Focus on Family

This last week was an incredibly exciting one.  We spent most of the week preparing for our big event last Friday, Grandparent/Special Person Day.  Part of the second grade curriculum includes discussing family members and relatives.  Each student chose one special person in their life that they were to focus on for the past couple of weeks.  (Please note, actual Grandparent Day is in September, but this works so well around the curriculum and also, especially right around the start of the holiday season.)  The students wrote about their special person and even had some extra homework involving their special person.  The students wrote out 3-generation family trees and conducted a short interview with their special person.  (A special thank-you to the parents and family members who helped out with all of the components to this event and its coinciding projects.)  In their writing about their special person, each student made a book to give to their special person and focused on things that they do with their special person and what makes that person so special in the lives of the students.
Wednesday of last week, our science tied in perfectly with our special event.  We are just finishing up our unit in science on properties and matter and we made butter in the classroom.  Starting with just heavy whipping cream in a glass jar with a marble, the students were able to see the liquid form into a solid... after quite a bit of shaking.  One of the more important discoveries here was that once the liquid became solid, there was still some liquid in the jar.  The students learned the importance of skimming off the buttermilk and they were then left with a solid block of butter.

 

 

So the butter was to serve at our event on Friday.  But of course, we can't just have butter.  So on Thursday of last week, the class made homemade bread.  This also tied in with our science on properties and matter as we were able to revisit and discuss how things are changed with heat.  This bread recipe was done in gallon-size Ziploc bags and was mess-free!  Each student in the group had a job to measure out a specific item to go in the bread.  

Bread in a Bag

1 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Heaping teaspoon of salt

1 Heaping teaspoon of yeast

2/3 cup Water

Mix all dry ingredients in the bag together.  Make sure the bag is zipped tight.  Give it a couple of really good shakes.  Add in the water.  Close the bag tight.  Knead the dough in the bag for about 5-7 minutes.  Open the bag and leave in a warm, dry place to proof for 2 hours.  Put into mini loaf pans and bake at 475 for 25- 30 minutes.

 On Friday we were able to reap the benefits of all of our hard work.  We had a wonderful showing of special people arrive at the school.  We had a few special people who were not able to make it to the event, but we have such a wonderful class that some of the students shared their family members and special people with others.  This was really a touching day within the classroom.  (And, the students definitely saw me get emotionally worked up ---- just like I told the class they were happy tears, but it was an incredibly great moment in the classroom.)  Each student read their book and presented their special person to the class.  After the readings, all 4 second grade classes went outside and celebrated together by eating our bread and butter.  This was such a great event and couldn't have been successful without the help and support of parents and family members!

Here are a few photos I was able to catch during our celebration.

To the end the week last week, our class got to teach Mrs. Sonneville's class how to do some basic coding on kodable.com.  Everyone seemed to have a really great time!

Our whole school also was able to see the local Scotts Valley Pomo tribe do some native dances.  Friday was definitely an exciting day and the perfect end to the week.

This morning we managed to get in another character trait assembly.  Awards were given to two students from each class for being caring during the month of November.  I apologize for not getting a picture, but hopefully I will remember when we get back from break.  Awesome job to Lexxi and Mikaela for being so caring and considerate this last month!

A Quick Reminder:  Today parts for our class play for the 2nd grade December performance were sent home.  Please help your child work on their part over the next few weeks.  Dates for Performances: Thursday, Dec. 15th at 1pm and Thursday, Dec. 15th at 7pm.

Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Short week = Short Post

Well we had a nice short week, which makes for a nice long weekend.  Our week began with some bus evacuations to practice how to get off of the bus in an emergency.  On Tuesday our class had a substitute since all of the 2nd grade teachers were having a collaboration day to improve our teaching.  On Tuesday the students had a chance to participate in some voting.  They were voting on the "best recess activity."  The contenders were "kickball," "jump rope," and "playground equipment."  The winner was kickball and it was pretty exciting the next morning to count through the ballots and see the results.
A coupon was turned in this week by Lincoln to read and share a story with the class.  He shared one of his own stories about Star Wars that he has been working on.  The class really enjoyed hearing him tell his original story.  Lincoln also seemed to enjoy sharing his story with our class.

Throughout the week we have been working on synonyms.  So we had a "synonym" roll activity where the students had to match the "synonym" roll to one of the words on their list.  It was quite fun going around the room to find the synonyms.

