2H Class Blog!: March 2018

We had an egg-cellent time preparing for the holiday weekend. Did you know that in almost every culture around the world there is a tradition for embellishing eggs?! We read a favorite Patricia Polacco story called Rechenka's Eggs, and learned about a Ukrainian-style of egg decorating called Pysanky eggs.

Pysanky, a craft similar to Batik, uses melted wax designs to protect areas as they are dyed various colors. After learning about this interesting and unique method, we were ready to try out own school version!

Image result for classroom pysanky eggs directions

Start with a hard-boiled egg and white crayon.

Draw your first design on your egg.

Dye your first color (start with the lightest color you'd like first!)

After patting dry, grab your crayon and add some more details to your design.

Dip into a second color of dye.

Repeat the process adding layers of wax and dye.

After the wax has been melted off (we used a hair dryer!), enjoy your Pysanky Egg!

Have a wonderful, holiday weekend!

What a jam-packed week we had here in 2H! It's amazing how much you can get done when you have a full week of school :) We were proud to celebrate this week as EVERY MUSHER READ THEIR WAY TO NOME!!!! This is a new class record! Bravo to all our wonderful readers! What an accomplishment!

*Fairy Tales: The luxury of having a full week of school gave our class an opportunity to work feverishly as we prepare for our upcoming wax museum. They're doing an excellent job bringing fairy tales to life by stepping into their character's shoes. A highlight from this unit has, without a doubt, been reading our exciting read aloud: The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell. In this story, twins Alex and Conner Bailey fall into a storybook their grandmother gave them, bringing them into a world called "The Land of Stories". This world, they quickly learn, is home to all of their favorite (and not so favorite!) fairy tale characters.

We had a BLAST creating a life-size map to follow Alex and Conner on their exciting adventure.

Another major part of our fairy tale work includes creating a life-size poster of our characters, which will be on display behind our standing "wax figures" at our museum! This week, we began tracing and sketching our characters. We look forward to beginning the painting next week!

This week we also began our second round of "Science Magic"! The Owls headed next door to work with Ms. Donlon to help another fairy tale character solve a problem. After hearing the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, the Owls worked together to build a boat that would carry the goats across the water, avoiding the troll crossing at the bridge!

*Leaner-Led Conferences: A MAJOR highlight this week (for me as well!) was the preparation we began for our Learner-Led Conferences! While it can be extremely difficult to identify our strengths and areas of growth, these Owls did a TREMENDOUS job owning their learning---they know themselves well! After brainstorming together, they then each wrote their own reflections and have begun creating a Google Slideshow to share with you. After just the first day or two working with Google Slides, these technology savvy kiddos can now independently sign into their Google account, open their slideshow, insert text and images, and have fun customizing the font color and style. Wow! I truly cannot wait for them to share their hard work with you!!

Part of their reflection including looking at writing samples from the beginning of the year! They could not believe how much they have changed as writers!

The incredible teamwork demonstrated has been an invaluable piece of this project!

We'll work on finishing up our slides next week so they can begin rehearsing their conferences and be more than ready to share their learning with you!

*Math Workshop: In celebration of all the work with money we've been doing, they were ready for the opening of the "Creation Station Shop"! Given $1.00 each, the Owls went shopping for various craft supplies. Working the cash register (earning them an additional 25 cents!) provided many opportunities to add various costs and correctly count back necessary change. Everyone had such a great time! It's clear we'll need to open up shop again soon :)