Hi Everyone!
I hope you've had a safe and restful break! It was so nice seeing everyone at the wax museum last week. The students worked so hard and were so proud to show off their knowledge and confidence as learners to you! I think it was clear that we've been doing a lot of deep thinking about change makers in our world and that unit allowed us to talk about a lot of movements, events in history, and topics that we would never typically cover within our typical second grade curriculum. The competency of cause and effect really allowed us to expand the idea across academic areas and the students were definitely connecting dots and seeing connections. Our classroom was a very exciting place during this research! We hope you enjoyed your time! Along with our wax museum preparations, we didn't slow down a second with our other academic areas- here's some information on what we've been covering in 2D!
Math
We have just ended a unit of measuring. Students gained confidence with using rulers and measurement tools. They learned how to measure accurately and when it was appropriate to round. Students also had to work on measuring objects bigger than their ruler and converting inches and centimeters. We then took it a step deeper with our word problem study. We were able to solve really tricky problems and put large numbers from measuring to use with addition and subtraction. We learned how to simplify our answers by dividing the inches into feet when answering. We used repeated addition to help us do this! We are now working on telling time in our new unit and the students are doing a fantastic job wit this so far, since there are a lot of rules to remember!
Reading
We've been working on identifiying special language in our reading. This first started with idioms and now has formed into finding the unique ways authors tell us what they mean but also put pictures in our minds with their words. The students have been so great at this and it's been even more fun disecting this language and figuring out what authors mean or want us to understand when they use playful language. As we enter trickier books in second grade, we are noticing that special language is everywhere and it's great to get into the habit of stopping and thinking deeply about the author's intention. We are now entering a unit where we revisit good habits of readers. As we get closer to third grade it's so important that we know ourselves as readers and we do what works for us while reading. There is a huge focus on comprehension and holding ourselves accountable for tricky words and keeping track of what we read!
Writing
These writers have been very busy! We have written and celebrated gripping fictional stories that the students absolutely loved writing. We designed intersting characters and problems that would be worth reading about! The students revisited and edited their writing and even took part in peer editing! The students then ventured into the world of persuasive writing! We talked about writing with a purpose and trying to accomplish something. We used evidence and made sure to convince our readers! We will be learning how to write lab reports next that will go along with our science experiments! We have already learned a rap to help us remember the important pieces of a lab report which are- hypothesis, essential questions, materials, procedure, results, and analysis!
Social Studies
You got to see first hand what we've been up to for social studies. Our wax museum was such a fun way to show you all of our knowledge about the change makers in our world! Thank you so much for coming!
Global Play Day
We were so lucky to get to take part in this year's Global Play Day and it was such a magical day for the kids! The kids spent the WHOLE day engaging with one another and using their imaginations. To see how well they collaborate and include eachother was so powerful and made this day so special. I think all of the kids would agree that this day didn't seem long enough. Through observing the students and playing alongside of them we discoved two interests that we will be exploring in our classroom and with STEM buddies- roller coasters and castles!
There are tons of photos from our learning and from the fun events that have recently happened in our classroom! You'll see everything from wax museum pictures, Global Play Day and our Valentine's Day exchange! Enjoy!
