Below are books we created about our trip to the Science Center. Each child reported on a specific exhibit that he/she visited. To create these videos, we used the iPad camera, a drawing program called PaintSparkle, and Book Creator for iPad. These videos are slow to load, so please be patient.

What do you get when you put a topic sentence, two explanatory sentences and a closing sentence together? That's right, a perfect paragraph! We have been practicing paragraph writing in class and are getting pretty good at it. 

During reading, we each read a biography and wrote paragraphs about the famous person described in our books. The paragraphs had to explain the person's great accomplishment and find events from his/her life that connected to the accomplishment. Then we practiced reading our paragraphs aloud with a friend until we could each read our paragraphs fluently.

Finally, we learned how to use a new app on the iPads called Telestory. Telestory is essentially a video camera that allows students to create news stories with awesome special effects built in. As you watch our Telestories, you will get the idea. This is our first time using this app, so please excuse anything that seems unpolished. The added benefit of this activity is that we had to work together to create our videos. Each team figured out how to cooperate with each other to create the best news story possible. 

I hope everyone is excited for another day off. When you're finished playing outside and you are ready for some screen time, check out some of these websites. They are fun and you may even learn something!

     StorylineOnline - Wath and listen to actors and actresses reading some of your favorite stories.

     Starfall - this site has phonics, reading, and math activities - you name it!

     PBSkids - has fun reading and math games

     SheppardSoftware - lots of games involving reading, language arts, and math

Please send a comment if you have any favorite sites that you love. I'll post it so everyone can enjoy!

What is a QR code? Click this link to find out.You can download a reader by searching the App Store or Google Play for QR code reader. You can download any of the free apps - they offer the same basic service. Just take a picture of the bar code with your reader and hear about our week.

I can't figure out how to rotate this video either. I hope you don't get a crick in your neck from too much sideways watching!

For some reason, I can't figure out how to rotate this video. Until I figure out how to rotate it, please enjoy it sideways!

This month in morning meeting, we discussed our support system. We explained that a support system is kind of like crutches that you use when your leg has been hurt. These crutches help support your feelings and self esteem. We came up with many people who are in our support system: our parents, grandparents, siblings, pets, teachers, friends, and, most importantly, ourselves.

Discuss this idea with your children - who do they turn to when they are upset? How do each of these people help them?

Please be patient - these maps take a long time to load.

To conclude our study of geography and map skills, second graders were asked to create an island. This island had to have specific features based on the map features we learned in class. Below are the maps your children created. We used the rubric as a key, so you will not see a legend on these maps. Printed copies of the maps are being sent home this week.

Families - please enjoy this slideshow and add a comment explaining why you like specific features of these maps. Students, please do the same!

This video has been password protected. Please check your email for the password.

   We do lots of fun things in 2nd grade. The best thing we all love is having a BRAIN BREAK! A brain break is when we watch a video on the computer. Each video makes us go cuckoo! We run around, we dance, or we take deep breaths. We watch these short videos after we've done a lot of sitting. Sometimes we have been writing and sometimes we have been reading. These videos give an exercise break.
   We watch these videos from a website called www.gonoodle.com. We got to pick a character to be our mascot. We chose McPufferson, who we call McPuffy. He has three hairs on top of his head. He's a purplish-blue. He has no hands or arms and he is a ball. He has pink freckles and he is chunky. He is so cute.

You can watch a video of us taking a brain break below.

To protect our privacy, please don't copy this video to social media.

This post was written by the members of class 2b.