So Much Fun!

Today was a super fun day!  It was jam packed with learning, reading and fun!

First, we did our Literacy lesson and took our spelling test.  Next, it was off to the library for a quick book checkout.  Then, we had our Reading Party!  We had about 45 minutes of silent reading.  We each got to pick some special books and find a spot in the room to read.  Many students had an animal from home they read to during this time.    We also read Robot Cat with a buddy.  

Reading to a friend!

Then it was time for what we had been waiting for . . . toast with a great deal of butter!  Thank you to Mrs. Biros for helping Mrs. Anderson toast and butter 2 and 1/2 loaves of bread!  It was awesome!

We watched Owl Moon and  Scaredy Squirrel  on Bookflix.  We ended the morning with a Mercy Watson word search.

After lunch and recess we went to Phy. Ed. with Mrs. Brink.  Then it was time for the All School Bunco Event!  Mrs. Brink came and played with us.  It was lots of fun! 

After the game, we had a snack and packed up to go home.  The last thing we did was watch The Scrambled States of America on Bookflix.

We were so busy that we didn't even get any pictures of our crazy socks!


Have a Wonderful Break!

Nutcracker Ballet Field Trip

Today we went to see Ballet Minnesota's Nutcracker Ballet!  A student in Miss Olson's class was a part of the production.  It was so much fun!  Mrs. Liadova and Mrs. Way-Johnson have taught the students about the ballet, the music and storyline.  We read a few versions of the story and listened to the music.

The Ballet was fairly long, but everyone did a wonderful job listening and watching.  It was a fantastic experience.  

Ready to see the ballet!

When we got back, we had lunch and wrote in our Special Times in Second Grade journal.  Here are a few illustrations from our books.    

Today we . . .

Today was a very exciting day!  We started by going to a special performance of the 6th grade concert.  Since we will be on our field trip tomorrow, we got to see the concert today, just us.  It was so fun to be up close and see all the action.

When we got back from the concert, we wrote in our Special Times in Second grade.  This is our first school concert so we were able to get a feel for what we will have to do when we perform in the spring. 

The dancing was great!

We will stand on risers.

We will have to be still,  focused and sing our best. 

This afternoon we started our hat and mittens project.  These are the directions and steps. 

Then it was work time!  We listened to classical music as we worked.  It was lovely!

At the end of the day, Ms. Zbacnik taught us how to play Bunco!  We will play on Friday afternoon as an All School Activity!

Subtraction

Today we started learning about two digit subtraction.  We will be practicing this concept, so if your child doesn't understand it now, don't worry.  We will work on it again, and again, and again.

One thing students need to know is when you need to make a trade or borrow.  Here is a little poem we used to help know when we need to trade.

Then, it was lots and lots of practice.  We drew out the base ten blocks of the top number in pencil, then showed our trade in blue colored pencil.  Next, we made our equation match our picture.  Last, we subtracted with our new equation.

If this is not solid yet for your student please know we will work on it.  If your student has another strategy, please know they can use that as long as they can show understanding.

Subnivean

Today in Library Ms. Zbacnik taught us about a little known part of our winter environment.  It's the Subnivean or the layers and layers of earth and activity beneath the snow.  She talked to us about all of the things that could be happening under our feet.  It was amazing! 

She read us the book  Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner.  The entire book was about all the activities that happen above the snow and all of the activities that are happening in the subnivean.  We had to look carefully at the illustrations to find out what animals do in the winter.  Ask your child about what they learned.  She showed us a really cool video clip about the red fox.  You can watch it here.  Thank you Ms. Zbacnik for introducing us to this book and concept!  We loved it!

High Five

Here are the top five  events of our day:

5.  We listened to and read Greetings from Route 66 which is a part of our Literacy curriculum.  It is a perfect fit for our class right now because we are studying geography of the United States.

4.  We had our Geometry test.  It has been lots of fun learning about polygons, lines and 3-D shapes!

3.  As a part of our geography study we read Wow! America!  Ask your child what landmarks we learned about.

2.  We started writing our personal narratives.  We are very excited to write about ourselves! 

1.  We continued reading the first book in the Mercy Watson series.  We love Mercy!  She is so hilarious!

Today

We had a busy and fun day!

In math, we talked about polygons and two dimensional shapes.  We read  The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns.  Ask your child what it was about.  We also watched a video.  You can get to the link here.  It is a fun way to see the polygons in action!

We continued our work in geography by doing two activities related to the Earth and our continent, North America. 

This afternoon we worked on an art project related to colors and geometry.  First, we talked about warm and cool colors.  Then, students picked three colors to use from either family.  They also picked a geometric shape paper to color.  They had to use three colors, but none of them could touch each other as they colored.  It was a bit hard and really took some thinking.