May 15th News

********************************************************************************************************************

Mrs. Healey’s Classroom News (5/15/16)

********************************************************************************************************************

*Wellness Walk: What beautiful weather we had for our Wellness Walk this week! In honor of Physical Fitness and Sports Month, the Wellness Committee planned this wonderful event to help promote walking as a fitness activity. It was a great afternoon to get our bodies moving! We enjoyed walking with our reading buddies as well as several parents, grandparents, and siblings! Thanks to all who were able to join us :)

*Math: The final units in our second grade math curriculum has us exploring geometry, revisiting measurement, solidifying subtraction, exploring multiplication, and introducing fractions (just a few things!). These concepts are all very hands on which has been quite engaging. We had fun this week exploring 3D shapes and hunting for items in our classroom to make a shape museum!

Later in the week, we started exploring breaking 2D shapes into equal parts (partitioning) and drawing arrays to solve equal group number stories. We'll continue to work on all of these important concepts for the remainder of the year. For additional practice at home check out these sites:
Under the Sea - Creating Arrays
Kangaroo Hop - Recognizing Shapes
IXL (T.3 Identifying 2D and 3D Shapes; U.1 Equal Parts; W.1 Count Equal Groups; W.5 Write Multiplication Sentences for Arrays)

*Science: Before April vacation, our scientists set out to PROVE that plants needed water and sunlight to survive. The results are in! While the seeds receiving no water received the most obvious results, the seeds receiving no sunlight certainly gave us the most shocking results! Ask your scientist about their findings.

Bean seeds representing each variable from our experiments.

Curious about the role of water and how it travels through the plant, we set up a new experiment with which we will begin recording results.

Our young scientists also began partaking in their latest engineering challenge. Using a unit caled The Best of Bugs: Designing Hand Pollinators, the Owls heard the story Mariana Becomes a Butterfly. In this story, the main character has a plant that is not being pollinated. In attempt to solve this problem, the character then designs a hand pollinator so she can pollinate the plant, thus helping the plant reproduce. Working in partnerships, our second graders experimented with different materials to find out which ones picked up the most "pollen" AND dropped off the most "pollen". Using their results, this upcoming week, they will be challenged to design their own hand pollinators. Good luck, Engineers!

 

 

*Poetry: Our poetry unit continues in full force! We experimented with repetition and mood this week as we continued to write poems. Students published one of their poems to help build our "Poet-tree" and they'll be writing more this week to chose the poem they'd like to publish for our Shel-ebration! Our publishing celebration will be held on Wednesday, May 25th, 1:15-1:45. We'd love to have you join us if you're available! Please help remind your child to be practicing the Shel Silverstein poem they will be reciting at the celebration. If your child needs an additional copy of their poem, please just let me know and I'll send another copy home. Thank you for your help!

*Field Trip: Second Grade is  FINALLY headed on a field trip! Permission slips for our upcoming field trip to Great Bay Discovery Center on Tuesday, June 7th will be sent home later this week.

Please have the permission slips signed and returned to school with $4 by Monday, May 23rd.
If you are interested in chaperoning this trip, we would love to have you! Please send in an additional $4 for each chaperon in your family when the permission slip is returned. Unfortunately, because we will be close to open bodies of water and taking part in several different scheduled activities, we ask that siblings remain at home for this field trip. This trip will take place from 8:45-11:55 am rain or shine, so make sure to wear appropriate clothing as well as sunscreen and bug spray! Reminders will be sent home as we get closer to our trip. Thank you for your support, we can't wait for our trip! 
*SMS Garden: Last Thursday we had a great time visiting the AMAZING volunteers from Timberland as they worked vigorously on creating our new school garden. It was truly magical to watch the garden come together. A huge thank you to Nicholas' mom and all of her Timberland coworkers for their efforts (we had so much fun visiting you on the job!). We're so lucky to have such a supportive community! While some of us had a chance to help and volunteer over the weekend (another HUGE thank you to all of the helpers!!), we will enjoy visiting the new garden as a class tomorrow. Pictures to come!

My Owl Heart is FILLED!

