Writing Celebration!

The students had such a fun time on Friday celebrating the conclusion of our narrative writing unit! We have spent the last six weeks learning what good narrative writing sounds like and creating our own stories. Our mini-lessons focused on a variety of things, from crafting powerful beginnings and endings, to "unfreezing" our characters through the use of dialogue and movement. One of the mini-lessons that we kept coming back to throughout the unit was the idea of writing a "seed story." We talked about how many second graders want to write a "watermelon story" where they tell you everything they did in the course of a day, but that writers should try to pick out one little seed from the watermelon that they can write about. It may sound silly, but comparing our writing to a watermelon really helped these young writers pull out one small moment that they wanted to write about. So, to celebrate, we shared our best personal narrative with our classmates and had a watermelon snack!

Celia and Sarah enjoying their watermelon treat.

Abdi eating up his piece of watermelon.

Sincere sharing his favorite personal narrative with the class.

Our Star Student from two weeks ago, Jayden!

Our Star Student from last week, Adeline!

Busy Friday!

   Our Friday was jam-packed with activities! The highlight of our day was Jog for Jefferson! The kids did an amazing job of raising donations and running laps!



Mrs. Hofmann's Cheetahs!

Ready to run!

Here comes Joel!

   The students also had the opportunity to meet with their fourth grade buddies from Mrs. Palmer's class, which was lots of fun! They interviewed each other and wrote down some interesting facts about their buddies. We will be meeting once per month throughout the year. This is a great way for the fourth graders to practice their leadership skills, and it allows the second graders to have an older Jefferson friend that they can look up to. Here are some pictures of your children with their new buddies! (Please note that a few fourth graders are not allowed to have their pictures taken and posted online, so if you don't see your child, it means that I wasn't able to take their picture with their buddy).

   We ended our day by having our "Quints Baby Shower." The kids shared what "qu" item they brought for the quints and then we had a sweet treat. Hopefully, the quints will help the class remember that "q" and "u" always go together!

Our adorable quints!

Oni enjoying her cake and lemonade at our Quints Baby Shower.

Math Games and a Star Student

Last week we started adding partner games to our Math Daily 5. Taking a few minutes each day to play math games is not only fun for the kids, but it helps them practice the skills we're learning in a hands-on way. Starting this week, I'll be sending home directions to the games we play in class, that way you can reinforce what the kids are learning at home.  

 

Last week we also had our first Star Student of the year. As I explained during our Parent Information Night, each child in our class will have the opportunity to be the Star Student. I simply pull a name out of our jar, and that child gets the honor of being the Star Student. Claire was our first Star Student of the year. She got to share her Star Student board with us on Monday (see below), read a picture book to the class on Tuesday, have a special letter written by her parents sent to school on Wednesday, and have a lunch date with her mom on Thursday. Claire ended the week by getting to have all of her classmates write a letter to her. We had a terrific time getting to know Claire better!

Adeline and Kaiden playing a math game together.

Sincere and Mason L. playing Plus 1 or 2 Bingo.

This week's Star Student was Claire!

Welcome to Our Classroom Blog!

Welcome to our classroom blog! This is another wonderful way for you to "peek" into your child's second grade year! Each week I post pictures of our activities or special events to help you stay connected to what's going on in our classroom. Thanks for visiting!

Claire and Audrey were working together to practice their word study words.

We learned in Writer's Workshop that good writers "magnify" the details in their stories. The kids used magnifying glasses to describe seashells as a way to practice using detail words. Zach was working hard to study his shell.