The Last Week of 2014: Concert, Last Day Fun

Music Concert

The kids did fantastic during the music concert. I was so proud that their hard work paid off. They sounded and looked amazing! Well done, 2nd Grade!

Last Day Fun

The Middle School Choir sang to us in the morning. It was neat to have carolers right outside our classroom doors! 

Later that day, we put on antlers, opened gifts from one another, and ate goodies. I am overwhelmed by the generous gifts and donations of snacks and goodies for the classroom, for me, and for the kids. It is no wonder that we have the amazing set of students that we do - they have super families that model generosity and thoughtfulness. Thank you!

My Week As Student of the Week

My Week As Student of the Week
I liked my week as Student of the Week because it was fun. I liked picking sticks for who gets to answer questions. I liked being teacher assistant. I was glad I didn't have to do homework. The Sunday after I was in a piano recital. The day before my friend came over to my house. She got to watch us do gymnastics.

My Week as Student of the Week

My Week as Student of the Week by Ireoluwa
My week as student of the week was fun. I got to pick my job. I picked teacher assistant. I got to pick people to do stuff.

Skyping New York Penpals & Assembly on Rule of Law

Skyping New York Penpals
Last Tuesday we got to see our penpals face-to-face using Skype. The students really enjoyed talking with their penpals and getting to see them. We should be receiving a new batch of letters soon.

Assembly on Rule of Law
We use our time on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to talk about the moral focus topic, our social contract, and the core democratic value. About once a month our class gets the opportunity to present during assembly. On Friday, we presented on our Core Democratic virtue of Rule of Law. To prepare, we went on a hunt for our classroom, hallway, office, recess, and bathroom rules. We talked and wrote about the rules. We also discussed which rules were most important and why. The students did a fabulous job during assembly. I also think they have a better understanding of expectations. Way to go 2nd graders!

Tradition Presentations, More Science & Reading Unit Test

Holiday Tradition Presentations
Wow! I am impressed with the work our students did over the Thanksgiving Break. I learned so much and I know the students did too. We have a wonderfully diverse group. We learned about a variety of traditions such as: Attending Religious Events, Making cookies, Making ornaments, and Decorating. In addition we learned about celebrating various holidays such as: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Diwali, Birthdays, Chinese New Year (and Zodiac), Guru Govind Singh Jayanti, Raksha Bandhan, Eid, and Simbang Gabi.  In some cases we learned about the right not to celebrate! Some of our larger posters are showcased in our library. Come check them out!

More Science
I know I've been sharing a ton of photos about our force and motion unit. This unit has come to an end, but here again are some photos. Look for your student's investigation pages in their Monday Mailer. We did more than just 'play.'

Reading Unit Test
We took our Unit 2 reading test on Friday. We did really well overall. It is a long test that includes three writing prompts. Scores will hit the gradebook this coming week.

Force & Motion, Reading Buddies, Harvest Feast

Force & Motion

We continued our science unit on force and motion by experimenting with "twirlie birds," ramps, cups, and spinners. And yes, we work right up until 3:10 in science; that's why they are sometimes dressed in their outdoor gear. (I have a hard time stopping them. They love it!)

Reading Buddies

We read with our 5th grade reading buddies on Tuesday. We have a great time reading and working with them.

Harvest Feast

We spend the last part of Tuesday sharing treats and watching a movie. Thank you to those who sent in snacks and for those who helped in class. It was a nice way to prepare for the break.

Hands-on Math and Science

Science ~ Gravity
We are working through our Gravity and Force unit. We worked with balancing using paper "crayfish" and clothes pins. The students had a lot of fun problem solving and working together.

Math ~ Graphing
We had opportunities this week to work with life-sized models of pictographs and bar graphs. We also asked and answered questions using data created by our partners. Students will continue to work with graphs over the Thanksgiving holiday break. (They are completely prepared to do this independently.)

