Second grade newsletter
First Quarter edition
Becoming second graders
Now that we have wrapped up the first quarter of the school year, we are beginning to look and act like second graders. We know how and where to find and use our materials. We build stamina to work quietly and for a long period of time. We can read for twenty minutes without stopping. We know how to move from station to station in Math and to use the computer to log onto our sumdog accounts and to use teacher selected websites. We make it through the whole day without getting tired or giving up! We are very proud of ourselves.
STEM (Science, Technology ,Engineering and Math) in our Classrooms
Design!
Here come the monarchs!
In September we took a "field trip" to Miss Smith's Science Lab to get an up close look at her students' monarch butterfly investigations. The seventh graders shared their power points about them and then brought the second graders over to their netted habitats to observe the butterfly life cycle first hand. We even got to see a butterfly fly for the first time! Over the next few weeks, we made butterfly books, life cycle models and a butterfly craft with our seventh grade buddies. We plan to do more neat Science investigating with them this year!
Pumpkin Palooza
The second grade recently completed its pumpkin investigation. To continue the study of life cycles and to explore what plants need to live, we attempted to grow pumpkins inside of pumpkins. After cutting off the top of our pumpkins, we added good soil and water. Every day we observed our pumpkins and wrote our observations in our pumpkin journals. We also created a digital journal by taking photographs of our pumpkins and inserting them along with our journal observations. This student-created slideshow is available to view at the following link as well as on the second grade teacher websites. After getting a glimpse at a couple of sprouts, we chucked our pumpkins into the field behind the playground in hopes of creating a pumpkin patch next Spring. We completed the unit by comparing the life cycle of a butterfly with the life cycle of a pumpkin. We found quite a few similarities! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MM5Gp2LkE3JGombOsC1Memt5o1pFgHkWHgPd3UR5wqM/edit#slide=id.p
Memorizing Math Facts Can be Fun!
Now that the students have mastered the concept of addition and have gained some strategies for solving addition problems, it is time to get them memorized! We have been practicing our facts in class and will continue to do so with math games and websites such as xtramath. We need your help though to ensure that the children really know them. It is so important moving forward in Math. Here again are some sites you can use at home along with the flash cards that were sent home.
http://www.factmonster.com/math/flashcard.html?op[0]=addition&level=1
http://www.timeforkids.com/homework-helper/study-helper/addition
http://www.abcya.com/math_facts_game.htm -backetball themed
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/popup/popup_addition.htm - penguin-themed