Hands on Nature

Learning about what happens to our environment when we litter. 

The time machine makes our old food turn into soil!

Learning about how long it takes household items to breakdown and become soil again. We learned that scientists are still not sure about plastic and foam. 

We placed ourselves with our item on this timeline. 

Getting ready to write about how we could improve our earth. 

Our Friday

We talked about Earth day (which is officially during break) and made some earth day promises. Most of our promises focused on recycling. 

Before the Ceremony of Giving we went outside for some bubbles, jump roping, hula-hooping, and sidewalk chalk fun!

Reward

Nature walk and art! 

So much fun!

This edition brought to you by Emerson, Annabelle, Alex, Bre, and Natalie, these are their words!

Math: The second grade has been working on fractions.  We learned ½, 2/3, and more.  I think we did a good job.  I think you’d like it.  Try it its fun!

Reading:  In readers’ workshop we are reading accurately.  We should be reading just right books.  We have reading groups. We have chapter books.  I hope you’re proud of your kid.

Writing:  We also have been writing persuasive letters to ask someone if they would do something for us.  Some of the things you have to do are give a beginning sentence and three reason sentences and a wrap up sentence.                                                       

Other fun stuff: In 2^nd grade we have been learning about kindness.  We are also learning about friendship.  We learned that to be kind, you share, you work together, comfort others, listen to others, use nice words, compromise, care, help each other, and give compliments.  That is what you do when you are being kind or showing kindness.  That is what we have been learning about in 2^nd grade. 

Dear parents, the 2^nd graders had a little fun.  The fun was a field trip to Allie’s sugar house.  I think everybody loved the syrup and everybody loved the wagon ride.  The class also had a reward, the reward was a nature walk and they got to paint the nature if they wanted to.  Everybody I think liked the painting part.  The class also had one more thing, story tellers came!  Everybody liked the funny parts in some of the parts people laughed.  I think it was a good time. 

Thank you for enjoying this special newsletter written by my 2^nd grade friends Emerson, Annabelle, Alex, Bre, and Natalie. 

Have a great vacation! – Mrs. Raynor

Water cycle posters

Storytelling

We had a wonderful visit from Tim Jennings and Leanne Ponder today!  We were lucky enough to have them visit our classroom and tell two stories and sing one song! The second graders were greatly entertained by the expression they used to tell the stories. What a great treat! Many thanks to Tim and Leanne. 

The Ceremony of Giving

Thank you to all who have already contributed to our annual food drive and Ceremony of Giving. The ceremony will be held this coming Friday. This is a great opportunity for students to engage in a little community service and to think about how they can help their neighbors. If you can donate food, we and the food shelf greatly appreciate. Families should feel no pressure to contribute more than they can.

 The Ceremony of Giving is our annual celebration of generosity. It will be held Friday, April 18, 2014 at 2:30 PM. Our Ceremony traditionally involves donating non-perishable food items for the Woodbury/Calais Food Shelf. Our Ceremony has been going on for at least 15 years, and the students run the Ceremony without adult assistance. As parents and educators, we want our children to grow up generous, and inorder to help them do that, we need to give them opportunities for generosity.

Students: Please bring in a non-perishable food item by Thursday April 17. Each classroom will have a collection box. If you can’t send in items, or if you are a food shelf client, we will have extra non-perishable food items at the school so every child can participate. This is a celebration of community generosity more than individual generosity. Parents and community members are welcome at the Ceremony of Giving. 

Field trip to the sugarbush

Second graders had great fun today visiting the Lamb's sugarbush and sugar house!  I heard students saying things like "I could stay out here all day," "this is so fun," and "can I have more?"

Wagon ride!

Getting prepared to gather sap

Teamwork

Tasting the sap

Looking for previous tap holes 

Tapping a tree

Getting in line to taste some syrup. Yum! 

Thank you for the great afternoon Drew. 

The colors of syrup 

Some fraction fun

Fraction head bands

My fraction friend!

Journal work