We “Marched” into Read Across America Week!

On Monday, March 2nd, we came together as a school to have a “Read Across America Assembly.” Principal Smith welcomed community members and other special guests to our school and we took a reading oath to “make reading our way to feed our brains what they need every day!”

We were lucky to have TWO special guest readers. The first was school committee woman Allison Volpe. She read a newly published Dr. Seuss book called the “Horse Museum.” 

Mrs. Volpe reading to the class.

Thank you Mrs. Volpe!

Our second guest reader was Representative Colleen Garry (who is also Mrs. Riordan’s sister). She read the story “Grace Goes to Washington”, answered lots of questions and donated the book to our class.

Thank you Representative Garry!

We celebrated reading the rest of the week with spirit week.  On Monday, we dressed up in red, white and black for Dr. Seuss.

Keviane, Calista, Alina, Adrianna, Natalie and Andrew dressed as Superheros!

On Tuesday, some friends dressed up in their best Superhero outfits. 

On Wednesday, the students dressed up in outfits that showed us what they wanted to be when they grow up. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of all the students who wore their outfits. Luckily, Tim was still there to take a photo of to represent this spirit day.

On Thursday, we celebrated by wearing our favorite hats. Here are our crazy, favorite hats. Alexis was out of the room so Calista is holding the hat Alexis wore.

We finished the week by dressing up as our favorite character. Here are Alexis, Calista and Alina on favorite character day.

This was a special week that I think Dr. Seuss would have enjoyed!

 

February Fun…and Learning!

Cold February temperatures led to indoor recesses. Those February indoor recesses seem so far away now. Here’s Shiloh sharing her k’nex creation made during indoor recess.

We congratulated Alexis for receiving her certificate for completing Addition on Xtramath!

On February 13th, we celebrated 100 days of learning together!

Here the C8 students are proudly displaying their 100th Day of School certificates!

The next day, on February 14th, we celebrated Valentine’s Day by exchanging valentines and eating yummy food. Here are the bags we used to exchange our valentines.

Here is Maddox’s project.

We did clay projects in art class using the pinch technique.

Mrs. Mullins chose some of our project for display in the lobby for the whole school community to see. The other projects were sent home with the students.

Shiloh’s is on the left and Timmy’s is on the right.

Here is Keviane’s project.

Kaylee’s is on the left and Kendall’s is on the right.

We did a unit in Geography unit in Social Studies. In this unit, we learned how to read maps and how to identify types of landforms and to locate the world’s continents and oceans. The students worked on world map posters and landform posters.  Here are some photos of them working hard on these posters.

Andrew using his social studies book for reference.

Some worked at their desks while others preferred to use the floor as their workspace.

Some students worked independently while others discussed and problem solved together.

The Red Sox table working hard.

Victoria, Ethan and Evan working on their world map posters.

Amber, Adrianna, Alexis and Timmy are hard working second graders!

Shiloh and Calista coloring their continents!

We sure had some fun times working and learning together in February!

The New Year 2020 Begins and There’s SO Much Learning Going On In C8!

We came back in January with lots of hopes and goals for the rest of the school year. The students chose a word to describe the new year and then wrote three goals to achieve it.

We also took some time to celebrate achievements. We recognized behavior and responsibility with a combined November and December lunch bunch. 

Kendall, Keviane, Natalie, Shay, Devin, Alina, Kaylee, Ethan, Timothy, Daniel and Nathan are proudly displaying their November lunch bunch certificates.

Our December lunch bunch group holding their certificates are Kendall, Keviane, Shay, Alina, Kaylee, Shiloh, Victoria, Ethan, Timothy, Daniel and Nathan.

Amber wasn’t in school for the group photo but I wanted to make sure we all knew she was in BOTH lunch bunches!

Congratulations to Michael for being the first student this year to complete Addition on Xtramath! This means that Michael is able to answer each of the 100 addition facts in 3 seconds or  less.  We’re proud of you!

Victoria was the second student to complete Addition on Xtramath. These students have moved on in the program to work on subtraction fact mastery. Special kudos to Victoria who has been practicing Xtramath at home. All students are welcome to do Xtramath at home. It is free if done on a computer although the app for the phone or tablet does costs $5.00. Thank you to the families that have signed up for this at home. 

We played a “Roll to a Dollar” game. It was boys vs. girls.

It was close but the girls won!

We learned about measurement and money in math. In balanced literacy, we’ve  been studying about trickster tales and learning about nonfiction. Second graders have lots of opinions so we have been focusing on opinion writing. But some of the most exciting times in January were when we did Mystery Science. 

