Springtime in Second Grade

Second grade has been busy since Spring Break. We had a visit from Ash Ewida, Sarah's father, who shared some Egypt information, both ancient and modern.

We shared lunch and recess with our friends at A Step Up Academy.



We joined Raji's kindergarten class for a bit of singing and then helped them with their animal research projects.

Aedin asked second grade to help first grade learn the song for Arbor Day.

In math, we have been learning addition with regrouping and reinforcing these new skills with practice and games. Next we will see how regrouping can be used as a subtraction strategy.

We started our social studies unit about pioneers and the westward expansion of the United States, talking about how our country has changed both physically and culturally. This has provided an opportunity for more map study and inspired some to create a few of their own.

We have been listening to Sandy read Westward to Home: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary. This dramatic book is written in the journal form we will be using when second graders write about their "own" pioneer families. In book groups, we finished The Josefina Story Quilt  and are starting Pioneer Cat, both set along the Oregon Trail. We also talked about quilts and created a few patch designs of our own.

We read a few poems and learned about two more poetry tools: metaphor & simile. Next we will be reading some poems for two voices and also write a few of our own.

And springtime in P.E. means baseball! Throwing, catching, hitting and running skills are worked on individually and as part of games. One favorite is burnerball, a variation of baseball that is played using a tee.