Voting

While the 2nd graders are not old enough to vote (they learned you need to be 18 years old to vote), they still got excited about the election.

Today we reviewed our last week's activity about the electoral college and the popular vote, and we used our map skills to learn about where the candidates were born and where they served as senators. Then we made our very own voter registration cards.

voter registration cards

He's pretty excited about it

hard at work

"I love voting!"

Can't wait until we're 18 and able to vote

You can track the election results with your child at this website: http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president/big-board

Monster Draw and the Election

Today (Tuesday) was a full day of learning in 2nd grade.

After their math test, the students participated in an activity called "Monster Draw" where they rolled dice to draw monsters' body parts. Here is some of their artwork:

the key for each roll of the dice

The students also learned about the election- the popular vote and the electoral college. We had an election between apple juice and grape juice. The students voted individually by placing their ballot in the ballot box.

Apple Juice won the popular vote

Then each student represented two states from our country, and their vote counted for the electoral college. We kept track of each state's votes on a map.

Apple Juice won the electoral college too.

The best part came at the end when we all got to sample the apple or grape juice.

Happy Halloween

The students have been really excited for the PWC's annual Halloween party! They showed up in some great costumes tonight! It looked like everyone was having a lot of fun.

Awesome costumes!

Claudia and her cousins

The girls were all smiles :)

Monster High characters and a witch

A ninja and a monster

So much fun!

Great makeup- could hardly recognize you!

They all stopped for a photo between the food and games and dancing

Even Miss Foyle dressed up for the occasion!

Have a great weekend!

Red Ribbon Week

As we near the end of October, our school is celebrating Red Ribbon Week.

On Monday, we signed pledges promising to be drug free to keep our bodies healthy.

Tuesday we decorated our door- "2nd Grade Says Boo to Drugs!" The students decorated ghosts ("Boo") in the spirit of the door theme and Halloween. Then I added some photos of them giving drugs the thumbs down for their disapproval:

Wednesday the students illustrated and wrote about ways they can make healthy choices in place of drugs. Several students wrote about making healthy eating choices. Others drew themselves exercising and taking care of their bodies.

Tomorrow don't forget that we have a Dress Down Day. Students may pay $1.00 and wear jeans with a read shirt/sweatshirt.

WE ARE PROUD TO BE DRUG-FREE!

Field Trip

First of all, I would like to thank the parents who gave up time in their day to attend our first field trip of the year- Tom's mom, Ashlei's mom, and Alex's mom. It was wonderful to have you with us!

Monday was a beautiful day, and in the afternoon we joined up with our 6th grade Guardian Angels to visit the National Mexican Museum of Art. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful museum within a half mile of our school.

When we arrived, we dropped our coats and joined our tour guide. Our first stop was in a room with an altar for the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos).

We also got to discuss some artwork in the museum. The one below is a skeleton playing a bass. In the background is the Earth with skeletons, and on the ground is a lot of trash. Our tour guide explained to us that it showed how careless humans are about the way we are destroying the Earth.

We saw masks and paper flags. We even stopped by the gift shop where we saw lots of artwork and sugar skulls for sale. One of the parents and I bought the smallest ones for all of the students to try.

Everyone was well-behaved and seemed to have a lot of fun! It was great to learn about the Mexican culture!

Oops, Flat Stanley, and Telling Time

Here are a few updates on what your children are learning in the 2nd grade classroom...

We have been working on making predictions during reading time. Today we read a story called Beautiful Oops! in which we witnessed how "mistakes" can turn into masterpieces.

After reading the book, the students turned their own scribbles/squiggles into pieces of art. Check out a few of the beautiful oops activities below:

We also have been reading Flat Stanley. It's getting exciting! There are thieves in the museum and Stanley is developing a plan to catch them!

Another thing we have been working on is telling time to the half hour in math.

For instance- 3:30 is the same as half past three.

7:30 is the same as half past seven.

Please help your child practice telling time by noticing the clocks around them at school, the store, and wherever else you might go.

Thank you for another great week! Please remember that we are going on our field trip on Monday. Please send in the permission slips and $2.00 so that your child can attend.

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!