Our Year in 2nd Grade Comes to a Close

At the start of each school year, it seems as though the children and I have so much time to spend together, 180 days. It is always surprising to me, however, how quickly our time together goes by. The final day of school is upon us. Putting together our final slideshow was bittersweet. Looking over the many pictures I have taken, it amazes me how much all of the children have grown- physically and academically- over the course of the last 180 days. In our time together, we have created a caring, supportive learning community. It’s difficult to say good-bye to one another, yet it is exciting to think about moving on to new adventures in third grade. I can’t express how much I have enjoyed working with each one of your children. I appreciate your continued support throughout the year and the commitment you have to your child’s education. Please sit back and enjoy one last reflection of our year in second grade. 

Have a safe and fun-filled summer! 

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May Flew By!

It seems since we've returned from April vacation, each week is flying by at warp speed! We've been involved in so many different activities in the classroom. I've created a Wordle to briefly show you what's keeping us busy these days.

Here's a few pictures so you can peek into the classroom. As always, enjoy!

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An Update and Goodbye From Ms. Heard

The end of February seemed to mark the end of snow days (knock on wood) and we have enjoyed getting into a great rhythm in the classroom during March and April!

In math, we have done a lot of work with word problems. We spent time identifying what the problems were asking, what information was provided and what we needed to solve. These word problems often included 2 digit numbers, so students had plenty of opportunities to practice the partial sums method of addition. We have also started work on traditional subtraction. We began by working with manipulatives to help students understand what regrouping means. We will continue to practice subtraction with regrouping and partial sums as we move into measurement and graphing. 

Students continue to have time to enjoy books of their choosing and share their thoughts with Mrs. Rushia and myself! We have spent time working on determining importance in texts, and students are beginning to understand the difference between what is interesting and what is important. We are also exploring how asking questions can deepen our understanding of a text. 

This last month has been chock full of science and social studies work. We had a great time exploring magnetism and magnetic fields with lots of hands on inquiry. We also spent a lot of time studying patriotic symbols, which culminated in our fantastic Patriot Concert and project viewing!

Our current writing unit focuses on informational writing. We are writing lab reports and testing hypothesis. Students have enjoyed testing hot wheels cars on different surfaces! The lab reports will lead into writing “how to” books in which students can share their knowledge and passions. 

April vacation is rapidly approaching, and with it, the end of my time in the classroom. I want to thank you all for welcoming me into your fabulous school community! I have learned more than I ever thought possible from your students and from the Swasey Staff. While I am very sad to go, Paula and I will be working hard to the make the transition as smooth as possible for the students. I plan to continue substituting at Swasey, so I will still be around! I’m not sure how long my SAU16 email address will be active, but I can be reached at rmheard@gmail.com if your students want to keep in touch. 

Enjoy the fantastic weather!

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February Activities

Enjoy a slideshow of the many celebrations and special activities taking place in our classroom during February.

Have a wonderful winter break!

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Winter News

One of the best, uninterrupted time periods of the school year is typically during January and February. All routines are in place, the excitement of the holidays is behind us, and it’s full steam ahead! With that said, this January and early February show how unpredictable this time of year can be. Snowstorm after snowstorm shorten our weeks. With another storm on our doorstep, I’m hoping  the weather will settle into a quieter pattern soon.  We have been busy in the time we’ve had!

In math, we’ve reviewed subtraction fact strategies, time to the nearest 5 minutes, counting coins and making change with smaller amounts of money. Our next focus is adding 2 and 3 digit numbers and working through more advanced word problems. While we will eventually look at the “traditional” method of adding with regrouping, we begin by learning methods which reinforce an understanding of place value and how and why we regroup numbers using manipulatives and a technique called branching (which helps children add numbers mentally). This is followed up by learning the partial sums method. I will send a video to help you understand how these methods work. Please continue to review math facts with your child at home, as fluency is key when working with larger numbers.

I’ve re-administered reading assessments previously given in September. It’s exciting to see the progress children are making, particularly in their ability to retell what they’ve read in an organized manner. Many are making the move to chapter books. While this is exciting, it’s important to remember not all chapter books are “second-grader-friendly,” and I’m working with each child to recognize what is a just-right chapter book. If you have any questions about for your child’s reading or appropriate books, please give me a call and we can discuss it.

We are wrapping up our study of persuasive writing, nominating books for an “Adventures of the 17 Award.” Each child is choosing a book to nominate for our class award and working to convince judges using letter form.  May the best book win!

The weather has been perfect for learning about animals in the Arctic and Antarctica. Each child chose an animal to research, wrote an article and created a magazine, similar to Scholastic News. We experienced first-hand how blubber keeps an animal warm using a blubber glove made with Crisco and ice cold water. Two weeks ago we also had the opportunity to videoconference with a researcher in Antarctica who is studying Adelie penguins. Life is not easy in that part of the world!

We learned about nonfiction text features and why authors and publishers use them in nonfiction. Pairs of students found examples of these features in various books and created a Pic Collage to share them. Please take a moment to check them out on our class website. 

We are taking part in an online descriptive writing project called “The Monster Project.” As a participant we are matched with a class of students in another part of the country, in our case a class in Auburn, Alabama. On Friday afternoon we used Skpe to introduce ourselves to our partner class and share some information about our school and New Hampshire. It was fun to meet each other and discover the many things we have in common (with the exception of snowfall amounts).

We ended the week snowshoeing with Mrs. Lane and Ms. French.  Everyone enjoyed the time outdoors learning how to snowshoe and playing some games. The time flew by and we were all disappointed when it was time to go back indoors. I’m sure with the amount of snow we have we’ll be able to do it again soon. 

Stay warm!

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Happy Holidays!

December was filled with learning, celebrations and good cheer in our classroom!

At the beginning of the month, we boarded “flights” and traveled abroad to learn about holiday traditions in Israel, England, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and Mexico. It was interesting to discover many of our own Christmas traditions- decorating Christmas trees, sending cards, displaying poinsettias- started long ago in other countries. During our field trip to the Dover Children’s Museum, we learned about different types of celebrations. We had a great time exploring the museum. Thank you to Brett Hill and Lenore Smith for chaperoning the trip.

During reading, we read and compared many versions of The Gingerbread Man. Our engineering challenge this month was tied to this study. Groups of 3 or 4 created a home for the gingerbread man that met specific criteria. The challenge was tougher than all expected, but it was wonderful to see each group approach the difficulties with positive, can-do attitudes. In the slideshow below you’ll have the opportunity to see the plans, along with the house in various stages of development. I can’t thank you enough for the many donations that were needed to make this challenge happen.

Thanks to our 4th grade buddies in Mrs. Brown’s class, we participated in the “Hour of Code.” The purpose of the hour was to introduce children to computer science.  Several kids have enjoyed learning more on their own at home. We’ll continue to explore coding during our computer class time. 

Our parent craft time was a huge success thanks to Kathie Babine, Nikki Hill, Jessie Hollister, Nancy King, Jess Morgado and Denette Schlager (and Alexa’s grandmother). The kids enjoyed making a variety of ornaments and cards while having a snack!

Our month ended with our gift exchange of mugs and the hot chocolate party. It was a perfect ending to the year 2014. I’m looking forward to all the learning and fun awaiting us in 2015.

Happy New Year! 

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