Insects and Things

Our butterflies are arriving this week. Have your children squealed with excitement as they share their enthusiasm with you? We will watch the "metamorphosis" of a caterpillar into a butterfly. This observation is timely and a fabulous way to learn more about life cycles. This process is beautiful in its own way and leads into more learning of the insect community which the children love. There will be an enrichment program and a culminating project in June so stay tuned for more information.

The committee for Understanding Disabilities will presenting a workshop for all second graders on Friday of this week. There will be an hour long workshop with hands and participatory activities for each class. This will be followed up with a discussion of what the children learned from the workshop on understanding disabilities. Students will be put in situations to make them aware of what it might be like to live without sight or hearing. They also will get to experience using crutches and a wheel chair. Understanding Disabilities gives students the opportunity to learn what it might be like to live in someone elses shoes. Thank you to all parents who have volunteered to bring this progam to us.


Thank you for those who particiapated in making "Teacher Appreciation" Week so wonderful. Thank you for the flowers, notes and treats. The luncheon was fabulous and to win a raffle prize was a total surprise. Please know that it has been such a pleasure to work with your students this year. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience in second grade. Your children have grown and matured so much this year. You should all be proud of their accomplishments. I thank you for all you do! With your continued support, my job is so much easier.

Beginning Monday, the students will be bringing home Writing Portfolios. Each portfolio is stocked with writing supplies and suggestions of writing ideas. All portfolios will rotate through out the classroom till the end of the year. There are four and hopefully every child will get to each one. The portfolio can stay at home for TWO days. I will not send them home on the weekend. The kids seemed excited and are so interested in writing. I hope you get caught up in their enthusiasm!

With 22 days of learning to go, I look forward to more exciting and funfilled days!
I hope the sun comes out this week and may you all have an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!

Thirty Days and Counting

Well can you believe the year is coming to a close. Your children have worked so hard and have learned so much this year. As I relflect on the year I see a group of amazing readers, writers, scientist, and mathematicians. These kiddos have grown and experienced presenting native american and biography projects. They have worked in partnership to explore, discover and problem solve. In the weeks ahead we will complete our heritage projects and witness the life cycle of a butterfly. You should be very proud of your second graders!

In the final weeks we will be learning about life cycles and insects. The children are always very excited about this unit. Each child will harvest and observe the cycle transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. As I stated earlier, we will be working to complete our heritage projects and the children will share what they learned about their country of heritage with their classmates. During our library media time the class has been exploring websites to assist with the project such as National Geographic and Time for Kids. Everyone is learning a lot about the capitals, important landforms, population, language, currency and celebrations of their country. It is an interesting social studies project that connects with what they've learned about the continents.


In math, second graders have begun unit 11 and have two more units after that. We will be pushing to get them done by the end of the year. Please remember that your students may be learning and teaching you new strategies to help solve problems. Use these straegies to support them in their learning and with their homework. Counting change continues to be a challenge for many so practice with them when you can. Fact power should always be practiced. Students should have facts to 20 down. Please keep the "fever" going! Play these online math games for fun!

April was poetry month and many kiddos are still trying their skills at poetry. We have written cinquain and acrostic poems so far. Next week we will attempt haiku which is a poem about nature. Have your children share some with you.

We our down to our final two lessons of Fundations. Last week we did unit 16. New spelling words will come home this week. The skill is still double vowels as you know (au, aw). Next week our last unit will be on words with _ble, _le, _dle endings. Words such as table, cradle, little will be learned. In grammer, we are learning about tenses of verbs. Spelling is an important part of grammar in the next few weeks as students must learn when to change the "y" to "i" and add es, or double the consonant in a short vowel word such as running, batted, or when to drop the e and add ed like in smiled.

I hope eveyone had a great Mother's Day weekend. I know there are lots of First Communion celebrations and dance recitals as well. It is a busy time for all when you have to fit in a T-ball or soccer game as well. Spring is full of busy schedules but please try to keep routines and bed times consistent. There's still learning much to do!

The "WOW" Factor!

Do you recognize any of these amazing characters? On Wednesday, April 13 many interesting, creative and incredible people showed up in Room 14. The stories they had to share were remarkable and impressive. I congratulate all of these participants on a job well done. Of course I am talking about your children. All were eager and enthusiastic about sharing what they with Miss Carlow's 4th Grade students and each other. The second graders were surprised to find a twin at lunch or walking the halls that look alike. Thank you to all families who made this possible.

It was great to see so many families at the Learning Fair. Your kiddos were pleased to share their class and projects with all of you. They have been working so hard and as you can see there's a lot that goes into each day. Thanks again for visiting!

