Math Learning

We have learned about collecting, organizing and graphing data.  We have analyzed and compared the information shown by our graphs.

In addition, we are learning about measurement.  We began measuring with non-standard units, the teacher's footprint and even a giant's footprint.  Then we made our own "inchworm" rulers using the standard of inches.  With these rulers, we practiced measuring items in the classroom and recording our data.

Fun Learning Opportunity During Vacation

 Last week was Computer Science Education Week.  Students were encouraged to spend an hour learning how to write code in order to program a computer.  Our students worked for an hour practicing code by learning basic move forward commands and then more complex repeat, and if-then commands. The children had so much fun progressing to more challenging levels.  They received immediate feedback to show how their programs worked and then had the opportunity to make changes. To learn more about the goals of "Hour of Code," please see the first link.  For your child to continue to play with code, click on the 2nd link. There are 20 problems to solve with code and many more areas to explore. 
Computer Science Week 12/9-15
Learn Code

New 8th grade volunteer

Peter is our new 8th grade volunteer who helps out in our classroom each Thursday afternoon. We are having fun getting to know him.

Author's Chair

Today we celebrated our young authors!

During our narrative writing unit, students practiced using the writing process to produce a published piece of writing. We started with a plan, told our stories out loud, wrote first drafts, revised, edited, typed them on the computer and finally...illustrated them! After weeks of hard work, everyone was ready to share their narrative book. We have a special "Author's Only" stool that students read from and then sign. It was awesome to see them proud of their accomplishment!

Mindful Movement with Becky Roberg

Thanks to a grant funded by our PTO, our class was visited by Becky Roberg yesterday. She is a mindfulness and yoga instructor from Evolution Yoga in Burlington. She taught us ways to use breathing to help us relax and calm our bodies. She also taught us some fun movements to energize our bodies, and strategies to help us when we feel nervous or fearful. The children really enjoyed her visit. Be sure to ask your child to share with you some of the techniques.

Timber! Flynn Workshop

On Monday, we had a teacher from the Flynn Theater come to our classroom to help us prepare for going to the show, Timber! We had so much fun experimenting with mime, mirroring, weight sharing and creating symmetrical poses. At the end we created small circus "troupes" and performed a short skit for one another.

This experience helped us to really appreciate all the amazing talent and hard work that goes into producing a show like Timber!

Imagination Playground

We had the opportunity to use the Imagination Playground in November. As a class we worked together to create our own fun space. We had to share, problem solve and use our imaginations. In the photos you will see how during one of our visits we made a pretend store that was offering massages to customers.

Hands on Nature

We are fortunate to have parent volunteers teach us hands on science lessons each month. The theme for Hands on Nature this year is patterns in nature. We have learned about spiders and their webs, leaves and cones. We have science journals to record our observations.

Long Ago Study

One of our final activities for our Long Ago study was to interview Ms. Beaman, a volunteer from the community, who helps in our school. The children wrote questions and took notes.  Ms. Beaman, a retired elementary school teacher, helped us understand how children's lives have changed.  One of her final questions from a child was, "Do you like living now or long ago?"  She responded that now is a great time to live because there are so many choices for children to learn in the way that best suits them and to try new activities.

Goodbyes

We had to say goodbye to some good friends recently. Our last activity with Natalie, our UVM intern, was a fun estimation lesson that she led. On Nate's last day we gave him thank you cards as well as high 5's or hugs. This 8th grade volunteer made a strong connection with the whole class, especially many of the boys, who gave Nate big hugs as they said good-bye. And, finally we had to say farewell to our dear classmate CeCi.  We will continue to be in touch with her through our Kidblog. 

Shelburne Museum Slideshow

 Shelburne Museum Slideshow

Our Books Inspired by Eric Carle

Please click play to hear us reading the pages that we designed. (There is a short pause between each page.)

