What’s New in November???? . . . Johnny the K, Special Stories, Xtramath Stars and more!

Posted on November 16, 2014 by mrsriordan

Johnny the K kept the students singing and moving the entire show!

On November 7th, Brookside was treated to a special performance by Johnny the K. He was very entertaining, singing songs, playing guitar and wearing funny hats. He got the students and teachers actively involved in his show which taught the children the importance of kindness and respect. Alyssa and two other children were chosen to spin the giant Earth ball.

Alyssa and friends have the whole world in their hands.

Turning the world is hard work!

The students were “bananas” for his crazy hats!

He never stayed still….moving right into the audience! And they loved it!

Then on November 10th, Mrs. Riordan had the chance to read a very special story called But No Candy to the students in C8 and C9. This realistic fiction story was written by Gloria Houston and takes place during World War II. The children learned what that time period was like and learned about the sacrifices that veterans and their families made during wartime. They also learned that Veterans’ Day honors all veterans, not just the ones who died in war. I always enjoy sharing this story with the children. See if your child can retell the story to you.

I love reading to students!

Reminded me of my days as a children’s librarian!

We finished the week doing a hands-on math activity with number charts and numbered bottle caps. Who knew math could be so much fun? Speaking of math, we had two more students complete addition on Xtramath! Congratulations to our latest Xtramath Experts, Britany and Shiwaum! We are very proud of you!

Hands-on math is a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon!

Numbers bigger than 100 can be more challenging…at first!

Congratulations Shiwaum! On to subtraction!

You are a Math Superstar Britney! Up next….subtraction!

Finishing up October in C-8

Posted on November 16, 2014 by mrsriordan

We wrapped up our dinosaur and fossil unit by writing nonfiction informational reports about a specific dinosaur. In order to do this, the students were paired up and assigned a dinosaur. They had to work together to research in our numerous dinosaur resources about their dinosaur and put this information on a graphic organizer. Then they had to work individually to write their rough draft. They met with Mrs. Riordan to edit and then they copied their final report. Finally they illustrated their reports. It was a challenging project for them but they worked certainly hard.

But October wasn’t all work and no fun. We had a special visit from Ronald McDonald as part of our Community of Caring program.

Ronald taught the children important life lessons!

Happy Halloween from C-8!

Finally, we finished October with Halloween. Our school was decorated like the movie the Wizard of Oz and our Principal, Ms. Smith along with most of the staff dressed up as the characters from the movie. It was an exciting day!

A Few Eye-Popping Hands-On Activities in Second Grade!

Posted on March 31, 2014 by mrsriordan

Second graders working hard on estimating and counting!

Mrs. Saucier invited our class to join them in a special popcorn hands-on learning activity. The students in the two classes were paired up and they were given a math worksheet that asked them to estimate how many pieces of popcorn would fill four different shapes. After making their estimates, they had to fill the shapes with popcorn kernels and count the actual amount that fit.

Julian and a friend work on filling the shape with popcorn kernels.

Mrs. Saucier showing off the freshly popped popcorn! It was amazing how many students had never seen popcorn being popped before!

The students estimated how many pieces of “popped” popcorn would fit the same shapes. Then they filled the shapes with the popped corn.

Khushi, Gabe and a friend happily discuss their estimates.

Cecily records her teams results.

After the worksheets were completed, everyone enjoyed some freshly popped popcorn! YUM! Thank you to Mrs. Saucier for inviting us to share this activity with you and your students. It is fun to learn with friends from other classrooms!

Today we started an experiment where we are trying to see if the popcorn kernels, which we learned are seeds, will sprout. We put them in a ziploc bag with a wet paper towel and sealed it. We’ll let you know what happens in a few days. We will continue our popcorn themed activities by reading “The Popcorn Book” by Tomie dePaola.

We also did another states of matter experiment. This time we put the baking soda inside a balloon. Then we put the vinegar inside a water bottle. We tipped the baking soda up and it mixed the solid baking soda with the liquid vinegar which produced carbon dioxide, a gas, which rose out of the bottle. The carbon dioxide gas expanded and filled the balloon.

Khushi holds up the experiment before we mixed the baking soda and the vinegar.

The students are cheering…and hoping that the balloon would pop. Luckily it didn’t!

Finally, I want to congratulate our class for winning the weekly reading challenge again this week. This time our class received some outdoor playground supplies (a skip-it, some sidewalk chalk and two frisbies). Now all we need is some nice spring weather so we can use them! Thank you to the PTO for being so generous and encouraging reading. This reading program has been fun!

A Science Experiment, a Surprise and a Reminder!

Posted on March 25, 2014 by mrsriordan

Our states of matter science experiments!

