June 5th ALL THINGS COLONIAL! Clothing for Students: I would recommend that students come dressed and ready rather than changing at school. It will slow down our preparations at arrival time. Boys - with the weather looking warmer, it seems like shorts rather than pants will be preferred. The requirement for boys is to wear a plain white shirt (short or long sleeved) and can be button down or not. The vest will go over the white shirt. For bottoms, they need to wear plain shorts/pants (not mesh/athletic and not with any wild prints). Finally, a pair of tall socks that can be pulled up to the knee and can fit over pants if they choose to wear pants. Each boy has a hat at school that he will wear, along with the haversack that they each sewed. Girls - each girl has picked out a dress, or has a family member making one. They can choose to wear the dress as is, or with shorts and a top underneath. They won't be taking the dresses off if wearing something underne
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May 26th We are gearing up for Colonial Day! The children have been hard at work stenciling checkerboards and wall hangings, hammering patterns into copper to make lanterns, sewing vests, haversacks, aprons, bonnets and preparing bonnets. They have started to cross stitch an apple, sewed and tied yarn onto a sock for a stick horse, and practiced writing in calligraphy. They learned the names of important Hanover Colonial people, like the founder of Dartmouth College, Eleazor Wheelock and the first Native American student, Samson Occom. They have each chosen the name of the person they want to portray on Colonial Day. We have begun a timeline of events, which includes the founding of Jamestown, Plymouth, the French and Indian War, The Treaty of Paris, and most recently, the Stamp and Townshend Acts. We have been enjoying, "Tea" together during each snack time, but King George has been strict with us and has limited the quality and amount of tea. Room 210's Colonis
May 12th For the last couple of weeks we've been busy with our Colonial studies. First, we learned about the first English settlement established in 1607, called Jamestown. Next, students got a tiny glimpse into what life was like on the 66 day ocean journey on the Mayflower. After landing on Cape Cod and anchoring the Mayflower, two smaller boats called shallops went in search of a better location to settle and founded Plymouth. We also got started with craft workshops this week. Girls and boys are getting the knack of sewing and are completing the stitches necessary to make their vests, aprons, haversacks, pockets, and bonnets. We will finish up sewing this week and move onto stenciling of wall hangings and checkerboards, and the hammering of copper to make lanterns. Important News, Announcements and Dates Parents Invited to 2nd Grade Chorus for a Sing Along Wednesday, May 24th and Wednesday, June 14th Parents come into music room at 10:55 Monday, May 29t
April 28th We have been SO busy in second grade for the past few weeks! We concluded our measurement unit, worked ferociously to finish several major writing pieces, finalized biography posters, learned some new challenging math games, and are just wrapping up our Maya unit this week. The kids are beyond excited to hit the ground running with Colonial Days on Monday. We will continue with our studies throughout the month of May and into the first week of June before our Colonial Day on June 8th. We are looking forward to our May 11th field trip to Fort No. 4 in Charlestown, NH. Let's hope for a warm and sunny day, as the Fort is dark and damp inside on cold and rainy days. Please be sure to read the two Google Docs I shared with you. One is schedule and overview of the day and the other is sign-up for volunteering at different stations on Colonial Day. There is a lot of information to take in on these documents, but if you read it entirely, I think a lot of questions you
April 7th One week to go until vacation! We are trying to wrap up several writing projects and our measurement unit before the break so that when we return we can take the plunge into Colonial Day studies. I have loaded images of last week's and this coming week's homework menus on the homework page of the blog. If your child loses his or her homework menu during the week you can take a look at the image to see what needs to be done. Just let me know if the paper copy gets lost so I know to expect the work to be turned in on a different piece of paper. The week after break we will also have some guests visiting the second grade to launch our Colonial Unit. This family of re-enactors brings artifacts to share and dresses in traditional colonial attire. It is a great way for the kids to get a taste of what life was like hundreds of years ago. Important Upcoming Dates/FYI Monday, April 17th-21st - Spring Vacation Week of April 27th - Earth Week Celebration at Ray
March 31st We had a great time this week learning some new math games, working on biography posters, writing about people in our families, and learning about where in the world the ancient Maya lived. As we explore more about the Maya, students will learn some of their customs, how they farmed, their calendar, glyphs, base 20 system, and some of their inventions or contributions to today's world. Next week I hope we will get all of the posters on the wall in the library, biography informational writing written, typed, recorded, and QR coded so that others in the school can scan and enjoy these second grader's hard work. Be sure to check out updates to several of the pages on the main page of the blog! Important Upcoming Dates April Break - April 17th-21st 2nd Grade Trip to Fort No. 4 - Thursday, May 11th
March 27th This about sums up what I'm hoping to see out in our backyard forest habitat. Hopefully winter weather, delays, and snow days are behind us and sunnier, warmer days are soon to come. We've been very busy in the classroom over the last several weeks. We're in the middle of two social studies units, biographies and the Maya. Each unit has several art and writing projects that your child may tell you about. If not, ask your child any of these questions and see what he or she has to say: Who are you studying? What is he or she known for? What art materials are you using for your poster? How would you describe this person in terms of character traits? Brave, determined, etc.? Who were the ancient Maya? Where in the world did/do they live? What is one theory of what happened to end their thriving culture? To see some examples of our work, be sure to click on the Social Studies page and check it out! I'll be adding photos and captions to the