Showtime

     I hope you had a chance to watch us perform Friday.  If you were there, I'm sure you are thinking second grade was EXCEPTIONAL!   Our Hippo song had a LOT of words and we totally rocked it and what grandparent doesn't swoon when a kiss is blown their way?  We were awesome!

     We read three great "gingerbread man" stories this week.  Each one had it's own special twist.  We have been sequencing all week using our transition words. So, it only made sense to use those transition words to sequence how we eat a gingerbread cookie. 

     If you haven't already heard, Rudolf the elf has been visiting us all week.  He was hugging Wally, tangled in tape and he even colored a picture of Santa.

     We are still counting coins and practicing addition with regrouping.  On top of that, we did a little measuring with centimeters.  I have a fun Rudolf themed shape bingo game saved for next week.  We better review our 2D and 3D shapes before then. 

      If you are out shopping for the perfect gift this week.  You may want to freshen up your child's school supplies.  By now, almost everyone's glue sticks have run out and most crayons have lost or broken.

Back At It

     It was nice to be back this week after quite a long Thanksgiving break  I am feeling better each day and thank you for all the well wishes.  It's nice to be missed . Stone Soup was our mentor text for the week.  We compared three different version of the story and worked on making sentences "soup"-er by adding more details and proper capitalization and punctuation.  Ask your child to tell you about the stories. 

     We have been working hard on counting coins.  By now, your child should be able to count coins to $1.00.  Please practice at home if your student isn't there yet.

     For fun, students made gingerbread people.  They look very festive on our bulletin board.  We read Gingerbread Baby and The Gingerbread Man then compared and contrasted them.

     We are reading Ready Freddy Second Grade Rules as well.  Freddy is excited to go trick-or-treating with the new boy in school, Josh.  They have a great idea for their costumes.

     Next week, we will be performing in the Holiday Program.  I'm not going to lie, we are fantastic and will probably steal the show.  We practiced Holly, Jolly Christmas for the first time today and we nailed it.  The words to our songs were sent home to practice.  The show is Friday morning 9:00. 

Thanksgiving Feast

     Monday, the second graders will be having a Thanksgiving feast.  We will make Pilgrim hats or Native American headdresses, bake cornbread and celebrate all we are thankful for with Ms. Cotter's class.  It's going to be crazy fun and everyone is looking forward to it.

     This week, we spent quite some time working on narrative writing.  Students learned about small moment, seed stories, and applied it to their  writing. They brainstormed ideas, created an organizer for their story, and wrote.  Students then revised their stories to ensure it had a bold beginning.  They revised, yet again, adding transition words.  Our stories look great.

     Our mentor text this week was Turk and Runt.  Runt is a smart little turkey who saves his family.

     Some Halloween pictures have been added to edline.  Go check them out if you haven't yet.

     I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday filled with food, fun and family!

   

Wally for President

     This week we went through the election process.  After reading Grace for President, we decided to have our own election.  First, our class split into two.  Each group nominated a candidate for President at a convention.  The "closet" group nominated Teddy, the Red Sox bear and the "rug" group nominated Wally the Green Monster.  The two candidates then had a debate.  Wally wanted there to be more gym in school and longer school days.  Teddy wanted to keep the school day the same but add more art.  Students made campaign posters for their candidate of choice.  After Friday's election, we have a clear winner.  Wally won with 14 votes, while Teddy only got 4.  We also wrote about what we'd do as President.  Hope you liked the campaign buttons we made summarizing, Grace for President.

     We also read the Rough-Faced Girl, one of my FAVORITES, and Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.  They are Native American and African versions of Cinderella.  We used these stories to practice our comparing/contrasting skills and adjectives.

     In math we have been working on addition with regrouping and place value.  I think we are getting the hang of it but have our work cut out for us.

     Halloween was a HUGE success.  We shared stories, paraded, partied and had FUN. Students should use this weekend to recover from all the excitement, and SUGAR they've had.

     Reminder, no school Tues. Nov. 8th for Election Day and Friday Nov. 11th for Veteran's Day. 

