News from our classroom

Today in guidance Mrs. Cermak talked with our class about being responsible for yourself and attitude.  They class discussed different ways to be responsible, including not blaming others for your behavior and apologizing for mistakes.  They also talked about how you can change your attitude about something.  For example, if you feeling like you don't get invited to play dates you could change your attitude to "I'll invite someone over for a playdate."  We will have class guidance sessions once a week through mid-April.  Many students also meet with Mrs. Cermak for lunch groups to discuss issues and ways to problem solve.

In Writing Workshop, we are writing our opinions and strong reasons to support them.  As a class we read the story I Wanna Iguana and children wrote reasons to support weather or not the boy in the story should be allowed to have an iguana as a pet.  Ask your child to share their opinion for this and the reasons why!

In science, we're learning about energy and taking care of the environment.  Ask your child to share what they learned from the energy video today!

In other news, tomorrow (Friday) is Jump for Heart day at Simonds School and our class will participate at P.E. time.

Also, mark your calendars for the Spring Concert on April 10th!  See you then!

This week's update!

Simonds students are looking forward to True Kelley's author visit on Friday!  Be sure to ask your second grader about her visit!

Here's an update of what we've been up to in our classroom:

*In reading we've been talking about "author's purpose," or why the author wrote the book (for entertainment, to inform you of something, or to persuade you)
*In writing we are beginning to learn about writing opinion pieces.  We learned how to write book reviews with our opinion of the book, 3 reasons to support our opinion, and a conclusion sentence.
*In math we have been working on comparing amounts of money, adding and subtracting money, and solving word problems involving dollar bills and coins.
*Our new science unit focuses on taking care of the environment and learning about energy.

Happy first day of spring!

Second graders enjoyed showing off their hard work at the Curriculum Fair last night!  If you'd like an update about your child's progress we can talk through email, over the phone, or a conference anytime this year.  

After our 2-hour delay this morning, we read with reading buddies and learned a new app called "Word Shaker."   Similar to Boggle, you try to make as many words as you can for points.  They are all eager to beat their score next time!

We also had guidance this afternoon, a practice evacuation, and children shared the typed books they made with the class!

Hoping we can have some spring weather soon!

Highlights from our Field Trip

We had a wonderful field trip on Friday!  The Concord Boys and Girls Club was a big hit with a game room, art room, and legos.  Second graders also really enjoyed the play Cinderella Caterpillar at St. Paul's School.  When we returned to school, children shared what their favorite character was and what they thought the "central message" or moral of the story was.  Most shared that they thought the moral was to "follow your dreams and don't give up!"

Coming up next week...
*We'll celebrate St. Patrick's Day Monday with some St. Patty's Day math and learning about Ireland in our Scholastic News magazine
*We'll continue to work on money in math
*Curriculum Fair is Wednesday night!  See you then!