A New Year...

We're about to start a new school year. This year 2nd graders have a ton to look forward to. We'll be improving our reading, writing, and math skills by working all together and in small groups. Students will plan, draft, and revise pieces of writing that will end up in a Writing Portfolio at the end of the year. Our district has adopted a new math program, so students will learn new strategies for solving problems. Don't forget, ALL Rose Hill students are required to read at least 20 minutes every night. Good readers practice reading all the time! I'm excited to begin this school year, and I can't wait to meet all of the new 2nd graders.

2nd Grade

Presidents Day was February 21st

In honor if Presidents Day on February 21st, students are studying George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt. They are currently busy making posters. Stay tuned for more examples of all their hard work.

• GEORGE WASHINGTON was our 1st president. He helped us become our own country.
  

• ABRAHAM LINCOLN helped end slavery. He was the 16th president.
  

• President Franklin Roosevelt helped our country recover after World War II.

Jump Rope for Heart

On Friday, February 11th, we celebrated Jump Rope for Heart at Rose Hill. Our class raised over $100.00!

Family Literacy Night

A few weeks we had the best Family Literacy Night! The Colorado Symphony Orchestra came to Rose Hill and told us two stories, The Tortoise and the Hare and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Afterwards, we all enjoyed healthy snacks and we got to take home a bunch of books! What a fantastic night!

Our class recorded a video thank you card:

Winter Program

Our class did fantastic this year at their Winter Program.

They performed If You Take a Mouse to the Movies.

Balance & Motion Links

We've finished our study of Balance and Motion, but you can still explore.

Click here to experiment with balancing weighted shapes:
http://illuminations.nctm.org/activitydetail.aspx?id=33

Want to build your own roller coaster? Click here:
http://www.fossweb.com/modulesK-2/BalanceandMotion/activities/rollercoaster.html

Balance and Motion Videos

We've been studying balance and motion. We got to make spinners (force is pushed) and zoomers (force is pulled).

Anjaleeya says, "I like spinners because they are easy and they go everywhere."

Angelo says, "I like zoomers because they make noise."

David A. says, "I like zoomers because they are awesome. They hurt your fingers but they are fun."

Priscilla says, " The zoomers are cool because when you pull it, they spin, and they make sound."

Fletcher says, "The zoomers are AMAZING!! But one thing about them is they hurt your fingers really badly. They are also really cool because they make a noise by pulling air through them."

Ana says," The spinners are fun when then spin fast!"

Check out our graphs!

First we surveyed each other. Then we tallied the data.

Finally, we displayed the data in a pictograph and a bar graph.

What a busy few months we've had in 2nd grade! Along with all the awesome learning we've been doing, we also had a fantastic family Math and Science Night. 2nd grade learned how to make a balloon scream - in honor of Halloween of course!
This week is the schoolwide Canned Food Drive. Please bring in some canned foods and help our class win a pizza party!
The kids are working hard on their upcoming holiday program - they are thrilled.
In class we're starting Data and Graphing. This is a great unit because the kids get to survey their classmates and they learn how to display the data using graphs.
We're all looking forward to Thanksgiving Break, but we'll be working hard right up until it's here.

A New Year...

Last year came and went with few posts by me. It was a busy, busy year both at school and in my home life. But here we are at the beginning of a fresh new year, and we've already got lots to talk about.
We've spent the first few weeks learning and practicing our Reading Centers. This year, reading, writing, and grammar will be taught using our StoryTown resource. StoryTown is the literacy curriculum that the district adopted two years ago. We've also moved to a common school wide ELD time. We are grouping kids across grade levels (by hallway.) This allows students who receive explicit English Language instruction to be more adequately grouped by instructional need. Students who aren't receiving English Language instruction, will be in science groups. My science group just finished a mini-unit on Solids. We concluded our study of Solids with a bridge construction project. Please view our pictures on my class website. 2nd-5th graders at Rose Hill were also lucky enough to be involved in Bicycle Colorado. Students received bicycle safety lessons and were rewarded with bicycle helmets.
The upcoming weeks bring Parent/Teacher Conferences, Chopper Topper (a free teeth cleaning program offered only to 2nd graders), a Fire Safety assembly, and first quarter report cards.
Check back for monthly classroom updates.

Hitting the ground running...

So far we're having a great year! We switch teachers for the reading block. Some of us stay in Mrs. Gamberg's class, some of us go to Mrs. Fitzsimmons, Ms. Goodman, and Ms. Ernst. We're working on comprehension. In math we've been adding, subtracting, doing turn-around facts, fact families, missing addends, expand form, and solving word problems. We sure are learning a lot in math. Next week is Family Literacy Night at Rose Hill, so we've been busy working on our Pigs Over Rose Hill books. We can't wait to show them off to our families. We even get to wear pj's that night! Specials is a awesome time of day. In art we're studying Vincent Van Gogh, and we're drawing and painting sunflowers just like him. In P.E. we stretch and warm-up and learn new games. We really run around a lot for exercise. In music, we're practicing songs for our Winter Program. They are all cowboy and campfire songs. Sometimes we even play games to learn tunes on the SmartBoard. Coming up is Literacy Night, science units, a Halloween party, and Mrs. Gamberg even says we're going to have electronic pen pals from Kentucky. How fun!

Aliya says, “I’m so excited about Family Literacy Night because we get to wear our pj’s and we get to show off our writing!”

Julian says, “My favorite thing to do at school is math. Math is fun because you get to play math games after you’re done.”

Juan Carlos says, “I like P.E. because you get to play games and do exercise for your body.”

Alejandro says, “I like the library because there are a lot of cool books.”

Savannah says, “The thing I like about school is doing fact families.”

Adriana says, “I like school because I get to change groups and because you get to go to specials.”

Ohen says, “I like the books at the library. I want a book from the R.O.S.E. assembly.”

Assessment Days

Well the beginning of the 2009/2010 school year is here. We start the year with our assessment days. Read on to hear what the kids are saying about being 2nd graders.