Photos of Recent Learning

Here are some photos of things the students have been learning over the past couple of weeks:

Reading Skill of the Month = Summarize - Welcome to Story Street, where students list the characters, setting, problem, and solution (see next picture too)

Measuring in inches and feet - we outlined a few of  the students and measured them with rulers. After they finished their buddy work, they decorated the people.

Economics lessons in Social Studies. So far we've learned about goods, services, producers, and consumers. In this activity students pretended to own a restaurant and listed food they would sell (producers) and what they needed to buy for their restaurant (consumers).

Busy in 2nd Grade

We have had quite a busy week in 2nd grade. We took a break from our normal Math routine to learn about capacity (how much liquid a container can hold) and liquid measurements. Your child should have come home with this guy- Mr. Gallon Man- to help remember how many cups are in a pint, how many quarts are in a gallon, etc.:

 In Reading, we started a new reading strategy- Infer. It is using clues to make an educated guess (or prediction). I brought in a bag of items from my apartment. The students inferred things about me from the items. See the chart below for some good inferences:

Today (Friday) we celebrated with our 2nd Quarter Bee Buck afternoon filled with crafts. The students made Valentines with Miss Snyder, Mardi Gras masks with Miss Longton, snowflakes with Mrs. Afton (Miss Sullivan), and snowmen with me. (I apologize if they came home with a little bit of paint on their hands and/or clothes! They had a good time!)

Thanks for another great week. Here are a few reminders:

1. Family Mass - Sunday, February 10th- 10:30am in the church. Hope to see many of you there. The students will read and bring up the gifts. (We even have altar server helpers from 6th grade!)

2. No School Days - There is no school for students on Friday, February 15th (due to a staff development day). Monday, February 18th, is also a day off of school (for everyone) in honor of President's Day. Enjoy the long weekend.

Many of the students have really become interested in learning about the presidents. Look below at one of the second graders putting all of the presidents in order (during recess)!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Focusing on Nonfiction

This week during Read Alouds, we focused on nonfiction texts... and not just any nonfiction texts, but books about American History. We read about three very important United States symbols.

Monday the students learned about the American Flag.

--> It has 50 stars, one for each of the fifty states.

--> It has 13 stripes, one for each of the original thirteen colonies.

--> A man named Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner (our national anthem) about it. 

The flag in our classroom

Our read aloud

Tuesday, we moved on to learn about the Statue of Liberty.
--> A man named Frederic Bartholdi modeled the statue after his own mother.
--> The statue was a gift from France. It was so big it took over 200 crates (boxes) to ship it to the United States.
--> The Statue of Liberty is in New York Harbor.
--> Liberty means Freedom!

We even borrowed Miss Debbie's miniature Statue of Liberty!

Wednesday, we learned about another important U.S. Symbol- The Liberty Bell.
--> The Liberty Bell is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
--> When it came from England, it had a big crack, so the makers had to make a second one, which also later cracked.
--> It is also a symbol of freedom for our country.

Liberty Bell read aloud, miniature Liberty Bell (from my summer travels), and craft.

It's fun to learn about the history of our country! The students are asking all sorts of great questions during our discussions too.

Tomorrow we're going to compare the past and the present with a read aloud about Alexander Graham Bell and his invention of the telephone.