Happy Holidays!

A busy two days before vacation: We had a guest chef, Ms. Kay, and she helped us make Latkes! Very Yummy! Thank you Ms. Kay!! We have been learning about celebrations around the world, such as Diwali, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanza. 

We made Gingerbread Glyphs- pictures that represent information about ourselves- our favorite activities, books, etc.

After reading The Gingerbread Baby, we decorated our own gingerbread cookies.

The children received holiday gifts by our two favorite authors; Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl- they were so excited to receive books! Happy 2015!

Planet Earth Exploration: Our Green Screen Video!

Our Cross Country Ski Day

is on Fridays! We will take an hour of our day to cross country over in the Thatcher Brook Field from 12:00 to 1:00.

Earth and Sky

We are learning about earth's moon! We are tracking the phases of the moon every day and noticing how much light is shining on the moon's surface. It has been very exciting as we inch our way towards the full moon! We got a close up view of the moon's surface using google earth. We saw the spot where Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon and also noticed many craters on the moon. We experimented with how craters are formed using meteors (marbles) and the moon's surface (moon sand). We figured out how speed and distance affect the size of a crater. We will continue exploring space during our theme time for the next few weeks! 

Sharing Snack

We put our desks together, covered them with our beautiful tablecloth and enjoyed our Sharing Snack! We also practiced "mindful eating" as we tasted a variety of foods slowly, thoughtfully, and experienced the textures, smell, and tastes of our delicious healthy treats. We worked on our manners, good eating habits, gratitude and appreciation of all that we had on our table. Thanks for contributing!

The children loved having our desks in a long table so we kept them that way for the whole day! 

Candle Holders and Kettle Corn For Sale!

What a great turn out for our Farmer's Market! First and second grade students made over $300. selling our products. The money raised will be donated to the Waterbury and Duxbury Food Shelf. Our class raised over $33. The children worked very hard and what a huge success! Our kettle corn was in high demand for sure! And a big thank you to Way Out Wax for donating the tea light candles for our holders. The Farmer's Market was a perfect culminating activity for our Community Theme. We have learned so much about our community- the town we live in and the farms that surround our town. 

 

1st and 2nd Grade  

Farmers Market

Thursday, November 6  
6-7 PM

in the Gym!

Dairy in the Classroom

Sheep's milk, goat's milk and cow's milk! We taste tested a variety of dairy products that come from other animals besides a cow. The children were very brave trying goat's milk, and cheese from sheep and goat! Dana led us in a cheese making activity and we enjoyed eating our freshly made cheese later in the afternoon. 
Our Community theme, which has included our Dairy in the Classroom unit, will have a culminating event which we are all very excited for- a first and second grade Farmer's Market! This event will happen on November 6th at 6:00pm in our gym.Each class will be making a food and craft to sell!

                                                  Taste-testing dairy from other animals!

Investigations Math Unit 2

Shapes, Blocks, and Symmetry: 2-D and 3-D Geometry

In our second Investigations unit, students identify two- and three-dimensional shapes, focus on the properties of rectangles and rectangular prisms, and identify and create symmetrical designs. Students also achieve fluency with the doubles addition combinations.
We will work in the computer lab and will be introduced to The Shapes software. This tool is designed for K–2 students to explore how different shapes go together, experiment with different sorts of geometric transformations (rotations, translation, reflection), explore patterning, and investigate symmetry. 

Show Your Math Thinking!

We continue to solve word problems and record our math thinking:

Taking in the View

Our day long Community Field Trip on Thursday was incredible! We visited three local farms; Elephant in the Field, Wallace Dairy Farm and Moonlight Farm. We stopped for a picnic lunch at Hope Davey Field. The children were awesome and we experienced three very different ways of farming right here in our own community- Elephant int he Field is a produce Farm. We stopped there first and broke out into smaller groups.  We took turns spider searching with "Crazy Uncle Ari", learned about the hoop house where 100's of delicious tomatoes grow, picked our own carrots for snack, learned about chickens and goats and worked the field. At Rosina's Dairy Farm (Wallace Farm), we learned about Dairy- and helped to feed and milk the cows! We took a hike up a hill and took in the beautiful view. Our final stop was at Moonlight Berry and Seed Farm. We learned that brown peppers are the best variety to grow in Vermont! We also tasted luscious raspberries growing in their hoop house. Our community offers so much- a big THANK YOU to all of the farmers who took time with us and to Dana for organizing this very special day!

