Special Books

Today was a very special day!  We got our own class memory books. 

All year long we have been taking time at the end of each month to reflect and remember some special activities and events from that month.  These paragraphs became our class timeline which was in the back of our room and slowly grew with each passing month of school.  We included the highlights from each month along with topics we studied and books we read.  It was a great way to celebrate each month.

I took those special writings, added a few pictures and other things and turned it into a Class Timeline Memory Book.  It included pictures, a letter from me and other things we will want to remember.  Each student has their very own.  We spent time reading and looking through them today.  We will take time to sign them in the next few days.  Be looking for it to come home on Wednesday!

Mill City Field Trip

Today was our Mill City Museum Field Trip.  It was awesome!  We had so much fun and learned a lot about the history of Minneapolis and the power of water!

First we learned about our day and the rules for the museum.  Our first stop was the scavenger hunt in the exhibit area.  We looked for specific items and then learned about why they were important to milling and Minneapolis.

Next we got to take the Flour Tower Tour and learn about the Washburn A Mill.  It was the original mill on the cite and the one that exploded, killing 18 workers.  At the end of the tour we got to look at the Mississippi River from the observation deck.  It was amazing!  The water really moves over the falls.

After lunch we watched a movie call "Minneapolis in 19 Minutes Flat."  We learned about the hisotry of Minneapolis.

Then we went to our Water Lab class.  We rotated through 4 stations all learning more about how water is power and what the river was used for long ago and how it is used today.  We got to experience the power of water through the water tubes.  Ask your child about what he/she learned.

Last we went to the ruin courtyard and enjoyed some time outside looking and the area left after the devastating fire in 1991.

It was a wonderful trip!  I think everyone is pretty tired. 

Exploring the museum.

Flour Tower Tour and Observation Deck.

Look at the view!

Water = Power

Reflecting on our trip in the mill ruin courtyard.

Writing Portfolios

Today we spent time looking through our Writing Portfolios.  Each student has many pieces of writing that were collected throughout the year.  The students spent time looking through their pieces, reading them and remembering the hard work that went into each piece.  They selected their favorite one, or the one that they were the most proud of producing.  Each student wrote about the one piece these selected and why they picked it as their favorite.

My sincere hope is that each family will take time, at some point, to look through this collection of work.  It really shows a lot of growth and hard work as well as creativity.   

Wednesday

Today was a big day in our classroom!  We performed our Reader's Theater stories for our families this afternoon.  We had 30 people come to hear us read.  We felt nervous but overall were confident and we knew we could do it.

We read stories and poems from the series of books called  You Read to Me,  I'll Read to You by Mary Ann Hoberman.   There are a few books in the series including collections of fairy tales, fables and nursery rhymes.

Thank you to all the families who were able to come.  It was lots of fun!

We are LOVING this book!  It is all about a hamster who lives in a cage in a classroom.  He is a pet to the students and is teaching them to be responsible.  It is hilarious to hear the story from his perspective.  It is the first book in a series, so there is lots of reading to be done.

Skittle Math

We have been counting down until we are in Third Grade!  Each day there is a new reward and we work toward earning it all day.  We have had many fun things like Twizzler day and Bubble wands.  Today was Skittle Math day!

We earned our reward and had to do math to go with it.  Ask your child about his/her Skittle Math sheet.   It was loads of fun!

S'more Time!

Last Friday and today we wrote about what we would like to do if we had S'MORE time in Second Grade!

Every one had very creative ideas!  We got to make our very own s'more with a personalized marshmallow.

Nature Poems

We did a special project using the iPads this week.  It was multi-step and included taking and uploading a picture as well as typing text to an app called Haiku Deck.

We read a book called Step Gently Out which is all about observing nature and noticing its beauty.  It is a poem with simple sentences and beautiful pictures of nature.

Ms. Zbacnik and Ms. Olson developed this project.  Ms. Olson did it with her class first and encouraged us to try it out.  First we learned about taking pictures using the iPads.  Then we visited the school grounds to take pictures of what we found.  We uploaded one picture to the app.  We wrote a haiku poem about out nature object and edited it.  Last we had to type our poem on the iPad over our picture.

The pictures turned out so well!  They are beautiful!  The poems are equally as wonderful.  I am so proud of all the hard work the students did on this project.  Thank you to Ms. Zbacnik for coming to our rescue a few times.