Our next big project is our Heritage project that we will begin work on next week. Killam has students and families from many different backgrounds. All second graders will research their heritage in books and online with the support of Miss Simopolous in the library. It will take several weeks to compile the information so stay tuned!

Incase you didn't know it, there are only 39 days left of school. It's so hard to believe. We are looking forward to the days ahead. The second graders will be finishing up the Science unit on Weights and Balances. In the coming weeks math will continue to focus on place value to the ten thousands and multiplication as we complete the last units of the Everyday Math program. Fundations will wrap up the last of the double vowel rules and grammar rules include possessive nouns and adding endings to verbs. So, don't think we are winding down....we still have LOTS to do!
It will be the WOW FACTOR!

March News

Will spring ever arrive? We had a sneak peek last week. I think we all need the warm weather to stay. This month Room 14 has been very busy with the presentation of our Native American Projects, beginning a new Science Unit on Weighing and Balancing and preparing for the distribution of report cards. We survived and we are looking forward to our final term together. It is hard to believe there are only 55 days left of school. WOW! Where did the year go? Your children are more experienced readers, writers, scientist, mathematicians, historians and so much more. This year has been awesome! Please see the other posts on the projects, our science lesson on mobiles and our talented stars of the stage in Space Pets.

In Math, we just finished unit 8 on fractions. The children will be assessed on Monday. Fractions and arrays are preparing students for multiplication and division. The children are very motivated to learn to multiply and divide. Please have them continue practicing FACT POWER as they need to have those facts down. Many have not practiced Fact Fever in awhile. It would be very beneficial!

In writing, the children continue to practice the writing of a paragraph. Paragraphs need to indent, have a topic sentence, three or more detailed sentences and a clincher or closing sentence. Some of the children have a good handle on this already at this point in the year and they are moving on to capably handling the writing of two bridged paragraphs. In the details they should be using transitional words to change up each sentence or detail. This was practiced when they brought home the writing paper on respect for people and the environment. Some kids still need reminders to use capitals and periods but fifth grade teachers tell us that is happening in fifth grade too!

In Fundations, we continue with double vowel teams. This week the focus is on ou and ow in words like; cloud, proud, down, frown and plow. In grammar we are learning the rule for using commas when writing a list of items in a sentence. Again, some students are using this rule at this point and for others it will be new to them. Thank you for your support when discussing and reviewing these rules with your kids at home.

Finally, this week in social studies we will be discussing different important people in history. Students will learn that famous people can be in history, science, math, music, art and sports. The children will be given the opportunity to explore many biographies and pick a famous person they would like to learn more about. If your child has mentioned to you that they will be doing another very special project, it will be a biogrpahy. More information will be sent home this week. As before, there will be two weeks to work on the project at home and the kids will be expected to balance their time on the project. The children will present their information to the class in costume and during the Learning Fair.

I hope you have a wonderful week and enjoy these lastest posts! Don't forget that the second grade Pillars assembly will be on Wednesday, April 6. It is on respect and the students are encouraged to wear their pillar color of yellow!

The Patience of Weighing and Balancing

Did you get to experience the excitement of our class Science experiment on creating mobiles? Everyone had so much fun even though it began with a struggle for some. Our Science unit involves a learning of how balancing works. We have been exploring with the use of a beam balance thus far.


Next week we move to an equal arm balance. What weighs more; a pound of bricks or a pound of feathers? The beam balance has a movable "fulcrum". The kids explored where the fulcrum would be if you had equal weights on each side or different weights. Ask your child and see what they can tell you. This week the kids will build their own equal arm balance and explore weighing different items. In an equal arm balance the fulcrum is stabile. Will there be less frustration? Stay tuned!

Space Pets

Who knew we had stars in our midst? Corinne, Molly and Ava participated in a Koala Class after school on Wednesdays. Along with other children and a wonderful instructor, these kiddos acted in a very cute play called Space Pets. If you see these kiddos around, ask them about their experience in this wonderful production. Again, who knew these girls were so talented! Congratulations girls!

Our Natvie American Projects

What a wonderful display of knowledge and creativity as our class presented their Native American projects. Each of your children presented their project in front of the class and explained the region of choice and what they created. The presentation was followed by the class asking thoughtful questions and giving positive feedback to each of their classmates.

Thank you to all families who guided their children through this project. I hope you had fun. Here is a sampling of all projects which are now on display in the 2/3HiD. If you have time some afternoon next week please come in and see the work on display. It is quite fabulous!

Congratulations to all the second graders for a job well done!