Open House

First and Second Grade Open House is Thursday, October 2nd from 6-7 pm. Come and see how hard your second grader is working!

Community Walk

To learn more about the community we live in, we went on a Waterbury Scavenger Hunt! Examples of some of the things and places we searched for were a store that sells books, places that make food, a place where you can get information, things that are beautiful, and not so beautiful. Our walk took us up Stowe Street and down Main Street to the town green, where we stopped for a snack. We noticed many new things on the way, and even saw places where some of our parents work!

 

Our Community

We have launched into our theme of Community! We were very busy building our community this week starting with our own houses. Throughout this unit, students will learn about the many different kinds of communities, from neighborhood communities to communities that are created because members are working toward a common goal or for a common cause. We will also learn about the businesses, products and foods that are in our neighborhood community of Waterbury and Duxbury. 

Color Mixing and Ooblek!

Our theme time continues to focus on science explorations. We are using the scientific method of asking questions, making predictions, observing, experimenting, collecting data and making conclusions. Our two experiments this week focused on absorption/color mixing and ooblek! 

Scientists, Artists, Mathematicians, Readers and Writers!

It must be second grade! We are having a great start to our school year, jumping right into our curriculum. After reading Toy Boat by Randall de Seve, we explored the question: "How does a ship, made of tons of steel, stay afloat on the water?" We talked about how the forces of gravity and buoyancy affects boats and then we experimented by making boats out of aluminum foil. Our challenge was to design a boat that would hold the most pennies! Our record was 31! 

 The warm and sunny weather was a great excuse to experiment outside! We also read Captain Kidd's Crew Experimenting with Sinking and Floating by Mark Weakland. 

Our first Investigations Math Unit is called "Counting, Coins, and Combinations".  This unit develops ideas about counting and quantity, the composition of numbers and the operations of addition and subtraction. Students are also introduced to classroom routines that involve telling time and collecting and analyzing data. 

During our Literacy time, children are picking "Just Right" books for our book boxes. We also have new "Word Work" we are learning and new class journals for "Work on Writing". Our three journals are "All About Me", "Ouchy Stories", and "My Favorite Place". Our first chapter book of the year is "The Year of Billy Miller" by Kevin Henkes. 

Our Final Days of First Grade!

We were a busy bunch for the last few days of school! We ended our Life cycles unit with a study on ducks! We observed (through video) and read about many kinds of ducks; their habitats and eating habits, different functions and structures that help ducks survive, and their first flight! Most important, we learned why ducks don't get wet!

Mrs. Beidermann had her horse truck and trailer at school and invited us to see this amazing set up! She showed us all of the different parts of the trailer and how her horses can be safely transported to different places. We loved exploring!

Our field trip to AppleCheek farm was so fun! We participated in different "stations" where we made butter, went on a scavenger hunt, identified different farm tools, went on a wagon ride and had a picnic lunch. The day was beautiful and we had a real taste of farm life!

The Grand Quilt Finale!

Awesome Authors

We have been reading our stories to each other in preparation for our Awesome Authors presentation! Please come to our classroom at 2:00 for snacks (made by us) and stories on Friday 6/13!! 

 

Quilt Expert!

Mrs. Palermo, Jackson's grandma, and our school nurse for many years, is also a Quilt Expert! She came into our classroom with a basket full of quilts and shared her expertise with us. We loved looking at her designs, color and patterns. Jackson even helped his grandma work on a very special quilt too! Thank you, Mrs. Palermo for sharing your beautiful art with us:)

Patchwork Quilts!

Our final math unit this school year is all about quilts! What is it about patchwork quilts that make them so universally appealing? Is it their symmetry, design or pattern? Maybe it is the stories they tell or memories they hold. For many reasons, quilts seems to fascinate children as well as adults! Quilts are rich in mathematics as children use a variety of skills, including sorting, patterning, geometry, fractions, ratio, and estimation. We are in the process of creating paper patchwork quilts of growing complexity and beauty. We are also reading a variety of quilt stories and the children have loved looking at our quilting design books many students have brought in to share.

Chick Observations

Time With Chicks!