Choose a topic and explore:
Butterfly Life Cycle:http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jmresources/butlifecycle/index.html
Butterfly Appearance:http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jmresources/butappearance/index.html
Butterfly Body Parts:http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jmresources/butbodyparts/index.html
We've learned so much this year already! Can you remember it all? Play these fun games to give your brain a quick review!
Telling Time- http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/telling_time_gr2/
Reading a Calendar- http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/days_of_fun/
Tic-Tac-Shapes- http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/buzz/buzz.html
Loading 3D shapes- http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/loading_shapes/
Solid Figure Factory- http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/solid_figure_factory/
Fraction Race- http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/fraction_race_a/
Bowling for Fractions- http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/bowling_for_fractions/
Comparing Numbers- http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/penny_prizes2/
Space Arrays- http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/space_arrays/
Compare Money- http://www.harcourtschool.com/menus/math2004/ga/math2004_gr2.html
Choose addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. And then answer as quickly as you can!http://home.indy.rr.com/lrobinson/mathfacts/mathfacts.html
Play ball! Choose addition or subrtractiton and then get ready to swing! See how fast you can round the bases. http://www.funbrain.com/math/
Hidden Picture: Uncover the hidden picture as fast as you can by answering the subtraction problems correctly. http://www.aplusmath.com/games/picture/SubPicture.html
Are you a math magician? Choose your addition fact set or choose mixed set to get started. You have to be quick...you only have a minutes to do 20 problems! http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/mathsadd.html
Try the subtraction math magician too! http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/mathssub.html
Play this game against real people! You play against other people playing the same time as you. Choose addition, subtraction, or multiplication. http://www.learningplanet.com/act/mayhem/index.asp
Beat the clock! Help Dojo hit the kicking bags. Choose a level and then click Begin Game. Remember to click maybe later when it asked you to register. http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=Dojo
Use these websites to practice measurement!
Measure with Inches: http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/length_strength2_inches/
Measure with paperclips: http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/length_strength2_clips/
Measure with centimeters: http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/length_strength2_centi/
Choose the correct measurement tool: http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/choose_the_unit/
Check out these new additions to the Math Arcade!
http://www.dositey.com/addsub/Mystery10.htm#s - Match the words to the right number to uncover the secret picture.
http://www.aaamath.com/plc31e-placevalue-w2n.html#section2 - Try to beat the clock and type in the correct numbers. (No commas!)
http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=496&engine=5 - Help the Duck make a hole in one.
http://www.ezschool.com/Games/Compare.html - Drag the > < = to compare the numbers.
http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=503&engine=15 - Answer the questions correctly to shoot at the target.
http://www.mathcats.com/explore/reallybignumbers.html - Write in any number and this site will help you read it.
http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/nw.cgi?A1=s&A2=1000&A3=1&A12=0 - fill out the check to earn cookies by writing number words
http://www.storyplace.org/eel/other.asp - Choose your story, your characters, and your setting for your own version of these mixed up fairy tales! Very fun!
http://roythezebra.com/reading-games-sentence-level.html - These fun games are a review of capital letters and punctuation. Choose advanced when it's an option.
http://www.quia.com/cc/86241.html - Match the contractions! See how fast you can do it!
http://www.cogcon.com/gamegoo/games/squanky2/squanky2.html - Help Squanky the tooth fairy get the teeth from the kids by matching synonyms.
http://www.e-gfl.org/e-gfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/teacher/other/spark/spinwin/gamelaunch.html - Spin to find real words!
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/book_buddy/arthur/skill.html - Pull the crank to make words and figure out if they make sense.
http://www.missmaggie.org/scholastic/fishemup2_eng_launcher.html - Fish for words with the right endings.
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/book_buddy/rosie/skill_pre.html - Read the passages to determine the main idea.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/literacy/ - Try any of these games for great grammar practice! Plus they're fun!
