vocabulary (penny, nickel, dime, cent(s), value, heads, tails, worth). We played at least 8-12 rounds of "Heads or Tails" with a partner, and practiced our money writing as well! Wednesday ended with P.E. (yay) and students had a great time in the gym with their friends in Ms. Z's class. Great day everyone!

Apple Crisp... Ms. Kuck brings Teeth... and "Show Me The Money"!!

Greetings Friends! Tuesday was one "happening" day... full and busy! Mary lead us in one wonderful morning meeting! We adjourned to handwriting... lower case m (and if you can make n... you can make m)...and neatness counts! This is the place to quietly "show off"! Usually... "no one likes a show-off"... accept when it's handwriting in second grade!! Well done! We collaborated on a sign for our new Doubles-Riddles" bulletin board, talk cooperation! Nice!
Ms. Kuck payed us a visit with a very important message regarding dental hygiene! Brush often, brush for 2 minutes (2 ABC or Happy Birthday songs), and did you know that carrots, celery, and crunchy veggies are natural clean-teeth-helping snacks? Who knew? Ms. Kuck took questions from a very enthusiastic audience of well informed second graders on the topic of dental hygiene! Thanks Ms. Kuck! (Yah... we have the most super-awesome school nurse, ever)!
Just as we were about to have snack... no joke, believe it or not... Olivia D.'s Mom walks in with warm apple crisp (I know... I couldn't believe it!). The smell intoxicated us as we tried to maintain our composure and complete our assignments! If that wasn't enough... there was whipped cream too.... Thanks Olivia D. and Mrs. Deane... now I see where all those muscles come from, Olivia! What a treat!!!!
Olivia R. had another stellar math meeting, complete with date, money, weather, and choosing friends to read our money chart!
After the meeting, we reviewed names of coins, their value, and counting coins, with a fun game called "Race to 20"... cents that is! Students rolled number cubes to acquire coins, which we traded up into higher value coins, in a race to get to 20 cents! We will continue to review coin value up to dimes (penny, nickel, dime), this week, and use the vocabulary (value, cents, count, money, trade) to practice counting money. As always... Tuesday ended in music class, with Mr. Hines! Nice day friends!

Storytelling... and Maya's Morning Meeting!

Ms. Worthley forgot the camera today (boo) but we had a great day... and must share all the juicy details! Maya started our morning with a great morning meeting (Oh Susanah...otherwise known as "Oh Maya"), the koosh greeting, and the clothespin game (well played Adan and Kirsten)! Nice meeting Maya!
Following our meeting, we shared our weekend stories out loud (with the talking stick). After sharing, we wrote our weekend stories in our journals, and worked hard to sound out words the way writers do! I think Maya and Adriana set the bar pretty high today... quietly writing for 20 solid minutes, no interruptions, no chit chat.... and sounding out words so they could keep writing (stretching out their story with details)! We shared our writing later, and noticed why good writers keep adding to their story (words, picture)... thanks again Maya and Adriana! 10 buttons in the jar (for each word you sounded out) speak for themselves!! Well done!
We enjoyed a P.T.O. sponsored Storytelling event this afternoon with Rona Leventhal. We sang, listened to stories about dragons, and enjoyed being carried off into another world! When asked, Mary made a "spot on" prediction about the dragon getting his "fire-breathing-power" from the volcano! Well done Mary! Finally, we ended our day keyboarding in computers with Mrs. Kidder. She taught us how to hold our fingers over the keyboard and how each finger pushes keys in order to type out text. Tricky... but we LOVED it! Well done second grade!