December Days

We traveled to the Flynn to see a performance of Charlotte's Web.  The kids loved it!

Mr. Marino stopped by to read us a favorite book of his called If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen.

December Sharing about Holiday Traditions has been going really well.  This week we were treated to a guitar rendition of a Hanukkah song by a talented musician in our class!

We kicked off our Moon Unit with a question-what lights up the moon?

Then we listed facts we already know about the moon in a moon journal...

followed by things we wonder...

We researched the moon during the week and revisited our question.  We learned that the moon does not make its own light.  It reflects light from the sun.

We started Reader's Theater.

Chromebooks in the classroom!  We now have access to 10 chromebooks to be used in the classroom.  We helped each other learn to log in and used them to comment to one another on our Kidblog posts.

Blogging about Red Clover Books-kicked off in the library with both classes and Mrs. Huestis.

We came up with an anchor chart together to guide our writing:

How to Blog about Red Clover Books

Thankful and Busy!

We finished our "Me on the Map" inspired flip books.  The different sized circle represent:

planet, continent, country, state, city, street, school and lastly each student! 

A student brought in a copy of the book Circus Ship from home.  This is the book that Mr. Marino write to us about in his book review letter.  The class agreed with his opinion and it got a big thumbs up!

And of course we have published our first blog posts and begun to comment to one another.  The children are SO motivated!  They are learning valuable technology/typing skills, netiquette and having fun!  Thanks for adding your comments as well!

In math we are learning how mathematicians add two 2 digit numbers efficiently and accurately. 

In all of the examples below, you will see how the students have a solid understanding of place value.  While this may not look like the "traditional algorithm" of lining up your numbers and adding across columns, this leads to a deeper understanding of addition and place value.  The algorithm is a short cut that they will learn in future grades.  Many children are doing this mentally in their heads quite quickly.  The students were asked to show their strategies on their white boards so that someone else could "read" their math thinking.  We call this using mathematical representation to justify your math thinking.  

Some Free Choice fun pictures!

I read the class The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by D. Manus Pinkwater.  I love to read this book to my second graders every November.  The kids loved it.  What is not to love about a 266 pound chicken named Henrietta?!

Another book I always read this time of year is Molly's Pilgrim.  This book has a very powerful message.  Ask your child about it.

The children were very proud of the turkeys that they made at home.  Thanks for you participation!

Since the children do not have school this week, I do not have a weekly letter-I will have one ready before the children return next week.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your families!

Blogging and Learning!

This week the students all started to type their first book review blog posts-they are SUPER excited to publish these!

Four Winds this week included a "Time Machine" that helped us learn about how logs decompose.

During You Skills we focused on how to help ourselves get Brain In when we notice we are Brain Out

Please rememeber to read this week's letter!