St. Patrick's Day

     Last week was filled with all sorts of St. Patrick's Day stories and activities.  We read That's What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting.  The three main characters of that story were very mischievous.  We also read Clever Tom and the Leprechaun by Linda Shute.  Tom ALMOST found the leprechaun's gold. 


     We had quite a few learning centers going last week.  We sorted common and proper nouns, sequenced numbers, found missing addends and told time to name a few. 


     This week we finished reading our chapter biograghy on Louis Braille.  Be sure to ask your child to tell you all about him.  We are also reading Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty.  Rosie is a little engineer who came close to giving up on her dreams.  Good thing great-great aunt Rose (AKA Rosie the Riveter) encouraged her to never give up.  It's a fun rhyming story that teaches a great lesson.


    Monday we did Yoga with Sharon Marrama.  She is also a published children's author and she gave us an autographed copy of her book The Boy With the Pink Socks.  Her yoga students are also published authors of a titled called What's in Your Pot?  Each pot is filled with things that make them happy.  We created our own version of this book that we will share soon.  Yoga was super fun and kid friendly.  I'd encourage you to check her out at www.herecomesthesunyoga.com.


     We have some important dates coming up.  Next Tuesday, March 28 is parent teacher conferences.  Wednesday, March 29 is a half day of school.  Friday, April 7th is our Spring Showcase at Woburn High.  We will be walking to and from the high school so please keep that in mind when dressing your child that day.  We will be singing 2 songs with the Hurld School. 

Biographies

     We have continued to read and write biographies this week.  Our mentor text was Me...Jane, a biography about Jane Goodall as a child.  It's wonderful to see a young girl grow up to live her childhood dreams.  Students also learned a little about chimpanzees in the process.  The class did a tricky directed drawing of Jane.  I wanted to do the easier drawing of a chimpanzee but the students were all about JANE.  They came out great.

     Keeping with the biography theme,  our class is also reading a chapter book about Louis Braille.  He has just gotten settled in at a school for blind boys in Paris.  He left his family to attend this school when he was 10.

     Students wrote their biographies for the district.  They either wrote about George Washington or Abraham Lincoln because we had been learning so much about them recently.  I haven't read any of them yet but I'm sure they are AWESOME!  I'm saving the correcting for a SNOW DAY.  Looks like I'll get to it this week.

     Our autobiographies came out great too.  We are in the process of editing them.  Mrs. Maloney has been leading both second grade classes in this Writers Workshop lesson and clearly it has paid off.  I'm very impressed with what I've seen so far.

     Directions will be coming home for our biography research projects on Monday.  Keep your eyes open for that.

     We used the IPADS in class this week.  Students are psyched for them.  Our lexia challenge for March is to level up.  So far we've already had some students do so.  Please encourage your child to practice at home.

     Next week is St. Patrick's Day.  I've got all sorts of "games" planned.  What's better than learning and having fun at the same time????

Back at it

      We have jumped back into the swing of things, after a nice summer-feeling vacation, with both feet.  We have been reading about both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  We know lots of facts about both.  This is great because next week we need to write a biography for the district. 

      To help us prepare for this district writing assessment, we have combined both second grades and have been working on writing autobiographies with our special guest teacher..............Mrs. Maloney!!!!  They are coming along beautifully.  Her experience with Writers Workshop has helped us write fantastic leads.  I can't wait to read their finished products.

     Some students got REALLY rusty with subtraction.  We have practiced all week and will continue to do so until we work out all the kinks.

     The PTO has a trivia night planned.  I hope lots of grown-ups plan to attend.  It's a fun night that you won't want to miss.