Use this site to practice the Japanese paper folding art of origami. You can watch animations or print out directions. Remember origami takes lots of practice and patience! Have fun!
http://www.origami-club.com/en/ 
Have some fun with fractions with these fun games!
A Whale of a tale- Click test for a fraction challenge.
http://www.innovamultimedia.com/demos/en/ma02/ma02z007/ma02z007_index.html
Pizza Party- A quick review using pizza slices.
http://www.primarygames.com/fractions/start.htm
Fraction Concentration- play memory to match fractions
http://www.hbschool.com/activity/con_math/g04c20.html
Fishy Fractions- All kinds of games at different skill levels. HINT: When it asks you to register click maybe later.
http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=FractionGame
Find Grampy- For a challenge try this game where you have to find Grampy by guessing fractions on a number line.
http://www.visualfractions.com/FindGrampstrict.html
Make fractions- Use the mouse to make fractions.
http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/fractions/prac1.html
Fraction practice- Lots of practice. Choose your level, play, and learn!
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
Super Challenge- Can you figure out 13 ways to make a half?
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/fractions/index.html
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
Use this site to discover the phase of the moon on your birthday!
We certainly had a fun week preparing for the break. The winter celebration was lots of fun. Thank you so much for all your generous gifts. I'll certainly put them to good use!
Some cool websites to look at over the break and get practice some skills!
* www.janbrett.com - All kinds of fun activities that go with Jan Brett books
* http://pbskids.org/arthur/index.html - fun Arthur games
* http://www.little-g.com/shockwave/clock.html - practice telling time
* http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/index.html - all kinds of fun math games
Another very busy week! We're getting a lot accomplished in preparation for winter break. We also had fire safety this week. Every day a fire man or woman came into our classroom to teach us how to be safe in the case of the fire. We learned that you should test your smoke alarm twice and month and change it two times a year. We also learned to fall, crawl, and follow the wall when the smoke alarm goes off. We practiced stop, drop, and roll. The firefighters made sure we knew how to get out of our houses and where to meet our families. Please make sure to go over these things with your children! Practice what to do in case of a fire. On Thursday we got to go into the fire safety house. Inside it looks like a miniature house with a small kitchen and bedroom. As a drill smoke came into the room and all the kids got to practice falling and crawling to get to safety. It was great fun but also taught us a very valuable lesson. We enjoyed learning about fire safety.
The rest of the time we...
Reading Workshop: We just finished reading all of our Gingerbread inspired books. Some of our new favorites are The Matzah Man and The Stinky Cheese Man. We learned that authors sometimes take a familiar story and change up a few details to make a story all their own. It was cool to see how each author made the story different. Now we are working to make Text to Text connections among the stories. Through our study we became very good at identifying the characters, setting, plot, and special features of a story.
Writing Workshop: We're taking a break from small moments to write our own Gingerbread man inspired tales. We're using our new knowledge of similes to make these stories even more interesting. A lot of the authors we studied in our Gingerbread study used similes to make the characters come alive.
Math: We finished up our work on telling time last week. It would be a good idea to continue to practice this important skill at home. Now we are working on identifying and classifying solid shapes like cubes, rectangular prisms, and cones. We've learned to identify the faces, edges, and vertices of these shapes. One day we went on a shape hunt to look for 3-D shapes in our school. On Friday we used toothpicks and marshmallows to build shapes and explore their vertices and edges.
Social Studies: We enjoyed getting to spend our hard earned Winter Workshop money on gifts on market day. We learned that consumers have to make choices because of scarcity. We also learned the importance of good work habits in order to make wages.
Dates to Remember:
* December 18- Holiday Party
* December 21- last day of school before Winter Break/ Read-A-Thon (bring favorite books, stuffed animals, towels)
* January 22-28- Conference Week (Please note report cards will be held until your conference)
Needs:
Cold season is among us. We are in desperate need of Kleenex and hand sanitizer!
Special Thanks:
-Ian's mom for being our mystery reader
-everyone for sending in items for gingerbread houses
Thanks for all your support! I can't believe half the year is almost over!
