Disability Awareness Starts Here!

The children and I would like to extend a special thank you to the D.A.S.H. volunteers who helped us "visualize" how a person with a visual impairment completes ordinary tasks.  The children participated in several scenarios to understand how a blind person would eat, order food from a restaurant, read and write in Braille, play checkers and even walk with a cane or a sighted guide. We learned that a person with a visual impairment enjoys the same things we do, they just have to learn to do the activity in a different way.
Please click on the icon below to watch a slide show of all we've learned this year.

Dear boys and girls,  I am so proud of how motivated and enthusiastic you were to "visualize" what it might be like to have a visual impairment. Please watch the video and write back to me about your most favorite activity or what was the most surprising or interesting fact you learned.  I can't wait to hear all you learned! Just click on the comments below and share your thinking. Your very proud teacher, Mrs. Madden 

Your Voice, Your Vote, Gives YOU Power!

The children have been studying the similarities and differences between our local and state governments, how they work and the children experienced first hand the responsibilities of being an informed voter!  We invited the Steward School second graders to participate in voting with us for a new Massachusetts governor.  Take a peek at some of the future leaders of our community and state.

"Name please, you're all set."  Nice job Alex!

Someday when we're 18 years old, we will be able to vote!

Every vote counts!

Our "mock election" was so close. The winner is....  Martha Coakley 34 votes & Charlie Baker 33 votes.

The children wrote first drafts of their governor speeches and are ready to hit the campaign trail. Students were required to choose one idea to make our state better for its citizens and build on how they would achieve their goal.  I think we have an amazing group of civic minded citizens who I know will make a positive difference in the world!

Connor has some wonderful ideas if he becomes governor.

Bea, you are such a wonderful environmentalist!

What a great game plan Bea, watch out Charlie Baker!

Once the results were tallied it was clear that it was going to be a close race to determine our new governor.  Here are the results we used to create our bar models during math.  Once we calculated that there were 67 second grade voters, the children were told that the winner won the election by one single vote and they were asked to calculate the missing data.  Here are several examples of students demonstrating their thinking using bar modeling. W-O-W... very impressive!

Cole created two part-part-whole bar models to demonstrate the number of students who voted for Coakley & Baker.

Lincoln invited his grandfather to our classroom recently and we learned how the town budget helps to support our school and other projects and services in our town.  The Selectman discussed the importance of voting when we turn 18 years old, and the students learned the importance of their voice in local, state and national governments.

Topsfield Selectman, Lincoln's grandfather visited our class recently to discuss the town's budget.

We Love to Read

The children enjoyed several Halloween books today, as we had a few Mystery Readers appear at our door.  Thanks to Daniel, a former student and Colin's mom and grandmother for their visits.  I know you surprised us all and we loved all three books! Happy Halloween!

Thank you for reading The Monsterator and The ish Book.

We L-O-V-E-D listening to Daniel read.

We have been working hard to improve our reading comprehension skills through several reading strategies: using visualizations or "making a movie in your mind," and making connections to ourselves, another book we've read, or to our world.

"Making a movie in our minds" helps us to understand the setting, characters and events in our book so much better.

Lincoln is working hard to add more details to his visualization.

Natalie proudly shows her work!

Here are a few questions the students developed for our first Skype.

Colin has an opportunity to ask his question.

Thank you Mrs. Klipfel for your wonderful expertise as the children enjoyed their first opportunity to Skype this year.  We connected with a group of first graders in Middleton and shared our thinking with one another. We made predictions, asked questions and even made some very strong inferences.   WOW... our comprehension skills are improving daily!

Standards Covered

RL. 2.1: Ask and answer questions  as who, what, where, when, why, how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. 

RL. 2.3: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

SL.2.2: Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text
 read aloud or information presented orally or through other
 media.

Our First Mystery Readers

Today the children welcomed Natalie's grandparents who had surprised her with a visit to our classroom.  They shared two engaging books and Natalie sat with pride while her grandmother, a former school teacher and her grandfather, a retired primary school principal asked the children several questions and even shared a bit of French.  The children loved both stories, but I believe Baxter the Dog was their favorite, which was written by Deedee's friend.  I'm sure Natalie will enjoy snuggling with her new stuffed dog.  Thank you so much Popa and Deedee, we had a blast and hope you did too!

Natalie's Popa and Deedee from Florida were our first Mystery Readers to share books with us this year.

Thank you for the bookmarks...we LOVE to read!