Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween party was a huge success! Everyone ate delicious food and we read one of my favorite holiday stories. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon!

Lake Champlain Watershed Presentation!

We've been busy learning all about Lake Champlain during the last few weeks.  We brainstormed 5 ways that the lake helps our town of Colchester.

1.  Water - we get our water for cooking and washing from the lake

2.  Recreation - we use the lake for fun like boating, hockey, swimming, and paddle boarding

3.  Tourism - people visit the lake and they bring money to our town hotels, stores, and restaurants

4.  Food - we can eat fish from the lake

5.  Exercise - we use the lake to stay healthy by swimming, kayaking, ice skating, or scuba diving

Yesterday, we had Stephanie Larkin from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, come and talk about ways that our town can harm the lake.  She brought a great watershed model of a town and each child  had the opportunity to "pollute" with food products that we pretended were pesticides, cow manure, oil, grass clippings, fertilizer, soil, and pet waste! We then had a spray bottle rain storm  and watched how the rain water carried these pollutants right into the lake! The kids were mesmerized by this great hands on activity!!  We then talked about ways to help keep the lake clean. We talked about protecting wetlands, using plastic bags for your pet waste, putting up fences around farms and houses, and planting trees and grass to keep soil from eroding into the lake.

                                Here's the watershed model that Stephanie used with the kids.

                                    We started to pollute the lake with "cow manure".

                                    We polluted the lake with oil from cars and machinery.

                                          The rainstorm is starting as a gentle sprinkle.

                                                          The lake is so polluted!

                               We added many buffers to our community to protect the lake!

Fire Safety Presentation!

This week is Fire Safety Week so we had a Colchester Fireman come into our class on Monday and talk about some fire safety tips.  We talked about the importance of practicing fire drills both at school as well as at home.  We learned that if your clothes catch on fire, you stop, drop, cover your face, and roll.  We also talked about if there is a fire in your house, you first feel your door for heat, then, if it's safe, you stay low and GO!  We learned about all of the various parts of a fireman's uniform and watched Fireman Jeff put each piece on. He explained how each piece of clothing keeps him safe and protects him from fire. The students had a lot of wonderfully insightful questions and our half hour with Fireman Jeff flew by! Here are some pictures from our presentation.

Four Winds - Sun and Shadows

Yesterday we had two amazing volunteers come into our classroom and teach us all about the sun and shadows!  We watched a great puppet show and then we talked about how the Sun stays still while the Earth rotates around it.  We  conducted an experiment to see if sunlight can shine through certain materials like wood, plastic, paper, water, and glass. We also looked at the shadow the sun creates as it moves across the sky.  Here are some photos from our wonderful afternoon.

ECHO Science Center

We had a great field trip to the ECHO Science Center today!!  We were able to touch starfish, watch a movie on how Lake Champlain was formed, dig for fossils, look at turtles, sturgeon, and frogs, and climb a shipwreck!  We also had a special presentation entitled "Wetland Wonders" which taught us all about the various marine life that live in the wetlands that feed into the Lake. We also talked about how wetlands help communities!  Here are some photos from our adventures today!

 

Math Workshop!

Our math workshop model is finally up and running! We start each math lesson with a 30 minute whole group lesson.  We review yesterday's skill and then I introduce our new learning material.  After our whole group lesson and practice, the kids rotate through 2 stations a day.  Each station lasts for 15 minutes.  One station is meeting with me to review the days lesson and practice any number skills that need strengthening like place value, counting money, or telling time.  Another station is independent practice where each child has a folder full of independent math work that they can practice such as simple addition, subtraction, and skip counting.  The third station is technology where the students use an iPad or chrome book to play a math game or use Dreambox. The last station is the hands-on station where students play a math game that reinforces the skills we have been working on. We've worked really hard on setting up classroom expectations so that the students understand what their objective is at each station.  Here are some pictures from our math stations in action!

Here is our math station board. It tells what the activity is for each station as well as what the daily rotation is.

 

Here are some students hard at work at my desk.

Here is some students playing "Boo Bump" for the Hands-On station.

 

For technology, the students were playing a Math Bingo app that worked on addition, subtraction, money, and place value.

Here are some students working on their independent math folders. They each get to chose the worksheet that they would like to complete.

September Reading Challenge!

Today was the day to wrap up our September reading challenge!  Everyone who brought in a completed reading homework assignment earned a snazzy pair of sunglasses!  The kids were super excited so we decided to take some pictures!

Reading Time!

We have been workingvery hard to build up our second grade reading stamina! We've talked a lot about how to pick  "Good Fit" books that we understand and can hold our interest!  We are already able to silent read for 20 minutes!  Our goal is to be able to read for 30 minutes and I feel confident that we will get there soon! Here are some photographs of us reading around the room!