Going Batty

     This week's theme is bats.  We have read Stellaluna by Janell Cannon and Bats by Gail Gibbons so far.  We were able to learn great facts about bats in each although they are very different.  One is fiction and the other is nonfiction.  Ask your child to tell you about them? 

     The author used lots of strong verbs in Stellaluna.  She did a great job picking verbs that really painted a picture for the readers.  We charted some of them on a chart and we wrote our own sentences using them.  I'm hoping we will retire some weak verbs and start using strong ones in our writing. 

     Students sorted sentences about bats into two categories, fact and opinion.  They followed that up by making a bat, with a fact on one wing and an opinion on the other.

     Students also started reading Horrible Harry in 2B.  Harry has done, or tried to do, some horrible things.  His Stub People didn't work out as he planned.  So far Harry is bad news. 

     In Vampires Don't Wear Polka-Dots, Melonie and Eddie just broke into Mrs. Jeepers house to see what is in the box down in the basement.  We have our ideas on what it could be.   This is a Bailey School Kid book.  There are lots of other similar titles to check out if your child seems interested.

     I hope students are practicing math facts with their magic hats at home.  Extra math is a great way to practice them as well.  Today we got into groups to count out 100 mosquitos.  Lots of different strategies were used by the groups.  Here's why we did that.

A bat can eat 600 mosquitos an hour.

     We also created some fact families.

Candy corn fact families

     Mrs. Maloney delivered our new rug on Tuesday.  It's a map of the continents and very cool.  We love it.  I have lots of pictures to post to edline but it's just doesn't seem to be cooperating with me.  Check in often and hopefully our rug pictures will be posted. 

   

   

Kevin Henkes and Spiders

     Last week we read quite a few Kevin Henkes books, made predictions and compared characters.  This week are are all about spiders.  We have learned so many spider facts and realized that we had some misconceptions about spiders.  We will read a fiction story or two about Anansi the spider later this week.  He's such a trickster.  Wait until you see what he does to his friends.

     Sentences need capitalization and punctuation.  We KNOW that, although forget quite a bit.  We have been identifying and sorting different sentence types and should be masters by now.  Students have also been solving math word problems like crazy.  They are tricky but we will not give up.

    
     Half of us are publishing our writing.  Which means it's been edited and they are copying it over to a neat sheet.  I haven't had a chance to meet with everyone yet but hopefully I will by the end of the week.  BUSY BUSY BUSY

     Monday the PTO treated us to an ANTI-BULLY magic show.  Very fun!!

   

Edward the Emu

     This week's mentor text was Edward the Emu.  We also used the internet to learn more about his friend Edwina.  It all started last Friday when I made our EMU poster and the children saw it.  They were all buzzing, "What's an emu?".  It got us excited for Monday.  On Monday, we talked about how good readers make predictions before and during reading.  We then started the book, BUT I didn't read the ending.  We wrote our predictions in our reading notebook and had to wait until Tuesday to confirm or adjust our endings.  Well, I don't think that anyone got the exact ending but great predictions, using text and picture clues were made.

     We filled in facts on that EMU poster the children saw, later in the week after reading about real emus.  We also identified and fixed sentences from the text that were scattered around the room.  No-one should forget that sentences start with capital letters and end with punctuation now.  We're experts.  For more sentence writing fun, we took boring sentences and STRETCHED them, not tugged, STRETCHED.

     We have also been reading some Cynthia Rylant stories and even took turns reading Mr. Putter and Tabby stories as plays.  The children got excited when they got to be Tabby.  He always had important lines to read.

     Math has been fun with some computation practice, missing addends and word problems.  We used dice to add three numbers with friends.  Word problems can be SUPER tricky.  I try to get students to picture in their mind what's being asked and when they finish, to think about if their answer is reasonable.

     Next week we can look forward to taking the story that we started planning on Friday and creating a draft.  Those are the first two steps in the writing process.

   

   

   

Bad Case of Stripes

      This week we have been using Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon as our mentor text.  Which means, we have been using this story as a spring board for lots of learning activities.   Ask your student what happens to poor Camilla and how she was cured.  If your child has never tasted lima beans, try this week.  Camilla Cream LOVED them maybe he/she will too.

