We had a very busy short week!
2nd grade was privileged to have a guest speaker from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency present to the students about maps. Students learned about types of maps, parts of maps, and how they are used to help with everything from protecting our troops to helping with natural disasters. This was a wonderful way to wrap up our study of maps and geography in social studies.
The children are also finishing up their maps assessment project. Most students have completed their playground models and maps or island maps and writing. Now, students are taking pictures of their work and explaining their creations on Seesaw. Students and parents are encouraged to check out the projects on Seesaw. Completed projects will come home next week.
Another Flat Stanley arrived back from Pittsburgh, PA! Stanley wrote a book about his adventures, and sent many beautiful pictures of the city.
In math, we are continuing to move through Chapter 5 on place value. Students learned how to read and write numbers in word form. They also practiced skip counting larger numbers by 5, 10, and 100. Next week, we will finish the lessons in the chapter and have a test at the end of the week.
The children practiced their visualizing skills in reading this week by listening to the story The Gruffalo without seeing the pictures. They were able to take notes about how they heard the author describe the creature called the gruffalo while listening, and then they each made a drawing of what they imagined in their mind. Next, they were able to hear the story again with the pictures and compare how their drawings looked to the illustrations in the book.
Visualization skills are matching up nicely with writing, as students are working on a quick write piece to practice their descriptive writing skills. Inspired by Halloween and the book, I Need My Monster, each student created a monster of their own from construction paper. Now, they are writing a description of their monster. We reviewed what adjectives are, and also learned how to write comparisons. The children have started their drafts. Next week, they will revise, edit, and publish their writing. Look for pictures next week of their completed work.
In science, the students are learning about sound. 2nd graders need to understand that sound travels in waves and is caused by changes in vibrations. They watched demonstrations of how this works with different instruments. Then, the children made kazoos from straws so they could feel the vibration on their lips. They cut the straws to different lengths to see how it changed the pitch.
Students celebrated the end of our narrative writing unit by taking part in a gallery walk to each of the 2nd grade classrooms. They were able to read many stories on display by their peers and leave positive compliments and feedback for each other. I will be sending home their published stories on Tuesday.
In reading, the children have been learning about story elements in fiction books. They are practicing retelling a story using the setting, characters, problem, and solution. Another focus has been on retelling the events of the story in order.
In math, the students learned about how to read and write numbers in both standard and expanded form. They also practiced representing numbers up to 1,000 using base ten blocks. It is important that students know the names of their ones, tens, and hundreds place value positions. Here is a fun video on expanded form if your child is having difficulty with this new concept. Next week, we will focus on lessons 5-7 from Chapter 5. The kids had fun reviewing arrays with memory, even and odd numbers with dominoes, and skip counting with QR codes in partner centers.
Two more Flat Stanleys have returned from their adventures! This time Stanley traveled farther from home. The students were able to learn about Tallahassee, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina.
To review maps, the children made Me on the Map Flip Books after listening to the story Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney. Now, students are enjoying our maps and geography assessment. I am impressed with their creativity so far! They were given the choice on either designing a playground model out of recycled materials or writing and drawing about the island of their dreams. Students have to create maps of their playgrounds and islands that include titles, keys, and compass roses. We will work on finishing this project next week. Each child will post a picture and explanation of their project on Seesaw once they are done.
The students had a wonderful field trip to the Magic House! Each child was able to spend time performing a job, earning a paycheck, and spending their paycheck in the village. Students also worked in groups to plan a family budget. This field trip was an excellent preview of one of our upcoming social studies units on economics. Thank you so much to all of the parent volunteers who helped chaperone!
We have wrapped up Chapter 2 in math. We will begin Chapter 5 next, which covers place value of numbers up to 1,000. Next week we will cover lessons 1-3.
In reading, students have been learning to ask questions about their books. We read one of my favorite stories, Mr. Peabody's Apples, to learn this strategy. The students have practiced asking before, during, and after reading questions about their independent and guided reading texts.
The children are busy publishing their final drafts of their personal narrative stories. Next week they will finish publishing, and students will have a chance to share and celebrate their work with each other.
Another one of our Flat Stanley's has returned. This time Stanley was able to stay in the Lake of the Ozarks. He even was able to spend time working at Tan-Tar-A Resort. Stanley also had a hot dog cookout.
In social studies, we continued our maps and geography unit by learning about various landforms and bodies of water. The children played a landforms partner game and learned that different symbols can stand for landforms on a map. Students also compared and contrasted physical and political maps. Each child colored and labeled maps of the continents and oceans of the world. Next week, we will begin a final project to bring our geography unit to a close.
