We are learning about comparative adjectives. We know that when you are comparing two nouns, you add -er to the end of the adjective. When you compare more than three nouns, you add -est to the end of your adjective. See our practice below.

In school on Wednesday we watched two short Passover videos. They are embedded below if you want to watch to watch them again. Happy Passover and spring break. See you next week.

This blog post is about things that have happened to us or things that we will be doing. It is about things that we have been thinking about.

Anthony - I'm looking forward to Spring Break because Ruby is going to sleep over. Ruby is a dog. She has a special job. She sleeps over at people's houses who have had pets pass away. 

Asher - One thing that happened in the past was without me paying anything to my dad, he bought me a jersey. He bought me a basketball jersey from the Golden State Warriors.

Brody - On Sunday we get to go to Larry Sheets' Players. We get to play games, do batting cages, and win prizes. I am so excited.

Daniel - I'm looking forward for Pesach, Passover. I'm excited for Pesach because my friends from my old school are coming to my house.

Hannah - I am looking forward to spring break because I am going to the beach. I am really excited and we are going with some friends. I am also excited to watch TV.
 
Jacob - For Pesach, I am going to Florida for half the time. My grandparents are coming to my house for the other half. They are from California.

Jessica - In the past, I went to a really cool bat mitzvah. It had a chocolate fountain, cotton candy, a lot of dancing and prizes, blinky stuff, dancing and it went until midnight. It was really fun.
 
Jonah - Over spring break, I am looking forward to going to Florida and living in a pool!
 
Julia B - I am looking forward to watching a lot of movies over spring break. I get to have a lot of playdates also.  

Julia L - I am excited for my birthday. I am going to Texas for the first time over spring break and I'm coming back on my birthday. This is my second year coming back from a trip on my birthday. 

Oscar - I am excited because tonight I am going to my first boxing match. The people who teach me boxing are going to be in some of the matches.

Ryan - (absent today - we can't wait to hear what she's been thinking about!)


Zachary - I am excited for Passover because my cousins are coming and we get lots of candy and snacks.  This year the kids will be able to hide the afikomen and the adults will have to find it at our seder.

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. 

Please read the latest post on the Math Blog page of this website to hear about how we celebrated Pi Day in second grade. Or, you can click here for a direct link.

In response to our economy unit in social studies, our students have put the concept of supply-and-demand into action. The new currency? Cap erasers, foam grippers and fancy pencils. During indoor recess, the students take out their wares and display them on their desks. Then the bartering begins. See the pictures below of the 2B black market.

The reviews are in - the KSDS fairy tale play is a hit!

"Five stars," says the Baltimore Sun.

"Watch out Wicked and Newsies, KSDS will give you a run for your money," raves The New York Times.


Here are some backstage pics taken before our big debut.

Below are some pictures and videos taken during the show! Bravo, 2B!

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!

Check out what some of our friends did today...
Mouse over each picture to read the caption.

In honor of Dr, Seuss' birthday, March 2 has been declared Read Across America Day. To celebrate, we read If I Ran the Zoo, by Dr Seuss. Then we created our own zoo animals and wrote Dr. Seuss-inspired descriptions about them. Drop by the classroom to see our menagerie!

A character trait describes how a person acts with other people. A physical trait describes how a person looks. We have applied these definitions in class through our study of Ruby Bridges and in our reading groups. Today, we used character traits to describe ourselves. Then we used PicCollage to create these selfies.

Special thanks to Alicia for coming in to help with this project!

This week we completed our book reviews. After we wrote the reviews, we recorded ourselves reading our reviews. Then we created QR codes of our recordings. Scan the codes below to hear each child's book review.

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.

Hi, Everyone -

I hope you are enjoying today's surprise snow day! If you've already gone out to play and are inside with nothing to do, try these cool websites:

1. Create a snowflake - http://snowdays.me
     Can you find my snowflake? Hint - It's called AmandaL...  

2. Watch this movie on Brainpop about how snowflakes are made.   
      https://www.brainpop.com/science/weather/snowflakes/

3. Print and cutout snowflakes from these templates. Bring them into school tomorrow and we'll hang them up!
    http://www.firstpalette.com/tool_box/printables/snowflake.html

4. Look at pictures of real snowflakes that were grown in a lab. They are beautiful!
    http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/photos/photos.htm

What have you been doing today? Add a comment and let everyone know how you spent this fun day.

I wonder how many of you drank hot chocolate today. Fill in this poll and let us know!

This post has been brought to you by our New Year's Spotlight Blogger - Jessica.

You will find the information she has reported on so interesting; please comment generously. Jessica gets extra points for writing this post over winter break!

Happy New Year! I’m going to teach you about some New Year’s Eve traditions in different countries or states.

Some of us have seen the famous ball drop at midnight in New York City or on TV. The ball is 11,875 pounds and is 12 feet across. The ball drop has been held since 1907.

But in other cities and states, they drop or raise lots of other things. Here are some that I found interesting:

·       A glowing pineapple is dropped in Sarasota, Florida.

·       An eight-foot long five-foot high wood and plastic foam lit duck is dropped in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

·       A ball of popcorn is dropped in Marion, Ohio.

·       Two pickles are dropped in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania (Get it? A dill is a kind of pickle!).

·       A 100-pound stick of bologna is dropped in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

·       A red rose is dropped in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

·       A giant Hershey kiss is raised in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

·       A strawberry is dropped in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

·       Ping pong balls are dropped in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.

·       A French fry is dropped in Ickesburg, Pennsylvania.

To read about more things dropped on New Year’s, check out this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_objects_dropped_on_New_Year%27s_Eve.

On New Year’s Eve, a lot of people in America go to parties or watch fireworks. Here are some funny ways New Year’s is celebrated in other countries:

·       In Mexico, people eat a grape for every chime of the clock at midnight. They make a wish with each one.

·       In Estonia, some people think you should eat seven, nine or 12 times on New Year’s Eve because those are lucky numbers.

·       In Greece, children sing New Year’s songs and are given money.

·       In Italy and Spain, people wear new red underwear on New Year’s Eve for good luck.

·       In Venezuela, they wear yellow underwear for good luck. They also pull suitcases around the house if they are traveling in January.

·       In the Philippines, many people wear colorful clothes with circle patterns, like polka dots, or they make centerpieces with 12 round fruits or candies to attract money and fortune and a sweeter year ahead.

Also on New Year’s Eve, some people make resolutions. Resolutions are things that you try to do throughout the New Year. My resolution is to try to read at least 10 chapter books in 2015. What is one of your resolutions? How do you celebrate New Year’s?