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