What an exciting end of year we’ve had! We kept learning right until the last day of school – multiplication and comparing folktales from different cultures were some interesting things we focused on this week! We also had lots of special events to help us wrap up our year.
Thanks to everyone who attended the End of Year Celebration which showcased the students’ work. They were so proud to share their work with you. It was cute when I passed out their work from the beginning of the year. They were amazed by how much they’ve learned and changed. 🙂
We also had our year-end party this week. The students enjoyed wearing pajamas and hanging out with their stuffed animals and friends while they played games. They enjoyed the sundaes, too! Thanks to everyone who helped at the party and contributed supplies to make it such a success!
The students also had a lot of fun at Field Day, as you can see by the pictures!
Today was our year-end assembly. The students are now 3rd graders – wow! Each child brought home a special award that was chosen for them by the class and by me. They also have a book to help them start their summer reading! An optional summer homework bingo grid was sent home, as well. It’s important that the kids continue their learning over the summer, so they keep their skills sharp! We also had a little bit of time to play outside with chalk and bubbles.
Thank you for a wonderful year! I have so enjoyed working with this fabulous group of learners!
Jan Steves, the Iditarod musher we were following, visited us this month! We were so glad we were able to learn from her before the race and then hear from her again after the race. The kids were able to get some of their questions answered and hear about the challenges Jan faced during this year’s Iditarod. They were very excited to meet Yen, one of Jan’s sled dogs!
The students were so proud to receive their reading medals! Depending on the amount of books they read, the students received a bronze, silver, or gold medal. Everyone was recognized at an assembly on Friday.
Math: We finished our graphing and time unit and are back to addition and subtraction. First, we spent some time reviewing place value, mentally adding and subtracting 10s and 100s, and comparing numbers. Having this solid understanding of place value helps the students when adding and subtracting larger numbers. We’ve tried out a new web tool called Kahoot during our math lessons; ask your child about it!
Science: Our caterpillars are in their chrysalises, and we can’t wait for the next stage of the life cycle! If you’ve had time to sign up to view your child’s Seesaw account, you’ve been able to see and hear more about what we’ve been learning. 🙂 If you haven’t yet signed up, please do! We can’t wait to share our learning with you in this digital way. (Information about how to sign up was sent home last week. Please let me know if you need me to resend the information.)
Literacy: The students are conducting research about a particular insect of their choice. First, they used PebbleGo and various books to gather notes about their insect, including appearance, diet, habitat, life cycle, predators, and interesting facts. Now, they are writing a rough draft of each topic – thinking about a topic sentence, a logical order for the different facts, and a concluding sentence. This is hard work, and the students are learning a lot about informational writing as we move through this project!
End of Year Celebration: Thanks to everyone who answered the survey about the best time for our year-end celebration. More people voted for an evening time, so we would like to invite everyone to our classroom on Monday, June 13th, from 6:30 – 7:30 pm. During this time, the students will share their insect research project, as well as other work from throughout the year. We look forward to seeing you there!
I can’t believe that April is over; this year is flying by! The students continue to work hard in all subject areas and are making such great progress. Thanks to everyone who has returned a signed copy of the progress report. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about your child’s progress so far this year.
Literacy: April was Poetry Month, and we enjoyed writing, illustrating, and reading poems aloud. The students wrote a Wish poem and a Haiku. They also used the computer program Drawing for Children to illustrate a line from the poem When I Grow Up by Jack Prelutsky. We put all their illustrations together, and the students narrated the poem as well. Click on the link below to see their project.
When I Grow Up Poem Photostory
We learned about nonfiction text features and how to use these features to find and gain information from nonfiction texts. We also practiced reading carefully to find the main idea and supporting details of a passage.
Math: We wrapped up our subtraction unit by tackling some tricky word problems. The kids are so excited about learning and enjoy when the learning gets a little bit difficult! We practiced solving comparison and two-step word problems. The students had to read carefully because sometimes they needed to use addition and sometimes they needed to use subtraction to figure out the answer.
Our next math unit focuses on graphing and telling time. The kids know a lot about graphing, and we’ve already gotten a bit of a head start on this part of the unit. Telling time tends to be trickier for them, so any extra practice on this skill at home would be appreciated.
Social Studies: We learned about map features (compass rose, key, grid, etc.) and geographical features (mountain, valley, river, lake, etc.). After the students understood the content, they got to be a cartographer and make their own map! They designed an island and the geographic features that were found on the island. They named each feature and created a compass rose and key for the map. Their maps are hanging in the hall for everyone to enjoy!
Second Step: This is our curriculum that focuses on social/emotional development. This week we learned the STEPs to solving a problem.
S – Say the problem without blame
T – Think of solutions that are safe and respectful
E – Explore the consequences of each solution
P – Pick the best solution
First of all, congratulations to Steven for passing his addition facts on Xtramath!
Our class celebration was a lot of fun! Thanks to everyone who sent in snacks to share. The kids looked so cute in their pajamas, and they enjoyed having their stuffed animals at school! The movie Balto was a big hit! We just started reading the book this week. I’m looking forward to some great discussions comparing the book to the movie once we finish the book after break.
Waiting for the kids to return from lunch and recess!
On Monday, we had a presentation from Nature Vision sponsored by the City of Duvall. The title of the presentation was Healthy Water, Healthy Soil. The kids learned the important parts of a habitat and then explored a sample of compost, looking for different types of organisms. As you can see by the pictures, they were fully engaged and learning!
