March 31 in Room 11

• Music today! Mrs. Nelson brags about what good singers Room 11-ers are.
• The class brainstormed about what they knew about Spring. They chose one spring topic to write a poem about. Then each child wrote his or her own cinquain poem.
• Wow, is it ever fun to play with money in math class! Quarters and half-dollars were added to the coin list today. Students completed a worksheet on counting coins. They also had their own bags of coins to help them count.
• The second-graders reviewed parts of a tooth, and dental growth.
• Students made scientific drawings of an animal. Each child chose a model of an animal and drew it as carefully and realistically as possible. Then they added details and a background.

March 30 in Room 11

• John, Jacob, Ryan and Zoe wrote some fine entries in their journals about their Spring Break.
• The class discussed the vocabulary for this week's story, "Jalapeno Bagels."
• Mrs. Craig notices much improvement in the way the second graders play kickball now when she thinks about how they played at the beginning of the year.
• This week's spelling test is made up mostly of contractions. They were introduced today.
• Studying money in math is a very high-interest subject. The students are learning names and values of coins. Because some of this was learned last year, counting groups of coins was fun.
• Students cleaned out their desks and then wrote a paragraph about it. There were some interesting observations made about the contents of some of those desks!

March 20 in Room 11

• As a reward for good behavior and effort earned over time, the second graders in Room 11 got to watch A Bug's Life. It was a good follow up for their reading story about ants.
• The day started with Music.
• Students wrote their final paper about making cakes.
• Room 11-ers are learning about "study stamina." During certain times of the day, the teacher tallies up the number of minutes the entire class is completely quiet. If someone talks, the minute starts over. If the class can do five minutes of complete silence in the space of ten minutes, everyone gets a Hill Bill. It's a challenge, but they are learning and getting better at it.
• Many notes went home with students today: book orders, menus, school news, picture notices and a spelling list.
• Have a wonderful Spring Break! Let the sun shine!

March 19 in Room 11

• Mrs. Craig taught at school all day!
• Watch for Spring picture day envelopes coming home tomorrow.
• It was Library Day today. Students are encouraged to check out at least one book at their AR reading level so that they have a chance to earn AR points and prizes.
• Most students finished their leprechauns.
• Some students helped carry in three gallons of paint which will be used to paint a Sandy Beach mural in the second grade hall. Hopefully, it will be finished over Spring Break. Thanks, PTA for helping to fund this project and thanks for the carrying helpers!

March 18 in Room 11

• Spelling pre-test gum-chewers: Megan, Trinity, Logan, Ryan, Zoe, Kelsey, Monica, Zack, Samantha, Garrett and Tawnie. Wow!
• Students also self-corrected their work. This is one more step to self-sufficiency.
• The green group won their hula-hoop game in P.E. For the first time ever, the team tagged everyone. Congratulations, Greenies!
• Students worked their "Brothers and Sisters" crossword puzzles by themselves. The second-graders are speeding into becoming competent third-graders!
• Students are becoming more proficient at re-grouping for both adding and subtracting, but the challenge grows. They are now being required to--wait for it--watch for the sign! Hmmm...add or subtract? Plus or minus? Check for the sign!!!
• Students received their winter term reports today.

March 17 in Room 11

• Music today.
• St. Patrick's Day!! As far as the teacher knows, there were no injuries, although John was accidentally whacked in the nose with Kaleyah's writing folder. This injury was treated with application of a cold can from the refrigerator and he survived.
• Students wrote stories about leprechauns. Here are some samples:
• If I were the size of a leprechaun I could hide many places. I would have a lot of gold and I'd hide it in my house where there's no mouse. I would share it with everyone!--Megan
• If I was a leprechaun I would hide my pot of gold in a log. ha ha ha ha ha. No one will find it now.--Colby
• If I was a Leprechaun I would hide my gold in a tree. Why I put my gold in a tree is because only animals go in trees. But Zoe is good at climbing. She could get my gold--Trinity
• If I was a leprechaun I would hide my gold underground. A rat would not look underground and a cat would not look underground and John will find it.--Spencer
• If I was a leprechaun, I would hide my pot of gold under ground. Nobody ever looks underground except for pirates. If pirates come I will trick them all.
• Students took a math post test for borrowing comprehension. Results not in yet.
• After the test, the teacher did a paper with the class. The paper had written story problems which students were expected to read and solve. Some story problem clue words are "left," "many more," "than,"(subtract); and "altogether," and "and."(add) These words give a hint as to whether the mathematician should add or subtract.
• Mr. Dunn taught science today. The class wrote down their hypotheses about which sea star could turn over fastest; the leather seastar, the pink sea star or the bat sea star. Then the sea stars were turned on their backs and timed. The pink sea star won by turning over in one minute, thirty-one seconds. The bat seastar took over nine minutes to flip.

