September 30 in Room 11

• "We read the book, Mrs. Brown Went To Town."--Teron
• In music, students are learning about composers. Stephen Foster wrote "Oh, Susannah!"
• Math class took a break from adding, subtracting and fact families. Today we drew shapes, colored shapes, counted shapes--and tonight we will dream shapes!
• Partners played a word game using the "magic e."
• Some second graders have finished their "Favorite Part of Me" projects. Others are wrapping them up.
• Cocoons remain quiet.
• Parent/Teacher conferences are just arond the corner.
• Many children are helping the P.T.A. by selling Nicholson products from a catalog of products ranging from gifts to the paper to wrapping paper. Selling just one item makes the young merchant eligible for a drawing of some nifty prizes. Tawnie entered her ticket today. Final turn in date is October 8.

September 29 in Room 11

• Math test--no help from the teacher!
• Students wrote six sentences on "The Best Part of Me."
• Caterpillars are still in their cocoons. One is hanging from the lid of its container, the other is lying on the bottom.
• Dylan is Top Dog this week.
• We had P.E. today.
• "I learned how to subtract."--Tyler
• "I learned how to read cursive."--Teron
• "I learned how to take care of caterpillars."--Trinity
• "I learned to take turns."--
• "I learned we need to listen to other people."--Garrett

September 26 in Room 11

• Do you believe it? Algebra in the second grade!!! Students are given a list of number sentences and asked to circle the sentence if the answer is a particular number. If it isn't, then students were to correct it! This process is called logical reasoning." Who says life at seven is carefree?
• They also practiced following directions by using a key to color in a butterfly.
• Spelling test today...
• Mrs. Nelson says our class did great in music.
• fuzzy yellow caterpillar wandered into our classroom yesterday afternoon, so we carefully placed him in a jar and added leaves and twigs. Today he is spinning a cocoon! We wonder what he will turn out to be.
• Second graders did not finish their writing projects, but they did compile their writing into folders, organize crayons, practice handwriting, read stories to each other, learn more about butterflies, clean up the floor, earn free time, and not miss the bus. Hooray!

September 25 in Room 11

• In math class, young mathematicians made little fact family houses.
• Mrs. Craig showed a video of the life cycle of a monarch butterfly.
• The class started learning how to take Accelerated Reading (AR) tests in the computer lab.
• Our class went to the library, too. Students are really excited about the books they have selected. Many selections fit in very well with our reading theme of "silly stories"this month: Tacky the Penguin, Ruby Valentine and I was a Second Grade Werewolf.
• Students learned how to make a background watercolor wash in art class. It's messy and fun!
• We also learned how to make beautiful chalk outlines of leaves on black paper.
• Our caterpillars are spinning their cocoons.

September 24 in Room 11

• We found out about the fuzzy, black and brown caterpillars. They are called "wooly bears" and will grow up to be moths.
• The students attempted final drafts of a "Silly Story." They will need more practice.
• Babe's ball got lost in the woods at lunch recess. Even her powerful nose could not locate it.
• Fact families were the star subject in math today.
• Mrs. Craig read The Hungry Caterpillar to everyone. Tomorrow the class will learn to take an AR test.
• Short "o" and short "u" are the sounds for the week.

September 23 in Room 11

• The next step in our "Best Part of Me" writing project was having a picture taken of that favorite part. The teacher/photographer very much enjoyed this assignment.
• During afternoon recess, someone near the school was burning in their yard. Sight and smell of the smoke caused much concern among many children who were afraid the school might burn down.
• The class played Spelling Word Sort on the Smart board
• Children received their own spelling dictionaries today. With this book, they can look up words they need for their writing projects, and add words the teacher spells for them.
• Mrs. Craig showed pictures and talked about the life cycle of the butterfly: Egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, hatched butterfly...beautiful! The class is watching our caterpillars with anticipation.
• Because many children need reminders to "watch the sign" (plus or minus) we had extra math practice.
• To help us think of ideas for our writing project, each child wrote words that will later be included in sentences.

Today in Room 11

• The caterpillars are beginning to spin their cocoons. One of them looks healthy, one does not. We hope both of them will survive to be beautiful butterflies.
• Two students aced their pre-spelling test. Wah-hoo!
• When a minus sign is in the number sentence, it's important to remember to subtract!
• When subtracting, using a number line and jumping backwards can be helpful.
• We reviewed -s, -ed, and -ing endings as part of our reading lesson today.
• "The Best Part of Me" will be our next writing project, so we discussed our favorite body parts with each other today.
• Carrying chairs from one place to another needed some practice this afternoon.
• In P.E. we bowled.
• A reminder: Students will be dismissed at 12:35 on Wednesday.

Today in Room 11

• There was a comprehension check for Dragon Gets By. Many readers did very well.
• The final spelling test for the week produced three 100% s.
• Second grade musicians played instruments in music class!
• Zeros can be easy or tricky. Plenty of mathematicians discovered that today.
• Capital and lower case a's are approaching perfection on some handwriting papers. It is not necessarily beneficial to be fast. Better to be careful. Sitting position and hand position are also important when writing for legibility.
• We learned more about the Constitution today. Our Friday project has the Bill of Rights written on the back of it. How many of the First Ten Amendments can you name?
• Mrs. Craig and Mrs. Stebbins were delighted with the number of parents and friends who attended Hillcrest Open House yesterday evening. We were also pleased with how many new members joined the e-scrip fundraiser. Wow!
• A first grader from Mrs. B's room won the bike drawing.
• L-boy, R-girl, and M-girl each won free books from the P.T.A. drawing. Congratulations!
• Those self portraits make me smile every time I look at them...

