Geography Game Show

On Friday, the second grade students attended an amazing and informative assembly called Geography Game Show. Mr. Neal Nichols, an artist, world traveler, and expert in world geography and history taught the students all about the world. It was an amazing show!

Later in the day, our class partnered with Mrs. Frey's class for a lesson in how artists draw. The students loved the small group lesson as much as the grade-level assembly. They were amazed that so many objects can be drawn from just 3 simple shapes.

Holiday Traditions

During the past  week we have been talking about how different  families celebrate the holidays. We have read several holiday books and discussed how the family's traditions are similar/different from our's. Please add one of your family's traditions to our padlet. 

Created with Padlet

Essential Question: What is a tradition that your family has? What does your family do to celebrate this tradition? >

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to think about all of the things you are thankful for. The students did several activities during the past couple of weeks related to Thanksgiving.  First, we read books to learn what it was like to live during the pilgrim times. 

Then we compared the students' lives now to childrens' lives during pilgrim times. We found out it was very different a long time ago. This is what we learned:

• The children had more chores than we do and didn't have much time to play.
• They had to wear a lot more clothes than we do.
• The boys had to hunt for food and work in the fields.
• The girls had to clean and cook.
• They didn't have all the different foods we have, just what they could grow.
• The houses were different and the children slept in one bed.
• They used grass or feathers in the pillows.
• Being a pilgrim or Wampanoag child was hard work and all of the students were quite thankful they do not live during pilgrim times.

** essential question: How is life different now compared to life during pilgrim times?

We also read a book called Thanks For Thanksgiving and answered the question: What are you thankful for?

For a fun project we created a fun Chatterpix video with the students beautifully decorated turkeys. Each student gave their turkey a name and pretending to be the turkey, described themselves and told why they wouldn't be a good turkey to eat on Thanksgiving. 

Here is the link so you can watch and enjoy :)

Please Don't Eat Me!

Halloween Fun!

This was an exciting week in 2-O.  To get ready for Halloween, the students created riddles about their costumes for their classmates to solve. First, the students drew themselves in their costumes with as much detail as they could. Next, they created riddles that provided a classmate with clues about their costume. Last, all of the pictures were put around the room and each student was given a peer's riddle. They had to use the clues in the riddle to find the matching picture. They had a lot of fun and did a great job.

Parents, can you solve the riddles as well as the students? See if you can match each student's picture with their riddle.

                                            

                                                 

                                                   

                                                   

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L.2.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L.2.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
L.2.3  Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.

Friday's Halloween celebration was very exciting.. It began with a parade and ended with a classroom party. The students looked amazing in their Halloween costumes and had fun parading outside for the parents and families and inside for their peers. During our classroom party the students rotated between centers. They made paper cup mummies and pumpkins sitting on a wall, and pom pom spiders, They played pin the eye on the monster, and Halloween bingo. Thank you to Mrs. Braccia and Mrs. Bucchiere for planning and running the craft stations. 

A Giant Pumpkin!

On Thursday we had a very special visitor. Mr. Lancaster brought his giant pumpkin to school for the children to see. At 1,954 pounds it was the second place winner at the Topsfield Fair. The children had a chance to touch the pumpkin and ask Mr. Lancaster questions. 
Parents, ask your children what they learned about this giant pumpkin. I think you will be as amazed as we were :) 

After, the children wrote in their writing journals what they had learned about the pumpkin. 

Fall Tree

At the beginning of the year our class adopted a tree in the courtyard. Each season, we will observe the tree and notice how it is changing. Last week we visited our tree.

While observing the tree the the students completed an observation sheet. Here are a couple of samples.

After observing the tree, the students shared some of their observations and we made a class chart. Everyone agreed, the tree has changed a lot this season.

Today we took a picture under our tree. It has really changed since last week! 

What do you think our tree will look like in another week?
Essential Questions:  What does our tree look like in fall? How has our tree changed from summer to fall?

Adding Numbers to 1,000!

Our class has been busy learning how to add numbers to 1,000. We started by using a place value mat and base ten pieces to build each number in the algorithm.

After we became comfortable using the base-ten pieces we practiced on white boards. Students took turns solving problems on the Smartboard and explaining to their classmates the procedure for solving algorithms.. The students have done a great job and really have the hang of it.

2. NBT. B.6 Understand place value.

2. NBT. B.6 Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract.

Depending on Others

Happy October! It is hard to believe we are already into the second month of the school year. The students had a great first month and have been busy in the classroom.

In our first social studies unit, Depending On Others, the students have been learning about people we depend on. After brainstorming a list of people we depend on, each student selected one person and decorated a blank cutout to represent that person. The students did a great job and these really dress up our bulletin board!

Welcome to Second Grade!

Goodbye summer.........

hello second grade!

It's hard to believe summer is nearly over and soon it will be time to dust off the backpacks and start a new school year. I hope you have had as wonderful of a summer as I have had. I was fortunate enough to travel to Sedona and the Grand Canyon this summer. The views were spectacular and the hiking amazing. If you've never been I would highly recommend it. Both areas are too beautiful for words and every view is different and awe inspiring. 

Here are a few pictures from my vacation. I am excited to hear about all of the fun activities my new class of students did during the summer as we get to know each other.