Beach Day

Special thanks to Mr. Fish for making beach day happen!

Beach Day

Having a blast at beach day!

Hands on Nature

Today the second graders enjoyed a hands on nature lesson on birds. They looked closely at feathers, bird feet, and discussed what different types of birds eat!

Book orders

Scholastic book orders are due tomorrow if your family would like to place an order!

Dr. Seuss Day

Dr. Seuss Day! Friday, March 8th
Calling on you amazing Calais Dads….
Once again we are going to celebrate the late great Dr. Seuss at Calais
Elementary School. Our tradition has been to have a group of courageous dads come in for
Morning Meeting and read a Seuss book (of your choice) to a classroom full of wonderful
and smiling students. This year we will celebrate on Friday, March 8th. If you can join us
from 9:00 to 9:30ish and are willing to read please let me know:
emongeon@u32.org or 454 -7777.
Many thanks,
Eric Mongeon

Newsletter

Second Grade News: February 15, 2013

Things to Note:

·         Book orders are due next week if you would like to order.

·         Winter Break February 22 – March 5.

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Math

Students have begun a new unit in Investigations.  In this investigation students will be (1) sorting and classifying data, (2) representing data, (3) describing data, and (4) designing and carrying out a data investigation.  We will also be spending time daily practicing our math facts 0-20 and bringing them to fluency.  For a student to show fluency they must be able to answer the equation (i.e. 7 +8 =) by the count of 3!     

Reading

Just a reminder that all second grade students should be reading 20 minutes nightly.  They should be reading books at their “just right” reading level (students know how to determine this) and should be recording their reading on the homework reading log that SHOULD be in their homework bags.  We are trying to establish good homework habits for the future! 

Science

This last week students enjoyed experimenting with oobleck to determine if it had attributes of a solid, liquid, or a gas.  We found it difficult to say for sure if oobleck was a solid or a liquid because of the way it behaves.  Students also enjoyed observing and recording the changes of our snowman on Monday we he was brought inside for the whole day. 

Technology

Students have been practicing their typing skills weekly on the net books.  They are learning how tricky it can be to keep your fingers on the home keys and type correctly!  Students are also excited about turning their narratives into digital stories!  More to come on digital stories in the upcoming weeks.

Have a Great Week! – Mrs. Raynor

Oobleck recipe

How To Make Oobleck
Oobleck was the name given to a type of slime in a Dr. Seuss book that was capable of gumming up a whole kingdom. The oobleck the you can make for a science project isn't gummy, but it does have interesting properties of both solids and liquids. It normally behaves like a liquid or jelly, but if you squeeze it in your hand, it will seem like a solid.

Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 10-15 minutes
Here's How:

Mix 1 part water with 1.5 to 2 parts cornstarch. You may wish to start with one cup of water and one and a half cups of cornstarch, then work in more cornstarch if you want a more 'solid' oobleck. It will take about 10 minutes of mixing to get nice homogeneous oobleck.
Mix in a few drops of food coloring if you want colored oobleck.

Oobleck

We made oobleck yesterday and experimented with it to try and determine if it was a solid or a liquid. After our conversation about what we noticed I'm not sure we made a clear decision on which it was. Students loved getting their hands dirty with the oobleck!

Acts of kindness

We are a little closer to our goal, but still have a long way to go! Can we do it?

Matter Experiment

Our matter experiment today had the second grade students making predictions about what would happen to our snowman throughout the day. Students also drew pictures of the snowman and wrote descriptive sentences about what they saw three times: morning, after lunch, and at the end of the day. At the end of the day we heated the remains of our snowman so that we could see all three states of matter: solid, liquid, gas.

Fun Fitness Friday

This Friday 2/8 is our final Fun Fitness Friday… here is our plan:

· Skaters will go skating
· XC Skiers will go to Morse Farm


· Downhill Skiers: Mad River Glen notified us that they will be closed this Friday so here is the alternate plan:

Students in grades K-2 who normally go to Mad River will instead stay at school and join the K-2 Winter Fun group sliding and snowshoeing with Mrs. Peterson. They will use school equipment.

Students in grades 3-6 who normally go to Mad River will instead join the XC ski group at Morse Farm—
If you have your own XC skis or snowshoes, please bring them!

Downhill skiing Chaperones—we have plenty of staff available to help Mrs. Peterson with the group at school.
If you would like to join your student in grade 3-6 at Morse Farm, please email me.

Kindness

Our goal for the week. I hope we can do it!

100th Day!

Students have been enjoying the 100th day with a variety of activities based on the number 100! Ask your child what fun things we did today.

Ceremony of Giving

Students are asked to bring in non-perishable foods between now and next Friday for the Ceremony of Giving.  I will have a box in the second grade to collect these food items.  

Soul Street Dance Field Trip

Students enjoyed learning about a variety of dance types and seeing them performed! They even got to do a dance move or two themselves! Check out the Soul Street Dance Co. Website at www.soulstreetdance.com

Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day

The second graders will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Thursday, February 14, 2013.  At the end of the day we will exchange cards and enjoy a few treats.  We will not be doing a big “to do” but will take some time and enjoy each others’ company that afternoon.  If you would like to send in a little treat or drink for the class to share you are welcome to do so, but please don’t feel like you need to.  Also, if you and your child would like to make cards for the students in our room you can.  I have included a list of second grade students below!  Thank you.                  -Mrs. Raynor

Second Grade Students

Annora               Jasper

Ben                      Jeff

Caiden                Lea

Caitlyn               Oscar

Ethan                  Peter

Emily                  Ruby

Hannah              Sargent