Honoring a Hero

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

    In order to prepare for this long, holiday weekend, our class spent the week discussinig the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I was so impressed by the level of thoughtfulness your second graders displayed as they learned about Dr. King. As you can imagine, it was hard for them to believe that times in our country could be so different than they are now! 

Diving into picture book biographies!

Seeing Dr. King make his famous speech at the March on Washington was a major highlight!

    After reading many beautiful picture book biographies we focused on what Martin thought, how he felt, and what actions he took. Check out these amazing tributes they made!

Hope you all had a great, long weekend! 

Looking for a good book? Check out a READbox near you!

    The persuasive writers of the owl class have been HARD at work! After selecting one of their all time favorite stories, they went right to work persuading other SMS students to read their books! With all this chilly weather we've been having, who doesn't need a new book to curl up with?
    Using Shadow Puppet, an app they were familliar with from Mr. Gagnon's Makerspace, students created an eye catching book trailer promoting their book! Check out a few below:

    After making their book trailers, we wanted to creat a way to make these fabulous trailers accessable to readers. Using a QR Code Creator, their trailers were converted into trendy "QR codes". QR codes allow individuals with a QR reader (available on smartphones and tablets) to scan and view! Put all this great technology together and....viola! The 2AA Owls present you their READbox!

    We have many of these wonderful stories available in our classroom, but the rest can easily be found at the library. We will enjoy using iPads on Tuesday to view all these great trailers! Next time you're at SMS, be sure to check out your local readbox (you'll find them popping up all over the second grade hallway!).

Jan. 8th News

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Ms. Arnold’s Classroom News (1/8/15)

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What We've Been Up To:

Happy 2015! It was a cold one, but boy did we have a great week back!

Snowy Owl Winter Scenes.

*New Year's: On behalf of the Owl class, we would like to wish you a very Happy 2015! We spent the beginning of our week talking about making resolutions. We read a great story by Pat Miller called Squirrel's New Year's Resolution. In this story, all of squirrel's friends have New Year's resolution, but squirrel doesn't! As he was helping other's fulfill their resolutions, he realized he could make a resolution to always help others. Using this as inspiration, 2AA created beautiful mobile's for a, "New Year, New Me!" While these are adoring our classroom now, they'll be headed your way soon!
In addition to our mobiles, following the giraffe class' lead, we made adorable "New Year's Toasts". Thinking of others, each student needed to choose one person and one wish for them. Here are a few of our "toasts"!

*Math: We wrapped up Unit #4: Place Value & Measurement this week. This was a jam-packed unit covering a TON of skills, but your second graders are doing fantastic! We had a lot of fun practicing telling time this week (I've been noticing huge improvements, especially in this area!). A favorite activity we played was, "What time is it?" in which wore paper watches and had to walk up to their classmates and ask, "What time is it?".

We will be taking a midyear assessment this upcoming week, while also beginning Unit #5: Addition & Subtraction.

For continued practice of important second grade math skills. check out some of these resources:

     Measurement:

                           IXL: S.2 Measuring Using and Inch Ruler

     Base-10 Representation:

                           IXL: M.13 Convert From Expanded Form--Up to Hundreds

                           Base Ten BINGO

                           Base Ten Fun

     Comparing Values:

                           Comparing Race

Telling Time:
Bedtime Bandit!

*Indoor Recess: The cold temperatures kept us inside for a record four consecutive days! That certainly didn't stop the fun for these kiddos though. Working together, we had huge block creations built, a simulated animal kennel created, and plans to build a time machine written! Hopefully we will make it outside next week. Please remind your child that they need snow gear (snow pants, boots, and mittens in order to play on the structure or out in the field). Also, please make sure all winter gear is clearly labeled--at the end of the day many second graders don't recognize that a glove on the ground may actually be theirs :)

*January Related Arts Schedule:

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
	5 Art	6 PE	7 STEM	8 Library	9 Music
	12 PE	13 Art	14 PE	15 STEM	16 Library
	19 NO SCHOOL	20 Music	21 PE	22 Art	23 PE
	26 STEM	27 Library	28 Music	29 PE	30 Art

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Coming Up:

-Friday, Jan. 16: Scholastic Book Order Due

- Monday, Jan. 19th: No School (MLK Jr. Day)