Busy Mathematicians

Learning about place value by grouping beans by 10's to figure out how many all together

We have been focusing on these math concepts:

Place value: Making groups of tens to count into the hundreds
We estimated and then counted how many beans were in a bag of kidney beans.  In the picture above, the papers represent the 100's, 10's and 1's places.  As beans were grouped by tens in small cups, they were then combined into containers of 100.  We have also solved riddles to practice place value such as: I have 2 tens and 5 ones.  Who am I?  And, more challenging:  If you gave me 2 more tens, I would be 80.  Who am I?

Finding the difference between quantities through comparing and subtracting
We have estimated how many scoops of a cup it would take to get 50 beans.  Then we counted our estimate by grouping the beans by 10's.  We compared if we scooped greater than or less than 50.  Finally we wrote an equation to show our work.  So if we scooped 68, our equation would be 68-50=18.  We found out that there are 18 more beans in our estimate than 50.  18 is the difference.

Class Community

Practicing 'debugging' with Ms. Wideman

Our Class Rules

A very important part of our first 6 weeks of school is creating a class community.  When children feel secure in their class, they are more willing to try new activities to further their learning. 

We create class community in a variety of ways:

• Getting to know each other through our "About Me" unit
• Sharing our hopes and dreams for the year
• Creating our class rules together  (In case you'd like to read the details, from above, our rules state: be safe, treat others how you would like to be treated, respect the environment around you, try your best)
• Practicing respectful ways to solve social problems (We call this "debugging" and recently sent home a sheet that gives ideas for practicing.)
• Playing games, having fun and enjoying each other's company

Opinion Writing, Oreo Style!

Opinion writing is one of the writing genres that we teach second graders. It is a great way to start off the year because it lends itself to many writing pieces and children this age have many opinions!

We teach them how to write a structured paragraph including a focus statement (their opinion), supporting details (why they feel that way) and a conclusion.

Last week we used an Oreo cookie to model this process.  Please visit our student blogs with your child to see how we did this. Have them teach the method to you. Ask them about the two opinion pieces we have written so far. It was a fun way to learn a life-long skill!

Great Parenting Article

A friend recently shared this article with me and I just had to pass it along. I found it so moving. It is especially appropriate at this time of year when many of our children are participating in fall sports.

Parenting Article

Student Helpers in Our Classroom

This fall we have 2 student helpers in our classroom.  Natalie is a UVM student who is majoring in elementary education with a concentration in Spanish.  She is with us every Thursday morning.  With assistance, she will teach 2-3 lessons this fall.

  Nate is an SCS middle school student who helps us out each Thursday afternoon as part of his community service project for school. It's a treat to see Nate helping the 2nd grade students since he was once a 2nd grade student in our class.  Nate has been particularly helpful in the computer lab as we work on our blogs.  The children have been very welcoming to both of these students.

Eric Carle Book Project

We have been having so much fun with our author study of Eric Carle. He is an amazing author and illustrator! We spent a lot of time reading his books and talking about all the things we noticed about the author's craft. Next, we made our own paper using lots of different texture techniques. We then used that paper to create gorgeous collage pictures for our very own book inspired by the one and only...Eric Carle.

Take a peek at the process in our slideshow. Our completed books will be waiting for you at curriculum night!

Eric Carle Book Project

Math

Hello Kaleidoscope Families,
Ask your children about what they have been learning in math.
Here are some talking points and a picture of our work to begin the discussion:
Beetle glyphs
Categories
Picture Graph
Bar graph
Greater than and less than
Difference

Slideshow of Our First Days Together

Click here for video

Great Beginning

We are off to a great start!  Ask your children about these projects that we did this week:
Designing our own I Spy creation using the letters from KALEIDOSCOPE
Creating our Helping Hands team poster
Making our Change Capsule

Second grade students were helpers for their new 1st grade teammates.

Ms. Claire, our team para-educator, led us in singing a fun chant.

1st Day of School

Kaleidoscope Team Popsicle Party
We cooled off with ice pops as we got to know each other on the first day of school.

Learning to Blog

Lynda and I have spent the past few days together taking a class to learn all about blogging. We are excited to blog with our students this year using Kidblog and to blog about our classroom happenings on our class blog.

We are novices for sure, but are determined to make it work!

Welcome

Welcome to our 2nd grade class.
Lynda Maitland and Diane Hansen