Spring Read In !

Last Friday was our Read In!  We got to bring books from home and something to cuddle up with while we read.  We read for a long time...45 minutes and then again with a buddy for 30 minutes!  We watched a Bookflix and had a delicious and healthy snack.  It was fun!

We made the blog!

While in the media center last week we read The Princess and her Panther by Wendy Orr.  Ms. Zbacnik interviewed some of us about our thoughts and we made her  media center blog.  Check it out!

Fabulous Fun Filled Friday!

This week was a short week, but we did many fun things.

Today, we had Jump Rope for Heart.  This morning, we jumped rope for one hour.  Jumping rope is a good exercise to do to get your heart pumping and to strengthen it.  We did this to raise awareness of heart disease.  The fun part was that some of us had our name drawn and we got to win a prize.

This afternoon we made animals made out of hearts.  We read My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall.  The author was very creative in using hearts.  We started learning about similes.  Similes are comparisons using the words like or as.  We felt the project was hard and fun.  It was hard depending on what animal you picked to make.

We also have been learning about balance and motion from all of the second grade teachers.  We learned about how counterweights must be below the balance point to be stable by doing the pencil trick experiment.  We used zoomers ot learn about how we need a force to start something moving.  For example, you need a push or a pull to make something move.  We made another mobile to learn more about balance, weight, balance points and counterweights.  We used tops to learn about balance and making things stable.  We even got to make our own tops with special designs.

Wonderful Wednesday~!

We have been so busy we have hardly had time to blog.  Here are some things we have been doing:

- We have been studying balance in science.  We have learned about balance, stable positions and counterweights.

- In math we have been studying fractions.  We have learned about equivalent fractions which means there are two fractions that are equal but have different names, like 1/2 and 4/8. 

- In Art we started a weaving project.  Our weaving has to be a pattern.  Mr. Moore said we are making a fabric.

- We have been decorating our door for I Love to Read month.  Our book is How Full is Your Bucket and we are trying to help fill buckets of our classmates and those around our school.  This week we are having Drop Everything and Read at surprise times.  We have to be ready to read anywhere, anytime.

-  Last Thursday, we had our popcorn party as our reward for good lunchroom behavior.

- February is also Dental Health month.  We read Open Wide Tooth School Inside and Tooth Trouble to learn about our teeth and why we need to keep them healthy.  We need to brush our teeth at least twice a day.  You should try to visit the dentist twice a year.

-  We started a new writing project about something we like to do at home.  We are practicing wiring a paragraph with one main and 4 details.

That's all for now! 

Reading...it's contagious!

L. in our class has been reading every chance she has for the past month.  She reads when she is done with work, during break, while waiting for papers to be passed out...anytime.

Today I have noticed her entire table is doing the same thing.  In fact many children in the class are reading whenever they can!  It is awesome to see such a love of reading developing and spreading across our classroom.

Mrs.  A

I Love to Read Month!

Here is what our school is doing to celebrate I Love to Read Month !

It promises to be full of adventure and excitement!

How Full is your Bucket?

During the month of February we are going to focus on filling our buckets.  What does this mean?  Well here is what the second graders think. . .

Everyone has an invisible bucket that we carry around.
When you do something kind for another person, their bucket gets fuller and fuller. 
When you help someone, your buckets gets fuller and so does theirs.
We can also get drops in our bucket when we receive compliments.

When our buckets are really full we feel great.  When our bucket is almost empty we feel very sad and angry.

We are going to try to be kind, friendly, big-hearted, considerate, helpful, respectful and thoughtful at home and in school.

How full is your bucket today?