We spent a lot of time with our Mystery Science Unit on the Work of Water. This unit helped students develop the idea that water is a powerful force that reshapes the earth’s surface. Students see that water isn’t just something we drink. It carries sand to create beaches, carves out canyons and valleys and, as ice, scrapes entire areas flat. Through videos and experiments, the students asked questions and performed experiments to find the answers.

In this first Mystery lesson, students developed a model of the earth’s surface and use it to discover an important principle about how rivers work. In the experiment, Paper Mountains, students take turns using a spray bottle to make rain fall on paper models of mountains to observe patterns of how water and rivers flow.

We displayed our Paper Mountains in the hall along with the ones from Mrs. Messer’s class.

In our second mystery lesson, students investigated the effects of rocks tumbling in a river. Based on their observations, they constructed an explanation for why there is sand at a beach. In the activity, Rocking the River, students pretended to be a river and tore up pieces of construction paper to model what happens to rocks as they travel along the river. In the third mystery lesson, students made hypotheses and investigated the causes of canyons. In the activity, Cornmeal Canyons, students created a model landform using cornmeal. Then they dripped water over this “land” to observe how water can change its shape and understand how, over long periods of time, canyons can be formed through a similar process.

If you click the link below, you will see a short video of one of the results of the experiment.

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In the final mystery “How can you stop a landslide?”, students compared multiple solutions for preventing erosion. In the activity, Erosion Engineering, they designed and tested ways to keep water from washing away a hill modeled out of cornmeal.

Since our students can’t get enough science, we also did a winter themed mini-lesson on hibernation. In this mini-lesson, students reasoned about why some animals hibernate and others do not. In the activity, Get Ready to Hibernate, students played a memory card game where they pretended to be bears searching for food. As they played the game, they considered how different foods might affect bears as they prepare for their winter hibernation. It also integrated math as the students had to add up the point values to see if they had eaten enough food to hibernate.

Can’t believe the school year is already half over!  On to February!

A December to Remember!

December started with not one but TWO snow days!

Between a total of three snow days and an early release day for professional development, it seemed like December flew by.  

Report cards went online on December 13th. Hopefully you have all had a chance to view your child’s grades. If you are having difficulty viewing the report card, please let the school know. One tip….you should view it on a computer instead of your mobile phone. If you have any concerns about your child’s grades, feel free to contact me.

We studied extended our social studies unit on Traditions and Customs by learning about Holiday Traditions and Customs Around the World. 

The children made holiday ornaments as a gift for their families. The children posed for photos as if they were “stuck in a snowglobe.” These photos were cut out and laminated in a snow globe template which the children signed. I hope you enjoyed this holiday keepsake of your child in second grade.

The children had a great time making “Ice Castles” on December 19th! Thank you to all the parents who sent in frosting and mini-marshmallows for the ice castles. Special thanks to everyone who sent in extra candy and other supplies to make our ice castles so interesting…and yummy. And a HUGE thank you to the mothers (Mrs. Alshihri, Mrs. Barrett, Mrs. Chavez, Mrs. Cunha, and Ms. Demers and my daughter Catie) who volunteered to help make the ice castle activity so successful! I have put the photos of the children proudly holding their ice castles on the 2019-2020 student work page.

We finished December with an all school assembly to watch the Kindergarten holiday show and our classroom holiday party. 

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the families for the special gifts you gave me for Christmas. It was very thoughtful of you to think of me and I truly appreciate it!

It was a December to remember for sure!

Thankful for November!

It was a very busy month for the second grade at Brookside. All the children worked very hard on narrative writing. Here are some photos of them sharing their writing with a partner.  

This month students completed their post-assessment for the narrative writing unit as well as underwent individual Fountas and Pinnell reading testing one-on-one with me. But it wasn’t all work and no play. The broken slide on the playground equipment was replaced by a rock wall which was very popular at outdoor recess. Indoor recess was fun as well as evidenced by the following photo.

We had our October lunch bunch and celebrated their positive behavior and responsibility for the entire month of October. 

We also attended a PTO sponsored anti-bullying assembly with the rest of the primary grades. Andrew and Manes were chosen by the presenter to participate!

We had our Parent-Teacher conferences on the 20th of this month. Thank you to all the parents and guardians who took the time to attend Parent-Teacher conferences. It was so nice to be able to discuss your child’s progress with you.

In addition, we had our Grandparent (or Special Visitor) Visit! We met in the cafeteria and spent time working on a thankful craft and sharing some breakfast foods. I took photos of each child with their special guest that will be included in their second grade memory book we are making.

