Thursday, January 31, 2013

Fun Fitness Friday

Unfortunately, fun fitness Friday is cancelled again this week due to weather :(
We will hope for better weather next week.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Newsletter



Second Grade News: January 29, 2013
Things to Note:
·         Book orders are due next week if you would like to order.
·         We will celebrate the 100th day of school on Feb 6th.
·         K-3 will take a field trip to the Barre Opera House Tuesday Feb 5th, please turn in permission slips and $2.00 ASAP. 
·         Report cards will be sent home with students Jan 30th please sign the report card envelop and return to school to show that you received this important information. 
·         Fun Fitness Fridays remaining: Feb 1 and Feb 8!
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·         Please visit our classroom blog for news, tidbits about our learning, and links to fun things! www.mrsraynors.blogspot.com 
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Science
Students will be experiencing a virtual field trip this week!  For this field trip students will be “going” to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to learn about the states of matter.  During this field trip students will participate in an experiment with solids, liquids, and gases.  I am hopeful that the students will enjoy this lesson and virtual trip!
Math
Students will continue to learn about telling time.  I would love to see students coming to school with analog watches to use as a tool to continue practicing this skill.  So many of the clocks in our world have gone digital that at this current time it is often a rarity to see analog clocks.  The more exposure students can get to reading a variety of analog clocks the more proficient they will be.  Help your child find the analog clocks (if any) in your home and practice reading the time to the nearest five minutes together!
Students have begun a new investigation in unit 3 of their math curriculum.  In this investigation students will be (1) making sense of and developing strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems with totals to 45, (2) counting by equal groups, (3) understanding the equivalence of one group and the discrete units that comprise it, (4) developing strategies for accurately counting a set of objects by ones and groups, and (5) using manipulatives, drawings, tools, and notation to show strategies and solutions. 
Have a Great Week! – Mrs. Raynor

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Monday, January 21, 2013

Martin Luther King JR

The second graders enjoyed learning about MLK on Friday. They also enjoyed thinking about their dreams for our community, country, and world!







Thursday, January 17, 2013

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Fun Fitness Friday

Unfortunately, this week's Fun Fitness Friday activities have been cancelled due to a lack of snow. We will have an extra FFF on February 8 to make up for this missed day of winter fun.

Volunteers

The second graders would love to invite a parent or family member to come into our class and read with us during reader's workshop. Visitors could come in once a week or once a month and enjoy hearing students read to them as well as sharing the reading! If you're interested in being part of the second grade classroom in any way contact Mrs. Raynor.

Melting Matter

Students experimented with turning a solid (chocolate chips) into a liquid by using heat. Students then turned the liquid back into a solid by leaving the liquid in the snow. Students also enjoyed eating the solid at the end!


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Newsletter



Second Grade News: January 10, 2013
Things to Note:
·         Please be sure that students are bringing everything they need on Fridays to participate in Fun Fitness Friday activities!
·         If you would like to order books from scholastic our next classroom order is due Monday, January 14, 2013.
·         Mark your calendars: No school Monday, January 21 or Tuesday, January 22. 

Science:
In the last two weeks students have enjoyed a few science experiments.  Our first experiment involved predicting and testing what happens to both warm water and boiling water when thrown into below freezing air.  The second graders were excited to see that the boiling water quickly turned into ice crystals while the warm water just fell to the ground!  During other experiments we have begun to work different types of matter (solids and liquids).  Students have been observing what happens when you mix a solid and a liquid together as well as what happens when you freeze a liquid. 

Mathematics:
We have recently begun a new section in our math unit.  In this section students will be making sense of and developing strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems with totals to 45, understanding the properties of addition and subtraction, as well as using manipulatives, drawings, tools, and notation to show strategies and solutions.  Students have really enjoyed learning new strategies from each other and trying out more effective strategies when solving word problems.  

Homework:
Please don’t forget to help your child record the reading they are doing at home on their reading logs that SHOULD be in their homework bags!  I have been looking at these regularly and have discovered that there is not much reading recorded. 
Your child’s reading homework each night is to read for AT LEAST 20 minutes.  Reading for this amount of time is proven to be beneficial for your beginning reader… and it fosters a reading habit that is sure to last a lifetime!
* Listen to your child read and encourage him/her!
* Read to your child!                                                                                                                     
*Have fun and talk about the book (before, during, and afterwards)!  
    
Have Great Weekend - Mrs. Raynor                            

Matter

Science experiments
Solids and liquids







Thursday, January 3, 2013

The experiment worked!

The temperature was right and it worked! We loved it!





Cold Weather Science Experiment

We watched this video today in class.  We think the conditions are right to try it out today.  Wish us luck!