     We described Camilla, learned new vocabulary words, made lima bean abc order books, learned about summaries and even drew Camilla in a lesson!  Lots of activities and games. SUPER FUN

     We read another cool story titled Daddy, Can I have an Elephant?  In this story Tony asked for some crazy pets.  

     The students played a dice game enriching reading fluency, a rhyming game and arranged some beach theme words into sentences.  One of them was TRICKY! 

rhyming

     If you haven't logged into Edline yet, you are missing out on some first day of school photos.  You have to turn you head because I couldn't (didn't have the time to) figure out how to spin them.  It's on my "to do" list.  Which pretty much means it may or may not ever get fixed.  YIKES

First Week

     It was a great week.  I'm pretty sure everyone is happy and settled in.  Whoo hoo!

     We had music today.  The students seem to really enjoy Mr. Liquori and his class. I know my two boys, Derek and Jason are huge fans.  After music it got HOT in class.  We tried to keep cool by relaxing a little with friends and books.  Luckily, I had a handy squirt bottle to help out a little.

     We also went to computers today.  Everyone logged onto IXL math.  I'll be sending home info and passwords next week so your child can play at home.  It's great math practice.
   
     I like having learning centers in class.  This week we had two different ones, syllable sort and sentence writing.  These centers really make learning fun.

     Some upcoming dates for your calendar: Thursday, Sept. 15 is back to school night 6-8 , Thursday, Sept. 22 is a half day.

     Never miss a post by signing up for an email each time this blog is updated or follow me on twitter @kpotamis.   Be sure to check Edline soon.  I hope to post some photos from the first day of school this weekend.  If you are having trouble logging into your edline account let me know and I'll get the info you need from Mrs. Cannon for you.

Day One

Phew, we made it through the day.  I seriously had doubts that I would when I woke up this morning. It's not easy getting back in the swing of things.

We had a GREAT day!  We started with a simple connect the dots to break in our new crayons while we all got settled.  Then, we played a fun getting to know each other game.  We walked around asking each other questions to get our papers filled in.  Apparently, I'm the only one who wears glasses, so I initialed that box a lot.

We read First Day Jitters.  The story has a fun twist.  Although we read that story last year, I was surprised that not many students remembered the ending.  We then wrote a bit of what gives us the jitters.  We also wrote about some of our favorite things and brainstormed about second graders.

Luckily, the rain stopped in time for outdoor recess.  The students had gym and we went to the computer room. My students were the best fire drill practicers I've ever seen. There is also a rumor that we MAY have broken the world record for the quickest I have/who has game with 1 minute and 16 seconds.  Remarkable.

Last Week

     It's been a VERY busy two weeks.  We visited the Discovery Museum and had a great time.  There were so many hands on activities and we had the whole place to ourselves.  Such fun!  The museum is in the process of building a tree house.  The "tree house show" people are building it.  I love that show but not sure the real name of it.  We didn't see any of the show's stars but I can't wait to see the finished product.  It should be ready mid July. 
    
      Field day was a huge success.  Mrs. Crampton does an excellent job organizing and the parent volunteers rock.  The weather was absolutely perfect and a good time was had by all. 

     Today we walked down to see Finding Dory.  Super cute movie.  Dory remembers her mom and dad and is on a quest to find them.  She has some old and new friends helping her along the way. 

    Friday, our LAST DAY, will be here in a blink.  Remember dismissal is at 12:00.  I hope you all have a wonderful summer.  Be sure to check back here in the upcoming months.  I plan on posting some of my summer fun!

Boston

     We had a great trip into Boston.   I've never been inside the State House before and it was just beautiful.  I dreamed of living in a Beacon Hill brownstone on our walk to the Public Gardens.  The weather was perfect for a picnic and we even saw the cutest baby ducklings on our Swan Boat ride. 

     In school, we have been busy doing our end of the year district wide assessments.  We wrote about our favorite restaurant and completed both a math and language art assessment.  No one is happier than me to have those out of the way and already inputted into the computer.   One more thing checked off our end of the year to do list!

