Week 29 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! With Spring Break it was a short week but jammed pack with fun and learning! This week's Thoughtful Thursday project went out to Mr. Patrick. You can see the project we made for him by clicking HERE. If you know of someone who could use some encouragement from some Sensational Second Graders, email Mrs. Doran at lauradoran@wlcsd.org.

One of the highlights of the week was performing at the Variety Show. We did a great job and thank you to all who came and cheered us on! We couldn't stop talking about how excited we were. If you took a video and are able, please email it to Mrs. D.

As Reading Month comes to an end, we enjoyed getting a book from LLE's first "Book Swap!" Thank you to all who donated books. Please remind us to keep reading over break but almost more importantly, consider reading TO us. We learn a lot from read-alouds, making predictions, inferences and more. Plus it's great family time!

In writing we did more 'how-to' pieces but we also did some reflection on how we felt our second trimester went. We reflected on our progress and we set goals for our final trimester. If you have not yet logged in to see our report card, please click HERE. Celebrate our progress and help us set goals.

Congratulations to our friend, Jayce. As a class we voted for him as being someone who shows respect regularly! Next month we'll be working on Integrity!

We had a blast in math this week. We measured in yards and meters and we also learned a fun "basketball" game where we practiced adding multiple numbers. We were able to do this mentally by looking for patterns- sums of ten and doubles facts. Ask us about it.

We ended the week with a special Mystery Reader. Emme's grandma (who works in a dentist office) read us a fun book AND gave us each a new cool Crayola toothbrush! Thanks so much for coming in to read to Room 119.

Have a wonderful break and we'll see you on April 9th!

Week 28 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! This week two people were in need of a Thoughtful Thursday project so we did a "Make a Difference Monday" project too. To see Grandma Diane's project, click HERE. To see baby Marshal's project, click HERE.

We came to school on Monday to a mess! The Leprechaun must have read the warnings some of us left because he was not caught in the traps we made. We did hurry and clean up Room 119 and were in music by 9:10. Pesky Leprechauns!

In reading we've been looking at different types of nonfiction books. We've also enjoyed reading our own books while Mrs. D. meets with students. Ms. Richards also came and read to us!

In writing, we are working on "How To" stories. We've really stepped up as peer editors too. Mrs. Doran told us that her mom always edits her blog posts (thanks, mom). Having a second set of eyes and suggestions helps every writer!

In math we have been working at adding 3 or more two digit numbers together and talking about our thinking. Many of us realized that our brains like to find sums of ten because then adding is so much easier!

In science we did a fun activity where individually we wrote on sticky notes reasons why the grass we were growing in our room seemed to grow faster than the grass outside. After, we got together as tables and sorted our ideas and put "like" ideas together. Some of the common ideas that came out were that our class grass had light ALL the time and water ALL the time and had no one walking on it (or peeing on it).

We decided to test our ideas. We put some grass under the light all the time, but some in water and some not). We did the same thing putting grass by the window (some light and some dark) and finally we put some grass completely in the dark. To our surprise, the grass in the dark still grew but it was lighter in color! Water was the greatest indicator in grass growth.

On Friday we were treated by a former Thoughtful Thursday recipient (Mrs. Dawn) to a pizza/pop party! We were so thankful!

We ended the week with a special Mystery Reader. Tyler's mom came in and read an awesome book to us that none of us had heard. She did a great job and we really enjoyed the book!

Hope everyone had (or is having - depending on when you read this) a great weekend. Mrs. Doran got to see our Room 119 friend, Elliot, at the Passion Run as well as some awesome moms! 

Week 27 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! What a busy week it was! Mrs. Doran was away at Oakland Schools having two great days of learning on Tuesday and Wednesday. Most of us had great reports from our guest teachers. Check out the kindness we spread this week to Mrs. S. by clicking HERE. We'd also like you to click on THIS link to learn about a former TT recipient who needs YOUR help, so please check it out and share it. 

We weren't in school for St. Patrick's Day but we heard that those leprechauns aren't too nice so we built some traps in hopes of catching them. We'll find out if it worked on Monday. We were very creative during our free choice!

We LOVE reading month!!! Some of us had fun dressing up as favorite book characters. We have enjoyed reading books we like and trying out new genres. We continue to read El Deafo which is a graphic novel. Ask us about it.

