Soaring in Second Grade with Mrs. Madden: January 2016

Olivia, Addison, Madelyn and Ella are all smiles and feel proud of their hard work.

Yesterday we had an opportunity to share all we've uncovered in our polar bear research with our friends in Mrs. Ford's class. The students in both classes demonstrated strong comprehension by answering questions and shared learned information about the Arctic's largest predator, the polar bear. The emphasis on habitat, life cycle and adaptations were the main research topics and students in both classes became research experts in all three areas.

Drew, Michael and Quinn worked hard on their polar bear projects and are enjoying the opportunity to share their learning.

Now that our research projects have been completed and we have learned how to locate, interpret and categorize information we are ready to choose a different polar animal from either the Arctic or Antarctic and complete our next research report and project. We will be using the Chatterpix app to "chat" or share important information on our next science report ... so stay tuned to be informed.

Katie demonstrates her polar bear's adaptation with friends.

Remember to send your child to school on Monday wearing white (or any light colored clothing) for their portrayal as an Arctic fox for our second grade concert, Please Don't Melt Me.
Since our polar bear projects have been completed and to make room in our classroom it would be wonderful if you could stop by after Monday's concert to ensure a safe ride home.

Ciaran and Will collaborate about the Arctic and all they learned.

Writer's Workshop We have very strong opinions... We recently began our newest unit on Opinion Writing and the children have embraced it with wonderful enthusiasm using their writer's voice. We have been working hard to state our opinions clearly using a variety of strong openers, As a matter of fact the students wrote letters trying to persuade me not to give them homework one night, and I was amazed to "hear" their writer's voices and the language used to get my attention...that they indeed had something important to tell me.They won me over, and needless to say, no one had homework that night...well done boys and girls.

We know it's important to get the reader's attention with an opening that's going to grab your attention, so we've been practicing hard to use a variety of persuasive openings to make it P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y clear.

We'll continue to work on the components of opinion writing while focusing on several key reasons to help support our opinions, using linking words and phrases (such as, therefore, because, and, to...), and most importantly restating our opinions to close our writing with a strong feeling. The children are quickly mastering these skills and are becoming quite proficient at the act of persuasion... so be prepared.

We used the O-R-E-O graphic organizer to help us brainstorm our ideas. It was so much more fun singing the RAP song and eating our OREO cookies at the same time.

As you can see Ciaran's opinion about cancelling homework is very clear.

Writing Poetry: I Know a Winter Day...
We have continued to write our seasonal poems using descriptive language, while focusing on using similes, alliterations, personification and perhaps even an onomatopoeia. The student's poems are hanging proudly in our classroom with a personalized photo to demonstrate their favorite line. Using the Green Screen we acted out our favorite poetic sentence and found a perfect background for each student to help their poetry come alive.

A-C-T-I-O-N

Watching the freezing and feathery snowflakes falling from the paper white sky.

Hiking the gigantic snowy mountains as the sun says hello.

Fables and Folktales:
We started a new unit on Reader's Workshop focusing on fables and folktales. The children have read stories from around the world which we are tracking on our large classroom map. We've identified the story elements of a fable and folktale and are able to identify the similarities and differences between the two. The children have been working hard in their reading groups to track their thinking and identify the elements using a graphic organizer. They have become pros in identifying the main character(s), setting, trickster, fool, personification, the conflict or problem and the lesson or moral of their story. Soon we will be writing and acting out our own fables, so stay tuned.

Math Workshop: Writing our Own Multiplication Stories

After learning our multiplication facts for 2, 5, and 10's tables we used what we had learned and wrote our own Multiplication Stories, Whether you are multiplying the stripes on hockey jerseys or the number of strings on violins we have proven we know our facts. The children learned that multiplication is repeated addition and that multiplication and division are related operations, we like to think of them as "cousins" in our family. The children have played many new games, such as Snowball 100, Number Sticks, Oops and Pizza Bump during our Math Workshop to help solidify their multiplication and related division facts. It's always helpful to practice these facts for a few minutes each night/week to help maintain mastery of all your children have learned. We have just begun a unit on the Metric System and are looking forward to a significant snowfall so we can get into our snow gear and measure the depth of snow around the playground using meter sticks.

Science Research: Polar Bear Dioramas

Did you know that polar bears have bellybuttons, they can wait up to 4 hours at a seal's breathing hole ready to pounce on its prey and that a polar bear can smell a seal over 20 miles away? We uncovered so many fascinating facts about our polar bears from reading books, watching National Geographic videos, and participating in a LIVE Podcast where five educators spoke to us from their snow buggy in the frigid Arctic while polar bears roamed in the background. Our reports are nearly completed, as we focused on uncovering facts about a polar bear's habitat, adaptations that help them survive and their life cycle.

Thank you so much for the wonderful supplies that were donated to help our children create an Arctic habitat for their polar bear research project. The children were eager to get started and were totally engaged as they created their own polar bear dioramas using the information they learned as well as a bit of their imagination. The children even chose to work on their projects during indoor recess because they were so excited.

Ella learned that mother polar bears dig a den to keep her 2-3 cubs safe from the frigid cold as well as predators.

Ben's polar bear plans to wait a bit for a seal to pop up for air at its breathing hole.

Emma's polar bear is sneaking up on a seal, with its well padded paws he moves silently toward its prey.

Change is Simple: Pollinators
We can make a difference and we learned how and why it is so important to take care of bees. Recently we were visited by Change is Simple, a program based in Beverly to help teach students the importance of taking care of our environment and its impact on our lives, Can you believe there are over 20,000 varieties of bees, luckily we focused on five that live nearby: the honey bee, bumble bee, squash bee, carpenter bee and the sweat bee. Each one helps to pollinate certain flowers and foods that we enjoy...without their help we wouldn't be able to enjoy strawberries, corn and tomatoes. We learned that insecticides confuse the bees and they can't see the plants they need to pollinate.
Change is simple, don't harm bees and protect our delicious food.

Emma, Belle and Katie are "Busy Bees" and are ready to pollinate their favorite plants, but insecticides (bubble wrap) have affected their vision...will they be successful?