A Warm Wednesday

I would like to say this is quite a busy week, but that would an accurate description of all of our weeks. Second Grade is moving at the speed of light! Here are some "high-lights" of the beginning of this week:

*Assembly-Fourth Grade Boys basketball team won the state championship! Their coach, Mr. Friedman presented a very large trophy to Mr. V. Also at assembly, we watched video of several different types of dragon and lion dances for Chinese New Year.

*Mr. Glimcher brought in chicks from his family farm, Circle G Farms. The fuzzy little ones are already sprouting adult feathers despite being less than two weeks old!

*Core is our Star of the Week. Core would like to be a roller coaster designer when he grows up.

*We continued to write cerlihew poems (a pair of couplets about a famous person) about the people we saw at the Wax Museum.

*We wrote thank you notes to Julia Codispoti, a geologist from the Byrd Polar Research Center that came to visit us. She shared her rockin' knowledge in science class on Friday.

*We finished up chapter 11 in math and moved from addition with regrouping to subtraction with borrowing!

*We practiced using guide words in the dictionary.

*Mr. Razek came in as a Mystery Reader to share the book 365 Penguins. He also shared some tasty penguin cookies straight from the Antarctic for a very special black and white treat.

*We are putting finishing touches on our many biographies to create our biography books. We can't wait to share these with you when we come back from Spring Break!


The chicks






Mrs. Razek's Mystery Reader story-A Yoga Tale-From last week...

Photos From The Last Few Weeks

Here are photos from several great events!
Valentine Party and a Valentine Mystery Reader:











Jump Rope for Heart:










The Real Eyes Presentation with Dr. Nichols and Dr. Nichols:

Thursday, March 4, 2010

This week the 2D Rocks have:

learned that our Star of the Week, Katelyn, can only give her favorite book 4 stars because the ending was "not as great as [she] thought it would be."

researched a famous person and worked on creating a biographical poster that represents that person,

used saws and other woodworking tools to create wooden animals in art,

visited a Wax Museum with amazingly life-like statues,

created incredibly imaginative cerlihew poems about the said life-like statues,

continued their amazing run as addition wizards regrouping with two- and three-digit numbers with gusto,

played that p.c. game called "Nuke 'em" in P.E.,

laughed at Ramona's four-year old antics during class readings of Beezus and Ramona,


practiced yoga during a moving Mystery Reader event with Mrs. Razek,

continued to be pencil-toting members of the cursive club,

and completed a host of rigorous physical endeavors including, but not limited to, the arm-stretching "Sit and Reach," the belly-burning "Curl ups," and the much anticipated "Pacer Test."

What will Friday bring?!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

We continued to bop to our biographies today! It's fun learning about so many amazing individuals! We also had a special assembly this morning complete with sports rap, Chinese New Year dragon dancing, and a sing along. In the afternoon Mrs. Naguib surprised us as our Mystery Reader. She read, The Big Orange Splot and Holey Moley. After the stories, Mrs. Naguib shared the immigration story of her parents as well as Mr. Naguib. It was very interesting to hear about both immigrations from Egypt.

Yesterday we had another very special Mystery Reader, Mrs. Faciana, Mr. Connick's first grade assistant. She shared a book that she authored about her dog, Sneakers. We were privileged to be the first class to hear her rhyming adventure story!

Sam is our Star of the Week this week. He plays indoor soccer and says his mom is his hero.

February 20, 2010

Read-In!

The 2D Rocks enjoyed a day of reading on Friday. Our short weeks have kept us very busy, so Friday was a welcome respite for all. Shortly after our day began, the 2D Rocks jumped into silent reading-books from home, books from the school library, books from the classroom library, books from one another, books from the public library. We are so grateful to have so many books at our fingertips!

The class listened to a book, My Librarian is a Camel, that discussed the many ways children get books in other countries. Many places have mobile libraries and some have virtual libraries such as the Inuits of Canada. In a small oceanside town in England, the librarians carry their books in wheelbarrows right down the beach! Some books come by boat, some by camel, some by donkey-pulled cart. In a few areas of Asia, the books are delivered by elephant. The importance of reading can never be overestimated!

The 2D Rocks did a little biography bopping on Friday as well. Following the basic form of musical chairs (minus the shrinking number of chairs), the class shuffled around the room stopping at a new desk to read the short biography placed at that seat. This is the third time we've "bopped" to read biographies independently. It's a hit! We're enjoying all aspects of this fun and educational activity.

Next Mrs. Reckner read one of her favorite books, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. Ask your child about the many troubles the animals experience as they put on all forms of clothing.

With our blankets and pillows, the class curled up a few different times during the day to read independently. Although there were a couple of pairs of drooping eyelids, no one succumbed to sleep, but enjoyed short and long, fiction and non-fiction, chapter and picture books throughout the day.

It was a great day from beginning to end! Read-on 2D Rocks!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Friday was a whirlwind of a day before the snow arrived. We had some great sharing including photos from Shreya's trip to an Indian orphanage, a 3D sculpture made of toothpicks and marshmallows by Miles and Sam and Sneakers, the guinea pig, brought in by Alexandra, aka, "The Vet."

Mr. Johnson also came in as a Mystery Reader to read about the Obama family.















On Thursday, the Second Grade participated in a rotation of classes to report on famous people in history. Each Second Grader became an expert on several individuals. He/she gave information on these famous people to Second Graders in other classes. The exchange of information was exciting to see and the students enjoyed working together.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

On this chilly Groundhog's Day, we had visitors aplenty! Our Mystery Reader, Mrs. DeAscentis read a great book that left us guessing! Mrs. Lichten, along with Sophie and Jake, brought treats for Sam's half birthday celebration. In between special guests, the 2D Rocks presented their family trees. The class shared very interesting facts and fantastic stories about their family members. (I promise to use this information only for good in the future!) The 2D Rocks also worked in small groups on several biographies: Paul Revere, Sacagawea, Abe Lincoln, and Sally Ride. Our class will be the experts on these four individuals during our Thursday rotation of biographies with the other Second Grades. The 2D Rocks will teach 2A, 2B, 2C about these famous people while students in these classrooms teach us about other famous individuals.