On the half day before Thanksgiving, we were back in the cafeteria again for our Ancestor Feast as the culminating event of our Traditions and Customs social studies unit. Most of the family sent in a sample of a food from their heritage or country their ancestors came from. The children were excited to try the wide variety of ethnic foods we had to share. Thank you to every family who contributed food and special thanks to the parents (and my daughter Catie) who came in to help set up this fantastic feast. If you would like to see the wide range of delicious foods that were sent in, there are additional photos on our  2019-2020 student work page. 

This November truly was a month to remember!

Happy Halloween!

Brookside WON this year!

We didn’t let a rainy day spoil our Halloween celebration! The students were greeted by the Brookside faculty and staff dressed up as Disney characters.

The second grade and Mrs. Mullins are having a cheery day!

Thank you to all the families who donated treats for our party. Special thanks to Maddox and his mom for the awesome treat bags!  After celebrating in our classroom, we joined the rest of the school for the Halloween Parade in the cafeteria! What a fun way to end the month of October!

We love Mystery Science!!!

In October, we worked on a Science animal biodiversity unit. Some of our favorite lessons were with Mystery Science.  After watching the Mystery Science video lesson, the students sorted animal cards by their traits or characteristics. Here are some photos of the students working with a partner on a hands-on lesson Science lesson.
We also watched a Mystery Science video in which the students learned that different frogs make different sounds. We listened to the sounds of two different habitats and tried to identify the frogs that made the sounds. But the big surprise for the students was when Mrs. Riordan brought in a frog she found so we could observe an actual living frog! There was a rich discussion over whether it was a frog or a toad. After observing the frog, Mrs. Riordan released it back into its habitat.


We wrapped up the animal unit by watching a Mystery Science video on birds and then we did a hands-on STEM activity where the students designed and created their own bird feeders. They needed to take into account what type of bird they wanted to attract and how to create a bird feeder that would work to attract that type of bird. I was so pleased that the students really were engaged in this hands-on activity!

October Visits from Zero the Hero and our September Lunch Bunch!

We started October with another visit from Zero the Hero. 

Zero challenged us to estimate the number of candy pumpkins in this jar!

We used statistics (median, mode and range) to examine our estimation data!

Congratulations to these C8 students who earned a spot in the September Lunch Bunch with their exemplary behavior and responsibility for the entire month.

Another visit from Zero on September 16th! This time the students had to estimate the number of “eyeballs” in the jar. After we shared our estimates we were able to share the treat in the BOO bag….Halloween Oreos!

Zero visited one more time on October 30th! This time he gave us a different challenge! We had to roll two dice, make the largest number we can with those digits and then add and subtract 10 FOUR times! When we completed the challenge, we each got a clementine dressed up like a jack-o-lantern!

A September to Remember!

The students reading the note from Zero the Hero!

On the 10th day of school the C8 children found a note left by Zero the Hero. Zero is a math superhero who visits our class and provides the students with math challenges. If they succeed at meeting the challenge, they get a treat from Zero. The first math challenge was to draw a picture of what they think Zero looks like. Then Mrs. Riordan read this book that Zero left for us.  He also left us a jar full of zero treats….AKA Life Savers.

The children can’t wait to see what will happen on Day 20!

Arrgh! Check Out Our Pirate Crew!

We also celebrated “Talk Like a Pirate Day!” on September 19th. The children (and Mrs. Riordan) had the opportunity to dress up like pirates and learned how to talk like pirates. We had pirate music playing, drew pirate flags and read pirate stories. We did a pirate math worksheet and wrote a pirate story. If someone clipped down, we called it “walking the plank!” Twas a fine day to be a pirate!  

We have been celebrating Say Hello week at Brookside this week. We are learning the importance of including others and being friends.

Here’s a photo of us saying hello! (If you can’t read the sign, look below!)

Thank you to the parents and guardians who took the time to come to Curriculum Night!

Last Wednesday was Curriculum Night. Parents and guardians had the opportunity to come to school, see the classroom, meet Mrs. Riordan and learn about the second grade curriculum.

Here is a copy of the presentation from that night. Second Grade Curriculum Night presentation

Here is a view of our classroom for those who were unable to attend Curriculum Night.

We have been studying about our community and our place in the world in Social Studies the last few weeks. We made these flip books and displayed them on Curriculum Night.  

September is almost over but our second grade adventures have just begun!

 

We’re Starting the School Year Off Right!

We have had a very busy, fun filled  September learning what is expected of us now that we are second graders. The beginning of the school year involves learning the routines and expectations in a new grade and classroom. Now that we are second graders, we are learning how to write in our homework notebooks each day. 

We mark our lunch count with our paws!

Here is our behavior and  responsibility clip chart.

We wrote our “C8 Class Constitution” and all signed it.

                             We displayed our Math About Me pages in the hallway.