Measuring in Meters

Yesterday we began our math unit on the metric system. The students were very excited to get their hands on some meter sticks and measure the height, length, and width of things in the classroom. Here are a few pictures of them hard at work.

Carl and Grace worked hard to measure the length of the classroom.

Sophia's armspan is one meter long!

Look at that teamwork!

A Fun Multiplication Game

We have been studying multiplication and division in math over the past month and the students are catching on to the relationship between addition and multiplication.  One way we are reinforcing that in the classroom is to play the game Circles and Stars.  You can play it at home if you have paper, a pencil, and a die.  Here are the instructions:

CIRCLES AND STARS

PURPOSE:  To have the most stars on your page.

WHAT YOU NEED:

         One piece of paper

         One dice

         A pencil

         Your thinking mind

HOW TO PLAY:

1.       Fold your paper in half like a hot dog and like a hamburger.  Open it up and trace on the folds.  You will have 4 equal sections on each side of the paper so you can play a total of 7 rounds.  One box is used to add at the end.

2.       The first person rolls the dice once.  Whatever the number is he or she draws that many circles in the first box.  Make sure your circles are big enough to draw stars in later!

3.       Player two rolls the dice and draws circles on his or her paper as well.

4.       The first person rolls the dice again and that number is the number of stars that will go in EACH circle.  Draw that number of stars in each circle, then write a multiplication problem that shows how many stars you have.

5.       Player two does the same thing.

6.       Repeat this until you have filled up 7 of the 8 boxes.  In the 8^th box you will add the number of stars you had in each box to find your total.  The person with the most stars is the winner!

Meet the New Tables

We changed the students' table groups a few weeks ago and they recently had the opportunity to work together to come up with a table name.  It can be challenging for a small group of second graders to compromise and cooperate to create a name everyone agrees upon, but they were all able to do it!  Meet your new table groups!

The Slowest Elephants

The Cool Koalas

The Golden Pigeons

The Awesome Cheetahs

Happy Veterans Day

Today we learned about Veterans Day.  Here is a video of some of the interesting facts the students learned.  Hopefully we can teach you something new.  Thanks to all the wonderful veterans who have sacrificed for our freedoms.  Do you have any veterans in your family?

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time today at the Halloween party and parade!  Thanks to all the parents who helped with the party!  The kids had a great time.  Click here to see the pictures from the day.

Tech Experts

I am so impressed with how well the students are able to post to their blogs.  On Friday, they helped each other post their embed codes for their subtraction problems.  Only a few students had questions they couldn't answer themselves!  Here are a few pictures of the kids helping each other out.

Gooney Bird Greene Day!

We had a wonderful day celebrating one of our favorite book characters in room 104! The students wrote and shared absolutely true stories, called each other 'Gooney Bird' all day, and reminisced about the stories of Gooney Bird with their classmates. It was a memorable and fun day for all. Click here to see some pictures of all the fun.

Our Buddies

The second graders have met their 6th grade buddies and are so excited about their new friends!  On Friday, they had Buddy Field Day with them.  Click here to see pictures of the students with their buddies.  Click here to see pictures from Buddy Field Day.

Indoor Recess

Yesterday was the first time we had an indoor recess long enough to get out the games from the game closet.  The children all played so nicely together and seemed to have a great time.  Here are some pictures of what we were doing as the rain came down.

Kash and Nathan made a cool design with the game Blokus.

Erika and Sophia were trying to figure out how to play the new figurative language game I ordered.  It looks like fun!

Dylan, Carl, Chase, and Gavin had a fierce game of chess going!

Ryan, Oliver, and Charlie practiced math facts with the game Shut the Box.

So did Anne and Charlotte!

Kinaree and Grace played my favorite game, Connect Four, while Avery and Claire drew at the short table.

Claire drew her name in block letters and colored it in.  What an artist!

Table Names

To foster community and to help the students learn to cooperate and compromise, they create table names and rules every time they are seated at new tables.  Last Friday, they came up with their names.  The rule is they need to have an animal and an adjective.  It's always fun to see what names they're able to agree upon.  Meet the first group of tables...

