Happy Thanksgiving!

    The second grade girls really enjoyed spending time with their grandparents and special friends yesterday. Thank you so much for visiting our classrooms. We hope everyone has a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving. See you Monday!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Potlach Celebration

   Today the second grade girls concluded their study of the Native Americans with a Potlatch celebration.  Each homeroom made a craft for their classmates.  Ms. Orlando's class made totem poles similar to what the Northwest Coast Native Americans carved.  Ms. Emala's class constructed Kachina dolls which were customarily made by the men of the Hopi tribes.  Mrs. Roessler's class wove colorful headbands which traditionally were worn by the Sioux Indians. Here are three examples of the crafts. 

 

                                                Here are some pictures of the girls celebrating!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Art: Elements of a Landscape

The girls made discoveries looking at artists' landscapes and photographs they took of Bryn Mawr landscapes about ways artists show deep space in a drawing. Some strategies include making the trees smaller in the background and larger in the foreground and using warm colors in the foreground and cool colors in the background.  Ask your daughter what elements she included in her landscape.

Happenings in the Second Grade

In math we continue our study of two digit addition with and without regrouping making sure to correctly line up our addends.  The girls enjoy sharing their problems on the board.  Automatic recall of our math facts builds our foundation for understanding this concept.  The girls need to keep practicing their math facts!

 

 

In language arts the girls are reading Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen, a story that spurs great conversations about our core values.  Here are some of the girls participating in a literature circle taking a picture walk prior to reading the book. 

 

 

 

The girls are also learning dictionary skills.  This is important as the book, Molly's Pilgrim, contains many unfamiliar words.  The girls work in partners to find each definition.

 

 

 

In social studies we are completing our study of the Native Americans.  After comparing and contrasting  the four tribes, the girls had an opportunity to work collaboratively in designing a Native American board game.  Wow!  The enthusiasm and creativity during this project was amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 





Art: Painting Leaves

Fall presents perfect opportunities to use all the colors of the color wheel.  The girls selected a leaf and used their knowledge of symmetry to draw the leaf.  First, they made dots in corresponding spots on their paper to show where the leaf pointed out and where it dipped in.  Then, they connected the dots to get an accurate drawing of the contour of their leaf.  They mixed the colors they saw in their leaves using the color wheel as a guide.  

Math

 In math we have begun our study of adding double digit numbers and learning the concept of regrouping. Many different strategies have been introduced for better understanding and the girls have enjoyed sharing their strategies with the class.