Mystery Reader #1: A Running Dog Owner

This Mystery Reader threw off the whole class with his clues:
1. I have a dog.
2. I like to run.
3. I sometimes wear glasses.

The class was certain they knew who it was!  Little did they know that it has been a tradition for Mason to be the first Mystery Reader every year.  After leaving 2nd grade, Mason has requested to always be the first reader because he enjoys surprising the kids so much. 

He requested to read a Piggie and Elephant book because that was one of his favorite series from when he was younger.  Thanks so much Mason for stopping into 2nd grade once again!

Matter Experiments

Our most recent science unit focused on matter.  We learned about the 3 states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.  We started our unit with a mini-snowman and watched it go through the 3 states of matter.  We weren't surprised how quickly it turned from a solid to a liquid, but were surprised how quickly it went from a liquid to a gas!

 Our last 3 experiments focused on a property of matter: density.  This can be a hard concept to understand because it would seem that heavy things automatically sink and light things float, but we learned that is not the case because of density.  We defined density as the amount of atoms that are packed into a given volume. The more atoms packed in, the more dense.  We experimented with sink and float,  rainbow in a jar which was a layering of liquids from most dense to least dense, and using salt to affect the density of the liquids.  We had a lot of fun with these experiments!

Spring Dragonfly Art

With spring weather arriving this week, we took down our winter snowflakes and made a spring art project that focused on warm and cool colors.  The students first drew the zoomed in flower and then the dragonfly in the middle.  After tracing it in permanent marker, the students chose where to place the warm colors and where to place the cool colors.  We added some crayon accents before using our watercolors.  These projects are so beautiful and full of color!

Opinion Writing

Our most recent writing unit focused on opinion writing.  We started with writing about what we thought would be the best pet or not the best pet!  The process we followed was brainstorming our ideas with a graphic organizer and then using these ideas to write 2 paragraphs with a topic sentence and a concluding sentence.  We compiled this writing into a class book.

We followed this up with writing about the best thing about ourselves.  I love this writing project!  They turn out so unique to each student! 

Top 20 Books of 2018

Every year Amazon puts out a list of their top 20 picture books of the year.  In our class we start at number 20 and read our way to number 1.  The kids love to see what the next book will be!  At the end, the students pick their favorite to write up a review to encourage someone else to check out our favorites!  There were many favorites on our list!

I Love to Read Month

Although it was a crazy month of weather in February, we were able to participate in all of the planned activities for I Love to Read Month during this final week of February!

On Tuesday we had a teacher swap.  Mrs. Ruen from 5th grade came to read to the 2nd graders, and I went downstairs to read to the 5th graders.  Mrs. Ruen shared books that she has written about traveling and her pets.  The 2nd graders loved her books!

On Wednesday we read with a 5th grade buddy and enjoyed an elementary read in at the end of the day in our comfy pajamas!

On Thursday we enjoyed a story from a surprise reader: Mrs. Boyum!

The week ended with Books for Breakfast and watching a magic show that focused on reading.  What a fun week!