March 15 in Room 11

• This week the second grades begin a new reading theme, Family Time. they practiced new vocabulary and listened to this week's story, Brothers and Sisters.
• In P.E. everyone enjoyed playing Frog Pond.
• Students challenged themselves by trying to fill in all the blanks on a leprechaun story sheet.
• Subtraction with regrouping took the center stage today. Students received minimal help on their work and were expected to finish. If they answered correctly, they were able to match the numbers to a letter and solve a mystery question. Tomorrow will be a real test in regrouping.
• They are also working on a final write-up about baking cakes.
• Fact-finding as a skill got a work-out as students finish a worksheet about teeth. Today they labeled the parts of a tooth. They were allowed to check back in their health book if they could not remember the answers.
• A reminder: Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and many people like to wear green. If someone does not wear green, there will not be any pinching anyway. No pinching at Hillcrest.

March 12 in Room 11

• The day began with music!
• There were St. Patrick's Day riddles for bell work.
• The class completed Dr. Seuss' biography.
• Students took a computerized (STAR) reading test in the computer lab to assess how far they have come this trimester.
• The final spelling test was today but results are not yet out.
• Everyone went to the library this afternoon.
• St. Patrick's day was the theme for art, today, too. The class is constructing some quite creative leprechauns.
• The teacher talked about St. Patrick's Day, Ireland, pots of gold, shamrocks and leprechauns. Some classrooms in this school apparently have leprechauns making their homes there. These leprechauns are responsible for the loss of pencils. Who knew?

March 11 in Room 11

• Mrs. Craig, sadly, was not at school today. Our sub was Mrs. O'Reilly. The students agree that she is pretty nice, although nobody quite comes up to Mrs. Craig. Mrs. Craig smiles sooo much.
• The second grade is learning about biographies. Yesterday they read about Theodore Roosevelt, today they read about Dr. Seuss, and highlighted important facts from his life.
• P.E. today.
• As the class begins to wrap up their cake making unit, they drew pictures of themselves eating cake.
• Room 11-ers were promised one HillBill each if they could manage to not talk for five minutes until everyone finished a math test. They made it for three. They'll have more opportunities to practice this exercise in the future. It's a skill needed for the third grade.
• Students read about dental health with the teacher. They practiced brushing their teeth and discussed healthy food choices and dental habits.

March 10 in Room 11

• In math class, students teamed up to play a subtraction game.
• Later, each child worked on a paper alone to see how well everyone understands borrowing.
• Much of the day was filled with the field trip to Marshfield High School where Really Rosie was playing. The musical captivated the second graders, providing intriguing experiences for everyone.
• In the afternoon, the children wrote sentences and drew pictures of what they had done in the morning, and what their favorite part of the play was.
• The class also did a Smart Board project showing the differences and similarities between Chocolate Chip Cake and Dutch Apple Cake. They had an opportunity to review past notes and learned to include commas in their lists.
• Many children are also earning points at recess. Ryan, Logan, Teron, Dylan, Adolfo and Zachary already have ten miles under their belts and Devin is well on his way to two marathons! Devin says his favorite subjects are running and whisper reading.

March 9 in Room 11

• Students are reading about Theodore Roosevelt and what an outstanding person he was.
• Mrs. Craig talked about conservation and Earth Day
• P.E. today!
• Mr. Martin visited Room 11 to remind the class about how to behave at a play.
• The class discussed what good behavior at a performance should look like. Then they wrote a 4-square paper about it. They thought of a topic sentence and four details. Here are their thoughts: "This is what a good audience looks like. Look at that good audience. They are not playing. That audience is listening to what the performers are saying. Look, they're not being loud. I like their polite clapping."
• The children practiced polite clapping and learned the difference between clapping at a play or performance, and clapping at a sports event.
• In math, the class is learning how to check their subtraction by adding.
• At the end of the day, everyone watched some videos of songs that will be sung at the play Really Rosie tomorrow.

March 6 in Room 11

• Dr. Seuss packet for bellwork: the students were to finish a word search and draw their own room-cleaning machine. This is a very creative group of children...
• Music--the class received HillBills!
• Students Partner read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish booklets. Then they wrote down as many rhymes as they could find in the story. Congratulations to Colby and Logan, who found 23 rhymes, and Ryan and Teron, who found 22!
• The spelling test today was a great success! WOW!
• For math, the class worked on borrowing using the SmartBoard.
• During the Dr. Seuss Read-a-thon, students wrapped up in blankets and read books together. Some students preferred to read by themselves while John and Devin busily wrote book notes in their journals. There was a Cat-in-the-Hat bin activity at the back table as well.

