News & Notes {and an Invention Convention!}

Happy Friday!

This was a fantastic week in 2nd grade!  There was so much going on, but it didn't feel crazy as busy weeks can often feel.  The students did a wonderful job of following directions and showing self-control amidst all of the action.  I love to see them grow this way.  :)

Items of Note:

- A huge THANK YOU to all of the parents who made our Thanksgiving party possible!  The students enjoyed themselves and so did I!

- Students will not be given spelling words next week due to the two day week.  Instead, I will be reassessing their spelling development to determine if they need to change spelling groups.

- You may notice that students are not bringing home their Friday Journals today.  Our Invention Convention was going so well that we lost track of time and didn't get them done!  Yikes!  We will write in them on Monday so you know what we've been up to.

- Thank you for sending in those box tops to help out our school!  Keep 'em coming!

And now... A Peek At Our (very short) Week:

- Math --- Students will be reviewing math concepts we have covered so far this year through a variety of fall themed math stations.

- Language Arts --- We will be reviewing Language Arts concepts with several different Thanksgiving themed activities and books.  I will also integrate our Social Studies focus on the past in these activities.

- Bible --- Students will finish their Ten Commandments book pages and share them with the class before we compile them into book form.

 This week was all about inventors for Social Studies and Language Arts.  Our LA selection was all about African American inventors.  From there, we also studied other famous inventors including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, and Elijah McCoy.

Students worked in groups to create a visual about one of the inventors we studied.

We ended our Friday with an "Invention Convention"!  This was a huge hit!  We discussed that inventors always created something to solve a problem.  So, we talked about problems that we'd like to solve.  Then, students moved through three stages:  Planning, Diagramming, and Creating a Model.  I didn't get many pictures of the actual building time (check out the LMS Facebook page for those), but here are a few examples of the work they did.

 One of our math activities this week was learning a game called "Addition Spin".  This game encourages students to use addition facts they already know to solve double digit addition problems mentally.  

 Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post about how to use this game at home.  I highly recommend it!

 In Bible, students began working in pairs to create a Ten Commandments book.  

 They did a great job of creating illustrations to show each commandment!

 To top it all off, we had some Thanksgiving fun!  Here's the adorable craft they made during the party!

 We made these mashed potato bowls to show what we most enjoy about Thanksgiving.

 What?!?  A second grader who likes taking naps as their #1?!  A student after my own heart.  :)

 Students also enjoyed playing Gobble-O (a Thanksgiving Bingo) during our party.  

I couldn't ask for a better week.  :)

News & Notes {and a wonderful Grandparents' Day}

What a busy but wonderful week we had last week!  Between Grandparents' Day and Parent-Teacher conferences, we had a lot to get ready for, but I can say with conviction that it was well worth it.  The students did an outstanding job of welcoming and guiding their grandparents through our class activities!  I was so proud of them.  :)

Thank you all to meeting with me for conferences.  It felt very encouraging to hear your perspective on your children's school experiences.  If you would like to follow up on anything that we discussed or have any further thoughts or questions, please contact me.

Please check out the calendar page to stay up to date on the upcoming events.

A Peek At Our Week:

- Bible --- Students will continue their study of how God cared for the Israelites in the wilderness.  They will reenact the story of God providing manna and water and also map the route the Israelites have travelled since leaving Egypt.

- Math ---  We will complete Unit 3 this week and taking the Unit 3 written test after a brief review of counting coins and making change.

- Language Arts ---  This week students will learn to what a possessive noun is and begin to identify possessive nouns in their writing.  The comprehension strategy of focus is making inferences.  In our writer's workshop, we will continue to work on revising by subtracting unrelated information.

- Social Studies --- We are transitioning from Science to a Social Studies for the 2nd quarter.  Our first area of focus will be comparing the past and the present.

News & Notes {not to mention chlorophyll}

Yep, chlorophyll might have been the highlight of the week.  We had been discussing photosynthesis which led nicely into a little learning activity about chlorophyll.  Students were able to rub chlorophyll out of a few leaves onto a paper to create a tree picture.  (See photos below.)  Though I think this activity took the cake, I was surprised with the enthusiasm students seemed to have for learning about plurals and prefixes.  This class really seems to enjoy their grammar.  :)

Here's a few reminders for this week:

- Our "50 Dollars in 50 Days Challenge" has officially begun!  I'm excited that we will all be learning about world poverty and being Christ's hands and feet through this service project.  If you haven't yet looked at the packet of information that was sent home, please do so.  The challenge began on November 1st and will run until December 23.

- Grandparents' Day is on Thursday!  If you indicated that your child would be packing lunch on Thursday, I will send a reminder email home on Wednesday evening, just to ensure that each student has a lunch.  Remember that this is a half day due to Parent-Teacher Conferences taking place for the remainder of the day.

- Please ensure that your child has clothing suitable for 15-20 minutes outside (i.e. jackets, hats, light gloves).  We are in November now!

And now... A Peek At Our Week!

- Language Arts --- Our reading focus this week is on identifying the main idea.  This is a tricky concept, so we will go slowly and revisit this skill several times throughout the year.  In our Writer's Workshop, we will be discovering how we can revise our work by taking words out to better focus on our main point.  We will also be discussing proper nouns which I expect will be a hit.  (I know how these kiddos like their grammar!)

- Math --- The main focus of math this week is on making change.  We will also touch on frames and arrows again, but making change will take the brunt of our energy.

- Science --- Students will be creating their final project for our Plant unit.  After this project is complete, we will be moving to a Social Studies unit.

- Bible --- Students will review the exodus from Egypt and then study how God provided for the Israelites in the desert.  We will discuss how God provides for us today as a connecting point.

 Here are a few examples of the chlorophyll rubbings.  It was so much fun to watch these develop from start to finish!

Rub, rub, rub!  Get that chlorophyll out!

 Earlier in the week, we learned how the shape of leaves indicated how much sunlight a plant needed.  So, of course, we had to head out into the sunlight to experiment!

For math, we collected pocket data and ordered our data from least to greatest and then learned how to find the median.

 In our next lessons, we learned how display our data in a few different ways.

 We created both bar graphs and picture graphs.

 As a Friday activity, students started learning how to play a game called Bullseye.  Students toss paper clips at a target to create a number and then write that number in expanded form.  Great for understanding place value!