Just Because….

Today during our morning meeting, we read one of my favorite books, The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. This sweet little story, about a boy and a tree, talks about the greatness in giving rather than receiving. At the end of the book, we opened it up to an “adult conversation,” and the kids had a great discussion about the authors message. They came up with many ideas and ended up deciding that in the end, there is nothing better than love and that while material things often come and go, love will always be there. We then talked about how it can be fun to do something for others, “just because,” and there doesn’t have to be a holiday or birthday to do something for someone else.

A Perfect Day for Planting

A big thank you to Mrs. Allen for allowing us to help out with the garden today. It was the perfect day to head out to the school garden and begin planting for the season. We were amazed to see that some of last years crops, onions and brussel sprouts, survived the winter. 

Many students were surprised to find that they actually liked chives and brussell sprouts! We began by clearing the hay, which was used over the winter as a blanket for the soil, away from the hoses and then we turned the soil.  Once the trenches looked clear, we planted a grain/pea mix. The peas will climb up the grain and the kitchen will be able to pop off the tops and put them in the school salads. They then covered the seeds with soil and put the hay blanket back on to keep them warm throughout the spring. It was a perfect activity to add to our lifecycle focus and we were even able to relate it to the chicks growing in our classrooms. Hopefully we’ll have time for some more gardening this spring, to help contribute to the healthy and fresh school lunches:)

Lot’s Happening in 2L!

It is a busy time of year and our schedule is packed full with interesting topics and activities.

MATH -GEOMETRY

Geometry is our current focus unit. We began learning about 2D shapes and specific shape attributes such as, parallel lines, right angles, polygons and quadrilateral. Last week we watched an interactive video that explained line symmetry and we practiced making symmetrical shapes using pattern blocks. Today we began learning about 3 dimensional shapes. We discussed edges, verticies, flat and curved surfaces and the difference between a prism and a pyramid. Over the course of the week we will construct some different 3D shapes using paper, marshmallows and toothpicks, and also talk about what makes a shape congruent.

READING – DETERMINING IMPORTANCE

Our current reading strategy focus has been determining what’s important. We have read many different biographies about the life of Abraham Lincoln and pulled out information that was important to know about him. We are also working in book groups reading biographies about Jane Goodall, Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers and Milton Hershey. Students are reading independently and then meeting to discuss each chapter. They are deciding as a group what is most important from each chapter and the difference between important facts and interesting facts. At the same time, students are recording the different non-fiction features they notice in each chapter such as fact boxes, bold print and photographs. Next week, students will begin reading about an important person of their choice and start recording what they find to be important about that person.

WRITING -TIMELINES AND PARAGRAPHS

We have been busy putting together our personal timelines that we began as part of a homework assignment. After each student plotted their important life events and dates on their timeline, they then picked 2 events to write paragraphs on. We reviewed our paragraph sandwich and students are doing a great job beginning their paragraphs with a topic sentences, followed by 2 or 3 detail sentences and ending with a wrap-up sentence to close it up. They are well on their way to being paragraph pros!

SCIENCE -THE CHICKS ARE HERE!

Our chick eggs have arrived. Today we monitored the incubator to make sure it was set at a steady 99.5 degrees, which is the perfect temperature for the chickens to grow. Tomorrow morning the eggs with be in the incubator and the life cycle will begin! This is an exciting time and we will take great care and hope for a healthy hatching as  we are learning about the life cycle of a chicken.

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL

After February break was a great time to review our classroom rules. We have been focussing on the 3P’s – Place, Position and Partner. While on the rug during whole group lessons and independent work times, it’s important that we are choosing a good learning place, next to a good learning partner and that we are in a good learning position, to make sure that we are getting everything out of the lesson that we can and to ensure that we are doing our personal best during independent work times. On top of the three P’s, we have also been discussing equality for people while reading about Abraham Lincoln. We have had many conversations around slavery and how what we look like on the outside does not say anything about who we are as a person and what matters is who we are on the inside. We learned how important Abraham Lincoln was to our county and how hard he fought to end slavery. We watched a book about the Gettysburg address last Friday on “Book Flix” and the kids were so engaged, you could have heard a pin drop.

With spring in the air and these great units flowing, the energy is buzzing and our room is a happy place!

