Spring Happenings
Week #31 April 15-19, 2019

We began our "B" garden (our garden for bees, butterflies, bats and birds.  We planted seeds in our grow lab.  Students chose 4 seeds to plant from 8 choices:  ageratum, borage, calendula, cosmos, nasturtium, sunflower, verbena and zinnia.  Students learned briefly about each plant's germination time, seed planting depth, final plant height, flower image & color, and a few other interesting facts before selecting their seeds.  Here are a few pictures from planting day on April 17, 2019.

Here are a few pictures of our seeds as they germinate from Monday, April 22, 2019.  The students will be amazed at what they see on Monday, April 29!  We are looking for mature echinacea (coneflower) and milkweed to replant in our garden.  Let me know if you have any to share.

We also enjoyed some springtime veggie chili with Miss Meg as her final Farm-to-School lesson with us.  Miss Meg is leaving to pursue a degree in education and we will now have a different Farm-to-School teacher next month.  Good luck Miss Meg!  Click on the leaf icon on the RMCS homepage for Miss Meg's recipes.

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*Don't Squeal Unless It's a Big Deal
*Poetry form choices:  I am, Favorite Things, Animal Poem and I am as...
*Our Marky Mark Celebration

I hope you had a wonderful April Vacation.
Mrs. Hock

Amazing!
Week #30 April 8-12, 2019

Our work this week was amazing!  We are amazing poets, mathematicians, scientists, and of course peers as we earned another Marky Mark celebration.

The number 1000 amazing.  We were able to count this quantity with different material, in different ways, to see its magnitude.  As we compare and operate with numbers up to 1000, these visuals help us think about our quantities' relative size and the effects of the operations on our numbers.  Our math standards require second graders to skip count by 5's, 10's and 100's (starting on any number) within 1000.  Are there really 1000 cubes, links and popsicle sticks pictured below?

Our poems are amazing as this week with added rhyme to our poetry craft list.  We really enjoy to read, write and share poems!  We wrote couplets, quatrains and free style.  Here are a few samples:

Running is the best.

I like it till you need a ton of rest.

You run under the sun,

and that means you had a lot of fun!

--Makenna

Once I made a double

But now my team is in trouble.

--Colin

Kindness is a beautiful sight.

It shines bright in the night.

It's like magic; anyone can do it,

When you spread it with others the candles are lit.

You can see it if you look carefully.

Anyone can do it if they are treated mindfully.

--Ellie

He goes swiftly through the night.

Flames and flames through the town.

Ashes, ashes left behind.

He goes back to his icy cave; 

Going back to its slumber.

--Michael and Gabe

We began our science unit this week to address the national 2nd grade standards related to "interdependent relationships in ecosystems".  These standards focus on plants and animals depending on each other for survival.  Our final outcome will be a butterfly and bee garden that we grow and plant on school grounds.  Students were amazing scientists this week asking questions to define a habitat and learn about bees and ants.

Also, congratulations to our peers who were amazing scientists at the Science Fair this week! 

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*Ally or bystander in guidance with Ms. Bedell
*Mystery Doug
*Happy Like Soccer

Enjoy the weekend,
Mrs. Hock

A Week of Sharing
Week #29 April 1-5, 2019

Thank you for attending parent conferences this past week.  It was great for us to spend time together sharing all of your children's progress and to think about goals for the remainder of the school year.  Oh my this year is flying by!

We enjoyed our morning meeting sharing theme with "literary gifts" this week.  Students enjoyed hearing their peers' favorite reads as well as their stories behind why it was their favorite read.  So far students have shared an informational picture book, a find-it book, a fiction picture book and a meme book about dogs' thoughts.  Thank you for supporting your child as they pick their "literary gift" to share.

We particularly like our poetry shares.  We know that poetry is meant to be read aloud, so not only do I give & read aloud a new poem to the students each day, but they read poetry books in pairs and write their own poetry to read aloud to the class.  Here's a few of our Haiku from this week's writing sessions. As you read aloud the poems below, I'm sure you can visualize how we are using our poet's eyes to generate our inspiration.  Using our poet's eyes is our way to sense our topic, and use our imaginary mind & soulful heart to describe it as well.

Whoosh swing whiff strike one

Whoosh swing whiff strike two oh no

Whoosh swing crack home run

--Henry

Smooth and pretty cool

A blue bird on my window

Like a blue ocean

--Bella

Draw different places

Better and better ideas

They notice my art

--Tyler

Tweeting in the air

Beautiful little birdies

Sing at your window

--Molly

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*The number of popsicle sticks we counted
*The number of cubes we counted
*The results of our paper weathering investigation (the color and size changed!)
*Our guidance lesson with Mrs. Wheeler about standing up to bullies
*Painting sakura tree branches


Thank you for all you do!
Mrs. Hock

It's a Wrap!
Week #28 March 25-29, 2019

We wrapped up a few studies this week and enjoyed some culminating activities.  We finished:

• a 10 day residency with Paton Sensei and Taiko drumming,
• a mini residency with Miss Nancy and Math & Art, and
• our opinion writing by mailing our letters.

