Hunter's Haunted Halloween!

Halloween was full of TREATS today in 2nd grade! First, it was pumpkins galore! We observed, compared, and invented! We recorded all of our thinking into booklets we created from paper lunch sacks. Check them out!

To cap off our day, we stirred up a pot of Miss Hunter's Brew from Rachelle Smith's Witches' Brew. Click here to download your copy of the poem and ingredients list. This literally had the kids telling me I was "the best teacher EVER!" They loved the Earthworms best! :) Enjoy the pictures of our day. Have a safe and happy Halloween tonight!

This free collage personalized with Smilebox

So Thankful!

Giving thanks just isn't a Thanksgiving thing for me. At the end of the 2012-2013 school year, the 2nd grade team received grant money from the Van Alstyne Education Foundation. With those funds, we ordered six-station listening centers in order to have a full-fledged Listen to Reading station in our Daily 5 rotations. Yesterday, they arrived! How great it is to have VAEF supporting us this way! So, to all the VAEF supporters, I say:

Little Picassos!

I have to brag on you parents...if it weren't for your support, our school would not be as great as it is! Today was our first Art Day of 2nd grade. Our mom, Ms. Tracy, stepped in as our art teacher. What an amazing job she did! Her examples were fantastic and she handled our class like a pro! When one of our friends didn't want to use the same colors as everyone else, she encouraged him to mix the colors and create new ones. He ended up working with a beautiful turquoise-esque hue. Also, she used her artistic eye to get one of our other friends to see that his portrait could work either "right side up" AND "upside down." Thank you, Ms. Tracy! What a great way to encourage critical thinking outside of the normal subjects! Here's a quick video highlighting our day.

Probability Pig

Probability.  Second graders love probability!  During this week's probability lesson, I wanted to find a way to illustrate the math term "equally likely" to my little Happy Campers.  I found this game on www.mathwire.com and thought I would give it a try.  Here's how it works: Students pair up and get one die. 

Students take turns rolling the die and tallying up their score.

 

The "kicker" of the game is that when you roll a one, you loose all the points you have accumulated.  So the players had to know when not to press their luck and give up their turn to their partner so they wouldn't loose everything.

 After we played I asked the students to explain what "equally likely" meant.  They did a fantastic job connecting the term to their probability of rolling a one.  Mission accomplished!

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Just a reminder...there will be a spelling test on Friday.  Any student who makes a 100 on the pretest tomorrow will not have to take it Friday.  Also, homework is only given on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  Have a great week!