Our class is studying states of matter….liquids, solids, and gases. Recently, the children were put into three groups and given a bathroom cup filled with frozen blue ice. They observed and discussed the properties of the ice before putting it into a ziploc bag. Then we placed the bags over our heater to observe how the heat would change the state of the matter.

A close-up of the ice melting into liquid.

It didn’t take long for the ice to begin melting into a liquid state. The children returned from special to find that the ice had completely turned to water.

Now it’s in a LIQUID state!

After it turned into a liquid, Mrs. Riordan put the bags back in the freezer (in the teacher’s room) and the water changed back into a solid state. The students were able to observe that the shape of the ice had also changed due to the fact that it was no longer frozen in a paper cup and was frozen in the plastic bag instead.

Hooray! We won a Sorry game!

Congratulations to our class for winning the weekly PAWS reading challenge! Collectively our C-8 students read 4053 minutes! I am so proud of my readers!! Thank you to the C-8 families for supporting the students’ reading and thank you to the PTO for our prize and for sponsoring this program!

Finally, even though they are predicting snow, I would like to remind the C-8 families that tomorrow is our Spring School picture day. If you want your child’s picture taken, you need to fill out and return the photo envelope TOMORROW!

The Leprechauns Came! (and a couple of other “news items!”)

Posted on March 17, 2014 by mrsriordan

Our rainbow was hanging from the ceiling. Chairs were all wrong.

Those tricky leprechauns came and played a lot of tricks on us this past week but they saved their best tricks for last! This is what the room looked like when we arrived after the weekend!

They left us a message on the white board.

I think they scared our stuffed dinosaur who was hanging or hiding from our flag.

They left a message for Maggie inside her trap too!

The students thought we might have captured one or more of the leprechauns because Avery’s catcher was sealed shut. The children all breathlessly peaked inside to see what they had caught.

Cautiously checking inside Avery’s catcher!

There were NO LEPRECHAUNS inside! But these two looked as if THEY were leprechauns!

C8’s resident leprechauns….Katie and Gabe!

Although the students didn’t catch a leprechaun this time, they did get a special Lucky Charms breakfast treat from Mrs. Riordan. They also got to sample some wonderful homemade Irish soda bread made by Maggie’s grandmother and delivered by Maggie’s mom! It was so yummy again this year. And this year, many more children were brave and tried the Irish bread with raisins. I couldn’t take a photo because it was gobbled up so fast!

Lucky teacher, Lucky children, Green tongues!

We did a special writing project today where the children wrote about someone who was worth more than gold to them. It was interesting to read the wide variety of responses which ranged from parents and grandparents, siblings and cousins, to their dog and Tuukka Rask!

St. Patrick’s Day Writing

We did some St. Patrick’s themed worksheets and read stories from Ireland by my favorite Irish writer, Eve Bunting. Then we practiced our reading comprehension by reading an article about St. Patrick and looking for key information in the article to answer the questions. At the end of the day, we were surprise to find that the leprechauns left a gift for us in the office. A pot of gold….candy! Those tricky leprechauns also hid all the items they had stolen from our traps underneath the candy.

All in all, it was a pretty magical day in C-8!

Yummy Gold!

If you would like to see all of the students’ awesome leprechaun catchers, you can see them on the student work page of this blog! Check them out!

Lowell Sun Reporter John Collins visits second grade.

On another note, I forgot to post a couple photos from last week. We had a visit with the Lowell Sun Local News reporter, John Collins. The children went to Mrs. Porcello’s classroom and got to learn what it like to be a newspaper reporter. The children asked great questions and learned a lot.

Second graders make a body clock!

One last photo of our students learning kinesthetically how to tell time….or in other words, with their bodies. Some children were the numbers on the clock and two students were the hands of the clock. They also used individual plastic clocks to record the time. They enjoyed this hands-on learning!

Illustrator Ralph Masiello Visits Brookside!

Posted on March 11, 2014 by mrsriordan

Mr. Masiello explains how changing the writing on the book covers makes it more interesting.

Our morning started in an exciting way today! The students were invited to attend a special presentation in the cafeteria. Illustrator Ralph Masiello came to our school to teach our students how he grew up from a small boy who thought he couldn’t draw to becoming an illustrator. He talked about how his teachers saw and believed in his talent even before he did. He explained what the job of being an illustrator involves.

He explains how his oil paintings are scanned into books.

The students learned how the publishers take his drawings and paintings and scans them into books that he or other authors have written. They learned that it can take a long time to make all the illustrations for one book and that he sometimes is working on 2 or 3 books at once.

Mr. Masiello showed the students skulls he used to help him illustrate The Skull Alphabet book.

He explained how he does his research for the illustrations. Sometimes he uses photographs and other times he uses actual objects such as the skulls of monkeys or panda bears.

The second graders were so engaged by his presentation.

