Explode the Moment!

In second grade, we have been hard at work on narrative writing these past few weeks. We already know a LOT about the narrative writing diamond, but it was time to take our writing to the next level!

The Narrative Writing Diamond

We chose to focus on the main event because this is the largest part of our story and it's where all the ACTION takes place. We knew that small moments should be something that we had a good deal of emotion about because this would help us to really tune into our senses and add some great specific detail. We began to explore the idea of a roller coaster ride since that was something that could bring out a whole array of emotions: fear, anxiety, excitement to name a few. Everyone in our class knew what a roller coaster was and what it looked like, but not everyone had ridden on a roller coaster. We read the book Roller Coaster! by Marla Frazee because this book does a great job of focusing on the small moment of a roller coaster ride, instead of telling about the entire day at an amusement park.

After reading this book, we brainstormed the actions, observations, thoughts and feelings, sounds, and dialogue we had noticed in the book, adding these ideas to a class chart. Next, we watched a fun video clip of a two minute roller coaster ride. This gave those of us who hadn't ridden on a roller coaster a bit of a taste about what that ride would look like.

Click here to watch the roller coaster video!

We watched the video twice and used the information we learned there to add to the brainstorm list we started after reading the book. Now we were ready to write!  We began by writing a class small moment about a roller coaster ride together, using the ideas we had brainstormed.

Our class idea list!

We worked as a team to explode this moment! We call it "exploding the moment" because we take one tiny idea and blow it up by adding lots and lots of specific detail. Our goal is to make our reader see a movie in their mind and really be able to picture our story as they read it. You can see our class writing piece below. After our initial write, we went back and made edits as necessary until we were happy with the result!

Roller Coaster Small Moment

By: The Richard Class

Slowly, we inched our way to the front of the line. My stomach flip-flopped nervously as the metal tracks rumbled overhead. I was scared. Would I be tall enough to go on the ride? I sort of hoped I wasn’t tall enough! It was noisy all around me. The sounds of people screaming filled my ears. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go. Just then, I noticed that it was our turn to get on the roller coaster. The man operating the ride yelled, “Load ‘em up! Two to a seat!” My parents were holding my hand tightly. I felt myself being pushed forward into a seat on the roller coaster. The bar came down across my lap. My hands felt sweaty on the metal surface. The car lurched forward. Clickety-clackity, clickety-clackity went the roller coaster as it inched slowly up the hill. Up-up-up went the roller coaster. “Are you scared?” my dad asked me.  The car slowed down a bit as it neared the top of the hill. Suddenly, it seemed to pause. Then….WHOOSH! ZOOM! We sped down the hill. The tracks twisted and turned. Everyone started to scream. Whee! Whoo! People were yelling. We were going so fast, I closed my eyes. The tracks dipped and dived. They loop de looped. I felt like I was floating in the air. In a moment, I noticed the car slowing down until it slowly stopped moving. I felt excited. I could remember when I didn’t want to go on the ride, but now I wanted to go again! I thought back to when the ride twisted and turned and it felt like I was on my side. I had been so worried I would fall off! As I stepped off of the stopped ride, my legs felt wobbly. I felt like I just woke up from a

dream. That was pretty fun. I think I should definitely go again, I thought to myself.

We were pretty proud of our small moment and felt ready to try our hand at writing our own small moments. You should have seen how everyone jumped right into this writing! The only sound to be heard in the classroom was that of pencils scratching across the page. Everyone did an AMAZING job writing their own roller coaster small moment! We spent the latter part of this week editing and revising our writing and students will be bringing these home next week. Be sure to ask your child to read his or her small moment to you once they come home! I think you'll be amazed at the details your child included in their writing!   

Read Across America!

Floral Street School celebrated Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss today! Each class had a community reader visit their classroom to share a book with the class. Our class was visited by a friend of mine, Jena Hardy. Jena shared the book Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell with the class.

We absolutely LOVED the book! It lead to a great discussion about how we could make our own community beautiful. Students talked about smiling at people they saw around town, being kind and helpful to their parents, picking up litter, and hanging up artwork that they have created. At the end of our discussion, we decided that we would make something beautiful by writing positive messages on our school blacktop before classes went out for their lunch recess. We hoped that someone would see these messages and "get their bucket filled" by our words. We hope that we made at least one person's day a bit brighter today with our messages!

You are an original! 

You are a good friend!

You are cool!

I think you are nice!

You're cool!

You are one cool friend!

Be you!

You are a star!

BeYOUtiful!

Be kind!

Amazing!

Talk to your child this weekend about what they can do to help make their community a more beautiful place! Let us know in the comments if you have your own "maybe something beautiful" moment. We'd love to hear about what you did!

Ways to Spread Peace

Last Friday, our class wrote a poem together about ways to spread peace in our community and in our world. We read a poem about peace and then we brainstormed ways that we could help to spread peace in our world. Finally, each student chose a favorite line from their personal list to add to the class poem. Ask your child which line he or she contributed! Enjoy!

