Mrs. Brown's Second Grade

Our final science unit is on rocks.  We took advantage of the Nature Study Site as each student searched for a few rocks to investigate further.  On Thursday we will hear more on the topic; we are visiting KU’s Geology Museum.

Your children make me laugh.  I’ll be careful not to give anything away, but we have been working on Mother’s Day gifts and your children have been very creative.  I won’t tell you what they’ve said or wrote, but I can tell you they love their mommas very much!  I know they aren’t sure how to express it, but the stories I hear makes my heart happy.  As most of you know, my son is just a toddler so I haven’t experienced parenting an elementary student.  I know the job isn’t easy so I’m taking tips from you!  It’s a few days early but I saying it now, Thank You to each mother (fathers and grandparents too).  You have raised a wonderful child.  I have truely enjoyed each student in my room.  Oh, and don’t worry,  I haven’t believed all the stories I’ve heard!

We began our last math chapter.  It is on measurement.  The focus of today’s lesson was on measuring with nonstandard units; we used paper clips and cubes.  The students had a chance to go to 5 items and measure.  Before they began the measurement, they first had to make an estimate.  This is so hard for 2nd graders!  They want to be right.  I reminded them several times that an estimate is not always the same as the answer and that is OKAY!  I would not allow them to erase their estimates once they started measuring.  I don’t think they liked the “no erase” rule and I do have a hunch a few of them erased while I wasn’t looking!

Riley says, “It was really cool.”  Caden exclaimed, “It was awesome!  One person was addicted to my poem!”  “All the poems were super funny,” laughed Wyatt.  I think the Poetry Zoo was a success.  The 2nd  grade students had a fun time performing poems for other students.  They were so excited about performing that they didn’t even complain about working hard to memorize the poems.  I think this should be an annual event!

On Mondays the students have computer time as one of their “specials”.  Today, they didn’t got to the comptuer lab, but instead went to the library and worked on the ipads.  They love the ipads!  We try to incorporate them into many types of lessons, from reading to math.  It isn’t always easy to do.  We have a limited number of ipads available and if they are in the classroom everyone wants to be using them.  This leads to lots of distracted students!  Luckily, if no other teachers have plans to use them, there are times when one ipad per student is available.  LES was able to purchase these ipads through a grant.

We spent part of our afternoon at the high school today running through a rehearsal of the program.  The kids are super excited!  I’m a little excited too.  They always look so cute up there on stage.  The program begins at 6:30.  Don’t forget you can check out Ms. Beaulieu’s blog to hear more about what is happening in music class.  There is a link on the right side of this blog.  If you do visit her blog, leave her a comment.  I know she loves them as much as I do!

We began a health unit today on how to fight germs.  The class had a lot of “germy” stories to share!  We learned about vaccines and how to prevent germs from spreading.  Tomorrow we will review the correct way to wash hands.  This is something all the students have been taught over and over, but it never hurts them to hear it again.

“This is easy!”  “We already know this!”  I heard these comments today when I introduced fractions.  I’m glad today was an easy review; we just identified and wrote fraction units.  As the chapter continues we’ll be adding on some more complicated steps.

Your child didn’t forget his homework.  We’re finished with it for the year!!!

Two posts in one day!  I need to give a shout out to all the students who participated in the Recycling Contest this year.  There were 34 participants school-wide.  Of those, 9 were from our class!  The clasroom winner was Caden with an elephant made from a plastic jug and old sock.  All entries were pretty awesome!

This morning we visited the fourth grade store.  The fourth graders host the store as part of a social studies unit.  It fit perfect with the second grade social studies unit on people at work.  The 2nd graders had a blast!  They bought goods such as rocks, paper planes, books, food, and stuffed animals.  They also bought services such as back scratches and nail paintings.  Of course once we got back into the classroom they bartered their purchases.  It did get everyone very excited.  This excitement, plust the thunder and lightning made for very, uh, active day for us.  We did get through it though it and even mangaged to take a spelling test, selection test, and math test!  Everyone should enjoy the weekend!

Sorry no pictures, when I pulled out my camera the batteries were dead!