Coming to a Close

Please check out our new photos! Our school year is rapidly coming to a close. We've enjoyed so many great learning experiences together this year! We look forward to the exciting lessons and activities we have planned for the remainder of the year. Ms. Wells suggested we have a Student Appreciation Week so next week we will honor our students' hard work and good attitudes with special activities.
We were sorry to see that after we had to reschedule our field trip to the movie Earth because Illinois Theater e-mailed that they would be unable to get it, that they indeed DID get it and played it on the day we were to have been there. We were not very happy with them!
Students in second grade are currently in "Mexico". Not, really, but it certainly looks like it. We are learning about their culture, language, and geography. Next Tuesday, we'll learn about their food as we celebrate with a Fiesta complete with Mexican Hat dancing.
We are also going to start a stamp collection next week. After I introduced stamp collecting, sent home information, asked Mr. Butler to speak and share about his hobby, and finally got all the supplies, we are now ready to begin our very own stamp books.
I hope that all our plants that we brought home are doing well and will bring you beautiful flowers and tomatoes this summer. Thank you for reading our blog throughout the year. I enjoyed sharing about our special activities and showing you photos. Thanks for your cooperation as we spent a year of learning in second grade.
Happy Summer!
Mrs. Kathie Little

In science, we are learning about heat. The students conducted an experiment outdoors with chocolate, butter, and an ice cube. As scientists, we drew pictures of the experiment, observed the changes, and drew more pictures. While we were waiting for the heat to change our items, we toured the butterfly garden observing signs of Spring and new plant growth. Violets and Johnny Jump Ups were blooming. We used our sense of smell and touch to observe the flowers.
In math, we are working on place value. We played a game with partners as we learned to read and make different multi-digits numbers using our place value flip chart.
In reading, we read about music from the Stone Age. Did you know that 9,000 year old flutes were found in China and one could even still be played? One of our stories mentioned that two elephants painted a picture. We thought it would be a "scribble" painting but when we looked up "Elephants that paint" it took us to a site where we could watch the elephants paint! It was amazing! I will try to put in on the blog for you to see.
Today we tried the art of basket weaving. We'll let you know how it goes!

April 2-Stamp collecting

I ordered 23 stamps for each of my students and asked Mr. Butler if he would share his knowledge of stamp collecting with us. He talked to us for 30 minutes about stamp collecting last Thursday. He suggested we start out by collecting and sorting our stamps into these topics: sports, flags, people, and famous places. We are going to save them in little baggies until I can come up with a way for us to display/save them. I am researching that now to find the least expensive means for us to have our collection. He reminded us to ask the following people to save stamps for us: parents at work, grandparents, uncles/aunts, cousins, neighbors, and friends. If we find others that will save them for us that will really help us get started. Ask them to just cut around the stamp/envelope. We are excited about our new hobby.

Earth Day Coming Up April 22

Earth Day is a global holiday that celebrates our planet’s environment. Every year on April 22, people host different events to remember the Earth. But Earth Day is not just about appreciating the environment—it’s about preserving it as well.

Environmental activists use Earth Day to increase awareness about issues like global warming and oil spills. They also use the day to urge politicians to pass laws that will help save the environment.

The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin started the holiday. Nelson was worried that industrialized countries, like the United States, were too careless with the environment.

After an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969, Nelson proposed several reforms or changes.One reform was to hold a national Earth Day every April 22.

Denis Hayes organized the first Earth Day. Hayes went on to lead the Solar Energy Research Institute in Golden, Colorado. John McConnell designed the unofficial flag of the event, the Earth Flag.

More than 20 million Americans celebrated the first Earth Day. Schools and universities around the nation joined in. Students spent the day learning about the environment and discussing ways to cut down pollution. Concerts in major cities honored the day.

Weeks after the event, Congress passed three laws: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. These laws protect drinking water, wild lands, and animals from people or companies.

Today more than 500 million people in 175 countries celebrate Earth Day! Students spend the day learning about environmental issues, while activists use the day to rally for new environmental policies.

If you want to get involved in Earth Day and see what you can do to help, check out www.earthday.org

The second grade classes participated in Earth Hour from 8:30-9:30 Saturday, March 28by turning off our lights. We joined others from all over the world in showing our concern about our climate and Earth!

We plan on observing Earth Day in several ways. We'll keep you posted!

Mr. Hauk's Music Program

Students enjoyed dressing up for the music program. Please check out their photos!

March 16

Thank you for attending Mr. Hauk's music program last week. The students enjoyed performing for you! Mr. Kelly put photos on our WHE website.

We were happy to have Mrs. Winters teach us about another great artist, Norman Rockwell, last week. She will return to have us try our hand at drawing a magazine cover about Spring.

The leprechauns are on the loose in Kindergarten. Check out the website to view photos of their latest shenanigans!

We read about famous explorers last week after studying about Columbus. This week were are finishing our writing about other explorers. Main idea and supporting details are our focus.

This is the beginning of our last quarter. Report cards go home on Thursday.

ISAT Week

WHE proudly supported our Third Grade Team during their testing. We tried to stay very quiet as the third grade tested not only in the hallways as we passed by but also in our classroom. We also hosted three third graders at different times in our classrooms when they were not being tested. Hat's Off to Third Grade will be celebrated by wearing hats on Thursday.

