First Full Week!

Working Hard in Second Grade

We started the first  full week of second grade with a puppet show with Karen. The second graders were so excited to see the puppets and to learn that they too have “started second grade this year”. Through a story from the puppets, the students explored the idea of what to do when something is challenging. Why should we not just give up, and how can we push ourselves to keep going. Students had the chance to share about something that they find challenging, and to think about how they learned to do it anyway. This was a great way for us to start our first full week which was filled with lots of learning and hard work!

Hebrew

We continued our work with the new script letter Aleph. We got new Hebrew notebooks where we wrote down a list of vocabulary words that start with Aleph. Students practiced reading the words and understanding their meaning through a games of charades. We worked on saying and writing sentences with the new vocabulary. Students wrote their first long writing piece where they express whether they have the letter in their name and tell about the members of their family (אמא, אבא, אח, אחות). Students read their finished pieces out loud to a partner and to a teacher. Some students even challenged themselves to recite their work by heart! Written pieces are hanging in the hallway.

Reading

We began our first class read aloud of the book Lulu and the Brontosauraus by Judith Viorst. Second graders began learning what a character trait is, and how good readers use information from the text to describe how a character trait fits a character in the story. For example, second graders are encouraged to say “I think Lulu is _______ because in the story she ________”, or “I think Lulu is ___________ because the author describes how ____________.” This book is a part of a series and the second graders have been enjoying the author’s humorous writing style, Lulu’s adventures, as well as diving into a chapter book. This week we also delved into our word sorts. Some of us sorted words with the long vowel sounds, some of us sorted words with short vowel sounds, and some of us had a mix! We played games and had lots of practice.

Ask your child what character trait they would use to describe Lulu.

Math

This week in math we were regrouping machines! We regrouped in the ones, in the tens, and even in the hundreds. Some of us were challenged with numbers in the thousands! We reviewed the concept that if the sum of a number is more than 9, a two digit number, we must regroup. Next week we will be starting subtraction with regrouping.

If you want to help your child get a head start, practice subtraction facts this weekend!

In science, the students began doing experiments with a partner to investigate solids and liquids. They observed and described a solid, an Alka Seltzer tablet, and a liquid, water. Then they put the solid into the liquid, and with the naked eye and magnifying lenses, the scientists watched in amazement as the tablet fizzed, created bubbles in the water, and ultimately, dissolved!  They wrote their observations of change in science journals.  The next experiment focused on freezing and melting of ice.  Each pair received an ice cube in a bag and was challenged to get the ice to melt as fast as possible.  Students tested a variety of ideas such as: putting the bag up to the light, warming it with their hands, rubbing the cube, and crushing it into pieces, all of which involved teamwork and communication.  Afterward, we read from our magazine Changes, and they demonstrated their understanding of the role of heat and temperature in the process of changing solids to liquids, and in some circumstances, back again.

Social Studies

We launched our social studies unit on mapping and landforms with a hands-on way of learning the difference between continents, countries, states, and cities. We unrolled our big world map and located our state, and asked questions about the features on a map. To really understand the difference in the size of a continent versus a country, and a state versus a city, we did a spiral building exercise where a continent, country, state and city were represented by different color blocks. The continent, the largest expanse of land, was the biggest outer most part of the spiral, and had the biggest yellow blocks. The country, state, and city were represented by different blocks and built inside the swirls to signify the largest to smallest. In a second activity second graders used colored strings to create the spiral around themselves and a partner. On index cards they wrote down their continent, country, state, and city, and created the spiral in a collaborative project.

The second graders are fascinated by maps. If you have an interesting map at home you’d like to share with the second graders, please email Jessica and she would love to set up a visit!

Art with Iviva

We have been learning about still life paintings, viewing contemporary paintings of things we recognize, including these cupcakes by Robert Talbot, and works by Giorgio Morandi. To make our own still life drawings and paintings, we viewed arrangements of leaves, shells and other objects from the classroom. We used oil pastels first, learning how to blend colors with our hands, and then watercolor paintings. We also looked at a color wheel, and thought about all the colors leaves turn in fall. To extend our skills and understanding of art processes, we made collages from leaves and shells on cardboard and plexiglass, and turned these into monoprints using screen printing ink.