On Staying Focused...

This can be a tough time of the year for students. Summer vacation is thisclose and every cell in their bodies knows it. However, we still have work to do in school. Staying focused can be a challenge. We make sure to review expected behaviors often, but sometimes we just have to mix things up a bit to keep it interesting enough to hold our attention when the warm weather comes and heats up our classroom. This week we mixed things up a bit in math by working in teams to create posters reviewing 2 second grade math skills. The groups got to choose which skills they focused on and we even got to put our new knowledge of non-fiction text features to work by using our Everyday Math student reference book to find out more about our chosen topics. Groups brainstormed ideas, created rough drafts, cooperatively worked on their posters, and finally presented to the group before we sat down to do our last math assessment of the year. Focus was everywhere. Groups were engaged in their work and took pride in their final product. Be on the lookout next week for pictures of our next math project-graphing the dates pennies were minted! (And don't forget to bring in a baggy of at least 10 pennies for Monday if you haven't already!)

Jazie and Sarayu add information about patterns to their poster.

John and Sameer included multiplication on their poster.

Ranjani looked up information in the student reference book.

One of the final products!

Floral Goes Green

Today we celebrated Floral Goes Green, which is our annual celebration of the environment. We all had a great time learning about what we could do to help the environment. Take a look at what we did today!

We learned about Asian Longhorned Beetles!

We made terrariums!

We adding pebbles, soil, and water first.

Adding rocks to a terrarium

Adding soil to a terrarium

We learned what it would feel like to have to carry our water to our village.

And checked out a frog!

We took notes on endangered animals.

And studied a pond ecosystem!

We need to do this more often!

Note-taking in the hallways

One of our class endangered animal posters!

We made projects with our fourth grade reading buddies.

We had a great time at Floral Goes Green today!

Ways to Spread Peace

We had an awesome discussion today after we reread the books To Be A Kid and A Little Peace. Since Friday is poetry day in our classroom, we chose to respond to the books by either writing a poem about their culture or writing a poem about ways they could spread peace. A few friends chose to share their poems with the class and they were so fantastic we decided we had  to share them with you! Enjoy!

A Peaceful Place for Me

by Sarayu

A peaceful place for me is...

No homeless people

No sad homes

That's my peaceful world.

Having at least 3 good friends,

Sharing things

Be kind

Make things

That's my peaceful world.

Everything that I want is $5.00 and a need is free.

That's my peaceful world.

One voice only

Smile at least 3 times

Build things together 

That's my peaceful world.

Spread Peace

by: Bennett

Smile, laugh, hi!

Don't pollute, Be nice, Be happy!

Are you ok? Play! Share!

Make friends, CARES & FACTS!

Act like a kid, Be silly, Be cool!

Peace

by: Carter

Peace is playing and having fun

Smiles are best

So is lending a hand and meditation

Peace is making friends

And being weird.

And saying hello

And a helping hand.

A Big Piece of Peace

by: Olivia

It's like when a child thinks you've given them

a chocolate covered vanilla ice cream cone

when you've only given them the cone.

They smile and talk to you with love 

Even when you two are along.

A big piece of peace.

When you're happy and work hard,

Have a playdate,

Clean up the world, 

And share cultures. Well...

That's a big piece of peace.

Peace

by: Yasmeen

Bringing peace to the world is

work but it brings happiness

Take the animals, find new homes

and keep them safe.

To keep the world how it is

You take care of it.

Don't put trash on it.

To have the space and

Sunny days you must be

thoughtful to keep the cars away.

Use your bike or your trike

to go where you want.

To bring joy you must

stay and have the fun the day brings today

Be kind to nature. I love it too.

Bring peace to the world.

We might have madness.

Let's keep that away

So do things in the world.

If you always use cars we could lose everything

Like our air, our happiness,

We could die and we don't want that so,

bring peace to the world. 

Yes.

Bring peace to the world.

Peace

by: Saket

Be quiet.

Lend a hand.

Pray.

No pollution.

Meditation.

Be nice.

Play.

Be happy.

Say hi.

Be cool.

Don't be mean.

Be a good friend.

Be silly.

Don't fight-be kind.

Smile. :)

Big trampoline.

Kids running around.

Different schools.

Different buses.

Mostly hot.

Rain.