Thursday, March 28th

Thursday, March 28, 2013

We really enjoyed our Camp Read S’more Day today in Second Grade! Our camping day was a fun conclusion to a month of many different reading activities for March. Thank you to everyone who sent in tents and contributions to our S’more Trail Mix snack!

Reader’s Workshop

This week in Workshop we took a further look into Non-Fiction features in texts and we introduced a new book, A Wood Frog’s Life. We noticed that this too fell into the Informational Fiction genre. We also spent time looking at new nonfiction books and began brainstorming a list of strategies to use when approaching an unfamiliar non-fiction text.

Writer’s Workshop

Birds, birds, birds… BIRDS!! We are spending time learning about the different types of bird books we will be using for our research on birds. We continue to gather questions and wonderings about birds as we look at field guides, bird type specific books and general bird books. Please remember, if you have any bird books at home, we’d love to take a look at them at school too!

During our Camp Read S’More event today, our Writer’s got to celebrate their published Small Moment stories with peers from all four second grade classrooms. The kids were split up and spread out amongst the rooms. It was fun to share our personal narratives with new students across the grade. Be sure to look for these up in the second grade hallway after Spring Break.

Math Workshop

This week in math we spent a great deal of time reviewing major concepts for our Math Benchmark. We took a look at fractions, at area and perimeter and at pictographs (where the symbol does not always represent one item, but most often, multiple items). I will be working to grade benchmarks over Spring Break and scores will come home with report card information after break. We also took a look this week at money amounts on the calculator in math. We noticed how coin values can be represented with decimals and how some numbers, like $3.50 appears on our calculator like 3.5. We will be spending a great deal of time with money after break, this would be a great time to review coin combinations and dollar amounts over break!

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week we were BUSY! Our Market Day was a huge success! We have some very creative producers and consumers in our class! The stores were jammed with items and consumers were eager to shop. We were able to write about our experiences after and incorporated in words like: goods, services, producers, consumers, opportunity cost and scarcity! We also spent time this week reviewing for our Economics Test that we took on Wednesday.

Science

Our scientists continued to have fun exploring with air this week.  First, we searched for moving air by blowing bubbles outside.  The bubbles helped us see the direction the air was moving and exactly how fast or slow the air was blowing.  The scientists were amazed to see how air moved in a doorway and around the corners of a building.  We ended our week by making our own parachutes!  We learned that a parachute falls slowly to the ground because the air pushes against the canopy.  Meteorologists also discovered that air resistance slowed the parachute down.

Important Upcoming Dates:

School Resumes: Monday, April 8, 2013

Sock Hop Basket Items DUE: Monday, April 8, 2013

Dublin Sock Hop: Thursday, April 11, 2013