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