Ways to Spread Peace

By: The Richard Class, 2/10/17

Give to the poor.

Don’t hurt animals or nature.

Care about people.

Always remember to have a heart.

Cooperate.

Hug your mom and dad.

Make cards for people who are sad.

Smile at a stranger.

Treat people the way you want to be treated.

Use bubble space.

Smile.

Be positive.

Join in with someone who is lonely.

No war.

Be friendly.

Say hi to a new person in your school.

No arguing.

Help homeless people.

Love those who are sick, 

even if you do not know them.

Be empathetic.

Listen carefully to others.

Spread peace.

I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was this past Monday. We spent some time this week reading books related to Martin Luther King's dream of a world in which all people were treated equally.  Since we have been working on opinion writing again for the past few weeks, we first read The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson. This is a story of two young girls living in the segregated south of the 1960's. The two girls don't understand why they aren't allowed to play together and eventually, they go against the wishes of the adults in their lives and get to know one another. In doing so, they discover that they really do have a lot in common after all. The books ends with a message of hope that one day, everyone in their town will stop judging others based on their appearance. We used this text as a springboard to write an opinion piece on whether or not we thought the girls made a good decision when they chose to get to know one another better. Everyone agreed that the girls made a good choice.

We also read I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. this week. This book is a condensed version of MLK's famous I Have a Dream Speech, illustrated with beautiful watercolors. 

After reading this book, the students took some time to think about their own dreams for the world and for themselves. They shared lots of inspiring ideas, including the examples below.

"My dream is for treating people the way you want to be treated!"

"My dream is to be like Martin Luther King Jr. My other dream
is to be helpful and kind to people who are hurt."

"My dream is that white and black people will not be apart."

"My dream is to make the world a better place."

"My dream is that leaders are people who be nice to men and women.
People are normal in every way, nice or mean. We all treat each other the same. We love each other-
black or white. We're all the same."

Ask your child about his or her dream for the world or for themselves! I'm willing to bet that their answer will make you smile.

One Word for 2017

Happy New Year! Instead of writing New Year's resolutions this year, the students of room 205 spent some time today thinking about things we wished had gone differently for us in 2016. Students said they wished their desk areas had been kept neater, that they had been kinder to their siblings, or that they had talked less during lessons, among many other things. From there, we turned and talked with a partner to think of one word that would help us make the changes we wanted in the new year. The students came up with some great words including: patience, perseverance, focus, and concentration. We wrote our words on posters that will be displayed in our classroom and illustrated them to show our word in action. They will displayed in a prominent spot in our classroom so we can be reminded of our words for the rest of this school year. Ask your child what word he or she chose and why they chose it!

Snapshots from Room 205

This past weekend I was cleaning out the pictures on my phone and stumbled across quite a few that gave a peek into what life has been like for the past month or so in room 205. We've been busy celebrating one another and the things that make us each special. We've welcomed new friends into our classroom. We've listened to new books read by a community reader. We've rejoiced at the coming of winter and the first ice sightings on our playground. We even became playground scientists and studied the places where the ice melted and where it stayed frozen so we could discover what caused this to happen. While all of this was going on, we've also strengthened our reading fluency and comprehension. We've worked hard on mastering our addition and subtraction facts. Some of us have even moved on to multiplication facts! We designed our own communities. We learned how the water cycle works and how it contributes to the weather here on earth. Yesterday, we learned how to be weather watchers and went outside to observe and record the day's weather. (Spoiler alert: It was INCREDIBLY cold!) It's been a busy few months in room 205. We can't wait to see what the new year has to offer!

Two friends showing their beautiful mehndi designs.

Teaching some friends Tamil at recess

Our class welcomed Prarthna in November!

Our community reader this year was a Shrewsbury police officer!

Here we are listening to our community reader.
One of our favorite books, A Little Peace, by Barbara Kerley is on the shelf behind our reader.

We discovered ice on the playground on morning!

It was cold to touch! Luckily we had mittens!

See you in 2017!!!

Celebrating fall!

This week in second grade we spent some time celebrating fall! We kicked off our celebration of this season on Wednesday with our Fall Festival. Students were able to spend some time working on making fall cards and leaf prints, creating seasonal trees using the art technique called pointillism, playing a fun game called "Roll a Pumpkin," and reading a variety of fall themed stories. There was a lot of creativity at work that morning in room 205!

Roll a Pumpkin

Max's Roll a Pumpkin drawing

We had so many fall books to read!

Creating seasonal trees using pointillism

Fall cards and leaf prints-messy, but fun!

We also got to join the rest of Floral Street School at the Harvest Hoedown on Friday. Our class has been practicing the square dances during phys. ed. classes over the past couple of weeks. Today we got the chance to show off our dance moves. We spent some time this morning dancing both alone and in groups. Everyone had a blast!

We were lucky to have Ms. Demoga, our school psychologist, visit our classroom after the hoedown. She read the story Room on the Broom and lead us through some Halloween yoga poses. Ask your child to show you the witch, cat, dog, half moon, frog, and mummy poses!

Have a great weekend!