Spring Break and Recent Learning

With Terra Nova testing finished, we resumed our normal routines this week.

Among many wonderful read aloud stories, we read a magazine about Dr. Seuss! We "celebrated" his birthday about a week late (birthday = March 3rd) with goldfish (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish) and Dr. Seuss erasers.

In Religion, we talked about ways to be peacemakers in our school and in our homes. Our ideas are written on outlines of our hands and are hanging on the door as reminders to us for ways to act like Jesus.

In Science we've been learning about animal habitats. Check out the group posters about the rainforest, forest, desert, and arctic.

We finished our after-lunch read aloud The Tale of Despereaux, and we compared it with the movie- we found some similarities and also quite a few differences. The students were already asking what great book we are going to read next... They'll have to wait and see!

In writing, we finished up our class report about the Statue of Liberty. I was proud of how the students took the chart with notes and transferred it to an outline/paragraphs. They even added some illustrations and made a simple bibliography to cite their sources. After spring break, the students will get a chance to work on their very own research projects about a topic of their choice! (The picture below is the model I made while the students were working on their own papers.)

Please remember:
Next week is spring break (March 17th-21st). I look forward to seeing your children again on March 24th. Enjoy the time off! Please remember to have your child(ren) read every day. It is very important!

Catholic Schools Week

Even with the snow days, the students still enjoyed Catholic Schools Week festivities.

Here are a few photos of Student Appreciation Day (a.k.a. Pajama Day):

Writing thank you letters to our parents for sending us to St. Ann

Illustrations on our letters

It's not everyday Superman reads the Bible with a student...

Let me think about that...

Proud of our letters and thankful for our families!

Writing a book about how plants grow

Checking out the magnets during recess

The poles have to be opposite in order to attract... (North and South, not N/N or S/S)

Next week we will be back in our normal routine. Stay safe this weekend with the expected snow!

Dig In

Tuesday was a busy day for us. We started the morning with the morning work problems. Then we transitioned to Phonics, where we studied words with ou (examples: out, shout, loud) and ow (examples: cow, flower, tower).

During Reading, we really stretched our brains as we read Wumbers (Amy Krouse Rosenthal).

.

Wumbers = Words + Numbers

The students deciphered some words like cre8 (create), sh80 (shady), 2th (tooth), and 4give (forgive). Then a few students even made up some of their own. I love their creativity!

Then they spent some time Working on Writing, Reading to Self, and Reading with a Buddy while I met with some reading groups who started new books. They are moving up levels and really enjoying the books they are reading. It is a beautiful thing to see!

During Writing the students started transferring their biography facts from note cards to an outline. It was challenging, but they stuck with it, and they finished up their introduction paragraphs for their research reports.

We read about the church season of Easter and Jesus' rising from the dead in our Religion books before heading outside (a little early) to enjoy the fresh air for recess.

After lunch, we read from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and took a math quiz before starting Science.

First, we read a book about rocks and soil.

Then, we examined samples of soil.

Next, we completed a chart about attributes (properties) of soil.

We then discussed the three layers of soil: (1) bedrock (bottom), (2) subsoil (middle), and (3) topsoil (top). We labeled a diagram.

Finally, we made edible layers of soil.

Bedrock = marshmallows (bottom)

Subsoil = Cheerios (middle)

Topsoil = Cocoa Krispies (top)

We even added a gummy worm because worms live in the soil.

And VOILA! Our very own edible layers of soil. They each labeled their cup according to the different layers, and then we prayed grace before we were able to...

Dig in!

Yum!

The students packed up and went to Spanish... then it was time for announcements and dismissal... My, oh my, time flies when you're having fun...

Reading Strategies

April has come and gone (I can't believe it, can you?!), so we finished up our reading strategy of "Visualizing" this week. We read the story Peter and the Wolf on Monday. Then on Tuesday we discussed different musical instruments and listened to the story played by an orchestra as we pictured the characters and the plot in our minds.

In May we will focus on "Monitor and Clarify," which is all about making sure we understand what we are reading. So, in order to make sure we stop, we made our very own stop signs.

We also worked on learning new vocabulary, so we read about and discussed "bee words." We read a magazine, looked at other books as references, made a vocabulary honey comb, and even enjoyed some delicious honey comb cereal. (Yum!)

Speaking of bees, we'll be "busy as bees" in the coming month as we wind down the school year. Please make sure your child is completing his or her homework (including Spelling) every night. Thank you!

Field Trip

The First and Second Graders went on a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry today. Please ask your child about what s/he learned and saw.

Our visit included watching the movie "Born to Be Wild" about elephants and orangutans. The kids loved it! We also had a chance to walk around and view a variety of exhibits. We saw cars, trains, baby chickens, tractors, tornadoes, and so much more! I think everyone was exhausted when we loaded the bus to head back to school, including our wonderful parent chaperones.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera at the museum today, so I do not have any photos from the trip. If anyone has any photos that they would like to see posted on this blog, please email me (foyleolu@gmail.com), and I will happily add them. (Thank you!)

Here are some pictures (courtesy of one of our chaperones- thank you to Claudia's mom!):

inside a tornado

electricity

group shot

looking at the baby chickens

What's the Matter?

This week 2nd Grade has been learning about 3 states of matter:

1. Solids
2. Liquids
3. Gases

We read a book about the states; we brainstormed examples of each state of matter; we discussed their shapes and sizes. Then, today we made pictures out of Cheerios to show how the molecules look. Check out our project:

our "jars" to fill

our "molecules"

Look at the differences!

The solid molecules are packed tightly together. That is why solids keep their shape.
The liquid molecules are further apart, so they have more space to move. They move slowly, but that is why liquids change their shape to take the shape of their containers.
The gas molecules are the farthest apart and have a lot of space to move around. That is why gases fill the room (or their container).

Here are some examples of the states of matter:

*Solids: block, brick, desk, Cheerios, pencil, carpet
*Liquids: oil, water, milk, juice
*Gases: bubbles, air in a balloon, hydrogen, oxygen

Next week we'll discuss how states of matter can change and also the physical properties of matter.

Plant Photos and Video

The second graders have been learning about the jobs that each plant part does. In our leaf rubbing adventure, we gathered leaves from the Plaza area outside and rubbed crayon on paper over them to see the veins.

Leaves make food!

In our celery experiment, we put celery stalks in water to see what the stem does besides support the plant. The colored water moved up to the leaves.

Stems move water and nutrients throughout the plant!

We have also been practicing our "Leaves, Flowers, Stems, and Roots" song. Here are a few photos and a video of the students in action. (They love singing and acting things out!)

Leaves

Flowers

Stems

and Roots!

Plants

This week we started our unit on plants.

On Tuesday, we learned a song called "Leaves, Flowers, Stems, and Roots" to discuss the different jobs each plant part has. Then we made mini books that had pictures and explanations about each part.

Here are the lyrics to the song- ask your son or daughter to show you the movements: (to the tune of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes")

Leaves, flowers, stems, and roots- stems and roots
Leaves, flowers, stems, and roots- stems and roots
Make food
Make seed
Support the plant
Collect
Leaves, flowers, stems, and roots- stems and roots

Within these next few weeks we will be examining the veins in leaves, watching water move up stems, and acting out and illustrating the steps of the life cycle of plants.