The Learning Studio Bug: Kids Connection

Tuesday December 31, 2013

I can’t believe how quickly these last few months have flown by!

Our school year began with a new teacher; myself and settling into a new routine.

We’ve engaged in so much new learning, fun projects and exciting curriculum!

I have seen you work so very diligently; always striving to put forth your very best!

Our BoomTown Day

Parents Career Day

We’ve shared a vast collection of your creative written stories, grown our vocabulary, challenged each other with critical thinking, grasped place value/probability/and endured many tricky word problems!

Art Assistants

Science Sensations

Thankful Placemats

Pilgrim Fact Books

In addition, we explored and toured our city nerve center; the Foster City Hall, Police Department and Fire Department together.

Future City Leaders

Keeping the Peace

The Best Kids Ever!

We’ve also cooked up an amazing harvest feast reminiscent of the original pilgrim settlers in the 1600’s.

Words can’t express just how proud I am of each of you!! You’ve really knocked my socks off and that’s not so easy to do!

I will most definitely miss being in your realm from day to day as I will miss each of you very much!

You are each Amazing individuals! Always remember, that if you put forth your very best, you will go tremendously far & it will be worth the hard work!

Promise me you’ll each say hello and not be a stranger in passing....

With Smiles & hugs,
Your Ms. C,

Friday October 25, 2013

"I was working in the lab late one night

When my eyes beheld an eerie sight

For my monster from his slab began to rise

And suddenly to my surprise

He did the mash!

He did The Monster Mash!"

by The Misfits

Our little monster mashers have been extra busy these last couple of weeks.

They've expanded upon their writing skills by adding descriptive writing of "Monsters On The Move", character analysis with "Who Is Sarah Noble?" and expository writing about "How Amanda's Fine Pies Began in Boomtown" to their writing portfolios.

I'm especially proud of how hard they've been working to keep up with the rigorous daily schedule of classwork.

In our mad science lab we've concocted the perfect mixture of soil, water, light and a bit of TLC to grow our pumpkins. Each day we're tracking their sprouts and are amazed at how much growth can take place in just a short amount of time!

So much so, that I realize we will certainly outgrown our little classroom garden boxes. Please let me know if you have a garden at home in which these wonderful little sprouts can expand and thrive in.

Our mathematician minds have been marveling over many challenging word problems, money, time, estimation and probability. We're constantly building upon our basic skills as we go. I'm thrilled to see they're mastering much of those basics and challenging themselves to do more and more each day!

For Halloween we've been extra creative in adding our own colorful witches to the Shakespeare pieces which Mr. B helped us to type up in computer class.

Such creatively spooky recipes indeed!

We also discovered how to mix up the recipe for apple pie. Our fourth~grade buddies helped us out when it came time to taste and review these steps. It was a tantalizing experience as we shared our delicious creation!

Sharing is so important! We've shared a lot about what's essential in being kind to others. At times, our delicate broken hearts can be mended through the kindness of each other.

Life lessons will follow our hearts along the way....

Tuesday October 8, 2013

"Indeed, learning to write may be a part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading." ~Eudora Welty

Last week we began our devotion to Sarah Noble's adventure. Soon book report guidelines will be sent home to complete and hand in for the end of this month.

Next month at the beginning of November, we'll be reading Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen.

~~~~~~~

Who said Rome wasn't built in a day??

We defied the odds today!

Our Foster City~Scape came to life as our map project was assembled by THE.BEST.SECOND.GRADE.CITY.ARCHITECTS.EVER!!

Stop by and visit our classroom for a peek into our mini neighborhood. It's definitely The 2nd Happiest Place On Earth :)

Saturday October 6, 2013

Busy Hands = Happy Hearts!

Our class has indeed been very busy! We're working on our city~scape for our map project. And it's quickly developing into an almost larger than life size map. They're learning about the compass rose and cardinal directions.

These same skills are being reinforced and reviewed in math. While reviewing our number patterns, practicing sequencing and story problems, we're also applying our critical thinking skills.

All of our skills tend to "piggy back" upon each other here, there and everywhere. In science, we surveyed the class' spider preferences and graphed our results. Indeed their creepy crawly friends are really not as bad as their reputation eludes.

Your little ones' schema was a tremendous starting point in discovering what they knew already about our eight~legged guys. We dispelled some common misconceptions and determined, in the end, that they truly are harmless to humans.

We were curious if our Halloween treats were actually light enough to "hover". 3~Muskateers claimed to be lightest and "fluffiest" so we put it to the test. Our Fluffy Float investigation produced the loftiest results. And then, of course the taste test ensued. Mmm Mmm Good! :)

Our literature studies lured us in writing our own Shakespeare's Prose. They'll be learning how to type and format their "Mock"Beth Witches Brews in computer class next week.

Not only are we working on improving our writing skills, but we are also becoming authors of some very creative pieces within our journals and in developing our current writing assignment about the Halloween Mystery Pumpkin.

I am always encouraging good citizenship in every way through out my curriculum. We discovered new ways and shared some tried~and~true ways of helping others by writing about how to lend our "helping hands" whenever possible. I'm so impressed with the number of ways in which my class projected into helping others.

Keep up the Good Work Second Grade!

Friday, September 20, 2013

Greetings!

It was wonderful meeting my students' parents last night at our Back~to~School~Night! Thank you all for joining us! I love seeing so much support and dedicated involvement! So many great questions were inquired upon. Hopefully, I was able to provide all of the answers in order to help us along.

I was able to dig up my old Vocabulary Cartoon books I had used in the past. Here is a link Vocabulary Cartoons & SAT Prep for amazon's catalog.

The books are designed to help add to your child's lexicon. These vocabulary cartoons & examples are perfect in preparing their young minds for their SAT's! Children really love them! Hope this helps!

I can't believe we're already into our third week of school! My class is awesome! They've really jumped into their new routine, taken that ball and ran with it!

I'm getting to know each of my students as they presented their All About Me Tote Bags. They LOVED sharing each of their favorites to the class!

In just two weeks we've reviewed our Math Excel patterns, greater than/less than, probability and ordinal numbers. We've read First Day Jitters and Amazing Grace. We wrote our very first exposition about How To Make Jitter Juice! Wrote our very own iPoems. In addition, we wrote our expectations for Second Grade.