Balloons

We are done with our balloon creation and persuasive lettering writing as related to the book Balloons Over Broadway.  The final products are wonderful!  The illustrations are very well done with lots of detail and the letters are very thoughtful.  Many students have very good reasons why his/her balloon should be included in the next parade.  Ask your child about his/her creation and letter.

Turkey Hats!

Today we worked on creating our Turkey Hats!  There were many steps involved and it too quite a bit of time.  The feathers were the most interesting part.  Everyone thought of a different design.  Ask your child what they did to make their hat.

All of the Second graders wore them to lunch today!  We felt like we looked a bit silly, but at least we all looked silly together.  Everyone was so cute!

Turkeys ready for lunch!

Turkeys all smiles!

Thanksgiving Research

Today we spent time researching Thanksgiving for our Symbol Books.  First, we decided on the topics we wanted to learn more about within the broad topic of Thanksgiving.  Next, we used the iPads to read about Thanksgiving at Pebble Go!  After that we shared our notes and used bullet points to record information in our Research Journals.    Then, we used books to look for a bit more information.  We worked together with a partner to find facts.  We also had to use the Table of Contents and Index.    Last, we used our notes to write a paragraph about Thanksgiving.  It was a very busy morning of research.

Ragamala Dance

This afternoon we had a special assembly.  The Ragamala Dance Company came and performed for us.  They performed a classical dance style from South India.  The did dances and showed us the seven basic dance positions.  The also taught us the hand movements they use.  These movements can be used to tell stories.  They used their feet as drums and wore bells on their ankles.  It was very interesting!

Balloons Over Broadway

This week we are busy creating and persuading.  We read the book  Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet.  This is the true story of the man who invented the big balloons that are used in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  He was very creative in developing the concept of the balloons and designing them.

Next, we invented our own balloons.  We had to think of something that is popular in books or movies or represents the time we live in.  We drew and designed our balloons.

Next, we will do our prewriting of our letter to Macy's asking them to consider our balloon as an addition to the parade.  We will have to come up with reasons our balloons should be included.

What We've Been Up To

The past few days have been so busy!  Here is a brief recap of what we have done.  Check out the captions for details.  Ask your child about what these pictures represent.

Sorting Attributes blocks in math.

Having a conversation about how we would sort them.

"I would sort them by ______________, because _________________."

We started Social Studies by learning about why we need maps, how a good map will have a key.

We learned about our brains and took a Kahoot quiz with the iPads.

Thinking about how to answer the questions.

Seeing the immediate results of how we did.

It was lots of fun!

We finished The Year of Billy Miller.  It was a bit sad and yet the ending was so good!

Letter Writing

This week we have been learning about how to write a letter.  We know the five parts of a letter as well as how to start and end a letter.  We have looked at many examples of letters and as a class, wrote Mr. DePrez a letter today.
 
To practice writing a letter we are writing to our Fifth grade buddies.  We have not met them yet, so we are introducing ourselves in the letters.  We are very excited to share our letters and meet our buddies in a few weeks.  

Two books that use letter writing to tell the story.

Working hard on our rough drafts of our letters.

We use our prewriting to help us write our first draft.