A Huge THANK YOU for the amazing luncheon on Tuesday. The food was INCREDIBLE and it was so nice to enjoy it with friends we don't see as often as we like. Mrs. Pitcher and I had a great time, felt VERY appreciated, and LOVED reading all of the beautiful notes and pictures from the students! Thank YOU for all you do! It is truly a gift to be a part of the SMS community :)

********************************************************************************************************************

Coming Up (Lots, and lots and lots of things!):

-Early Release: Wednesday, May 18th
-SMS Maker Fest & Spring Art Show: Thursday, May 19th

-Sidewalk "Shel-ebration": Wednesday, May 25th, , 1:15-1:45pm

-Memorial Day, No School: Monday, May 30th

-Pirate Musical: Thursday, June 2nd, 6:30pm

-Grand Luncheon: Monday, June 6th
-Great Bay Field Trip: June 7th (more info to come!)
-Field Day: Thursday, June 9th
-Stratham Hill Park End of Year Grade 2 Picnic: Wednesday, June 15h
-Last Day of School: Friday, June 17th

May 8th News

********************************************************************************************************************

Mrs. Healey’s Classroom News (5/8/16)

********************************************************************************************************************

*Science: As our in-class plants continue to grow (or not grow depending on their variable!), we spent the week looking more closely at the specific parts of the plant. What is the function of each? How do the different parts help each plant survive? Working with their table teams, the Owls used various resources to create a collaborative poster to teach others about their part of the plant.

After sharing their learning, we worked together as a class to determine which everyday fruits and vegetables represent each part of the plant. This was much harder than you might think!

As a reward for all of their hard work, each student was challenged to see if they could eat a WHOLE plant! Many could!

Next week, we'll begin looking at plants in different habitats. This exploration will take us near and far with a few virtual field trips!
*Reading: Our series readers have been working hard in their book clubs! Working with a new series, they have been studying how authors create series books. They're on the lookout for precise words and literary language (something they're already quite familiar with!). We will continue reading our series books closely over the next few weeks. In addition, we have been working on our fluency by reading poetry to help celebrate National Poetry Month (and inspire our writing!) We've focused a lot of our energy on a class favorite poet: Shel Silverstein! Check out one of the poems we enjoyed listening to him read:

This was a great hook to shed some light on our upcoming writing celebration. Last week, your Owl took home information regarding our "Shel-ebration!". Each student selected a poem they are working hard to memorize. We will be practicing a lot in class as well. More information will be sent home as we get closer to our celebration date. 

*Writing: Our poets continue exploring the genre of poetry. Luckily we had taken a nature walk before heading into April break, so between that sunny week, and the rainy week we had this past week, the Owls had lots of nature experiences to enhance their writing.

We spent a lot of time using our senses to help us create vivid images in our  poems. They're doing a great job and I look forward to them sharing their work at our "Shel-ebration!"
*Pirate Musical: We've been very busy preparing for our play How to be a Pirate in Seven Easy Songs, which we will perform for families on Thursday, June 2nd at 6:30pm. Students will be asked to wear a simple costume for our play: boys will wear black t-shirts and girls will wear white t-shirts, and everyone will wear jean bottoms. Each classroom will also wear different colored bandannas (the owls will be sporting red this year!). Thank you so much for sending in money for your child. The bandannas have been ordered and we arrrrrrrr so excited for them to arrive!
*Scholastic Book Order: May book orders were sent home last week. As always, Scholastic's full catalog is available online. Orders are due Friday, May 13th (this is a few days later than was printed on the flyer.)
*Wish List: With our year winding down, we've used up our supply of tissues and disinfecting wipes! If you have an extra box or container you're able to donate, we would greatly appreciate it! Thank you in advance :)

Wishing all you wonderful mothers a very special day! Thank you for sharing your fabulous children with me each and everyday. You've done a great job! I hope you enjoy the special presents they created for you!

********************************************************************************************************************

Coming Up (Lots, and lots and lots of things!):

-Wellness Walk: Wednesday, May 11th, 1:30pm (Feel free to meet us in the bus loop and join us on the walk! We also plan to join our 5H reading buddies!)
-SMS Student Garden Celebration: Saturday, May 14th, 3-5pm
-Early Release: Wednesday, May 18th
-SMS Maker Fest & Spring Art Show: Thursday, May 19th

-Sidewalk "Shel-ebration": Wednesday, May 25th

-Memorial Day, No School: Monday, May 30th

-Pirate Musical: Thursday, June 2nd, 6:30pm

-Grand Luncheon: Monday, June 6th
-Field Day: Thursday, June 9th
-Stratham Hill Park End of Year Grade 2 Picnic: Wednesday, June 15h
-Last Day of School: Friday, June 17th