The students were very well behaved and interested in the presentation. Mr. Masiello was so entertaining that he had the students (and teachers) laughing as we learned! Then he demonstrated how he makes sketches for his books and showed the children how they can do it too.

He explained how he could do this Egyptian drawing.

The Sphinx needs a pyramid in the background.

The signed completed drawing we have hanging in our classroom.

He generously made one drawing for each classroom at Brookside.

He was also very attentive to our classmate Kendra.

Another drawing demonstration! This time he showed them how to draw a dragon.

The completed dragon drawing!

I was VERY EXCITED that he autographed my book.

He autographed Mrs. Riordan’s copy of The Icky Bug Alphabet Book!

When the presentation was over, the second grade teachers had the idea of having our students practice being authors and illustrators themselves by working together to make a special alphabet thank you book for Mr. Masiello. Mrs. Saucier, Mrs. Porcello, Mrs. Robson, and Mrs. Riordan divided the students into groups of 2, 3 or 4. Each group was assigned a letter of the alphabet. They worked together to plan their thank you sentence based on that letter and sketched their illustration to go with it. Then they collaborated to make their final copy on larger construction paper.

Gabe and some other second graders work on the G page of the Alphabet Thank You book.

Oorjaa and some new friends plan their page.

I agree with these students. Mr. Masiello was hilarious!

The finished alphabet thank you book was presented to Mr. Masiello who was so pleased with it that he asked permission to mention it on HIS website. His website is : ralphmasiello.com and you can learn more about him on his website. Thank you Mr. Masiello for visiting today!

Read Across America Celebration and Progress Reports!

Posted on March 6, 2014 by mrsriordan

The second grade prepares to perform their song!

We have had a very busy week here in the second grade at Brookside! On Monday we performed a unique reading song (written by Mrs. Turnbow) at Brookside’s Read Across America event. This celebration of reading was attended by the entire school as well as special dignitaries from the community who were honored guest readers in our classrooms. It was very exciting to be on stage performing and the entire second grade did a great job!

Mrs. McCarthy welcomes everyone to the event!

Mrs. Turnbow, our music teacher, with Mrs. Saucier and Mrs. Engler.

Mrs. Turnbow, our music teacher directs the children while Mrs. Saucier and Mrs. Engler provide assistance with the lyrics of the special song that Mrs. Turnbow wrote just for this program. Thank you Mrs. Turnbow for all your help to make this event so successful!

Dracut Public Schools Superintendent Stone addresses the Brookside students.

We were so pleased that Superintendent Stone was able to attend and briefly talk to the students about the importance of becoming a reader. After leading the assembly in the Reader’s Oath, Principal Smith was surprised to hear that one of the guest readers, a professional wrestler, had a reading challenge for the students of Brookside….one that involves HER!

Principal Smith and “The Wrestler”!

The Wrestler is giving the Brookside students a reading challenge…..and some incentive involving their principal!

A photo of all the community members who took time out to be special guest readers for our students.

This special reading bulletin board in the hall was created to showcase our Brookside staff members favorite children’s books.

We returned to our classroom to listen to our guest reader, State Representative Colleen Garry (otherwise known as Mrs. Riordan’s sister.)

Listening to our guest reader.

She read two Dr. Seuss stories to our class, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street and Fox in Socks. The class was very impressed that she could read all of those tongue twisting pages without making a mistake.

Thank you Representative Garry for reading to us on this special day!

Mrs. Riordan thought that Fox in Socks was too tricky for Rep. Garry but she proved her wrong!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

We saw some pretty wild characters in the Brookside at this celebration!

Ms. Peaslee and Mrs. Healy looked great as Thing 1 and Thing 2! Even Mrs. Healy’s son Nathan knows that reading is pretty cool!

Even the Lowell Spinners Canalligator made an appearance to show the importance of reading!

And as if that wasn’t enough excitement for one week at Brookside, we also had progress reports go home today! Please review it with your child and return the signed progress report as soon as possible!

Scholastic Book Club and Pirates!

Posted on September 19, 2013 by mrsriordan

A great many papers went home today with the children. In addition to the “Thursday Packet” materials from the office, I sent home the Scholastic Book Club order forms. I sent home both the 2nd and 1st grade forms because there are some great books on each form and many of the books on the first grade form are actually second grade reading level and of interest to second graders. I have a cover sheet detailing exactly what you need to do to order books either through me or online if you choose to participate this month. Please note that each form has one book that is only $1.00! I will need all orders place by Thursday, Sept. 26th.

Today is International Pirate Day! We read a pirate story, answered questions about it, and the children even tried writing their own pirate adventure. Ask your child about it!!

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Riordan's Readers Rule!

C – 8 is Great!

Tag Archives: reading