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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Our MVP Haleigh

This is when I am holding my little brother.

I helped my dad pull the big bushes out.

My brothers Jacob and Blake.

That was when I was carving my pumpkin with my brother.

This is my mom and aunt and my little brother.  He was in the hospital because he was sick.

I am sitting with my brother and taking a picture with him.  He has a mohawk!

This is my doll.  Her name is Christine and I love her. 

Literature Pumpkin Patch

 

Thank you to all of our friends and family that were able to attend our Literature Pumpkin Patch last Friday.  What an amazing job each student did on their pumpkins!  I was thrilled to see the creativity shine in their decorating and in their written biographies.  It was fun to see them be so excited to share their biographies with not only their families, but the families of their classmates.  For those that weren’t able to make it – please enjoy our pictures.  :)

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Nutrition Women

 

The fantastic actresses and actors of Rose Theater visited 2nd grade last week to present an on location play:  Nutrition Woman!  The play was a fun way to share with our kiddos the importance of eating good foods and getting exercise each day.  We look forward to visiting with the actors again in May when we attend a field trip to Rose Theater. 

Persuasive Writing With Mo Willems

 

What better model for persuasive writing can there be than Moe Willems and his ever lovable Pigeon?  In all of his books the Pigeon is trying to persuade the reader to let him do something…Stay Up Late, Eat a Hotdog, or Drive a Bus.  As an introduction to our persuasive writing unit we watched several Pigeon videos and read some of the books.  The students had to identify the reasons that Pigeon gave.

We then went on to discuss what an opinion is and had the opportunity to express OUR opinions.  After voting for the whether or not they should have an OREO before lunch, the students had to persuade others to join their side by giving a solid argument.  It was very interesting to hear what they had to say.  Being allergic and not liking chocolate topped the No list and being hungry topped the yes list!  In the end, it was decided that Mrs. Heath should bring OREOS, and she did!!

Visit our last blog post to see the persuasive letter we wrote to Mr. Guthmiller after our introduction to this unit.  It’s pretty amazing!!  :)

Our MVP Trey

My favorite thing is playing games.  I like TV games like Disney Infinity.  On Disney Infinity the game comes with three guys.  With the three guys, you can buy different guys.  You can create your own world or go into different worlds.  The worlds are based on movies.  There is the  Incredibles World and the Pirates of the Caribbean. I like to make my own world  It is kind of like this racing place and everyone has different cars.  You create your own.  There are really cool race car tracks.  It is a fun game.  It is my favorite game. 

Me, hard at work at school. 

Persuading the Principal

This week 2nd grade started on a new writing unit - Opinion Writing.  The idea is for the students to be able to state an opinion and support that opinion with reasons and evidence.  We started by writing an opinon letter to the great leader of our school, Mr. Guthmiller.  It was our opinion that we deserved a third recess.  Here is our argument.

October 23, 2013

Dear Mr. Guthmiller,

    We are writing you today because we feel like our class deserves a third recess for today.  The reasons we feel we need a third recess are:  we have been very good, recess keeps us from being tired, and we have been working very hard in school.  Please continue reading and you will find out why we deserve a third recess.

    First, we have been good all week.  No one in our classroom has gotten a Time to Paws.  During our work time, no one is messing around and everyone is doing what they are supposed to.  Do you know how good we have been?  We have been so good that 5 people in our room got bracelets yesterday!  We are sure that 5 more will get bracelets today!  We have even gotten enough points that we have filled Fred the Potato Head twice since the beginning of the year. 

    Second, recess keeps us from being tired.  Second grade is hard work and we need lots of energy for it.  Recess lets us get our wiggles out so that we are not running around and messing around in our classroom.  It also gives us energy so that we don't fall asleep when we are supposed to be doing our work like writing.  A third recess would give us lots of energy so that we can be working hard all day.

    Finally, we have been working hard in school.  Our writing is so amazing.  We always use our nicest, neatest handwriting.  We did a really good job on our writing test last week.  Mrs. Heath said that they were amazing and we added great details.  We also worked really hard on our math test.  Even though there were some hard problems on there, we did our best.  We made pumpkins and wrote riddles about them.  You could even come in and try to solve our riddles while we are at our third recess if you let us have one.

    In conclusion, we feel that you should allow our classroom to have a third recess today.  As you can see, we have been very well behaved, completed our work, and need an opportunity to get more energy so that so that we won't be tired.  And besides, it’s only for ONE day!  We hope that you will agree with us.

Sincerely,

TEAM Heath

We must have done a good job convincing him, because here was his reply:

 

Team Heath,

Thank you for sending me such a wonderful persuasive essay!  It was very well put together.  You had a clearly stated thesis statement which told me right away as a reader what the point was you were trying to make.  Thank you!  The next thing I always look for in an essay are three reasons that do a good job of supporting your thesis statement.  You had these too!  Great job!  All three of your reasons were very well supported and you had plenty of evidence to help explain why they were good reasons.  What a fantastic essay!

After having written such a wonderful essay, I would LOVE to be able to celebrate with all of you at a third recess!  Unfortunately, I have to attend a very important meeting this afternoon at our district Central Office.  L  Please accept this reply as my permission to take a third recess today.  You deserve it!  I will leave the rest of the details up to Mrs. Heath to decide when that will be.

Again, thank you for the letter.  Great job, 2^nd graders!

Mr. Guthmiller

We are looking forward to a third recess this afternoon AND having some more fun with opinion writing!!

 

Our M.V.P. Joshua

When I was out the pumpkin patch I played paintball and I hit some

stuff.  I hit a zombie guy and a hanging zombie that goes up and down and swings.  I also hit a tree and there was a spider on it.  I hit the spider on the tree.  When I was at paintball, it was loud when I shot the paintballs.  I got 10 balls.  When I was shooting the paintballs I couldn't see where they were going.  When I was done paintballing I went to the apple shooter.  After that I went to the haunted house.  When I was in the haunted house it was dark and I thought I heard a gun in there.  When I walked out of the haunted house we went to the corn maze.  Next we went to go get pumpkins.  When we were done getting the pumpkins we went on a hay rake ride back to where all the things are.  Finally we went to eat.  We ate hotdogs and treats and candy.  I really want to go to the pumpkin patch again.