Zeke the Zebra

The Girl Scouts of America presented a program on bullying and accepting differences in others. The students listened to a book and interacted with each other in two activities that taught the lessons about the topic. They were perfect activities to get the idea across that our differences make us interesting and should not keep us apart. The instructors ask us to carry out our activity after they left with three people not in our classroom. Ask us how we did.

Students took home their artwork they painted with the help of another lesson from volunteer, Mrs. Tammy Winters. We really appreciate her efforts to share the great artists with us and we do love to paint! Thank you, Mrs. Winters!

Our math class has been great fun with our hands-on fraction unit. Not only did we learn about fractions during math, but we also studied them during centers and on the computer. Our test will be next Thursday.

The whole school has decorated their doors with inspiration for the third grade students who will begin their ISATs next week. Today we have an Pep Assembly to get them in the spirit and show them our support! Go Third Grade! Rock the ISAT!

Happy 200th Birthday, Abraham Lincoln!

Our class spent several weeks practicing our fluency skills as we read excerpts from the timeline of Abe Lincoln's life from when he was born to when he died. Every student had a part and read it from the front of the room at our podium. We invited Ms. Wells' class to be our audience and performed for them in our stovepipe hats and beards. They were a great audience so we rewarded each of them with a penny in honor of Lincoln. We were very proud of our great performance as our readings contained many, many difficult words for second graders but we all learned them and for that we were proud! Just like Lincoln, we didn't give up!
We also completed a book about Lincoln; learning Lincoln facts. Students listened to stories about Lincoln, wrote an acrostic poem about his characteristics, made a stovepipe birthday hat for our Lincoln replica,completed a Venn diagram about the ways we were different or the same as Lincoln, and concluded our study with a visit from an Abe Lincoln impersonator. We enjoyed hearing him speak about the items we had been learning.
We will spend some time next week learning about George Washington but not in the detail that we studied Lincoln.
Our math work will focus on fractions. Please help us see how fractions are used in our daily life at home. Thank you!
Remember to scroll down to the bottom of this blog to see the latest photos from our classroom activities!

Groundhog Day and 100 Day

We found out that the groundhog did indeed see his shadow. Yes, we'll have six more weeks of winter!
100 Day was celebrated during our math time. Students brought snacks and we completed a math activity with 100 snacks. It was great fun as we answered questions about our snacks. We also did a creative writing activity, listened to a story about 100 Day, read a poem that used 100 words, and wrote 100 words we knew. These activities were enjoyed while wearing our 100 Day glasses, pins, and stickers!
Thank you for sending in snacks for 100 Day. We appreciate your generosity. We plan to share our 100 Day writing in our Share Chair on Friday, after music class.
In reading we worked on writing descriptions about our China week and read a Time Life article about conserving our resources and recycling. We finished our science chapter on the solar system. Math work dealt with using our tens and ones for subtraction. We practiced our Chinese jump rope skills, used tangrams during math centers, and played a Chinese game called Fan Tan. Students also received a copy of the Jacksonville Journal Courier's special publication honoring Black Americans. They brought it home on Tuesday.
Next week we will learn about Abraham Lincoln and present a program to Ms. Wells' class on Thursday. We'll have a Valentine's Day party on Thursday also. February is a busy month for us.

China

Second grade students "traveled" to China through videos, books, crafts, activities, music, language, and food this week. On Monday and Tuesday, each student went to all of the four classrooms to learn about the written language, oral language, culture, and geography of China. On Wednesday and Thursday, classes celebrated the Chinese New Year with a festival of fried rice, chow mein noodles, moon cookies, fortune cookies, vanilla ice cream, mandarin oranges, and green tea. We tried our hand at using chopsticks but spoons were also available. We made hats to wear during our celebration. I'll have photos to post soon. If you have a birthday, we can now sing to you in Chinese! Also on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, students completed more activities learning additional information about our four goals. During storytime we listened to Chinese storybooks and discussed our current weekly reading comprehension skill. Next week we will finish up the storybooks, any activities we didn't have time to complete, and watch a movie where we will see all that we have been learning about. Then we're on to studying about Abraham Lincoln.
Do you think the Groundhog will see its shadow? We'll be checking on that!

January

I've been ill with pneumonia so January hasn't been the best for me! My substitutes have done a great job while I was absent. I was happy to return this week! Students enjoyed their Friday math centers of finding equal groups, geoboard activities, and counting money. Students said goodbye to kindergarten aide, Judy (due to retirement) and welcomed new kindergarten aide, Karen. We will miss Judy's smiling face!
In reading, we read Splish! Splash! Animal Baths. Ask your child about it.
Next week we are working on a China unit during Social Studies. We'll tell you all about it next week. Remember to do homework a little each evening and turn it in by Friday each week.

After Christmas

We came back to a New Year 2009 with a Christmas party to celebrate! Although it wasn't quite the same with the excitement of Christmas around the corner, we did manage to enjoy more Christmas treats and of course, have great fun opening gifts from each other! Thanks to all of you who helped organize our party and supply goodies. We appreciate your efforts. Our second grade team of teachers meet weekly to plan learning-standards based lessons filled with exciting themes and topics of real world interest that encourage and motivate our young learners. We are working on plans for units on the solar system in science with Mr. Hoesman (our second grade science guy), Martin Luther King Junior observances and writing, China for social studies, the celebration of 100 Days of School, observing Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, and of course our big year with Abraham Lincoln, just to name a few! We plan to have lots of learning fun with everyone!