Holidays and Vacation

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday celebrations. I have posted some pictures from my family's Christmas celebration. I had a wonderful day with my family. Some of my favorite traditions were unwrapping presents on Christmas morning, making the Yule Log for dessert, eating a roast beef English dinner with my family at my parents' house and pulling English crackers and wearing the paper crown. I was so lucky to get a pair of snowshoes for Christmas. We also have a new baby in our family. My great nephew Calvin was born two weeks before Christmas and spent Christmas Day with us.

Caroline putting the angel on our Christmas tree.

This week I am up in Maine relaxing with my family and friends. I am hoping for some snow so I can try out my new snowshoes. I would love to hear what you are doing this week. If you would like to share about your holiday celebration or what you are doing during vacation you can add a comment to the padlet below. You can add a picture if you would like too. I look forward to reading your comments. Enjoy your vacation week!

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Holiday Traditions

Please enjoy this video of our favorite holiday traditions in 2K. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and enjoy some family time during vacation. Happy New Year!

File_000 from Louise Kennedy on Vimeo.

Geography Game Show

Last Friday we were very fortunate to have an excellent in school field trip. Second grade students participated in a geography game show presented by Neal Nichols. Mr. Nichols combines his artistic talent with his geographical knowledge to teach students about geography around the world. After a whole grade interactive presentation, Mr. Nichols visited the second grade classes individually to teach them even more about geography and drawing. Click on the picture below to go the Geography Game Show website to learn more about this program that was funded by our awesome PTO.

Watch Mr. Nichols draw the continent of Africa in 15 seconds.

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Hour of Code

Code.org was founded in 2013 with the mission to provide access to computer science coding and programming to students of all backgrounds. The Hour of Code was created as a worldwide event to encourage all students across the world to engage in just one hour of code - to help inspire and spread access to computer science programming.

Second Graders at Fuller Meadow have been very excited to be learning the Hour of Code in Computer Class with Mrs. Pazdzirony. The students in 2K were so excited to earn their first certificate for their first coding class. You can learn more about the coding by going to the website https://code.org/learn . The students are very excited to try coding at home also.

Click the picture below watch a video of our Middleton Students participate in the Hour of Code.

Click the picture below watch a video on "Hour of Code"

Bar Models

During the past few weeks Mrs.Kennedy's Super Stars have been learning a new math strategy for solving words problems. This strategy that  is introduced in second grade is called Bar Modeling.  It is a visual representation used to solve addition and subtraction word problems, comparison word problems, and two step word problems. The students used a graphic organizer and  a bookmark with the steps to help learn and internalize the steps involved in solving words problems using bar models. Learning this strategy has taken a lot of perseverance  and hard work on the part of the students in 2K. This is a strategy that students will continue to use through 6th grade.  Below are two videos showing examples of bar modeling.

 

2.OA.A.1 Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction.

Playing Dreidel

Happy Hanukkah! This week we read some Hanukkah stories and discussed some Hanukkah traditions. We ended the week by playing the dreidel game. 

Tree Decorating

One  of  Mrs. Kennedy's classroom traditions is to decorate an evergreen  tree each year outside with edible ornaments for the animals. This tradition was inspired many years ago from the story Night Tree by Eve Bunting. The students in 2K were so excited to carry on this tradition this year. Thank you for making sure that your child had an ornament to hang on the tree. I'm sure the creatures that live outside will be happy to find some treats during the cold winter months. The students also used their predicting skills while we were reading this story. Many children had to adjust their predictions as we were reading and thinking about this realistic fiction story.  Click on the picture to listen to this story.

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RL2.1. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key 

RL2.3. Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.details in a text.

SL2.2. Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

Family Holiday Traditions

During December we will be talking about different holiday family traditions. Our discussions will be a springboard for  a personal narrative writing piece telling about our different traditions. Please share a family holiday tradition on the padlet below.

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Thanksgiving Reader's Theater

We hope you enjoy this short video of Mrs.Kennedy's Second Graders dressed in their First Thanksgiving costumes.

Favorite Thanksgiving Food

Thank you to everyone who left a comment  and shared their favorite Thanksgiving food with our class. It was so exciting everyday to read the new comments and add the data to our data table. We transferred the information from the data table into a bar graph. 

After completing the graph we analyzed the graph and recorded the results. The favorite Thanksgiving food for Mrs. Kennedy's class and their families turned out to be stuffing.

Standard 2.MD. D. 10 Represent and interpret data.