The Golden Eagles

The Clever Owls

The Most Clever, Slowest, Curious Flamingos

The Clever Kangaroos

Using Typing Pal

Today we spent some time in the classroom practicing our typing skills with Typing Pal.  It can be challenging for little hands to stay on home row, but with some coaching and reminders, the students did a great job!  Remember, the children are welcome to practice at home but we just ask that you watch their finger placement as they often put their fingers in the wrong places.  Today I told them about the bumps on the letters 'f' and 'j' and how they should always be able to feel those as they have their fingers on home row.  Here are a few pictures of our future typing experts.

Carl has perfect posture for typing!

The entire 'Clever Kangaroo' table is hard at work.

Sophia and Gavin learn the letters 'f' and 'j'.

Moby Max Math Facts

The lower school is excited to implement a new web-based curriculum called MobyMax for students to practice math facts.  MobyMax is tailored to your child's individual needs and will be used both at home and in the classroom.  Moby's features include:

-Placement tests that accurately identify where your child excels, and where his or her missing skills are

-Targeted instruction to fill in those missing skills

-Systematic review sessions that ensure that your child retains 100% of what he or she has learned

To access MobyMax from your home computer: 

Login steps for Student

1.  Please go to www.mobymax.com/signin

2.  Enter School Code: co1998

3.  Enter

Username: first namelastname

Password: second

You can also go to www.mobymax.com/co1998 and your child can enter his/her username and password.

To practice math facts, please click on Fact Master.

Once logged in, your child will be able to start immediately and begin improving his or her math facts recall. 

You can sign in as a parent as well by selecting "Parent" from the drop-down menu and entering your child's username and password.  You will be able to monitor your child's progress and even send messages to me.

For homework each week, students will be expected to practice math facts for 40 minutes.  We would like at least 20 of those minutes to be using MobyMax.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Our Class Puzzle

On Friday, after everyone had a chance to share his/her puzzle piece, the students worked as a team to put the class puzzle together.  The amount of encouraging words and teamwork we saw was outstanding and within a few minutes the students had completed the puzzle!  Here are a few pictures of their hard work and the finished product.

Everyone participated and made sure others felt included!

Here is our wonderful class (minus Avery who was not here) and our class puzzle!

Accessing Your Child's Blog

At the top of the page, you will find a tab called 'Student Blogs'.  When you click on that, you will find a list of the students' names.  Each child's name is linked to his/her blog.  Please let me know if you are unable to access your child's blog this way.

We are Bloggers!

Today the students made their first blog post.  To access your child's blog, you need to type in the web address which is your child's first name, the first letter of his/her last name, the words second grade and then .blogspot.com.  For example, mine would be: katiessecondgrade.blogspot.com.  I realize that is a bit confusing and I will soon post a link to each child's blog on this site, but wanted to give you the chance to see what they all did today!

A Fun Math Game

Playing games is a great way to reinforce math skills.  This week we learned a game called 'Name That Number'.  It's an easy game to play at home and helps students to not only practice their math facts, but also to think critically about different ways to make a number.  All you need is a deck of cards!  Instructions are below.

Name That Number!

1.  Flip 5 cards face up.  Leave the rest in a pile.

2.  Player 1 turns one card from the pile face up.  This is the 'target number'.

3.  Using the 5 cards that are already out, player 1 tries to make the 'target number' with adding and/or subtracting.

4.  If player 1 can do that, he/she explains it to player 2 and then takes all the cards involved.

5.  Make sure there are 5 cards out and one target number for player 2 to take his/her turn.

*If a player cannot make a target number, he/she passes to the other player.  If neither can make the number, pick a new target number.

Nathan tries to figure out how to make a target number of 5 while Erika watches.

Avery has a lot of 10s to deal with as she tries to make her target number of 5!

Grace checks Oliver's work as he thinks he has made the target number.

Neither Kinaree or Charlie could make the target number, so they put it back and got a new one.

And We're Off!

It's been a great two days in room 104! The students are getting to know each other and learning the routines of the room. Here are a few pictures I've taken in the past two days. It's going to be a great year!

Avery, Claire, Ryan, and Sophia examine the drawings on a classmate's t shirt.

Kash, Sophia, and Claire hunt for friends with things in common.

Carl looks around to room to see if he can figure out who that t shirt belongs to.

Nathan and Oliver discover they both have the same number of siblings!

What a good looking group!