Arctic Animal Projects

The children completed some outstanding Arctic Animal Projects which were shared in class and displayed outside our classroom. They researched an animal of their choice, recorded their information on a graphic organizer, and then wrote a report. Enjoy their beautiful visual products! 

"Freedom Train" Field Trip

Our second grade classes certainly enjoyed our Harriet Tubman Thematic Unit. We all had the pleasure of traveling to Winston-Salem State University to see a play entitled "The Freedom Train". The children thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining experience. What a special way to help us truly understand some of our American History! Enjoy the slide show created by Mrs. Federico, our Salem College student teacher.

This free digital slideshow created with Smilebox

Celebrations!

 MARDI GRAS

We are in the midst of a "Maps and Globes Unit" in Social Studies, so what better way to find our place on the map than to visit our neighbors. Of course we just just had to "dig a little deeper" to discover more about people and places. Our class is always looking for ways to celebrate and find interesting ways to use math, reading, science, and social studies concepts, so with the click of our Smartboard, some Dollar Store manipulatives, library resources, a trip to Harris Teeter, and some helpful moms, we were on our way to learn more about "Mardi Gras"!

     

Free digital slideshow created with Smilebox

 PRESIDENT'S DAY

Our student teacher found a unique video about our US presidents. The children wanted to watch it again and begged for the link. Here's the video for all to enjoy!

I really need to put more hours in a day. When someone finds the secret to doing that, let me know! Our school days are quite busy, even though we haven't had too many picture posts to keep everyone updated. The igloo is almost complete. The children encountered some "structural problems"  so they had to do some problem solving to complete the ice house! We have decided to have our own "Snow Day" next week since the North Carolina weather has just not co-operated. For the past two weeks we have been very involved in a "Harriet Tubman Unit" and attended a play at WSSU on Friday. We certainly enjoyed the "Freedom Train" performance. We will continue to read biographies and learn more about famous Americans in our literacy groups. Our class is also completing some global technology projects with other students. You can check out our projects here: Setting the Stage for Success Wiki and Winter Wonderland Wiki.

A few weeks ago we completed a mini unit on the Chinese New Year. Here's a picture of our lovely group in the masks they created! Don't you think they're beautiful?

Introducing..."The Bunnies"

Our children are in the midst of presenting their Arctic Animal Reports, which have been truly amazing! What a treat to have these beautiful bunnies visit our class! Kate found a creative way to share the "Arctic Hare".

New Student Wiki Space

The children are completing some wonderful Technology Projects, so I've created a new Student Wiki Space to showcase their work. Updates are coming soon! Here's the link: https://settingthestageforsuccessstudents.wikispaces.com/

Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

We've been busy reading about Wilson Bentley (the Snowflake Man), learning about the Arctic Region, building an igloo in our classroom, and creating some "snow" related technology projects. It surely would be nice it our NC weather would cooperate and scatter a flew lovely flakes for us! Unfortunately for us snow lovers, our temperatures have been on the mild side. One of our Computer Lab activities was to create a flake using the program KidPix. Hope you will enjoy a few of our computer generated flakes! Scroll down to take a look at our class picture on January 20, 2012. The temperature was a comfortable 51 degrees! Notice that most of the coats were missing...

Igloo Construction Day 3

Our little workers continue to diligently "lay those cartons" on Friday. We're wondering how many cartons we will need to complete the igloo.

Day 2: "Igloo Construction Engineers"

Today we managed to rearrange our foundation and build another layer on our igloo. In fact, we got half way through the third layer of milk containers. Twenty-two construction engineers certainly make the job go quickly. Hopefully we will soon finish our quarter assessments and can dedicate a little more time to this Reading/Math/Social Studies project. Parents please keep sending in those empty containers! Also if you have extra tops we would appreciate them. Special thanks to Corrinne's mom, who has made two trips to Starbucks! Take a look at "today's work"...

The Building Begins!

Our little builders began laying the foundation for our "Winter Wonder....an Igloo" after much thought, teamwork, and arranging of milk cartons. Now the trick will be to keep this together with our hot glue and how to add the next row of cartons. We are immersed in an "Arctic Animal" Reading Unit and learning about our economy and how it works in Social Studies. This seemed to be a great way to connect our themes across our curriculum. We are having fun using these consumer by-products to produce a winter home which could be found in the Arctic Region where Polar Bears roam! We'll keep you updated on our building adventure!!!