We are thankful

Mrs. Kennedy's class is thankful for many things this year. Please click on the picture below to view our thankful video.

 Happy Thanksgiving!

The First Thanksgiving

Mrs. Kennedy's second graders have been learning about the Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving. We performed a reader's  theater play for Mrs. Libby's class. The students also shared information that they have learned about the Pilgrims. Please click on the picture below to see our video.

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Speaking and Listening Standards 2.5

Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.

Turkey Talk

The students in 2K don't think their turkeys are a good choice for Thanksgiving dinner. Be sure to watch the video  to find out why.

Turkey Projects from Louise Kennedy on Vimeo.



Speaking and Listening Standards


Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.


Writing Standards


1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

The Year of Billy Miller

We have finished our global read aloud story, The Year of Billy Miller. What a great experience we had connecting with other classes across the country and sharing our thoughts and ideas about this fun story. The second graders made lots of meaningful connections to their own lives and made predictions right up to the end of the story. After reading the story we discussed the story elements (characters, setting, problem/solution, events) of this realistic fiction story. Be sure to ask your child to tell you about this story.

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Veterans Day

This week we spent some time learning about Veterans Day. We talked about what a veteran is. Several students realized that have a veteran in their family or that they know someone who is a veteran. We read some poems about veterans and read a Weekly Reader about a female veteran. We honored the veterans at our annual Veterans Day assembly by reciting one of our poems and singing some patriotic songs. As a final activity each student wrote a letter to a veteran. Mrs. Kennedy delivered the letters to the veterans at North Shore Community College. Click here to see all the ways that Fuller Meadow Students honored our veterans.

I am thankful for....

During November Mrs. Kennedy's Second Graders will be making a thankful chain. Each day a thankful link will be added to each student's individual chain. We will share some of the things we are thankful on our thankful padlet. We would like other family members to add to our padlet and share what they are thankful for. Please remember you can share our blog with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc. We look forward to reading your responses. Click on the picture below to get to our thankful padlet.

Thanksgiving Dinner

What's your favorite part of your Thanksgiving dinner? Is it the juicy turkey, the lumpy mashed potatoes, the tart cranberry sauce, or maybe it's the sweet pumpkin pie? Mrs. Kennedy's Second Graders are collecting some data about Thanksgiving Dinner. We would like other family members (other than your second grader) to leave a comment telling us what their favorite food is at your Thanksgiving dinner. Please remember you can share our blog with grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. Please also include some adjectives that describe your favorite Thanksgiving food.

Standard 2.MD. D. 10 Represent and interpret data.

Halloween Fun

The second graders in 2K had lots of Halloween fun last Friday. We started with our school wide parade where we were able to show off our  costumes to all of the parents. Our parade continued through the halls inside so we could see all of the fun costumes the other students were wearing. The fun continued in the afternoon with a fun Halloween party. The children rotated through three stations which consisted of two crafts and Halloween Bingo. Our party was a great success thanks to the parents who planned, organized the activities and volunteered at our party in the afternoon.  Please leave me a comment below telling me about your Halloween. Did you go trick-or- treating? Where did you go? Who did you go with? What was your favorite kind of candy? Did you count  your candy? How many different ways could you sort your candy?

The Giant Pumpkin Comes to Fuller Meadow School

A couple of weeks ago we had a surprise visitor. Mr. Lancaster (Mrs. Lancaster's FIL)  came to school to show us the pumpkin he grew this year for the Topsfield Fair. The 1,954 pound pumpkin was the second place winner at the fair  this year. After the boys and girls had  their picture taken with the giant pumpkin they had a chance to ask Mr. Lancaster some questions about the pumpkin. Be sure to ask your child what they learned about this giant pumpkin. They were amazed. The second graders then wrote a personal narrative story about our surprise visit.

Seasonal Cycle of a Tree

Throughout the year we will be studying the seasonal cycle of the tree. Our first observation was observing a tree during the fall season. We will be observing a tree that we can see from our classroom window. The second graders loved being scientists to record their observations using their magnifying glasses. Each season we will observe and record our observations of our tree, noting how the tree changes each season. 

Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Frameworks

• Recognize that plants and animals have life cycles, and that life cycles vary for different living things.
• Recognize changes in appearance that animals and plants go through as the seasons change.
• Name and use simple equipment and tools (e.g., rulers, meter sticks, thermometers, hand lenses, and balances) to gather data and extend the senses
• Record observations and data with pictures, numbers, or written statements.
• Discuss observations with others.