Week 24 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! We had a short but busy week! Our Thoughtful Thursday project went out to high school student, Nicole. To hear her story, you can click HERE. If you know someone in need of some encouragement, email Mrs. Doran at lauradoran@wlcsd.org.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Olsson was our guest teacher so that Mrs. Doran could meet with us individually to test us in reading. She got through about half our class so will work more on testing next week. As a class, we're starting to explore nonfiction text and will continue that study for the next few weeks.

 We also wrapped up our Otis retells and published them on our chrome books! We really did a great job and can't wait to share them with you. They will first be on display in our hallway.

In Social Studies we are learning about economics. We learned the difference between goods and services. We had fun brainstorming examples of each!

If you have followed us on Twitter or our class Facebook page, you already know that our Brassica plants are thriving! They have bloomed and it was time to cross-pollinate. We hope to have pods next week!

 In math we focused on solving two part number stories! We did an awesome job with this and loved explaining our thinking and strategies to our peers! Remember, you can check out our lessons and games on the Connect Ed website (use the login and password on the back of our purple folders).

Week 23 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! Our last week of school was an odd one. Mrs. Doran was out on Monday due to pink eye and there was a sub shortage so we went to learn in other LLE classrooms. Although it was a short week for us, we still had a lot of fun!

 Can you believe that we've hit 100 days of school! Time is flying and we are growing as learners. Please make time to incorporate reading into your home routines. Before you know it, we'll be heading to third grade! Remember to check out RAZ kids on our iPads or computers.

 Jump Rope for Heart was a huge success! We had fun jumping, raising money for the American Heart Association and earning fun prizes! Thanks to Mr. Olack for organizing such an awesome day!

 Speaking of awesome days, thank you to our awesome parent volunteers for a fabulous Valentine's party! To see more from our party, click HERE.

 Our Brassica plants are growing and we're here observing! We've noticed more leaves and even some buds! We wonder if we'll see some flowers when we return to school!

In writing, we are publishing our Otis pieces. We lost some time with the parties and Mrs. Doran's absence but will finish when we return from break!

We also had our monthly LLE Leader of the month assembly! John was nominated by his peers and Mrs. Doran as showing resiliency in the classroom. We were also very proud of our friend Lennon who was also nominated and spends most of his day with us!

Did you know we've been celebrating kindness? Why not try and do a Random Act of Kindness for someone you know or someone you don't know.  Have a great week!

Week 22 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! This week we lifted up Eric's Grandma (Yaya). Eric's Great-Grandma passed away and he wanted to send some love to his Grandma. Room 119 did a great job. You can see our project HERE. If you know of someone who could use some nice cards from some Sensational Second Graders, email Mrs. Doran at lauradoran@wlcsd.org.

Speaking of kindness, to kick off Random Acts of Kindness month, we heard from Caleb White of the Caleb White project! As a school we raised just over $2000! To learn more about what Caleb is doing (and how we helped him), click HERE.

We are finishing up our series unit and by inhaling great books and also writing about them. Next week we'll be publishing our favorite "Otis" retell on our chrome books. We did a great job with our retells and are excited to publish them!

In math we finished up our Unit 5 Assessment and tests went home to be signed and returned (thank you to everyone who already signed and returned the test, if you haven't yet, please do). We also worked on comparison number stories.

We LOVE science! Our Brassica plants are busy growing and we're busy observing them! We also learned about how seeds travel. Ask us about it!

We are so excited about Valentine's Day! Don't forget to send in our Valentines and Valentine's Day containers on Tuesday! We'll also have Jump Rope for Heart so don't forget those gym shoes!

Have a great week!

Week 21 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! We had a crazy week with Play Day, a Field Trip and more. We of course made time for our Thoughtful Thursday project. This week we sent some love to Mrs. Edwards. You can see her project HERE. If you know of someone who could use some encouragement from some sensational second graders, please email Mrs. Doran at LauraDoran@wlcsd.org.

We had a great day on Wednesday. It was Global Play day and we had so much fun and got along great! The day went so quickly! Play is so important and there is so much research out there to support its benefits. To see a quick video from "play day" you can click HERE.

Another highlight was our field trip! We learned about weather, hibernation, seeds and Michigan animals. We had a great day. Mrs. D. took a lot of pictures that you can see HERE or on our class facebook page.

We began our unit on plants. We first started with a KWL chart where we discussed what we think we Know about plants, what we Wonder about plants and what we are Learning about plants. We planted Brassica seeds and also learned that plants need water, light, nutrients and space.

We continue to work on our retellings in writing. This week we retold a story we have been working on for language workshop. We've been reading a book series about "Otis" who is a tractor. Ask us about it. We have one more book to read in the series and then we'll be publishing one of our retells.

In math we took our Unit 5 math assessment. Most of us did very well. Mrs. D. will be sending our math assessments home next week. Please sign and return them so she knows you saw them. We will begin Unit 6 next week!

We ended our week with some special Mystery Readers! Grant's mom AND big sister came to read us a couple stories. Mrs. D. was excited to see Grant's sister because she taught her in third grade (a few years ago). ;-)
Please consider signing up to be a Mystery Reader in our classroom!

Please remember that we are collecting pennies (or any coins/bills) to donate to the Caleb White Project. You can also make out a check (if this is something you would like to donate to) to "The Caleb White Project." Caleb White (a student in WL) will be coming to talk to us next Monday. You can learn more about his project by clicking HERE.  Have a great week!