Hour of Code

This week, your daughter participated in the Hour of Code.  “The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries” (hourofcode.com).  We use this as an introduction to the programming your daughter will be doing throughout the year.  Learning the basics of programming reinforces problem solving and logic skills.

In second grade, we worked on Moana, where the students were required to use both directions and conditions to complete the code.  We will continue to use these skills in Scratch Jr. and in Blockly with the Dash robot!

If you would like your daughter to explore more at home, use this link.  Please note, different activities run on different devices and are appropriate for various ages.

French: L'Orangina!

In France, people love to sit in cafés and leisurely savor a cup of hot chocolate, an Orangina, or a Coca Light. For this reason, the girls have been learning drink vocabulary in French class. They have discussed their likes and dislikes and practiced ordering drinks in Parisian cafés. In the pictures below, they are putting on skits. The girls memorized their lines and pretended to be waitresses and customers. Afterwards, we celebrated the end of our unit by tasting real Orangina in class. Mmmm c'est bon !

From the Library

Second graders started off the year with a world tour. We followed Tim Egan's Dodsworth (a well-dressed, well-mannered, adventure-seeking rat), and his less than ideal travel companion, the duck, to New York, Paris, London, Rome and Tokyo. Ask your daughter what kind of trouble the duck found in each city.

We have been perfecting our greetings around the circle. Favorites include the crayon factory greeting and the fruit salad greeting. We've composed some very inventive two word stories, and are becoming experts at deciphering the first grade shelf books on display each week.  Last week they were all books about painters. This week they are the colors of the rainbow in order.

Other shared books have included Tim Egan's Burnt Toast on Davenport Street (in which a magic fly grants three wishes), Bob Raczka's Niko Draws a Feeling (in which a boy draws not the sun or his face on which the sun shines, but the warmth of the sun on his face), Jane Cutler's Darcy and Gran Don't Like Babies (in which a girl and her grandmother play on all the playground equipment that babies are too small for, and compare thoughts on the new baby at home), and Audrey Vernik's Second Grade Holdout (in which new second graders miss first grade, are concerned about second grade, and then confidently rise to the challenge).

                   Halloween Fun in 2nd Grade

                      Ms. Orlando's Homeroom

                 Mrs. Roessler's Homeroom

            2nd Graders Celebrate Spirit Day!

                                                 Ms. Orlando's Homeroom

                                              Mrs. Roessler's Homeroom

Science: The Joys of Insects!

We started our study of insects by trying to determine which animals are insects. After observing some insects preserved in plastic, we saw that all insects have 6 legs. We also learned that they have 3 main body parts and 2 antennas.

We looked carefully at some crickets to learn about their bodies and their behavior. Did you know that a male cricket makes its chirp by rubbing his wings together? We also found out that crickets' ears are on the backs of their knees and that they breathe through holes in the abdomen!

Next, we were ready to go on an insect hunt! We took our insect nets, some white sheets, and lots of small containers. We found that it can be tricky to catch insects and while some of them escaped, we were successful in capturing many!

After they were photographed and released, we tried to identify our insects from their pictures.

Here are pictures of a few of the specimens we collected.
                                                 

Writing an Autobiography using Book Creator

In 2nd grade, students begin using Book Creator, an open ended app that allows student to create their own books with a variety of text, images, drawings, and audio.  This app is used in various subjects.  In computer science, we learned how to write an autobiography using this app.  Next, students learned how to shared their work via AirPlay.

French: Les Chauffe-Eau Solaires

The girls did une expérience de science (a science experiment) in French class last week! We discussed l'effet de serre (the greenhouse effect) and then made les chauffe-eau solaires (mini greenhouses) using shoe boxes. In Mrs. Roessler's class, the girls were lucky enough to have visitors from an upper school AP French class. The upper schoolers taught them a lesson on l'energie solaire and then helped them make their chauffe-eau solaires...all while only speaking French! I was impressed by both Mrs. Roessler's and Mrs. Orlando's classes and how well they understood the rather complicated vocabulary and concepts associated with this experiment. Chapeaux, les filles!

2nd Grade at Work and Play