My Week as Student of the Week by Tyrese

My week as Student of the Week
My week of studet of the week has been great so far. I got to pick my own job and I picked teacher Assistant. It's fun I get to help the teacher and do teacher stuff. It's fun because I'm with my teacher. She's one of the number 1 fun teacher's. If i was in another 2nd grade class it wouldn't be this fun. I got new friends. This will be the funnest year ever. By the one and only Tyrese

My Week As Student of the Week by RG

My Week as Student of the Week
As student of the week I was very happy. Everyone was very happy. I celebrated. I didn't have to do homework. I got to choose my job. Student of the week was very exciting. I got to fill a poster. I got to do like everything. Student of the week was very nice.

My Week as Student of the Week

My Week as Student of the Week By Carson
I got to do no homework that week. I got to fill out a paper about me. I got the sticks and pick hands. I got to show my paper all about me to the class. I got to pick my job of the week. I picked teacher assistant. My mom and dad took me to Chuck E Cheese for being student of the week and I was happy.  I was happy when I was student of the week. I got to write a blog. One time I got to pick which brain break we got to do and I picked Adventure to Fitness. It had train in it the setting was in the desert in it you had to run ,jump, and duck. It was fun doing that Aventure to Fitness. It was fun being student of the week.

50s Day and graphing in math

50s Day
We had a lot of fun celebrating our 50th Day of school. Check us out!

Graphing 
We began our graphing unit by creating a "life-sized" graph using our birth month. Later in the week, we used the length of our first and last names to create two additional graphs. We asked and answered questions using this data. Throughout the week we created pictographs and bar graphs on paper and worked through our math LABs to use and understand information in different ways. Students are doing really well with this concept. We will be looking at line graphs and pie charts next week.

Pen Pal Letters and Biography Presentations

Pen Pal Letters
Each student has been working hard to compose a penpal letter to a student in Syracuse, New York. We are learning the five parts of a letter as well as including a narrative non-fiction paragraph for their penpals to get to know them better. In addition, we are typing our letters during workshop and technology time.

Biography Presentations
Small groups of students presented their biography research on Friday. We have listened to groups presenting Sally Ride, John Thorpe, Jessie Owens, and Jackie Robinson. It has been a wonderful learning experience for the student presenters and the audience members.

Socktober, Slime & Reading Buddies

Socktober
We were able to donate over 490 pairs of socks to SOS Community Services of Ypsilanti. The socks will be given to local families this season. Thank you so much for all you did to make this happen! The people at SOS were overwhelmed and super excited to share the socks with families.

Slimy Science
Students had fun this week in science. We made two types of slime and compared the two as we learned about the scientific method.

Reading Buddies

We took some time on Thursday to read with our 5th grade buddies. We will be able to read with them twice a month for about 30 minutes. This is a great way to practice reading as well as getting to know more South Pointe Scholars.

My Week As Student of the Week by Shelby

Dear Parents,

It is  my first week being student of  the week and I am excited. Also I wanted to thank my friends that voted for me. When I found out who did I will vote for them. I also wanted to thank Mrs. Mueller for making me student of the week. I was so excited when my name was called. Thank you Mrs. Mueller and my friends.

- shelby

Partner Reading & Math & Science Night

Partner Reading
One way we practice reading fluently is to read and re-read the story of the week with our reading partners. We had this opportunity last Thursday. We found that "lights" are an ironic tie into Diwali - a holiday many of our students celebrated last week. As our students shared their customs, we learned about the significance of "lights." Later, we read in the dark using our flashlights and tea-lights.

Math & Science Night
Many of us were able to come out to Math & Science Night last week. It was a fun way to learn. Students who attended received a homework pass! Please don't worry if you missed it. We will be doing science experiments in class this week.

My Week as Student of the Week by Kendall

My Week as Student of the Week

This week I was student of  the week and I'm so excited.  All of  the students and my  famliy were so excited.   Everyone gives me respect each day.  This week we did an assembly for Socktober. So far we have over 207 pairs of socks.  We went outside this week for math. It was fun. It was very, very exciting to be your student of the week. Love Kendall Perino.

