Our Zoo Field Trip Was Awesome!

What a good time we had on our field trip to the zoo!   
First we went to the Educational Center where we learned about mammals, reptiles, and birds.

Then we were off to explore the zoo. We met back at the pavilion for our lunch of hamburgers, hotdogs and PBJ's. Then out to see any of the animals that we missed seeing the first time.

It was really cool because the zoo was decorated with jack-o-lanterns for the Halloween Spooktacular that is at the zoo.

We had a lot of chaperons with us so we just explored in small groups.

 

We were easy to spot in our lime green t-shirts.

Then it was time to load the bus and go back to school. Some of us fell asleep on the way back. Mrs. Soles took lots of pictures that she is going to put into a slide show on our 2nd grade website. Check it out soon to see all of the "animals"! :)

Parade of the Arts

Last Tuesday we had a Parade of the Arts. We went to 6 different rooms to learn about 6 different types of art. 
First, we went to the library and listened to a real author tell us how we could become authors.
Then, we went to the airnasium and danced with a jazz dancer.
Next, we went to the news room and Mrs. Carpenter told us how we could make a video. Next, we went to the music suite and played the drums with Mr. Nettles.

Then we went to a hallway and listened to Mrs. Fulp tell us how to take beautiful pictures. Last, we went to the art room and saw a real artist drawing a picture. His store is at the Landing and he said that we could come and visit him there! Some of us decided that we want to try to be an artist and enter in the competition.  Mrs. Soles and Mrs. Lynn are very proud that we want to enter the contest. We'll let you know how we do!

We've Got Worms!

In Writing we have now completed our story maps with our main characters, setting, problem, solution, and at least 3 events to help our characters solve their problem. This week we will learn how to write an "engaging lead" that will GRAB our reader and make him want to read our story.
In our Skills Block time, we have now learned the difference between synonyms, antonyms, and homophones. Thank you to Mrs. Pappas for making our card games for us to use during our center time or RTI time.

The worms have arrived in our classroom! Our Science Investigation is to see if the worms make a difference in the soil that they are in. Mr. Soles dug up some soil from his backyard and then bought us some worms from Walmart. One bag of soil has about 7 worms in it and the other bag has none. Here is the first picture of the bags. We will take pictures and make observations for 3 weeks. While we are observing our worms, we will start investigating seeds and see which soil is best to grow bean plants. We love Science with Mrs. Lynn and Mrs. Soles!

Wow, what a busy week!

We started our RTI (Response to Intervention) groups this week. We have small groups of students learning every where! Some kids are going to the cafeteria to meet with Mrs. Salter, some kids go upstairs to meet with Mrs. Taylor or Mrs. Palisco, some kids meet on the carpet to meet with Mrs. Lynn and some kids meet at the table with Mrs. Soles. We are meeting every morning for 30 minutes for extra intensive instruction. We have lots of good remediation going on. :)

In our classroom this week we started a new genre in writing. We are learning how to write Narrative stories. This first story will be fiction. We have finished mapping out our characters, setting, the problem, the solution, and the events leading up to the solution. We did all of our brainstorming on our "cupcake"! :) Next week we will "jazz up" these elements before we start our sloppy copies.

In reading we are learning how to use all sorts of strategies and tools to help us become better readers. We now know how to use our Oreo, Ice Cream, and 4 Square GO maps. This week we made predictions before, during and after reading our stories using our Prediction Wheels. Ask me about all of these tools and I will tell you about them.

Last week in Math, Mrs. Lynn taught us how easy adding big numbers are if we learn our double facts, like 2 +2=4, 3+3=6, 4+4=8, and so on. We even made flash cards at home to help us memorize these facts. This week we learned how easy it is to add strings of numbers. We will be working more on this next week and will start working on subtraction problems.
We had so much fun investigating soil this week in Science. We explored and studied the difference between three different types of soil. Next week we we will learn what worms do to our garden soil!       

Open House was a Success!!

Wow! Thursday night our classroom was full of students, siblings, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas. We had around 15 students that were represented. Everyone seemed to enjoy the powerpoint. We saw some great pictures of the students "clowning around"! Mrs. Soles is going to set up our Scholastic website this weekend so that our parents can order their kids books on line. Several students have already taken advantage of borrowing some books from Mrs. Soles' classroom library. We want everybody to be able to attend the end of the year Reading Celebration. So everybody....let's read on!!!

Our new class blog!

Mrs. Soles decided to set up a blog for our classroom. Our parents will be able to check in to see what is going on in our classroom. Sometimes the blog will be written by Mrs. Soles, sometimes by Mrs. Lynn and then later on in the year, the VIK (Very Important Kid) for the week will write the blog! We look forward to telling you about all of the exciting things that are going on in our classroom this year!
Don't forget...Open House is this Thursday night from 6:00 - 7:30. See you there!