Surprise... it's Bat Day!

This morning we surprised the children with a special day- Bat Day! The classroom was decorated and transformed into our very own bat cave. We had so much fun throughout the day learning about bats and incorporating this fun topic into our learning.

We balanced and solved 'batty' equations, watched a fun Mystery Doug video about bats, practiced reading with expression with several texts about bats, and even created some fun bat projects during W.I.N. time! Throughout the day we also kept a live video stream of the interior of a bat barn projected on our Smartboard so we could feel like we were part of the colony!

Classes around the school were so intrigued by our bat cave and our students were so proud to work inside such a special room. Mrs. Willa, Mrs. Rhuda, and many friends came by to see our 'cave'. We had so much fun!

Here is a video of the students entering the room for the first time:



More pictures from our day!

Math Workshop: Explain Everything

In Math Workshop this week we have been working hard on subtraction with regrouping. Each math workshop group created a video on the app called Explain Everything to teach others the regrouping process! We used math vocabulary such as 'ones', 'tens', 'hundreds', and 'regroup'! Listen in and hear the chants we continue to use to help us remember when to regroup!

Regrouping in the Hundreds and Tens:

Juliet, Christopher, Annie, Dustin, Owen and Hannah:


Annika, Noemia, Drew, Lukas, Brynn and Maeva:


Regrouping in the Hundreds, Tens, and Ones:
Emma, Cyra, Jack, Landan, Timmy and Hayes:

Science/S.T.E.M.: Build a Boat Challenge

This week in science students used what they knew about MATTER and different materials to plan and build a model boat that will float!

Planning and Building:

Testing our Prototypes:

Team Wood/Paper

Team Clay

Team Metal

Team Plastic

Team Rubber

Showcasing our work for our peers:

Team Plastic: Dustin, Emma, Hannah and Drew

Team Metal: Lukas, Timmy and Juliet

Team Wood: Christopher, Landan, Annie and Brynn

Team Rubber: Cyra, Owen and Noemia

Google Classroom: Build a Jack-o-Lantern

On Tuesday in Writer’s Workshop Mrs. Klipfel, our technology integration specialist, came in to help us learn more about Google slides through our Google Classroom accounts. Using a template, students created their own jack-o-lantern by choosing their own eyes, mouth, arms, shoes, and even hats! Check out our festive jack-o-lanterns and a little story that goes with each one...

Math Workshop: Adding Three-Digit Numbers with Regrouping

This week in Math Workshop we continued to work on specific lessons as a group as well as rotating in small groups. This week’s focus was on adding three digit numbers up to 1,000. Children have used the regrouping concept to learn how to add up to 1,000. Through explicit teaching, guided practice, and independent work time, students have learned how to regroup in the ones, tens, as well as tens and ones.

This week, we have used the virtual manipulatives on Chromebooks to practice regrouping on place value mats! Students love this practice and their understanding of place value shows!

Writer's Workshop: Pumpkin Personification Poem

During Writer’s Workshop we started our first Picturing Writing project. Using this writing approach, students drew and painted a picture on special watercolor paper, and then used this visual to write poetry. Early this week, we created a colorful picture of a jack-o-lantern on an autumn night. 

We read and shared professional author's words to help influence our writing, and we brainstormed strong verbs, adjectives, and color words to describe what our jack-o-lantern could see, hear, taste, smell and feel on a graphic organizer. Paintings, graphic organizers, and manipulatives are great visual and kinesthetic tools to help motivate students and incorporate multiple intelligences in the classroom. The students are enjoying this approach! This hands-on method was also a great way to encourage the use of rich, descriptive language. This first Picturing Writing poem was a 'pumpkin personification poem' where we gave the jack-o-lantern human qualities. The poems are beautiful and will be on display in our classroom until Halloween.

Science: Exploring Matter and Mass

We have been exploring the states of matter throughout the week and dove deeper into the study of liquids and gases. This week, we were fortunate to have an expert scientist join us for an enrichment program from the Discovery Museum in Acton, MA. We got to see some solids, liquids and gases in action! Ask your child what their favorite experiment was! Thank you TESPTO for bringing this program back to our school!

We conducted many experiments in the classroom as well! We discussed how gas has mass, and made gassy bubbles using carbon dioxide! We have some great scientists here in second grade!