Jessie Roberts
Hello All! Sorry it has been so long since the last blog. It has been absolutely crazy at school with all the stuff going on. Since I last wrote we had a wonderful Thanksgiving presentation. The kids worked so hard and did such a wonderful job. Thank you to everyone who came to offer support and brought food/supplies for our pumpkin pie reception. The left over pies went to good use (all the staff really enjoyed the pre-Thanksgiving treat!) One of the homemade pies was the best I've ever tasted! Anyway since then we have been hard at work. This week we have been enjoying winter workshop (read below for more information).
Here's a look of what we've been working on:
Reading Workshop: We finished up our unit on making connections (text to text, text to self, and text to world). We've begun a really fun unit on mixed-up fairy tales. Right now we are focusing on different versions of The Gingerbread Man. Some of our favorites so far include Stop that Pickle, Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Cowboy. For each story we identify title, author, setting, characters, beginning, middle, end, and any special features that the story has. We've had fun figuring out how each story is the same and different.
Writing Workshop: We've been working on creating small moments stories. These are stories that happen to the author. The author focuses on a small moment and stretches across several pages to make it extra special by adding details. One way we've been adding to our stories is using similes. Similes compare two things by using like. We created a list of similes that we could use in our writing (It is hot as..., It is as cold as..., It is as soft as.., etc.)
Math: We are zooming through the math book trying to get everything covered for this nine weeks. Last week we finished up subtraction with regrouping. The kids really got the hang of this after a while and could do 3-4 digit subtraction. Way to go! Now we've spent a week on time. Challenge your kids to tell the time throughout the day. They should know how many hours in a day, how many minutes in a hour, and how many seconds in an minute. They should also be able to say the time in different ways (it is a quarter to ten, it is a quarter after 9, it is half past 4, it is 10 till 12, it is 20 after, etc.) Next week we will begining working with angles and 3-d shapes. Please continue to work on subtraction and addition facts. These need to be automatic (to be done in a few seconds without fingers!).
Social Studies: We've been really working hard on our economic unit. We've learned about consumers and producers, wants and needs, and goods and services. We've also learned that people have to work to get wages to buy things. Opportunity cost means we can't have everything we want, we have to choose between this or that. Everyone applied for jobs and was hired last week. This week each worker has reported to work to do their assigned jobs (to make some sort of craft). At the end of the workshop each child has the opportunity to get paid $5 for doing their job and an additional $2 for extra services. Next week children will have the opportunity to spend their wages in the market to buy holiday gifts. I have heard many good things about the workers from our class from the other bosses (second grade teachers).
Computer: We're still working hard at type to learn. The kids are doing great and many have earned their first star for reaching level 7. Now they will be working on speed and accuracy.
Fun sites to look at home
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_2nd.htm - Practice all kinds of math skills
Important Dates
Next week is Cultural Celebrations as well as Fire Safety week. Firemen will be coming into all second grade classrooms to discuss fire safety.
December 18- Our Holiday Party
December 21- Last day of school before winter holidays
*Revision to PTA calendar: The report cards will not go home until parent-teacher conferences!
Special Thanks:
*Everyone who sent in items for our winter workshop
*Ms. Rheinhold, Ms. Jadali, and Ms. Paul for being parent volunteers this week while I had team planning and holiday brunch.
*Mr. Harrison for bringing in really neat empty wasp nest to share. We really enjoyed looking at it!
Thanks for your continued support! I really enjoy teaching your children each day. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday thus far. Remember you can contact me anytime with questions or concerns!
Jessie Roberts
We've had a great two weeks learning about Native Americans. On Native American Day we made several crafts and played games just like Native Americans would have done. One of our favorite games was ladder ball. I hope you enjoyed all the Native American crafts your child brought home. On November 8th we went to Wills Park for Touch the Earth to celebrate all our new learning. We saw a storyteller, a birds of prey wildlife show, and native dancers. We had lots of fun! Check out the video below to share our fun experiences. Turn your sound on!
