Stoplight Paragraphs

Today we practiced writing strong and organized paragraphs.  We talked about how a paragraph is organized like a stoplight, well an upside down stoplight.  The first sentence is the Topic Sentence.  It tells the main idea of the paragraph.  The next sentences are the Detail Sentences and they tell details that relate to the main idea.  The last sentence is the Closing Sentence.  It wraps up the paragraph and can be almost the same as the first sentence.

To help us create a visual, we underlined each of the sentences like a stoplight.
Green - Topic Sentence - GO!
Yellow - Detail Sentences - Important ideas
Red - Closing Sentence - STOP!

We practiced by writing about our favorite season.  We have some really good paragraphs!

Here are a few examples:

6th Grade Honor Choir and Reader's Theater

Today we had the opportunity to enjoy the District Honor Choir performance.  This choir is  made up of students from all of the elementary schools and each music teacher from each school conducted a song.  It was a wonderful performance!

During one song a small group of students sang and then the rest of the choir joined them.  There was one student from each school in the small group. 

We came back, had a quick snack and had did Literacy.  Today we practiced and performed our book Grace for President as a reader's theater.  We listed to one group perform today and the other group will perform tomorrow.  It was a new experience for most of the students. 

Balance, Motion and Fractions

Today we reviewed Balance and Motion concepts by reading a book that goes along with our science materials.  We also completed an activity with our desk partners.  We will have a test tomorrow!

We also started learning about fractions!  We made our own sets of fraction cards to show 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/3.  We learned the words numerator and denominator.  We also talked about comparing fractions to 1/2?  Ask your child which is more 1/2 or 1/4?

Author Visit!

Today we had Jon Coy come to visit!  He had many interesting things to say. 

He shared with us how his first book, Night Driving, was published.  It took 6 years from start to finish!  That was much longer than any of us thought.  

He gave us some good advice about how to approach writing.  He said don't think writing to too hard and not even try, if you start writing you will write more and more, just get started.  Don't ask your teacher how to spell words and don't fall in love with your eraser.  He also told us that we all have a story to tell.  

This is a rough copy of Night Driving.

He explained that authors have to work on their writing, over and ovER and OVER.  It is a continual process of revising and changing it to get it just right.

He read Two Old Potatoes and Me.  He asked us to participate as he read certain words.

Then, he explained how Vroomaloom Zoom was published.  He showed us an example of sloppy work. 

We were very impressed with him and his books.  When we came back to class, we wrote about our experience in our Special Times in Second Grade.

We had our very own "Crazy Sock" day.  Here are the samples of crazy socks.

Crazy Socks and Tops

Today we took time to design our own crazy socks.  Student thought about making a pattern along with a special design to make their sock look unique.  Once they colored our sock, they got to design a shoe.  Some students coordinated their sock and shoe.  We did this to get ready for our own Crazy Sock Day!  

This afternoon we did another experiment in our Balance and Motion unit.  Ask your child how they used these material to create a stable, fast spinning top.

Science - Zoomers

Today we went and learned about motion with Mrs. Kath.  Ask your child about how they used these tools to experiment with motion.

We also read another new book in our class, Creature Features.  It is a book that asked 25 different animals why they look the way they do.  We learned some cool facts!

We also read a book by Jon Coy. the author who is coming to visit on Friday, January 30th.  Ask your child about the book and what the theme is of the book.

Science - Rolling Cups

Today the students went to learn about rolling cups with Miss Olson.  Ask your child how they used these materials to conduct a science experiment.  What did they learn?