Mrs. D. didn't take any pictures of writing this week (being out those couple days had her busy, busy, busy) but she did want to share this note with you. This could be the reason leprechauns don't get caught... Again, we'll see Monday...

We worked on our math assessments this week. Mrs. Doran will go over them in class and get them to you as soon as she can. We're still waiting on a couple friends to take them. Mrs. D. also made a video to help YOU understand what math sometimes looks like in Room 119. Click HERE for some parent help.

We have had some fun observing the grass we planted. We are shocked by how fast the grass has grown. We may have to ask some questions about this to figure it out. A couple of us noticed that when we pulled out a blade of grass it had it's own root. That was something many of us hadn't thought about before.

We ended the week with some fun flashlight reading and of course a Mystery Reader. Special thanks to Lorene's mom for coming in to read to us. We also loved seeing her new baby brother!

Have a GREAT week!

Week 26 in Review

Greeting from Room 119! We have had a fun and busy week this reading month! We finished our book "The One and Only Ivan" about the real-life shopping mall gorilla and we read books about a veteran and his service dog in "Tuesday Tucks Me In." It seemed fitting we honored another working animal in our Thoughtful Thursday project. You can check out our project HERE.

A very happy birthday to our friend, Lorene, who turned the Great 8! We were happy to sing to her in English AND Polish! Sto Lat!

We started out the week with a Mystery Reader! Chloe's mom came in to read to us! She read a fun Seuss book and we loved it! Mrs. D. has been reading us Seuss books each day too. We love reading month! Thank you for coming in!

To celebrate reading month, we shared some of our favorite books with LLE. You can see our book recommendations on the bulletin board outside of Room 119! We also started reading some nonfiction books, including our new read-aloud which is a graphic novel. It's called El-Deafo! Don't forget flashlights each Friday in March!

For writing we finished up our "persuasive" pieces. We published one of them and checked it with a rubric to make sure we had all the needed elements. We did MUCH better with our neatness and writing conventions. These will come home next week.

What a great math week we had! We covered addition strategies we like and even learned new strategies. It's fun to grow in our understanding. We also used base ten short hand to subtract. It is Mrs. D.'s goal to get out some videos to help YOU parents understand what we're doing in here or you can have us explain. We're GREAT teachers!!

We had our final (formal) observations of our Brassica Plants. Some of us have some great pods to harvest new seeds. Plants went home Friday. We also trimmed the grass we planted.

We ended the week the way we started it~ with a Mystery Reader. Melanie's mom was able to come in for a surprise reading. She read "The Day the Crayons Quit" and we loved it. Thank you for coming to read to us.

Have a great week!

Week 25 in Review

Greetings from Room 119. It was a crazy weather week where we experienced spring and winter within a couple days. Please remember to check those weather reports so we're ready to go out for recesses.  This week's Thoughtful Thursday project went out to Liz. You can see her project by clicking HERE.

March is reading month! We kicked off the month with a fun assembly and we also got a chance to preview the book fair. The book fair is open all next week.  Be sure to check the reading month calendar for all the details. Some of us also chose to make Cat-in-the-Hat hats to celebrate Dr. Seuss!

Read! Read! Read! Most of us are using our reading time in the classroom well and it shows. Mrs. Doran has been meeting with individuals to listen to us read and do other testing. Be sure to keep reading with us.

We had so much fun in writing this week. We read some persuasive books and tried our hand at the craft. We looked at what authors did in their books and have enjoyed writing pieces to persuade others to share our opinion. Ask us about the sweet steps and what OREO means.

Mrs. D. didn't take many pictures in math this week. We solved multi part questions and learned that we can approach problems in different ways and use different strategies but still get the right answer.

Our cross-pollination has some of our plants producing pods! It has been such fun to see our plants go through the life cycle. We also planted grass and alfalfa seeds this week!

We celebrated Conner's 8th birthday this week on the same day as Dr. Seuss! He didn't know which hat to wear but enjoyed our singing to him. Sto lat!

Conner's mom surprised him on his birthday by being our Mystery Reader! She read a fun book called "The Day the Electricity Went Out" which was a very cool story about the fun you can have without the screens! It was a perfect topic for reading month!

Have a great week!