Spelling Practice, Technology Time & Place Value

Spelling Practice
As a fun way to prepare for our spelling test, we worked with partners and student whiteboards. You wouldn't believe how quiet the room was when they prepared. They took this time very seriously.

Technology Time
We have 40 minutes of scheduled technology time with Mrs. Hooper every week. This past week we completed our i-ready.com diagnostic tests. This means that students can now use i-ready.com at home. Please use the link to the right to logon and practice both math and reading concepts that are individualized for your student.

In addition to the scheduled technology time, each classroom can sign up for open lab times. This past week we used our time to finish our i-ready.com tests. This coming week we will be using our open lab time to create skits for our Socktober videos in Social Studies.

Place Value
We are working really hard to read, write, and understand large numbers in terms of standard form, expanded form, and word form. We have also compared numbers using >, < and = signs. One way to practice place value is working with new numbers and changing the digits around to get the largest and smallest number. We did this as a whole group. Students were very engaged in this even though they were a little hesitant about the concept. By the end of the week, we got pretty good. We will be working with place value again this week.

Student of the Week Audrey

My week as Student of the Week

My week as Student of the Week was awesome! I got to pick my job. When Ms.Muller called my name I was so happy . I love second grade.  Mrs. Mueller is the best teacher ever.  I want to say thank you. When I was student of the week, I had so much fun as student of the week.  When I told my family, they were so proud of me. It was so much fun. Thank you! It was a super fun week.

Student of the Week Grace

My Week As Student of the Week

I didn't have to do my homework this week, instead, I had fun all week. I got to play video games, and go to Target and look for christmas presents that I want this year. I even got to go for a bike ride.
Being student of the week is awesome! I think you would really like being student of the week.  I hope you get a chance to be student  of the week this year.  -Grace

Place Value Games & Skating Party

Place Value Games
To practice place value, we played a matching game in small groups using pictures of base-ten blocks and numbers in standard form. We also played a whole group game of "I have Who has." We are getting pretty good at this.

Skating Party
It was nice to see some friendly 2nd Grade faces at Skatin' Station II. I missed a few of you. If you have pictures you want to share, please send them in.

Science, S'mores, Socktober & Spelling

Science & S'mores

As a way to finish up our Science unit on investigations and connect our Reading Street story about camping, we created s'mores. This fun way to work 'cross the curriculum gave us a chance to experiment, learn, and have fun.

Soctober

We are collecting new and gently used socks for our community project in Social Studies. Please consider donating to our charity of choice: SOS Community Services of Ypsilanti. We have until October 27th to donate.

Spelling

Spellingcity.com/dottiemueller is updated this week. I will try to update it every week so that students can go online to practice their words. Please let me know if spellingcity.com is not updated; that is something I tend to forget, but can do it quickly.

After we take the pretest on Friday, your child will learn if they should study list 1 or the challenge list (list 2). Your child is eligible each week for a higher score if they get 100% on the pretest or their list for the week AND get both dictation sentences correct. Typically, the higher score is a 3.5. In very rare cases a 4.0 is given depending on the difficulty of the skill presented in the dictation sentence.  

My week as Student of the Month

Student of the Week

I'm going to write about me! First, I go home and then I play with a friend. We play catch. Sometimes we even play subway surfers. We also play tennis. We play baseball. I even play in his house. We play Trouble. Also, student of  the week is amazing. My teacher Mrs. Mueller is AMAZINGEST teacher on Earth. So she is my student of the month. So way to go MS.MUELLER. NICE JOB MS.MUELLER.

Note from Mrs. Mueller: Thanks for the encouraging words. You have earned this! Your peers nominated and voted for you. Well done.

Student of the Week: Sabrina Love

My week as Student of the Week

My week as Student of the Week was fun! I did not have to do my homework! Instead I got a packet to color. I got to be the student of the week for one whole week. Mrs. Mueller is the best teacher ever. From,
Sabrina Love