Math Fun Friday!

We have worked very hard this year learning as much math as we could.  We are almost to the end of our  math series!

From now until the end of the year, we will be using Friday to do some extra math learning and play math games or use the iPad for math games.  We are able to check out 5 iPads at a time from the library.   I have the kids work in pairs on the iPads to do math games that are designed to practice skills.  Students who are not using the iPads are playing math games or working on puzzles.  

Interviews

 Over the past few days we have been doing another type of research.  We learned about interviewing as a way to gain information. 

 On Monday, Ms. Olson and Ms. Anderson interviewed each other.  We learned about listening as someone was speaking, taking notes and asking clarifying questions.

 Tuesday, we got to pick a topic to talk about with our partner.  The categories were Family, Holidays and Customs or Interests.

 On Wednesday and Thursday we met with our partner from Ms. Olson's class to do the interviews.  It was lots of fun and very interesting.

 We will write mini-biographies about our partner. 

Our books are ready !

Our books about Egypt are now complete!  If you would like to see all of the finished books please click here to connect to Ms. Zbacnik's library blog.  You will be able to see the books we made along with the books from the other 2nd grade classrooms as they are finished.

This was a great project and shows lots of learning on the part of the students.  Thank you to everyone who helped make this project a success!

Break time adventures!

Each day our class has about 5 - 10 minutes for break.  Some kids bring snacks to eat and others enjoy talking with friends.  Here are a few pictures from a recent break. 

Coloring is relaxing during break.

Enjoying a class book !

A recent favorite - Thumb war!

Playing a game during break !

Careful arm wrestling : )

Making a design is relaxing too !

Thursday ~ Fun Day!

      Jump Rope for Heart was this morning!  It was lots of fun to be with friends and jump rope.

              Today was also Hat Day!  We had many students wearing fun and different hats.

This afternoon we read the book My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall, another Minnesota author.  We got to make our own heart animals just like those in the book.  We learned how to cut hearts and then got right to work cutting, sliding, flipping and turning hearts.  It was more challenging than we thought, but we got the hang of it after a few accidents.

Here are a few examples:

   

Spring paragraphs

We have been working on learning how to write complete, focussed paragraphs.  We learned that a paragraph can be kind of like a stoplight.

The green light means go, start your paragraph with a topic sentence that tells the main idea of your paragraph.  Continue your paragraph, like the yellow on the stoplight, by writing three, or more, supporting detail sentences.  These sentences should connect to the main idea.  To end your paragraph, think of the last sentence like the red light.  The last sentence can restate the first sentence, show emotion or express an opinion.

Here are a few examples:

We are working on our books about Egypt.  We will finish them after break.

Our Class Book

We are continuing to prepare for making our books about Egypt.  This week we learned how to use Little Birds Tales to create a page in a book.  Ms. Zbacnik taught us how to use the program and drawing tools. We created our own page and drawing and wrote a sentence to go with our picture. Students did a great job with this project.  I am feeling really good about creating our books about Egypt.

Here are the steps in the procedure:
1.  Once you are logged in to you own Little Bird Tales account begin to create your page.
2.  Using the draw tools, draw a picture of yourself doing your favorite thing.  Be sure to have a background and use the entire space.
3.  Put your name in the lower left-hand corner.
4.  Type your sentence using capital letters and punctuation.
5.  Save your work!  

Students completed this project independently.  I was available to help students who needed it, but for the most part they did this themselves.  

Enjoy!

• Click to view my tale.
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