Happy Fall!

Thursday marked the first day of the fall season. On behalf of all the Owls, we would like to wish you a "Happy Fall!" Don't forget, tomorrow, Grade 2 will enjoy "Johnny Appleseed Day!" If you haven't already done so, please send in one apple (any size or variety) to help us complete some apple-licious activities! Thank you for your continued help in making learning fun!

 Highlights from our week
*Math: This week in math, we learned a fun new math game!  Fishing for 10, a lot like Go Fish, has players seeking combinations of 10. After sorting a deck of cards to only containing numbers 0-10, each member takes 4 cards. Unlike regular Go Fish, however, the Owls had to look for a match that added to 10--for example, if someone wanted to find a "match: for their 7 card, they would need to find a 3 card, because 7+3=10!
                                                    
 Knowing the combinations of 10 is an essential skill to help set us up for continued math success. As some Owl students are already fluent with these facts, they are being challenged to practice fact extensions by "Fishing for 100"  (70+30=100) and using multiple addends to reach their sum (4+5+1=10).

*Science: We had another magical week in science! I have to commend the first grade teachers, because these students came into the year knowing SO much already about thinking, talking, and acting like scientists! We had our first ever "science talk" which functions as an open forum to discuss our science thinking. Mrs. Nash and I were blown away by their thinking and conversation skills! Here are the "rules" we agreed upon to make these talks successful all year long:

*Reading: Our Reader's Workshop is fully underway! While we continue to build our independent reading stamina, we've reviewed and practice ALL the great strategies they already know and use! We introduced the use of post-it notes as a way to hold onto our thinking and be able to "talk long and strong" about our reading. We've been meeting with our reading partners, having book talks and coaching each other.
                       
*Reading Buddies: On Friday, we saw our 5L reading buddies again and were challenged to complete a playground scavenger hunt! This hunt had them riding down the slide, running laps, playing a new game, finding a bug, playing hopscotch, and many other fun things! Our reading buddy time is quickly becoming a favorite time of the week among the Owl class!

(Check back for more pictures soon!)

*Writing: On Wednesday, as you may have heard, the Owl Class had their first guest teacher. While I was at all day meeting at the SAU building, they were hard at work continuing with their everyday learning. They enjoyed hearing the story Mrs. Nelson is Missing and then had some fun writing (very!) creative pieces afterwards. I can always count on these kids to bring a smile to my face!

Have a fabulous, fall week! 

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Important Dates (always available at the top of the blog page for convenience) :

Today (Sunday!), Sept. 25th, 2pm: Stratham 300 Parade (parade walkers need to arrive at Stratham Hill Park at 1:00---look for me when you arrive!)

Monday, Sept. 26th: Johnny Appleseed Day

Wednesday, Sept. 28th: Early Release (12:50 dismissal)

It's Coming: Stratham's 300th Anniversary Parade!

This year, all of the students at SMS have the exciting opportunity to march in Stratham's 300th Anniversary Parade on Sunday, September 25th. The parade route begins at Stratham Hill Park and ends at the circle by the Post Office. 

Here are the parade details:

• Permission slips for marching in the parade are due back by Thursday, September 22nd
• The parade begins at 2:00 at Stratham Hill Park
• Everyone marching in the parade has to arrive at 1:00 at Stratham Hill Park. Wear your SMS Gear!! Look for Mrs. Healey when you get to the park.
• We will walk to Stratham Circle. During the parade, students will all take turns holding signs, pulling wagons, etc. 
• Once the parade is complete, the organizers of the parade require that all walkers take buses (provided by the parade group) back to Stratham Hill Park for pick up. Because of traffic, parents are not allowed to drive to the post office to get their children. SMS staff will be at the post office and on the buses to ensure all students get on buses safely and are picked up at Stratham Hill Park

Our students, staff, and volunteers have worked incredibly hard to create our walking flotilla to depict the history of education in Stratham. We have had lots of fun adding our own details to the structures during our time in MakerSpace and Art! We can't wait to show off the final result! Hope to see you there!

Our first FULL week of 2nd grade!!

We completed our first FULL week of the 2016-2017 school year! We had such a busy, exciting week full of learning, I'd be surprised if they weren't awfully tired Friday evening!

Thank you to all of those who were able to make it to our Curriculum Night. It was SO nice to see so many of you! We're going to have such a great year working together!

Highlights from our week:

*Science: Our science curriculum is based on experimental philosophy and gives each child a chance to explore, observe, wonder, predict, investigate and record findings. On Thursday, we began our unit on magnets! After posing the question, "What is magnetic in our classroom?" the scientists worked together to figure how they could test and discover. They received their official science notebooks and began recording their data. As a class, we decided that each notebook entry should include the date, the question, as well as an organized format for recording. One Owl volunteered the idea of creating a "T" chart, so each of us tried recording our findings in that way. I am SO impressed with the neat, detailed information they collected! We're going to have a great year of discovery :)

Since we'll be working hard as scientists all year, we completed some activities to help understand just what are scientists. What do they do? What tools do they use? How are YOU like a scientist? They're thinking like scientists already!!

*Reading Buddies: On Friday afternoon, we had our first day of Reading Buddies with Mrs. Loh's fifth grade class!! Both she and I were SO impressed by how quickly each pair settled in together. Ask your child who their reading buddy is, what they read together, and one thing they learned about their new friend! We will continue to meet regularly with our buddies, typically every Friday afternoon, for the remainder of the school year.

*SMS celebrates Dot Day: On Friday, we had a great day celebrating International Dot Day! This special day reminds us to "make our mark" on the world and see where it takes us. Our day began with a wonderful whole-school morning meeting. Our new Curriculum Coordinator, Mrs. Bates, led our meeting and showed us a slideshow filled with facts about dots (did you know the dots on a domino are called pips?). She then led us into a song and dance to a beautiful song co-wrote by the Author of The Dot and musician Emily Arrow. 

After all the excitement, we headed back into our classroom to work on a few other dot-related learning activities. First, we created a "human dot" and snapped a picture! Then we listened to the story of The Dot. While many of us had head it before, we enjoyed watching the Tumblebooks version!

Later in the day, we joined our neighbors, the 2R Giraffes and the 2A kangaroos, for some collaborative fun. After creating their own colorful circle, students then carefully cut it into quarters. They then had to trade pieces with one student from each class to create a new dot. 

Our final "dot" activity was a fan favorite by far! Using special coloring sheets, students colored and created a dot, which was then brought to life using a special app! The Quiver app is free in the iTunes App store (it's a little slow and does require some patience!) and coloring sheets compatible with the app are available for download at http://quivervision.com/. This magical app brings their creations "to life!" As you can imagine, this was a HUGE hit!

 As we closed our day, we thought back to how are day started. Mrs. Bates challenged us with the book's takeaway message: whenever something is hard, or you think you can't do it, begin by "making your mark" and trying! It might end up being the mark you make on the world! Thanks for celebrating Dot Day!! :)

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Important Dates (always available at the top of the blog page for convenience) :

Monday, Sept. 26th: Johnny Appleseed Day (more information to come!)

Wednesday, Sept. 28th: Early Release (12:50 dismissal)