As part of our district's AVID program (Advanced Via Individual Determination), we started something this week as a whole school.  Each classroom has a college pennant (for where the teacher attended college) that will be displayed outside the classroom door each day that the whole class is in attendance.  So far, we have been able to put out our flag twice.  So, if you happen to see some college pennants flying in front of the classrooms, that is a very positive thing and it means all of the students for that class are in attendance for that specific day of school.  Go wolves!

This coming week we have our Grandparent/Special Person event on Friday, November 18th at 9:00 A.M.  It is understandable if not everyone can bring a grandparent or special person due to work schedules or various other reasons, but I look forward to meeting as many special people as can come.  This should be a great event that will help the students make some personal connections with part of the second grade curriculum.  Just a reminder, the family tree and interview questions with the special person are both due on Monday.  Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Measuring up for Halloween

What a busy week!  Starting the week with Halloween was certainly interesting.  We had a rain-free, but cold parade on the blacktop and around the whole school.  Everyone was sure showing their Halloween spirit.  

Zombie, Captain America, Taco, Chef

Zombie Cheerleader, Pink Sparkle Witch, Cheshire Cat

Vampiress, pirate fairy, rock star, corpse bride

Shopkins

Ghostbuster

corpse bride, Halo

Mrs. Crook's Spooks in the parade

The whole class in costume

Just the boys

Just the girls

Halloween day was pretty fun and exciting.  We had a class candy exchange where the students each brought their favorite candy to share with their classmates.  The students wrote about their favorite candy and why they chose to bring that one to share.  

 We also had a mummy wrapping contest.  One person from each group was the mummy and was wrapped in crepe paper.  The groups got very creative with wrapping their mummies.

 
 

Some Mummy Wrapping Fun!

Our marvelous mummies!

Mummy #1

Mummy #2

Mummy #3

Mummy #4

And of course... the unwrapping of the mummies!

We finished the Halloween day off with a party of popcorn and goodies while watching "Hotel Transylvania."  Thank you to all of the families who brought food for our party!

The rest of this week, we got back to some academics in the classroom and started our math unit on measurement.  Our focus right now is measuring using inches and centimeters.  On Tuesday, the class was able to measure some fluffy friends that I brought in to share for the day.  The class each got a stuffed animal and they measured it using inches.  They wrote the measurement on a card and then had to line the animals up based on the height.

All of the stuffed animals lined up from shortest to tallest (as measured in inches).

Working hard to get the measurements

Deciding which stuffed animal comes first in the measurement line up.

On Wednesday the students had a chance to measure "spaghetti."  Students used their rulers to measure the yarn (aka spaghetti) and started by placing the "meatball" on the zero line to get an accurate measurement.  The class seemed to have fun with this and many went home saying they wanted to measure real spaghetti.  Parents, you might want to hold off on serving spaghetti for dinner, at least for a little bit. :)  When they had measured all 9 pieces of spaghetti, we had a time of open exploration where the students were allowed to measure other objects in the room.  It was really exciting seeing the kids use their rulers and enjoying measuring objects so much.  I was also able to contribute to the list of items measured ---- some measured my feet, my arm, my fingers, and even the back of my head!  

Within our measurement unit, we have also spent a brief amount of time on non-standard measurements.  Each group had a 12-inch long strip of paper and were asked to measure it using different objects.  The discovery was made that the measurements were not the same.  One group used playing cards and determined it was 3 1/4 playing cards long.  Another group had paper clips and found the strip to be 9 paper clips long.  The group with the foam circles found it to be 11 foam circles long.  The groups with the linking cubes and the foam cylinders both found their measurements to be 14 objects long.  Our discussion consisted of why each group came up with a different number for their measurements and how they could get different measurements if they were to turn their non-standard objects the other direction.

For the last few weeks we have been working on our jump rope unit in P.E.  This last week the class had a chance to try a new way to use their jumping skills.  The class was introduced to Chinese jump ropes.  They learned the "American" style of Chinese Jump rope.  Some students managed to get through all 3 levels (ankle, mid-calf, and knee).  With the weather being a little bit colder, this was a perfect activity that we could do inside, as well.

 Between Halloween, learning how to measure objects, and even playing Verb Charades, the Busy Bees were incredibly involved in a variety of activities this last week.

Just a reminder -- Friday, November 11th is a holiday and there will not be school that day.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!