Expert Fair

     To celebrate the end of our informational writing unit, we had an "Expert Fair" last Friday with the other second grade classes. Each child chose one nonfiction book that they had written, and then shared that book with a fellow second grader. They even got to wear a little sign indicating what they were an expert on. We finished the Expert Fair by sharing with our own classmates.

Elijah was a soccer expert and Trent was a baseball expert.

Julian was a race car expert and Andrew was a Ninja Turtles expert.

Addi and Abby were both dog experts.

     We also played some fun games in math last week to help us practice various math concepts. Two favorites were "Beat the Calculator" and "Place Value Feud." In Beat the Calculator, the students were surprised to find that even though a calculator is a useful tool, our brains our often times much quicker at solving addition problems with several addends. During the game, a child would pull a card, such as 6+4+8+2, and then one child would solve the problem mentally while the other child used the calculator. Nearly every time, the child doing mental math was quicker. In Place Value Feud, the kids were able to see that the value of a number changes depending on its place in a number.

Trent and Evan playing Beat the Calculator.

Brandt and Grant playing Place Value Feud.

Taylor and Deanna playing Place Value Feud.

We welcomed Addi's dad, Mr. Suriano, as our Mystery Reader last Friday!