Today in Room 11

• Everyone finished reading Dragon Gets By, then practiced reading for fluency.
• The class started working on subtraction. Our vocabulary word for math was "difference."
• We wrapped up several projects: Invitations to Open House, self portraits, and personal displays.
• Mrs Stebbins took a picture of each child holding his/her self portrait. Some of them really look like the artist!
• During Library time, Mrs. Green read us a book with many adjectives.

Today in Room 11

• Math review: adding doubles, adding doubles plus one, adding three addends, story problems
• We started making invitations to the Open House
• Babe came to school
• We saw a video and talked with Miss Stevenson about the Constitution
• Learned about digraphs
• Previewed books for the book fair. There are so many good ones!
• A question for student readers: What could Dragon have done differently?

Today in Room 11

• It was picture day today.
• We talked about math problems and number stories.
• We are reading some silly stories. One was about a dragon who goes shopping.
• Students are busy making personal displays to put on their desks for Hillcrest Open House
• Our phonics sounds for the week are short a and short i.
• Everyone ate lunch outside today!
• Open House is Thursday. Watch for your invitation.

Today in Room 11

• Walk to read started today. Students have a change of scene by attending small group, practice reading sessions every day. They have lots of chances to read aloud at their own level.
• Enrichment started today, too. Some students recieved extra reading help, others learned about healthy eating, a third group practiced penmanship skills, and a fourth group learned about the flag. The second grade teachers have planned special rotating classes to teach interesting and needed subjects in a concentrated format that sometimes gets glossed over in our day-to-day curriculum.
• We added three addends in math class. Changing the positions of addends does not affect the sum.
• After over a week of working on writing about our new Smart Board system in our classroom, students drew their own diagrams of the set up.
• Picture day tomorrow!

• "When's lunch?" becomes the favorite, most asked question in our classroom starting after recess. The teachers put up a clock that shows 11:15.
• We wrote our own silly stories today. Kids wrote about monkeys, dancing tigers or bears in the classroom. Many stories ended with the teacher screaming and running out of the classroom.
• In math Mrs. Craig showed the class how to make a ten's frame and use it to write number sentences.
• We made diagrams of the Smart Board in our classroom.
• These are the spelling words for next week: bag, win, is, am, his,has,ran, if,dig,sat,was, I. challenge: scratch, picnic, because
• Ten frames help to group things when we add.

• The second graders wrote number sentences about deep sea creatures.


• It is not healthy to put your mouth on the drinking fountain. Just sip from the stream of water.


• After discussing the peanut butter and jelly story again, the class evaluated and summarized it.


• Mrs. Craig and Mrs Stebbins accidently skipped afternoon recess today They promised they would not do it again.


• Self portraits got a skin-colored layer of paint. Next come facial details. Student artists observed the self portraits of Vincent VanGogh and Pablo Picasso.


• We had Computers and Library today.

Today in Room 11

• We talked about doubling numbers when adding; then we tried it.


• Hillcrest had a fire drill. Room 11 walks along the wall and the edge of the sidewalk. It's important to hang onto the railing when going up and down the steps


• Babe played ball with the kids at recess.


• Our class played with a parachute during P.E. Some children complained that their arms got tired.


• We read about Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept 15 to October 15 in Weekly Readers.


• Our handwriting is showing improvement. Today we practiced d's .

Today in room 11:



Our High School Helper Chris began the Top Dog Project. This means that he took a picture of the Top Dog for the week, interviewed that student, and will be making a poster to place outside the room door in honor of the week's Top Dog. Chris is taking his poster making very seriously. The teachers are concerned, and hope he doesn't lose any sleep over it, because he appears to be somewhat of a perfectionist, but the students are excited. The Top Dog not only becomes famous at Hillcrest, because he or she is posted on our hall wall, but that student gets to do "plum" jobs and be line leader for the week.



Things studied today in room 11:



Strategies for adding (start with the larger number, then count up)



Adding a zero

How to organize words when beginning a writing assignment

More about making perfect manuscript o's and a's (no cursive yet!)

How to monitor, question and clarify what is read

Looking for word clues, pictures, asking if what is read makes sense..

Autumn leaves and some ways of them

Today in Room 11:



Played domino math and wrote number sentences

Learned the words "equation," "addend" and "sum"

Predicted outcomes in the peanut butter and jelly story

Began writing words about how to install a Smart Board

Drew four-square pictures of Smart Board installation

Bear-walked in wet grass in P.E.

Mrs. Craig taught Mrs. Stebbins how to roll the dice on the Smart Board

School Year 2008-2009 Begins

September in Mrs. Craig and Mrs. Stebbins second grade began with a bang. They celebrated three teeth coming out and watched a computer Smart Board being installed during Math class (Guess what the kids were most interested in). Zoe got stung by a bee and Mrs. Stebbins' dog Babe visited. The children began painting self-portraits, practiced walking quietly down the hall after recess, AND did some reading and math. Next week the class will create a step-by-step Smart Board installation guide with accompanying diagram.

As they prepared to catch the bus on Friday, five kids were spotted vigorously wiggling loose teeth.