March 5 in Room 11

• The school has just received this notice from Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, through which we get our wonderful science teachers. We will not be able to take a class field trip there but the museum is open during non-school hours. Some of your children may be interested:
• 
  Here's a chance to see the beauty of marine life! The Art Museum has new
  exhibits, including one of fluorescent micrographs of marine larvae and
  embryos produced by 2 OIMB faculty, George von Dassow and Svetlana
  Maslakova.
  February 27, 2009 to April 11, 2009
  Artistic Microscopy from the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology: the work of
  Svetlana Maslakova and George von Dassow
  In The MABEL HANSEN GALLERY
  Opening event March 6, 2009, 5-7pm.
• On a more mundane note, the second graders in room 11 worked on ABC order this morning.
• They also finished painting and constructing their "stacking turtles." The turtles did not get stacked however, they were hung on our "clothesline," but not before the discovery that they made terrific Frisbees. Who knew?
• Our class drew pictures and wrote notes to one of our favorite classified people today: Mrs Green, our librarian.
• In the computer lab, the children are still working on typing a story about their favorite place in the school. Those who have completed their typing have changed fonts and letter colors to finish their paintings off.
• Dylan joined the gum chewers today.
• Students wrote short paragraphs about their favorite Dr Seuss books and why.
• During Art/Student Store/Finish-Up time today, students listened to music from the musical they will be attending next week, Really Rosie.

March 4 in Room 11

• Here's a joke that can only be told on this day: "Did you hear about the big parade?" "What parade?" ""All the calendars march forth!" Not many second graders understand the humor. It was used to teach homonyms. This joke is in the same category as "What time do you have to go to the dentist?" "Tooth-hurty."
• A new girl joined our class today. Her name is Samantha. Welcome, Samantha!
• The students finally got to eat their cake today! It was good and chocolaty.
• Before eating cake, second graders had to describe their piece of cake and make a scientific drawing of it.
• The class did more work on borrowing in math.
• For bellwork this morning, the students practiced proofreading.
• Dodge ball in P.E. It's everybody's favorite.
• The pre-spelling test produced these gum-chewers: Riley, Teron, Adolfo, Trinity, Garrett, Jonathan, Logan, Kelsey, Zoe, Devin, and Meagan.
• The teacher read Yertle the Turtle this morning. Now the class is painting paper plates green in order to make a stacking turtle.

March 3 in Room11

• Students created a zany animal flip book in response to the teacher's reading of If I Ran the Zoo.
• In math everyone continues to work on regrouping, deciding whether they need to regroup or not, and then actually doing the computing.
• Music today!
• Mr. Dunn, the science teacher, showed films of elephant seals and told the class a story of how he helped rescue a baby elephant seal (which, at about four months, weighed a mere 300 pounds. A full-grown male weighs 4,000 pounds.)
• Students lined up shoulder-to-shoulder in the front of a life-size drawing of an elephant seal. The seal was fifteen second graders long!
• The cake eating will have to wait until Wednesday because there was no time to do a proper write-up describing the experience.
• The class did have time to study another recipe on their own, and figure out just what steps to take in making succotash.

March 2 in Room 11

• Spelling word-sort. It's a review week, so there are twenty-five words to study.
• Because it is Dr. Seuss' birthday, Mrs. Craig read The Cat in the Hat and the students made tall "cat-hats" afterwards.
• They were so happily busy constructing hats that they totally missed P.E. and there was very little complaining.
• "Up, Up, Up, With Reading!" That's the theme of the new bulletin board outside of the room. As students complete a book, they write the name of that book on a paper stripe, then add it to a growing hat on the board which gets taller with each book. Who's hat will be the tallest?
• The class is working on setting up subtraction problems. They must figure out which number is bigger, then put that on top, at the same time, aligning the tens and ones.
• Everyone in class had a chance to contribute to the baking of a chocolate cake in Mrs. Stebbins' bread making machine. From measuring oil to adding chocolate chips at the sound of the beep, students were engrossed in the process. Tomorrow they eat!
• As part of the baking, students were then asked to write five sentences about how the cake was made. They were encouraged to use words like "first. next, after that, finally, and lastly."
• Students are also keeping track of ingredients, in order o better compare the cakes later.