Taiko:

Our group performed with excitement and confidence Friday evening! What a terrific way to showcase our hard work and practice!  Thank you for your support and attendance, and thank you to the PTO for this memorable opportunity.  Thank you to Sensei for the patience and time to share his knowledge and skill of Taiko & Japanese culture.

Math & Art:

Our final project with Miss Nancy focused on different shaped halves of a rectangle with equal areas.  Students worked with different strategies to color half of a rectangle with a total area of 48 square units.  All four second grade classes completed this project so we created a display for our hallway.  

Opinion Writing:

Our letters are on their way!  We finished our final drafts, addressed envelopes and walked to the post office to officially wrap up our unit.    Thank you to Officer Bri for the safe escort as we crossed Williston Road.

We also enjoyed Hands-On-Nature this week learning about 3 different types of squirrels.  Thank you to Anna Clark, Erin Sutherland and Victoria Zaluski for leading this session.  The puppet play was complemented by our station work and we learned great information about gray squirrels, red squirrels and flying squirrels.  We learned about their different survival skills, their footprints and we were also able to view and touch skulls and pelts.  

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*Visiting 3rd grade to be their audience for their non-fiction writing share
*Paying attention to the special language author's use in our reading books
*Put It On the Line math game with Mrs. Hock versus students (the students always won!)
*Drawing 3D shapes
*Seeing treasures through the eyes of a poet

I'll see you at parent conferences next week!
Mrs. Hock

A Balance of Work & Special Events
Week #27 March 18-22, 2019

Our week included a balance of work and special events.  We hosted guests, enjoyed a whole-school celebration and worked hard to begin our math unit about money, and complete our letters for our opinion writing unit.  Please note that parent conference forms were sent home as well.  You can return the form to me in your child's Take Home Folder or you can email me with your time preferences.  Parent conferences are the afternoons of April 4 & 5.

We began our week on Monday with our first Math Through Art session with Ms. Nancy.  Our PTO generously funded 2 sessions for each second grade classroom.  The theme of our first session was "triangle party".  We explored 4 different activities to highlight the properties of triangles:  1) triangles everywhere, 2) triangle trees, 3) Sierpenski's Triangle and 4) triangle stacks.  What a creative way for us to engage in the mathematics of this amazing shape!  Our next session will be Monday, March 25.

Monday also featured our culminating guidance event on "Changing Perspectives".  We experienced four different stations to become aware of completing tasks with disabilities.  How could we button shirts, walk, draw or listen with different disabilities?  Thank you to Mrs. Wheeler, Miss Bedell, Mrs. D'Agostino and Erin Sutherland for leading our stations.

Our other special guest this week was Miss Meg with Farm-to-School.  She featured cacao!  We learned about its health benefits, how chocolate is made from it, and its cultural significance in many parts of the world.  We did enjoy a hot cacao drink made with VT maple syrup--yum!  Here's the video we watched showing the process from seed to chocolate bar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khdz2Stp2ZQ

In math we began a focused mini unit about money.  Second graders need to recognize coins by name, know their value and then use their value to compute, compare, make equivalent & minimal collections, make change and solve word problems.  We use real coins, plastic coins, and money value pieces as tools to facilitate our learning.  Do you have a coin jar?  We grab handfuls of coins and total the value and then answer questions.  Here are a few:  What's the "best" way to count a collection?  Which coin(s) should we start with first?  Is there another way to make a collection with the same value?

Our opinion letters are about ready to mail!  We've been working hard to not only write a clear opinion with 2 supporting reasons, but to also include an introduction, evidence that may be in the form of research, examples, quotes or stories, and a closing.  We will walk to the post office on White Street this week when we are officially ready to publish these pieces.  Students have written letters to me, family members, business leaders, friends and even the President of the United States.  I wonder if anyone will get a letter in return?

We did also write thank you letters to our Flat Stanley hosts.  A Flat Stanley was returned to every student and we were so thrilled with these gifts.  Thank you to your family and friends who participated to make this special for everyone.  We learned many interesting facts and our hosts were very generous with their packages.  We got cookies, accessories, shells, shark teeth, pictures and confetti to name a few of the treats we received.  Here we are in front of our Flat Stanley map.

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*Houndsley and Catina
*Reading dialogue based on the mood of the situation
*Reading at a just right pace to improve our comprehension
*Bee Bot challenges with Mrs. Courcelle
*Mystery Doug:  What causes earthquakes?  Is Pluto a planet?

Think Spring!
Mrs. Hock