Season of Giving
/This time of year vibrates with energy and excitement for students. As a class we’ve been discussing gratitude and ways we can show appreciation for the people around us. Together we brainstormed a list of people for whom we are grateful. We talked about ways that we could show our appreciation. Of course at the top of our list is our parents and families. We spent time this week creating special gifts for our families. We wrote a thank you letter and baked cranberry bread for Marisela, who diligently cleans our classroom each day. We wrote thank you cards to Evie, whose donations made the Cedar classroom possible. We made heart ornaments to distribute to the families who will visit Pacific’s December’s Free Food Market on Monday. We also created a thank you card for Terry, who was kind enough to give us a block of clay and fire our mugs for us, twice! We sent a birthday card to Ivan’s nana who came in to lead music-making sessions with us this year. We will continue to spread kindness this season and beyond.
We were excited and a little nervous to discover a new insect in our outdoor classroom this week! Some students were nervous because this insect had strong, pincer-like jaws and was raising its tail in a threatening manner. Several students mentioned that it looked like a black scorpion. We ran to get our guide books from the cedar classroom. We discovered that the insect is most likely a Ocypus olens, or Devil’s coach horse beetle. Through our research we learned that this beetle raises its tail and secretes a foul-smelling odor from white glands in its abdomen when feeling threatened. Although this beetle is not poisonous, it can give a sharp bite so we decided not to pick it up. What fun to have an opportunity to observe this beetle!
Several readers have recently found books that they simply can’t put down! Treasured reading time is one of our favorite times of day. We visited the Forest Grove library on Tuesday and we’ve been reading about the salmon life cycle and migration patterns this week. During our chapter book read aloud we are continuing to read Roald Dahl’s The BFG. We have been discussing interesting strategies that Roald Dahl uses in this story as we write our own imaginative pieces during Writer’s Workshop. For our word work we’ve been studying the igh vowel word pattern. We learned to spell right, night, light, high, and bright. Then we discovered that if we can spell bright, then we also know how to spell brighten. And brightening. It’s fun to find word patterns! We also worked on memorizing the sight words once, of, and saw. Ms. Marissa came to read us a book in Spanish on Wednesday.
Our paperwhites bloomed this week! The fragrance is lovely and the white flowers feel so festive and hopeful. When Tilly brought in the paper whites, they were only two inches tall. At our latest measurement the tallest paper white is 15 inches tall! Several student artists were inspired to paint these beautiful flowers this week.
This week mathematicians measured and recorded the growth of our paperwhites. Second graders have also been working on calculating the temperature units (TUs) of our salmon alevin. Incubation time for salmon is measured in TUs. A temperature unit is 1° Fahrenheit above 32° F for 24 hours . Our mathematicians recorded the daily temperature of the tank, and used subtraction to determine how many degrees over 32. This number is the daily TUs. The daily TUs were added to our running total of TUs accumulated from previous days. Fall Chinook salmon eggs generally reach button-up stage and are ready to be released when the cumulative TUs reach between 1590 and 1700 TUs. These daily calculations will allow us to predict when the salmon will be ready to be released. Students have also been practicing mental math facts and we’ve been doing one, two, and three digit addition/subtraction. We’ve been playing Sequence Additon, Dino Math Tracks, Sump Swamp, Allowance, Zeus on the Loose, Clumsy Theif, and Yahtzee to practice our addition and subtraction fluency this week. We’ve also been solving story problems on the Bedtime Math website.
Our days continue to be filled with multiple opportunities to collaborate, problem-solve, and exercise our gross motor muscles. We were excited to welcome Sawyer to our classroom community this week. Have a wonderful weekend!
