Brian Lies Visits Brimhall!

Today we had Brian Lies, author and illustrator, visit Brimhall.  It was a very exciting presentation.  He was able to hold the interest of the children for almost an hour with all of his information. 

Ms. Z introducing Brian Lies

He told us about how bats are not really his favorite animal.  He also talked about how he got his ideas to write about books.

He read us his most recent book, Bats in the Band.  He almost had it memorized!

He explained to us that writers are not always born with that as their talent, but it is something he had to work hard at developing.  He told us about his writing process.  

He showed us how he sketches his pictures.  He was not always a good drawer but he had to work hard to become better.  He told us, "Practice makes BETTER!"

He showed us his illustrations and writings from when he was in second grade.  It was a small, short story and the illustrations were not very detailed.  He encouraged the students to add detail to their writing and illustrations.

He did a quick sketch for us at the end.  He asked students to give him ideas of what he should sketch and then, right be fore our eyes he drew!  It was amazing!

At the very end he encouraged us to be readers!

Here is his sketch! A bat eating popcorn on a swing at the State Fair!

Friday Round Up!

We are in full swing in Second Grade!  Here is a brief review of our week:

Monday - We worked on our Monster Descriptions, writing complete sentences with capital letters and punctuation.

Tuesday - We talked about a few editing marks.  I introduced three basic marks (on the left)  and we practiced on a sample paragraph.

Wednesday - We had a chance to read in pairs or trios our Literacy book Asha in the Attic.  

Thursday - We are very good at Read to Self.  The students really enjoy this time and have picked good books that captivate their interest.  

Friday - We talked about quality illustrations and what they include.  We practiced making illustrations in our Spelling book page, Illustrate 8.  

At recess, students can earn respect sticks for showing Playground Bengal Pride.  Students then get to write their name on a life size Bengal tiger int he hall outside of the PAC room.  Many students inour class have received one in the past weeks.  

Friday afternoon was Parents on the Playground.  It was an opportunity for families to come and see our "zones" in action.  We had 30 minutes of extra recess!  It was such a beautiful day!

The Year of Billy Miller

We just started reading The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes.  We have been reading his books since the start of the school year.  As we found out, he writes a wide variety of books including picture books with mice as the main characters and chapter books.

The Year of Billy Miller is about a boy and his year in Second grade.  The first section of the book is all about his relationship with his teacher.  Today we read about the first day of school.  Something very embarrassing happens to him in the first few hours of school.  When we stopped reading he had just had an idea about how to fix the situation.  Ask your child if they can tell you about the story.

 

A Week in Review

Here is our week!  We sure are busy learning and having fun in Second Grade!

Monday - We had a chance to work in groups to squeeze all of the toothpaste out of a small tube.  Next, we had to try to get it all back into the tube.  That was really hard!  We talked about how the toothpaste is like our words and actions.  Once our words escape our mouth, like the toothpaste squirting out of the tube, it is hard to take the words back, just like we really couldn't put the toothpaste back into the tube.  We read How Full is Your Bucket?  to further think about and discuss the idea of suing kind words and helpful actions.

Toothpaste!

Out, out, out!

Working hard to get it back in...

We will be bucket fillers!

Tuesday -We started our Monster project by reading I Need my Monster.  It really helped us get ideas for creating our won monsters.  We also spent time drawing our monsters. 

Busy creating!

We used marker to add detail.

Wednesday - We listened to stories from a special book.  This is a book that helped Mrs. Anderson learn to read.   It is very old!  There is even a special story with her name in it!

Thursday - We learned about picking books that are a good fit for us.  These are books that we can read and understand.  We learned about the five finger rule.  Then, we selected books for our Literacy bags.  We also had our first Math test. 

Carefully looking and thinking about books.

Reading, thinking, reading!

Friday - We played a math game about 10 more and 10 less or 100 more and 100 less.  We also got to use iPads for the first time.  We played math games with money, the number chart and addition facts.

Friday Fun!

Today was a busy and fun day in Second Grade!

We started with our first all school assembly.  We celebrated the Birthday of the Constitution!  Mr. Hessler gave us some interesting information and we watched a video about the constitution.   Blaze made an appearance too and let us know we are all doing a wonderful job showing Bengal Pride.

After the assembly, we went back and talked about the American Flag.  We wrote our first entry in our in our Symbol Book.  Together we wrote a short paragraph with information about the flag and then we wrote that paragraph in our own book.   It was hard work!

This afternoon during math we get to use calculators to do some of our work.  We had to make different names for one number.  For example, we had to think of three ways to make 20 without using the 2 key.  

Next week we will be starting Social Studies and a writing project about a monster!  Have a super weekend!

Our First Week of School

Today was the last day of our first week in Second Grade!  It was an awesome week!
Here are the five best things we did this week, selected by the students:

5.  We made paper t-shirts to share about our families, favorite activities and something of our choice that we really like. It was exciting to see what everyone drew.

4.  We had Art today and we had a contest for the tallest tower and coolest tower.  We made the towers out of blocks that connected to each other.

3.  We had Library and met Ms. Zbacnik.  We learned about  Ms. Zbacnik and her family.  We also got to be stars in a video about Library Pride.

2.  We read many, many good books.   A few of our favorites are Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Chrysanthemum both by Kevin Henkes, Amazing Grace, No, David, Enemy Pie, and Do Unto Otters.  Ask your child to tell you about these books and the lessons within each one.

1.   We met each other and Mrs. Anderson!  It seems like we have a nice and helpful class.

Everyone says they are coming back on Monday.  Their homework is to read, read, read and play outside.

First Day of School

Wow!  What an amazing First Day of School we experienced!

Here are the Top Five Highlights of the Day:

5.  We went to Phy. Ed. with Mrs. Brink.  We jumped rope and learned about how we show Bengal Pride.  We also learned a little about Mrs. Brink.

4.  We learned about Bus Pride.  We talked about how we can be responsible and respectful members of our bus community.  We talked about how we will all ride a bus at some point this year when we go on field trips.

3.  We did Math!  Yep, on the first day of school!  We talked about the number line, number grid and we used our math journals.

2.  We met Mrs. Anderson.  She shared some interesting information about herself including some things she likes to do and people in her family.

1.  We met each other!  We had lots of chances to talk with our neighbor on the carpet as well as at our desks.  We have many nice kids in our class!

What a day it was and I am sure we will have many more!  I think everyone is tired, well I know the teacher is for sure!  Everyone said they were coming back for more second grade tomorrow!

Sharing information with each other.

Getting to know one another!

Our first math assignment, not homework.