Money, Money, Money...

Money...the bane of 2nd grade teachers everywhere!!  :)  One of the hardest things to is teach students to identify coins by name and value.  And THEN they have to learn about trading coins - if you have 56 pennies, how many nickels could you trade for?  What about dimes or quarters? 

One way that we teacher these concepts is through a game.  We start with Roll to 25 cents and then progress through Roll to $1.00, and even backwards with Race to 0.  The game is very simple.  The student rolls the die and takes that amount of money.  So if I rolled a 3, I would take 3 pennies.  The next student rolls, takes that amount, and adds it to the total.  Each time coins are added the students examine what they have and determine if any trades can be made.  So, if we have a total of 8 pennies, we can trade 5 of the pennies for a nickel. 

Learning about money is fun - especially when you can play games!

November is an awfully scary time of year to be a turkey.  But what if you could convince the world to eat something else...say hot dogs...for Thanksgiving this year instead of turkey?  That is exactly what our friends Tommy and Perky Turkey are trying to do.  They have disguised themselves as the pigeon from Mo Willems books and are trying to convince the world, with our help, to eat hot dogs in lieu of turkey.  The kids came up with some fantastic reasons why hot dogs are superior to turkey.Take a listen and see if we can persuade you to change up your holiday meal! 

Teachers:  interested in the lesson?  You can find it on Teacher's Pay Teachers - the same place I found it!  :)  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Turkey-Wants-a-Hot-Dog-A-Persuasive-Writing-Craftivity-359829

Our MVP Brayden

 

Hello, my name is Brayden.  I like to read.  I like school.  I like to play legos.  I like to play football.  One of my favorite things to do is play basketball.  Patriots are my favorite football team.  Their quarterback is Tom Brady.  The receiver is Gronk.  I like them because Brady is part of my name. 

Art

One of our favorite specials is ART with the fabulous Mr. Swanson.  He teaches us all about art - from painting to sketching, from shapes and colors, to drawing in 3D. 

Currently in art the students are working on a leaf project.  According to Haleigh and Mason, "first we traced leaves, then we put lines in to cut the leaf in half.  The leaves are painted with warm colors:  red, orange, and light pink.  The background are cool colors:  green, blue, and purple. "  Looks like learning fun to me!!

Balance and Motion

In science we are getting to experiment with balance and motion.  The students are learning about important concepts while building and testing toys ... pretty much a win, win for everyone!

Some of the things that we learned are: 

 How to balance an object using counterweights.

 

 

How to create an object that will rotate quickly and for a long time:

How to keep an object in  motion using push and pull:

And how to use air pressure as a force to make an object spin.

As you can see - we have learned a lot about balance and motion.  Be sure to talk with me about it at home to see what I can teach YOU!

Our MVP Grace

My name is Grace.  I am 7 years old.  My birthday is November 16th.  My birthday is on Saturday.  For my birthday we are going to do a spa birthday.  We are going to put on some of my mom's lotions.  We are going to paint our nails.  There are 10 people coming to my party.  I am very excited for my party. 

OUR MVP Kamira!

I am at a pumpkin patch.  I am jumping.

 This is me and my brother laying in the leaves.  My brother is on top of me.  I am good sister to my brother. 

 This is me eating my Halloween candy at school.  We had a party at school.  There was lots of games.  This is me eating my candy.

This is me going on the trailer about to go trick or treating.  We went trick or treating with my cousins and grandma.  My brother is dressed as a Red Power Ranger.  I am a cheerleader zombie. 

Fall Party

 

We had such an amazing time at our Fall Party.  A very special thank you to Mrs. Carlson for planning, organizing, and directing our festivities.  I know that she couldn’t have done it without all of the donations and parent volunteers, so thank you all that helped in any way!  Our teammates had the opportunity to create a spider craft, do a pumpkin ring toss, get ants into buckets, and wrap one another as mummies.  What more could a 2nd grader want?  Enjoy the pictures of our fun. 

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