2019-2020 2nd Grade Class

March 18th, 2020- Our Journeys story a few weeks ago was called Penguin Chick. We also read several other nonfiction penguin books, watched penguin videos, and read about penguins online. Your student can probably tell you just about everything there is to know about penguins! After learning about penguins, students did an informational report about penguins. Since this was for their report cards, they wrote everything in the report just from memory (they didn't copy anything from books)! They did an amazing job! I was so proud of them and I know you will be too after reading them. They typed their reports all by themselves using Google Slides. If you want a closer look at their report, you can click the "full screen" button in the bottom right corner.

February 28th, 2020- During this science unit we have been learning about insect life cycles. Our class received several mealworms that they observed in vials. Some students were even brave enough to touch them. The mealworms then moved through their life cycle to eventually become darkling beetles! Everyone was surprised and excited to learn that! After observing the beetles, the students got into groups. Each group took a picture of their beetle and used the app Chatterkid to create a cool talking picture! It was a great opportunity to mix science, technology, art, and team collaboration all into one fun project. Listen to some facts about beetles straight from the mouths of... beetles! Check them out below!

January 10th, 2020- I am late to share about some of our Christmas themed activities during the month of December. The month went by very quickly because we were so busy learning and having lots of fun! During our opinion writing unit, the students first had to read and learn about reindeer. For their opinion piece they had to decide whether or not they would want to have a reindeer as a pet at their home. The reasons were all so creative! The writing pieces, along with their reindeer crafts, will go into our memory books. The students also participated in the "12 Books of Christmas" which featured great Christmas picture books and taught many comprehension skills. Those are just a few of the fun things we did throughout the month! Below are some pictures from our party the last day before break. Their face paint turned out so cute!

November 4th, 2019- This week we are reading and learning about "Super Storms". We are going to learn lots of interesting facts about blizzards, thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes and more! For a super fun problem-solving activity, the students worked in groups to escape from a "Digital Escape Room". A digital escape room is where students begin at a website and are taken to different puzzles and reading passages on the internet that require them to find a code. Once the students entered the correct color code, direction code, and letter codes, they were able to "escape" from the digital escape room. The theme of this one was "Storm Chasers" and the students learned a lot about storms during the process, while improving their reading comprehension skills. All of the groups worked really well together, but only a few teams were able to completely finish and escape. We had recess and had to take the chromebook cart to the next class. We all had a great time!

November 1st, 2019- We had a great time at our Halloween party yesterday! Here are a few pictures I took that I wanted to share with our families. Happy Halloween!

October 8th, 2019- After reading Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin, the students worked with their reading groups to research their choice of owls, spiders, or bats. They used books, websites, and videos during their research process, writing down all of the facts they found interesting. They then worked with their groups to create really awesome videos using Adobe Spark. They typed their favorite facts, inserted photos, recorded their voices, and even chose background music to make their videos one of a kind. The entire process was so fun to see, as they all worked so well together in their groups. I hope you enjoy learning about bats, owls, and spiders!

Note: If the videos below are not working on your device, try these links:

• https://spark.adobe.com/video/MlFMdnw6HLfol
• https://spark.adobe.com/video/pXSduw3b9JI5T
• https://spark.adobe.com/video/ZHmXuPwhz5ZAa
• https://spark.adobe.com/video/ge9mi76perFNg
• https://spark.adobe.com/video/NDPmkr2iTXAZb

October 2nd, 2019- During our reading time last week, we read a nonfiction book titled Dogs. The students were also learning about how to write sentences with the correct punctuation. I pulled this all together into an assignment they completed during literacy centers where they put captions, or sentences, under different pictures of dogs. They had a lot of fun and were really creative! I compiled a slideshow with one sentence and picture from each student. Check it out!

August 28th, 2019- Our first technology project of the year was one that helped us get to know our classmates a little better! I created the template and students used Google Slides to create their "About Me Posters". They learned how to insert pictures from the web and resize them, as well as take a picture (or selfie!) of themselves using the Chromebook camera. The entire process was a lot of fun. It is going to be an awesome year with this wonderful group of 2nd graders!

Note: If you would like a closer look at your student's project, you can click the "full screen" button on the gray bar underneath their posters.