Theme Days

Can you believe next week is the last week already?!  Time flies when you're having fun...or when you take part of the school year off ;-)  Honestly though, I have really had a fun year!  This group kept me on my toes!  They are sweet, smart, and have lots of energy!
Each day next week will be a different theme.  They will be both educational and fun and will give the children something special to look forward to.  Please refer to the calendar below and have your child bring the necessary items each day.  As always, thank you in advance for your continued support and cooperation.

Monday, June 10--Ice Cream Day: Learning can be so sweet, especially with a cold treat!

Tuesday, June 11--Sports Day: Children can dress up in their favorite sports uniform.  All second grade classes will play kickball in the afternoon so please remember to wear appropriate shoes!

Wednesday, June 12--PJ & Movie Day: Children can wear their pajamas and slippers to school.  (Remember we will be going outside for recess.)

Thursday, June 13--End of the Year Party: The class party is scheduled from 11:00-12:15.  There will be fun games and food to celebrate a great year of learning and fun!  All second grade classes will do so outside in the courtyard drive.

Friday, June 14--Beach Day: Children can bring beach towels, sunglasses, and a favorite book to read.  No bathing suits please.

Recipes

Below are recipes from a few of the items we had at our nonfiction author's celebration.  Thanks again for coming to our celebration!  The students enjoyed having you here and sharing their fabulous work with you!  Also, another big thank you to all who donated items and/or time to make the celebration special!

Fruit Salsa
1 pint strawberries
2 apples
3 kiwi
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp preserves (I believe the original recipe calls for apricot preserves.  However, I tend to use whatever I have on hand.)

Chop the fruit into small pieces.  Mix together with sugar and presevers.  Serve with cinnamon sugar chips.  You can add other fruit as well.  I like to use raspberries.  The original recipe also calls for 1 orange.

Pizza Rolls
1 can refrigerated pizza crust
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp dried basil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pepperoni, chopped
1 cup marinara or pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Press pizza dough into a large rectangle.  Sprinkle dough with garlic salt, basil, cheeses and pepperoni.  Starting at the short end, roll dough up tightly to form a log.  Slice into 1-inch pieces.  Place rolls on lightly greased baking sheets.  Bake for 10 minutes or until browned on top.  Serve with warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Carmelitas
32 caramel squares, unwrapped
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Combine caramels and cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely smooth; set aside. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda. Pat half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of an 8x8" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips. Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture over caramel. Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.

Science Investigations

Students worked in small groups to create a short iMovie to teach you about the various balance and motion investigations we learned about in science.  This was our first time using iMovie...mine too!  If there were more days in the school year we would definitely do this again!  The students had a lot of fun, and I have some teaching tips for next time ;-)  Enjoy watching the videos!

Field Day FUN!!!

Troy Historic Village Field Trip

Students learned about life in a log cabin. 

Jung Min is ready to collect water!

We made butter!  I was not brave enough to try it, however, I heard it was "delicious"!

Julian and Charlee dressed up in typical pioneer fashion

Usayd helped with the demonstration of the hurricane lamp.

We took a class picture in front of the general store.

Students enjoyed lunch with friends!  We were so lucky the rain held off!

"Permission to speak, Miss Post."

Students worked hard on "arithmetic."

"May" and "Clara" read a story about bees in the McGuffy Reader.

Room 8 Update

Reader's & Writer's Workshop

We continued our study of nonfiction texts.  We read articles from National Geographic magazines and practiced finding the main idea and details of various articles.  Students also learned the difference between fact and opinion.  We also discussed how to infer the meaning of unknown words.  Students learned they can use the glossary or context clues when they come across a tricky word while reading nonfiction.  We are almost finished publishing our "All About" animal books.  Students have worked really hard on their book and are excited to share them with you on Friday at 2:30!

Math Workshop

We continued working through Unit 11 this week.  Lessons this week focused on multiplication and division number stories, two-digit subtraction with regrouping, and addition and subtraction money problems.  During game rotations this week, students reviewed multiplication arrays, measuring to the nearest 1/2 inch, telling time, and word clues in addition/subtraction/multiplication/division number stories.

Ethan locates various clocks around the room while playing "I Spy Time."

Chelsea carefully fills every square of her paper as she plays "Multiplication Tetris."

Katie measures the lengths of different "Wonka" candy bars to the nearest half inch.

Science & Social Studies

This week we continued our motion investigations.  Rather than focusing on spinning, however, we focused on rolling.  Students worked with partners to create wheel systems and rolling cup systems.  They learned how to create a system which tuns and rolls straight.  They also learned by adding weight to a wheel system, you can speed up or slow down the system.  

During social studies this week, students have learned a lot about Troy's History.  We have read about some of the early pioneers, homes from long ago, and school life.

Stephen demonstrates how he created a wheel system which turns.

Atom demonstrates how he created a wheel system that rolls straight.

Kate and Usayd attempt to solve the "park the car" problem.

Luke celebrates as he succeeds with the "fall on your face" problem.

Looking Ahead

Next week is going to be super busy in Room 8!  Wednesday is our field trip to the Troy Museum and Historic Village, Thursday is Field Day, and Friday afternoon is our Nonfiction Author's Celebration!

Zoomers

Students had fun trying out zoomers.  It took some perseverance to get the zoomer going, but students were super excited once they got it to work!  It was a little tricky to capture students on video, but I got a couple very short clips below.