The projects the students created about the Iditarod were wonderful! We had trading cards, dioramas, games, art work, a song, a PowerPoint presentation, and a narrated Minecraft experience. It was so neat to see how the students shared their Iditarod knowledge in unique and interesting ways! The students presented to the class, practicing their formal speaking skills. Later in the afternoon, the 2nd grade classes came in to see the projects, and the students had an opportunity to share their projects more informally.
Dear Families,
We really enjoyed reading your comments on the blog! We like getting feedback and compliments on our work. It is fun for us to share our work with you. We like when you can see what we are doing in class.
Sincerely,
The students in room 11
Our most exciting update is that Adrian is the first person to pass his addition facts on Xtramath! Way to go, Adrian! He has been practicing and practicing, and all his hard work made a difference. We are all very proud of him.
We finished Volume 2 of our Homophone book. Enjoy!
We have a lot to share about our new learning, but we’ll try to keep it short and focused! (As an incentive to keep reading, there is a class project at the end of the blog for you enjoy!)
Math: Subtraction is tricky, but we are working hard to master this concept. Along with the homework packet, you should have received some information about the strategies used in class and a poem that helps us know if we need to ungroup. Right now all we need is practice, practice, practice!
Social Studies and the Iditarod: We’ve been learning about this exciting dog sled race occurring in Alaska. This has been a great way for us to learn about current events and have an authentic way to learn mapping skills (cardinal directions, keys and legends, scales, and grids). First, the students voted on a few mushers that they wanted to follow and root for during the race. One of the mushers, Jan Steves, came to school to visit us earlier in the year, so we were excited to follow her during the Iditarod. This year’s Iditarod has had a few problems, however. Jan Steves had to scratch (quit the race) because she ran over a rope on the trail, flipped her sled, broke two ribs, and punctured a lung. Once we got over that worry and disappointment, two of the other mushers we were following were affected by the incident this weekend. A man was driving his snowmobile under the influence of alcohol, and hit two different dog teams. The mushers were okay, but one dog was killed and a few others were injured. We had a discussion today about the incident and the poor choices people can make. I tried to address it in a second grade way, but I know the kids still have questions. We will continue to process it this week.
Science: We are still hard at work learning about the three states of matter and how they change. In our last investigation, we mixed three different solids with a liquid to see what occurred. Some solid/liquid mixtures were easy to separate (gravel and water); some were a bit harder but doable (tissue and water); and one was quite perplexing (salt and water). We finally figured out we couldn’t physically separate the salt and water like we had with the other two, so we decided to let the water evaporate and see what was left. We discovered salt crystals!
Reading: We are doing a book study on a chapter book called Stone Fox. This is a story about a boy who enters a dog sled race to earn money to help his grandfather keep their farm. We are loving the story and learning so much about different story elements, such as character, setting, problem, solution, and sequence of events. We’ve also discussed character traits and finding evidence for those traits, as well as the idea of cause and effect. And, we are only about halfway through the book! This story is a tear jerker, so we’ll all probably be crying at the end. I know that I always do. It’s a story that touches our heads and our hearts – which is the best kind!
Writing: Opinion writing is our focus right now. The kids have written several pieces: one about their favorite subject, one about their favorite book, and a piece of their choice. Now that they have a few good drafts, they will choose one to take through the entire writing process. The kids also wrote some wonderful letters to Jan Steves after her accident which were sent off to her last week.
We learned more about contractions and homophones, as these can be stumbling blocks for reading and writing. The kids used our new iPads (hooray!) and the app, Book Creator, to create a class book about homophones. Each child chose a pair of homophones, wrote a sentence to help us understand both words, and then illustrated their work. Volume 1 of our homophone book is attached below, and Volume 2 will be posted soon!
(Please view in full screen and move your cursor off the progress bar in order to see the sentence and name of the student who wrote each page. Enjoy!)
Here are our last few shapes for you to enjoy!
Cube by Shoma and Thomas
Rectangular Prism by Isabelle and Jordan
Octagon by Quinn and Rowan
Pentagon by Landon and Nash
Trapezoid by Meki and Sunshyne
As part of our geometry unit, the students studied one shape in a bit more depth. We started out by reading a book called The Important Book. In this book, the author writes about different objects – identifying what’s most important about the objects, as well as other interesting details. So, we took this idea and applied it to shapes! The students worked with a partner or two and chose a shape. Then, they decided on the most important thing about that shape. They also thought about other interesting details or information. They took a tour of the school to find an example of their shape “in real life” and created a little video to tell all about their shape. Enjoy learning about this first round of shapes! We’ll post the rest of the videos soon.
Rectangle by Chloe & Shauna
Triangle by Adrian, Bhagat & Nash
Nonagon by Abby & Aubrey
Hexagon by Harlow & Lilly
Dodecagon by Jaydan & Steven
Square by Ava, Avery & Jhony
Our Friendship Day Celebration was a lot of fun! The kids enjoyed decorating cookies, passing out cards, playing bingo, and eating their treats! Thanks to everyone who provided food and supplies and to Avery’s mom and Nash’s dad for helping out during the party.
They also enjoyed sharing about their boxes and bags for the contest. The bags and boxes they made were so creative!
Besides the Friendship Day celebration, Thursday was also exciting because of the school-wide movie Wall-E. Rest assured, we spent some time learning on Thursday, too. 🙂 We learned about line plots and plotted the heights of the students in the class. We also extended our geometry unit by exploring tangrams. I read a story that was written as a tangram activity. The students used the tangrams to build different characters and objects in the story. It was hard for many of them, but they persevered and were able to use the tangram pieces to build the different characters and objects!