Arrivals and Departures

Christmas Holidays used to be quite simple at the Lyerly house. Four children were little, nestled all snug in their beds with a mommy and daddy close by. Time flew quickly and four little children were suddenly all grown up. Tonight I'm waiting restlessly for a flight to land. One daughter has been in the airport most of the day, as her flight was delayed. I was at school with my precious 22 occasionally checking messages for updates.
Thank goodness for Drew, who flew to NC for a holiday visit and is flying back to school with Allison and for Drew's mom, who is waiting to pick them up at the airport. Between watching Flight Aware Live and Real Time Flight, I've managed to create a holiday video. It has helped calm me a bit and keep me awake. (Only 50 more minutes in the air...) Thankfully the twins are tucked in bed upstairs for a few more nights and older daughter is getting a few winks before seeing her patients tomorrow. I hope you will enjoy a quick snapshot of our family.
Thank you families for sharing your precious 22 with me each day. Hold tight and enjoy each of your memories!

Winter Celebration in Room 309

In Room 309 we love to celebrate! With the support of our wonderful parents and our two special Room Moms, we sampled tasty treats and created several holiday keepsakes.

December Events

Our second grade class literally traveled around the globe in December! Our entire grade level participated in a "Holiday Serendipity" so that we could learn more about different cultures and their holiday celebrations. Students boarded the Meadowlark Holiday Express with passports and luggage in hand each day. Our travels included the countries of Germany, China, Holland, Norway, Australia, and Mexico. We were very fortunate to have Aidan's mom share Hannukah traditions with us and Reesa's grandmother visited our classroom to share Moravian customs/traditions. America is truly a "melting pot". We enjoyed comparing/contrasting holiday traditions and creating paper crafts. The tasty food samples were delectable! Do you know which country gave us the tradition of the lighted tree? What was the original purpose of the Moravian star? Ask your child to "share" their souvenirs from their suitcase and tell you about what they discovered on their journey. We hope that you will enjoy these "snapshots" from their trip!
Learning About Hannukah on PhotoPeach



Moravian Customs/Traditions on PhotoPeach

Thanksgiving

The students in Room 309 celebrated the season with a "Friendship Feast" they prepared! They mixed cans of vegetables into a crock pot, stirred, and patiently waited throughout the morning as the scrumptious aroma filled the air. In the meantime, the children read, wrote, and completed math activities relating to why the new settlers in America celebrated their first harvest. Dessert proved to be an adventure, as we used Oreo cookies, frosting, and some candies to create an edible turkey!

Second Grade Teachers At Work!

On a recent stormy evening, our second grade team traveled to the VFW Post to score essays for a special contest sponsored by the VFW. We were honored to be asked to help with this task! Little did we know that Lanie Pope had issued a tornado watch. As the rain poured and the wind blew, we were enjoying the company of the kind American Veterans at the Post and our "off campus" time together!
2nd Grade Teachers At Work!
on PhotoPeach

"Night Flyers"

We have been reading informational text to learn more about "Bats", those special creatures of the night! Reesa's mom, from ASU, visited our class to help us have a better understanding about why bats are important to us and how scientists gather information about these fascinating mammals. We certainly enjoyed the paired learning activity about "echolocation"!

              

All About Bats on PhotoPeach

Celebrating Veteran's Day

Our Second Grade Classes at Meadowlark spent time learning more about the history of Veteran's Day and why we observe this special day each year. As a culminating activity, a Vietnam War Veteran from a Winston-Salem VFW Post visited us on Thursday. Mr. Frank shared information about this National Holiday and about his service time. Our classes also made cards for veterans to thank them for protecting and preserving our freedom.
Salute to Our American Veterans on PhotoPeach

Building "Place Value" Schema

Last week our math lessons involved showing numbers in different ways. We used our unifix cubes, place value blocks, some online interactive base ten blocks, and a little story about Ten's Town on our Smartboard.  By Thursday, we just needed a little extra "pizzaz" during math time, so a trip to the grocery store provided just what we needed to "cement the concepts" in our schema files. It's amazing what food does for a lesson plan. This time, pretzels and Cheerios were that little "extra" that helped us better understand how to "regroup" numbers and express numbers in different ways as well as adding those two digit numbers together.
Learning About Place Value on PhotoPeach

Book Reports

Our first attempt at completing a Book Report involved a little creativity. Thank you parents for your support at home with this project! As you can see from the pictures below, the projects turned out beautifully. We certainly enjoyed sharing our reports in class!
Story Skeleton Book Reports on PhotoPeach

Pumpkin Day 2011

Thanks to our wonderful parent helpers, we celebrated the season with our annual "Pumpkin Day" activities. We reviewed our math and literacy skills by participating in this global technology project. You can read more about this project here: http://www.jenuinetech.com/Projects/2011PS/2011ps_information.html

Our second graders worked in teams to determine the size of various pumpkins and whether a pumpkin would sink or float. We also used our counting strategies to find the total number of seeds our 5 pound pumpkin had. We didn't realize how many seeds could be in a pumpkin! Check out the website to see the number of seeds we found.

Of course this project had a tasting event! We enjoyed eating and writing about the yummy pumpkin treats! Thank you moms for helping us!!!

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