Updates, Tuesday Harvest Festival and Counting/Adding Money

It was so nice to be back in school on Thursday.  Due to the power outage and the short week, the homework packet that went home Thursday is not due until Tuesday, November 26th.  We will have a spelling test and a Wordly Wise test on Tuesday.  Also in the Monday Mailers was a confirmation time and date for your Parent-Teacher Conference.  Please checkout the blog sidebar "Upcoming Events" for more calendar items such as giving tree, hygiene kit donations and 2nd grade music concert dates.

Social Studies - History of Thanksgiving & notable Native Americans
In reading and in Social Studies, we have been learning about the history of Thanksgiving and notable Native Americans.  As a way to end our unit study, we will have a harvest festival complete with popcorn and juice as we compare the Charlie Brown video version of the Mayflower's voyage to the Scholastic video's version.  We will look specifically on the influence of Samoset and Squanto.  If you want to donate a snack for the "festival" please feel free.  I will make sure we have the popcorn and juice for the event ~ which is enough, so there is no pressure to donate.

Scholastic Book Fair
Last Thursday, we visited the book fair to list items for a wish list.  Students can bring money in on Monday or Tuesday to make purchases during the day.  You can also stop by to shop during your Monday evening parent-teacher conference.  The book fair will close for the season at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 26th, so you will want to plan ahead if your conference is Tuesday evening.

Math and Money
As we finish Chapter 4 in Think Math we will review the money portion by adding mixed value coins. Students should understand the value of a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, and half dollar.  They should also be able to add a variety of coins together.  We have been playing games such as Race to a Dollar and Scoot as a way to practice adding coins quickly.  Please practice this at home by having your child add the change in their pocket, piggy bank, coin jar, car console or where ever it is that you keep change.  You can also give them a total (such as 97 cents) and ask them to draw it for you using the fewest amount of coins.

Reading Buddies, Skatin Station, Timeline Video & Challenge Homework

Reading Buddies
We spend time reading with our 5th grade buddies for 20 minutes every other week.  It is not a lot of time, but they are already building strong relationships.  When we see 5th grade in the hallway, we are all smiles and I get to hear whispers like, "That's my buddy!"  "She knows me."

Skatin' Station 
It was nice seeing so many friendly faces at the Skating Party on Friday.  It was a fun way to end the week.  I know I missed getting pictures of some 2nd graders...sorry, you were too fast for my camera!

Timeline Video
Our students worked really hard to create a video for our Ypsilanti Timeline.  It is pretty cool.  Check it out.

Challenge Homework
Three of our 2nd graders shared the extra homework they did by researching and creating representations of landforms. We learned about Lake Vostok in Antarctica and Giant's Causeway from Katie.  Cameron taught us about Devil's Tower and Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota and Saahil taught us about what types of animals live on Mount Everest as well as the vegetation and habitants of most desserts.  The students learned about legends and made connections to last year's content about Lewis and Clark's expeditions.  How neat is that?  More students will have opportunities to share their challenge homework on Monday.

I will do my best to offer challenge homework most weeks.  It is meant as an opportunity to extend your learning.  It is not required.  Students can also use this idea in class as part of their May-Dos.

50s Day

We had a great 50th day of school.  We began the day with a fun assembly filled with hula hooping and music from the 1950s.  During the day we wrote about what life will be like when we are 50, counted 50 shoes in different ways, toured the school to find 50 ways to conserve energy, limboed, and enjoyed root-beer floats.  What a great way to celebrate our first 50 days of 2nd grade!

Living History, Guests, Brain Breaks & My Thoughts

History
Our Ypsilanti timeline is just about complete.  We have practiced reading our event and we have also discussed changes to Ypsilanti over time.  The grades for this assignment have been posted as well.  I will share our "talking timeline" presentation as soon as we collect the baby pictures from all who want to share.

On Monday, I will share the homework that the students completed about other communities in the area: Canton, Plymouth, Belleville, and Westland, etc.

Did you know...

• The name Peking and LeRoy were also considered as names for Plymouth?  
• Canton is named in part because of trade with China in the 1800s?
• Westland was once part of one of the largest townships in the world?

Thank you for helping them inform, persuade, and entertain one another as we all learn history of the surrounding areas.

Special Guest
We had a special guest on Friday. The grandfather of one of our students visited. We had a great opportunity to ask questions and learn about him. Thank you Mr. Pahal!

Brain Breaks
Students and teachers take part in at least one, often two or three brain breaks a day.  We mix it up by using Brain Gym, Adventure to Fitness, and kid-friendly dance videos.  Adventure to Fitness (shown in the picture below) uses historical backdrops to get us moving.  Sometimes we pretend to toss tea into the Boston Harbor, other times we run from buffalo in the wild west.  We have also ran away from polar bears in the Arctic.  It's a pretty neat way to learn while we move.  When we return to our seats, our work is much more focused.  It is amazing what two minutes of movement can do for our minds. You can join Adventure to Fitness or you can find some of the videos online on youtube.com by searching for "Adventure to Fitness."  Brain breaks work for homework too!

My thoughts exactly