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