Mrs. Ross's Classroom Blog: Happy Friday!

We had another wonderful week of school! It was really nice to have a full week with a regular routine.

What's Been Happening in 2nd Grade:

Math:

This week, we have focused on identifying the most efficient tool to use to measure different items. When measuring longer items, using a yard or meter stick would be a better tool than a ruler, or a tape measure would be a better tool when measuring even longer items. We have also discussed the different units that are used to measure, and talked about these units being a part of either the Metric System (meters and centimeters) or the US Customary System (inches, feet and yards). We had an opportunity to measure different items around the classroom and even our personal arm spans and how far we can jump from a standing position - if you don't follow us on Twitter you missed out on some great pictures! :)
Next week, we will be finishing up Unit 7 with looking at line plot graphs. We will be reviewing and test over Unit 7 next week. To help your child review for this assessment you can make sure that you hitting estimating and measuring items, and analyzing data from graphs during your child's weekly homework. You can learn more about what has been happening in math by reading back over the Family Letter that we sent home earlier in the unit or click here. Coming home in your child's Friday Folder are the HomeLinks for this unit. These can be used as a resource to practice for the test - these HomeLinks do not need to be returned to school.

Writing:

This week, we worked EXTREMELY hard on our Which is Better rough draft writing. We focused on using the notes that we took and forming them into TEN paragraphs! That is SUPER impressive for 2nd graders. We also located at least four words that would be important to include in our glossary, and identified a nonfiction text feature that would be appropriate for each of our paragraphs.
Next week, we will start talking about opinion writing and learn about how to form a strong opinion. We will use this information to write the last paragraph in our Which is Better writing.

Reading:

This week, we talked about what theme is. It is the central message, moral or lesson of a story, passage, book, or form of media. We talked about theme being what the author was trying to teach you, or what you could learn to be a better person. We had an opportunity to look a theme through different fairy tales, fables and books. We even listened to four songs from Disney movies and the students worked on
Next week, we will be comparing contrasting different versions of the same story.

Science:

This week, we learned about about the equator and elevation, and how both of these can impact the water. Places along the equator get more direct sun than any other locations on Earth, so the water along the equator is typically warm and liquid. We also learned that elevation can impact water also. For every 1,000 feet above sea level you travel the temperature decreases three degrees Fahrenheit. Many kiddos had to change their thinking that anywhere near the equator would be warm because they discovered that there is snow in the mountains even around the equator!
Next week, we will continue our conversation about water but focus on why some water is fresh and most of the water on Earth is salt water.

Spring Break is a Week Away!

We understand that Spring Break is a week away; however, students will have homework next week. We will not be sending home your child's Friday Folder next week. We hope that you enjoy your Spring Break! If you have pictures of your child's Spring Break and want to send them in. We will have an opportunity to talk about our Spring Break adventures and display photographs on a few of our bulletin boards!

Book Talks

Mrs. McKinzie came in and gave us a book talk about three different books that she recommended for second graders to read. We actually had all three books in our classroom and had read them as read aloud, but I know some kiddos were wanting to check them out in the library!