Math Studio

We had another math studio lesson this week and wow, were the observing teachers and Mr. Feeley impressed with our class!  Everyone was impressed with students' math thinking, the language students were using and their ability to clearly express their thinking, the excitement for learning math and willingness to take risks and share their thinking.  There were also many compliments about the level of support students gave each other and how natural it was for everyone to use language that was encouraging and supportive of each other with their math learning.  You should all be very proud of your budding mathematicians!  This has been a tremendous learning experience for me and I feel so fortunate to be sharing it with your children.

We began a narrative unit in Readers and Writers Workshops this week.  We focused on characters, setting and problem and solution.  We will be continuing this unit for the next several weeks.  We also finished Unit 9 in Fundations and will begin Unit 10 on Monday.  Unit 10 will focus on vowel teams ai and ay.

We began our new rotations for social studies and science this week.  If your child was with me learning about "Animals" they are now with Mrs. Nakhleh learning about "Long Ago and Today".  If they were with Mrs. Nakhleh learning about "Long Ago and Today", they are now with me learning about "Animals".

I have been so impressed with the homework coming in lately!  This week over half the class chose the option to create a collage and share.  Many students also shared some great games they created with their families.  Many students are also handing in their homework early.  What a great skill they are developing for next year!

On Monday Shelburne Farms will be visiting the Firefly team again to do a follow up lesson about animals in winter.  We will be heading outside for this lesson to explore the fields and woods across the street from the school and look for animal tracks.  Please make sure your child comes to school with the appropriate clothes on Monday for this outdoor activity. 

Have a terrific weekend!

Apple Tasting

We spent this week finishing up our "Exploring Shapes, Symmetry and Area" unit during Math. We will move into a unit about working with larger numbers, including money and place value toward the end of next week.  In literacy we began new chapter books, worked on some assessments and focused on grammar and mechanics during Writers Workshop. During Fundations we focused on ir, er, and ur.
Nathan, from Mrs. Nakhleh's class, did a terrific Discovery Table presentation about apples and decomposition on Monday.  Today his mother brought in apples for us to taste and decide on our favorite.  Our favorite was the Pinata.  A big thank you to Nathan and his family for this fun activity!

Taste testing

Science presentations

"Circus Teacher"

Science Presentations

Science Presentations

Science Presentations

Number Corner

Bird Migration Dance

On a light note, Mira performed her bird migration dance for us today.  I decided to to kick off the new year with my annual juggling act and headstand performance, leading the class to give me the title of "Circus Teacher" this week.
Have a great weekend!

Dancing to Shapes and Migration

This was another busy week for Firefly Second Grade.  Monday John presented his Discovery Table about Mummies.  He did a fantastic job sharing with us about the process of being mummified, robbers robbing the tombs and their favorite animals.  He talked about the first and last pharaohs and shared several other stories about mummies.
Tuesday we had a fun morning with Lida from the Flynn Center.  She helped us create a dance about shapes to music.  We created equilateral triangles, right triangles and isosceles triangles through dance.
Wednesday we had another great Hands On Nature lesson about migration.  We watched a puppet show and played musical chairs.  We also did a map activity about bird migration.  A big thank you to our Hands On Nature parents.
Today Tia and her mom shared a research book Tia created about sea animals during her trip.  They also shared a slide show with us and taught us many things about Greece, Italy, Spain and other areas of the world.  They shared about their sailboat race across the Atlantic to the Caribbean which took them 17 days. They also brought in a special snack of croissants to share with us.  A big thank you to them for teaching us so many interesting things today.

We also got a new student this week.  Her name is Sanye.  She is a wonderful addition to our class and everyone has done a terrific job welcoming her to Firefly Second Grade.
Unfortunately, our memory disk for our camera has been lost.  When it is found I will post the pictures we have taken of the rest of this week's fun events.
Have a great long weekend!

A Great Start To 2012!

Firefly Second Grade has had a great start to the new year!  We started a unit about r-controlled vowels in Fundations and have been talking about Authors' Craft during literacy.  We have been discussing what illustrators and authors do to make their books unique and interesting.  This week we discussed books by Barbara Cooney and read a book about the process professional illustrators use to create the pictures in books.

We made patchwork mini-quilts during math and explored line and rotational symmetry through these.  We will use these quilts to explore area next week.  During Number Corner we have begun exploring different strategies to add two and three digit numbers and continue to work toward mastery of our addition and subtraction facts.

We also enjoyed a lesson two CVU students came to our classroom to teach this week.  They read us a story and gave us time to do some coloring sheets about the story.

Next week will be busy one.  On Tuesday, a visiting artist from the Flynn Center will be spending time with us to explore shapes through dance and movement.  On Wednesday, we look forward to our January Hands On Nature lesson.  We also look forward to Tia's return from her sailing trip and will have an opportunity to learn more about her experience from Tia and her mother on Friday when they share about this wonderful journey they embarked upon over the last six months.