Closing Circle

Each Friday before we leave in the afternoon we do a Closing Circle activity.  We each complete this sentence: "This week I really liked it when _________________."  Each child has a chance to fill in the blank with what they liked about the week.  Then, if we have time, we go around again and share "This weekend I hope to ______________________."   Each person has a chance to speak and the rest of us practice our listening skills.  We pass the talking apple as a signal of who is speaking.  It is a great way to build community in our classroom.

I appreciate this time to share and reflect.  The students love doing this each week and will remind me if I forget.  There has been more than one time that we have been finishing up after the dismissal bell. 

Toothpaste and Kind Words

We have finished our first unit in our Second Steps curriculum on Empathy.  Today we did an activity involving toothpaste, popsicle sticks and a book.

First we squirted all the toothpaste out of the tube and onto a plate.  It was fun!  We took turns and worked in groups of four.  It was super easy!  The tubes were flat by the time we were done. 

Next we had to use the popsicle sticks to try and put the toothpaste back into the tube.  This was super hard, even with the sticks to help us.  It really did not work.  We even tried working together to get the toothpaste back into the tube.

Then we read the book  How Full is Your Bucket?  In this book the grandpa introduces his grandson to the idea that each of us has an invisible bucket above out heads.  Throughout the day the bucket is filled when someone says something kind to us or does something helpful for us.  At the same time, when someone says something unkind or hurtful or does something unkind to us one drop of water goes out of the bucket.

Last we had a discussion about how the words we use are like the toothpaste.  Sometimes they easily come out, even hurtful words.  However, like the toothpaste, words are hard to take back.  You can't put your words back into your mouth just like you couldn't put the toothpaste back in the tube.  We need to be kind and gentle with our words.  We need to fill the buckets of others. 

Frames and Arrows

Today in math we started talking about a concept from Everyday Math called Frames and Arrows.  In short, it is introducing students to the concept of algebra specifically solving for the unknown. 

First, you start with a set of frames connected by arrows.  There is always a rule that is used to connect one frame to the next.  Usually there is the first number in the set of frames and you apply the rule and go from there. This seems simple enough.  To make things more complicated, sometimes the starting number is not the first in the frame and sometimes you have to figure out the rule based on given numbers in the frame. 

We also stated a new theme in Literacy which involves learning about the moon and the phases of the moon.  To see a moon phases calendar for this month and future months click here.  We are entering a time of the New Moon which, as we learned, means no moon is visible in the sky. 

Friday Fun!

Today was Bengal Pride Friday!  Here we are showing our best Bengal Pride clothing and paw!  Go Bengals!  GRRRRRRRR!

We also had and special, Second grade Picture Book Swap Switch.  Each Second grade teacher picked their favorite picture book to share with the entire grade level.  Each class got to rotate through each classroom to hear the stories.  It was so much fun!  Ask your child about the books that were read by each teacher.  (Here are a few hints.)

We Are Proud!

We have been working on our writing a lot in Second grade.  We have a few things that you will be sure to check out at conferences.

First we have our Monster Descriptions.  We read a few books about monsters and talked about making our monsters our very own.  Next, we created and drew our monsters. Then we did a prewriting about our monster that included important details about our monster.  Next, we did a rough draft and learned about using writing paper.  We also learned about editing marks.  Last, we edited our papers and write our final copy.

We also have written a few class books based on books we have read and some conversations and discussions.  They turned out great and show our hard work.

Kevin Henkes

We have been reading books by Kevin Henkes.  He is a very popular author of many books including his books that use mice as the main characters, books that help children understand and process emotional times in life and his chapter books. 

We love his books about Lilly!  She is so funny and does many things that we might feel like doing, but know that we shouldn't.  Last week, we learned how to draw her.  We are enjoying drawing a setting for her to be in and accessories for her to carry or hold.

Kevin Henkes will be at the Roseville Barnes and Noble on Thursday, October 15th at 7:00 p.m.  This event is open to the public.  You can read more about this event here or at the Kevin Henkes website here.

Visualizing

In this Literacy theme we are learning about the power and importance of visualizing as we read or listen to stories. 

Today, we practiced visualizing as we listened to  The Salamander Room  by Anne Mazer.  It is a wonderful story for practicing this skill.  We listened to small sections of the story and drew what the author described.  When the book was over, we visualized what happened at the very end and what we thought it would look like.  It was lots of fun!  Ask your child about the story.  You can watch a video of it here.