     Next Thursday we are heading to the Discovery Museum.  I used to take Kaycie there all the time when she was little but haven't been since.  I'm super looking forward to that.  Friday is field day!  Whoo Hoo!!   Remember to have your child wear his/her Wyman yellow shirts to both.  Apply sunscreen and pack a water bottle for field day! 

JUNE

     Can you believe it's June?  Where did the year go?  This month is jam packed with special events and will be over before you know it.

     We have been reading like crazy.  So much fun.  We just finished 26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie DePaola.  Mrs. Izzo suggested it and boy am I happy she did.  Fabulous.  It's a story about the year Tomie's family built their new house.  I loved it.  The students have been reading plays aloud too.  That's always a crowd favorite. The class has been reading about Pigeon.  I love him.  We drew some pictures of him.  I am excited about how great my picture came out.  I'm not very good at drawing and I think this is one of my best works of art.  Be sure to ask you child to tell you about my cat picture in 6th grade.  I am someone who doesn't remember ANYTHING so that picture clearly had a big impact on me.  I started reading about Humphrey to the class today.  He is a class hamster that is looking for adventure.  Can't wait to hear what adventures he finds.

my Pigeon

class Pigeons

   

TALENT

     Today the students put on a talent show.  FANTASTIC!!!!!  I just amazes me how wonderful the children of this school are.  There was singing, dancing, piano playing, super cool stuff.  BRAVO to all that performed!

     We have been watching the eaglets of Washington DC grow.  Boy do they grow fast.  If you haven't checked out the live web cam, you are missing out.  click here for Eagle cam

     In math, we have just started telling time.  Please practice this at home.  One way is to use "time talk".  "We have practice tonight at six o'clock."  "Seven o'clock time to get up."  "Dinner will be ready at six, about 30 minutes from now."

     Next week in science, we will be talking about the states of matter: solid, liquid and gas.  I'm expecting that to be lots of fun. 

March Madness

     It's hard to believe March is already here.  It should fly by if the weather forecast is correct.  Next week is supposed to be nice and warm.  Please keep in mind that although it may be 70 degrees outside it is still cool in the building.  It always seems warmer outside than in during the springtime. 

     Students have been working hard.  We are currently working on map skills.  We've read books about maps and the children drew a map of a room in their house.  They included windows, doors and furniture.  We are currently making a book about some of the "places" we live.....Woburn, Massachusetts, United States etc. 

     This week the PTO had a magician come and perform.  His show had a Dr. Seuss theme which was perfect for Read Across America.  The show was FANTASTIC.  It really was amazing.  I hope you heard all about it. 

     We have completed lots of different writing assignments throughout February.  Students worked really hard learning and writing about George Washington for the district wide assessment.  I was very proud of how well they did and more excited about how motivated they were to write. 

    St. Patrick's day is right around the corner.  I have a fun week of science experiments planned.  I'm really looking forward to it and I hope it's a huge success.  Stay tuned.

Happy 2016

     Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful holiday because we are BACK IN FULL SWING.  We've had a busy week.

     We started the week by brainstorming and writing New Year resolutions.  We talked about things we wanted to do and learn in 2016.  Many students are hoping to learn how to tie their shoes.  I know everyone is always rushing out the door, at least I am, but the kids are ready to learn.  If your student doesn't know yet, teach them.  I know it takes patience but they'll get it.  They also should be able to zip their own coats, especially now that the weather is COLD.

     In math we have been comparing and contrasting numbers using greater than and less than symbols.  When making the symbols, I tell the students to think of an alligator.  His big mouth wants to eat the bigger number, but "no drawing teeth".  Only I can do that.

     We read an adorable story called Owl Babies.  The little owl was so cute.  He just wanted his mommy.  I love it.  Many students also read Poppleton stories and a book about a family that moved into a new house.  Ask your student to tell you more about these stories.

     Next week we will start a unit on penguins.  SUPER FUN.  I can't wait for the students to meet Tacky.