Still Working Hard and Having Fun
Week #36 May 27-31, 2019

This week we completed many end-of-the-year assessments to show our knowledge, and balanced that with other fun experiences.  Students worked very hard on their final spelling, writing, reading and math assessments for second grade to be collected in their portfolios.  They were focused and calm.  We also enjoyed meeting our new Farm-to-School teacher, playing 3 new math games, hearing a butterfly presentation from Jerry Schneider and of course, Spirit Week.

Jerry Schneider is with the VT Entomological Society and Morphos Productions.  He conducts butterfly and bat presentations all over the east coast.  He shared all about butterflies with all of 2nd grade and then we made our beautiful t-shirt craft.  One tip from Mr. S about the t-shirts:  toss them in the dryer to help set the RIT dye color before washing.

We welcomed Kayli, our new Farm-to-School teacher and learned about pea shoots.  This was a nice complement to our work with Eric von Wettberg about legumes.  The students already new a lot about plant needs, nitrogen and nodules!

Math games anyone?  What a great way for us to practice our addition and subtraction of 3-digit numbers.  We learned 3 math games, and the students were such nice opponents--they let me win every time!  Next week, we'll start our work with geometry and 2D shapes.

Spirit Week was a blast.  Here we are on "Throwback Thursday".  What a creative, fun group!

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*Our read aloud The Witches
*talent shares featuring pokemon, tracing characters and group fitness exercise
*Adding and subtracting 100's and 10's during Number Corner

I look forward to seeing you at perhaps the school picnic or field days next week.
Enjoy the weekend!
Mrs. Hock

Something New & Engaging Everyday!
Week #35 May 20-24, 2019

What a week of special events!  We enjoyed fun, interesting work together each day this week.  This is a long entry with many photos to showcase our experiences.

On Monday, Hanna from The Flynn Theater visited each 2nd grade classroom to explore movement in a program called "Words Come Alive".  Using a familiar text, The Tiny Seed, we spent an hour learning and practicing various exercises to represent this story.  This culminated in us acting out the story collaboratively.

Thank you to Eric von Wettberg who visited on Tuesday to share his expertise related to our plant unit.  He worked with all 60 2nd graders at once--wow!  We learned about:  the importance and beauty of plants, how plants get what they need from the environment, and how amazing, nutritious and common legumes are--yum!

 Wednesday brought us our final Hands-on-Nature session of the year with Anna Clark, Erin Sutherland and Victoria Zaluski.  We learned about rotting logs as their own habitat including the insects that live there, and the time and weather needed to create them.  We worked in groups to explore rotting logs to find organisms and also enjoyed a puppet show.  Thank you to our Hands-on-Nature Moms for bringing us 4 wonderful sessions this year!

 We had a fantastic trip on Thursday to the UVM Horticulture Farm to see pollination in action!  We worked with the expertise of UVM scientists, professors, researchers and graduate students to learn about flower and pollinator specialization.  Thank you to Dr. Alison Brody and her team for hosting this free field experience for all of 2nd grade!

We conducted our own inquiry in the classroom.  Using models of different types of bird beaks, we tested which beak types would be the best pollinators, food collectors and seed spreaders.  We worked in partners to predict, collect and analyze our data.

Please send in your clean, white (or very light colored t-shirt) by Wednesday, May 29.  We will use this on Friday, May 31 with our butterfly expert from the Vermont Entomological Society.

Next week is SPIRIT WEEK at RMCS.
Tuesday:  Sports Day
Wednesday:  Neon Day
Thursday:  Throwback Thursday
Friday:  Comfy Clothes Day

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*Talent shares about drawing
*Writing and solving math problems
*Guidance lesson about gender with Mrs. Wheeler and Mrs. Rice
*FHTMS Jazz Band assembly
*Our final week of word study groups

Enjoy the holiday weekend!
Mrs. Hock

Pizza and Pollinators!
Week #34 May 13-17, 2019

Thank you to everyone who enriched our learning this week.  Peers, family, friends and community members all shared their talents to support our work.  It made this a fabulous week with all of our engaging experiences.

My son, Eddie, and Folino's started our week on Monday.  We learned about The 52 Kids Foundation, math used at restaurants, and enjoyed wood-fired pizza.  Eddie volunteered for 3 weeks with The 52 Kids Foundation in Uganda, and since Folino's sponsors this organization, he shared his experience to give us some context.  
At Folino's we solved math problems related to ingredients, purchasing/production/cost, seating, cooking time, oven temperature and consumption.

Jen, the bee keeper spoke to all of 2nd grade this week about her work to help the honey bee collapse.  She explained about the different types of honey bees and their role in the hive as social animals.  We learned amazing bits of information about their physical features and their important role as pollinators.  We enjoyed a sample of her own honey, and she also gave us each a package of seeds to grow flowers to attract honey bees.

Information about next week's field trip to the UVM Horticultural Farm Thursday, May 23.

• We will be outside 10:00-12:00; please dress accordingly.
• We will be served snack options.  Please let me know if you do not want your child to eat any of the 3 options.  The 3 options are:  Nabisco Honey Grahams, Fig Newtons and apples from Champlain Orchard.
• We will return to RMCS in time to eat lunch at school.

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*measuring the heights of Kindergarten and 3rd grade peers
*seed dispersal by wind, water, animal and propulsion
*pole bean germination
*writing paragraphs
*Talent Shares:  baking, baseball, soccer and geodes

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Hock