World Read Aloud Day

Today is World Read Aloud Day. We were lucky enough to Skype in with children’s author, Kate Feiffer, in the library. Kate has written many picture books such as, “My Side of the Car” and “The Problem with Puddles.” Today she read, “Henry, the Dog with No Tail,” via Skype, to the first and second graders, straight from her home. It was great to listen to her expression and hear what inspired her to write this picture book. She also told us how she often collaborates with her father, Jules Feiffer. He illustrates the pictures in many of her books. After the read aloud, Kate allowed the students to ask her some questions about being a writer and her different stories. It’s amazing what we can do through technology today. It brought a wonderful author right into our library and allowed the children to see that they too, can create stories from their own life experiences!

To check out Kate’s books click on this link: http://www.katefeiffer.com/

Tone

This morning during morning meeting we did some role playing surrounding the topic “tone of voice.” Students helped model different situations where we could work on they way we speak to others. We talked about asking questions in kind ways and how the response you will get back after you ask in a kind way, will most likely be a positive response. Also, we discussed how to react to someone that is not using a kind tone of voice with you. Sometimes we need gentle reminders about the right way to speak to our friends and if we can help each other with that and try to be good role models for each other, it will help out our class as a community, while also helping us in this journey through life.

A Great Way to Spend Valentine’s Day!

Yesterday day was a success! Thanks to everyone that helped us by sending in different items. We kicked off the morning with the ipads. The children worked in different groups using several different continent and state applications. The room was buzzing with excitement while using the technology.

Calculating Coupons and Precise Poetry

Last week the students had fun looking through grocery coupons to complete different tasks. They were asked to search through coupons to find different amounts of savings, such as, “Find 3 coupons that add up to exactly 90 cents.” Other questions like, ” Find 3 items you would want at a party and figure out your total savings” helped students realize how much one can actually save in real life, when using coupons. It was a fun activity with a real life application.

As we continue learning about poetry, we are finding that there are many important ingredients inside a poem. It’s like a cake, not every ingredient is used in every cake, but there are always a few standard ingredients.” Last week we focussed on finding “precise” words in our poems. Together as a class we looked at this sentence, “The volcano talks and spit comes out.” We decided that the words “talks” and “comes” were not precise words that explain exactly what a volcano does. We then brainstormed other words that are similar to talks and comes and came up with quite a list, finding many words more exact when talking about volcanos. Some of my favorites were blasts, blows its’ top off, and screams for the word talks and for comes, bursts, blows and explodes. We then, independently, re-read our own poems and looked to make sure our words were precise. Students began using the thesaurus and our synonym chart to find words that made our poetry truly show what we were thinking.

Please Stay Still…

As many of you are aware, we were lucky to have, Chip Wood,  co-founder of Northeast Foundation for Children and also known for his work with a Responsive Classroom, spend the passed 2 days visiting our school. Chip took the time to observe our classrooms, talk with teachers and gain a true sense of our school community. Yesterday, while listening at Chip’s workshop, he said one thing that stood out in my mind, “The best way to listen is to be still.” I thought about this and decided to bring it up with the class today. We had a wonderful discussion about how the smallest thing such as, scribbling in a notebook or picking at the bottom of your shoe, could be a distraction to yourself and others trying to listen. We also talked about how feels when you have something important to say and no one seems to be listening. We then tried an experiment directly after. The students brought poems that they had been working on to the rug to share. We challenged ourselves to stay still and look at the person who was sharing his/her poem. With a few reminders, all 16 students and myself, remained still throughout the poetry share. It was quite a remarkable difference. I asked the kids how that felt to share with this “stillness.” They were overjoyed and explained how “awesome” it felt to know everyone was listening. It was wonderful to watch each child light up after knowing his/her voice was heard. I hope to continue and build on this discussion in 2L this year.

All About Writing

2L is in the midst of some serious writing. During writing workshop we are learning about the ingredients of a poem. We have practiced looking at special treasures through “fresh new eyes.” This is the first ingredient. We have read poems from some famous authors  and studied how they have looked at objects in new and exciting ways. In Zoe Ryder’s, “The Pencil Sharpener,” Zoe imagines a pencil sharpener filled with tiny bees, sharpening the point on her pencil. The second ingredient is adding line breaks to make the words sound like music. In these lessons, the students are practicing adding line breaks in their poems to give the words a rhythm and flow. Students are enjoying using their imaginations and sharing their poetry with each other.

We have also been studying the layers of a paragraph. We’ve been looking at paragraphs as sandwiches. The top piece of bread is the “topic sentence.” Next, we have the lettuce, meat and cheese layers, which make up the three detail sentences. The bottom layer of bread is our closing sentence. Today we began discussing persuasive writing and creating persuasive paragraphs for our invention brochures. The students had an impressive start to these paragraphs and are excited to share them at the upcoming Invention Convention!