2H Class Blog!: Mar. 17th News

On Wednesday, Mar. 13th, Peter Kaiser became the first musher to cross the Iditarod finish line in Nome! We enjoyed tracking the race and celebrated as Peter claimed his first, first place finish (after ten tries!)! He finished the race in 9 days and 12 hours.

While the Iditarod may have been won, our IditaREAD is still fully underway! Over the past week, we celebrated several students as they read their way across the finish line.

All our mushers have made it to, or are approaching, the halfway mark and I encourage them to keep on reading! It's quite an accomplishment to be able to say, "I've read 1,000 minutes!" Thank you for your continued support and for helping promote the importance of daily reading. They've all grown SO much as readers!

Highlights from our week:

*Math: Over the past few weeks, our math workshop has centered around telling time. Students have been choosing from a variety of math menu activities allowing them to practice telling time to the nearest five minute mark, understanding AM and PM, and exploring elapsed time word problems. A favorite activity this week was, "What time is it?" Sporting paper watches, the Owls had to approach each classmate and ask, "What time is it?", and then correctly read their watch!

While we'll be wrapping up this unit this week, please continue to provide opportunities for your child to discuss time (it's amazing how unaware they are about what times of day certain activities happen or for how long they happen for!). We've added time card to our schedule to help create an awareness of our school day :)
*5th Grade Buddies: We were back to design engineering with our 5th grade buddies this week! Students were tasked to build a chair, that could support the weight of a stuffed animal "pet", using just two pieces of paper and tape. Nearly every group was successful and each design was creative and unique!

*Saying Good Bye: As you know, I informed the class that my last day will be on Wednesday, Mar. 20th. While I am SO sad to say goodbye to this wonderful group of learners, I am confident they will continue to thrive under the guidance of their long-term guest teacher, Mrs. Brandie Bolduc. Brandie has been spending a lot of time in our classroom and will continue to do so as she becomes familiar with our classroom routines, procedures, and students! We predict a seamless transition :) Again, I truly can't thank you enough for the kindness and support you've given me this year. I can't wait to share with you the news of our new baby's delivery and come back to visit the kids very, very soon!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!