Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars

This year I will be communicating with families using Seesaw and Bloomz. Information regarding both these websites was shared at Open House and sent home with your child.

Summer Vacation

Please share your summer vacation adventures on the padlet below. I hope you're having a fun summer so far.

ABC End of Year Countdown

About 26 days ago we started an alphabet countdown of our favorite parts of second grade. Each day at morning meeting we shared our ideas. It was a great way to recap all the learning and fun we had this year. Everyone made an ABCs of Second Grade booklet. Some students chose to create a digital version of their books in Google slides. Click on your child's name to view his/her slide show.

Celia

Davis

Thomas

Anna

Christina

Isabella

John

Lily

Maggie

Mara

Second Grade Memories

Today is a bittersweet day. I cannot believe 180 days have gone by so quickly with this special group of children. I am so proud of each every one of our Second Grade Super Stars. Now it is time for them to move on to third grade. We have had a wonderful year of learning and growing together. I will miss each and every one of them  for sure. Thank you for all your support this year.It has been a pleasure working with you all. I hope you all have a happy and safe summer. Please enjoy the following memory videos of each of your children. Click on your child's name to open the link to his/her video.

Jacoby

Lily

Maggie

Arianna

Isabella

Marcus

Celia

Thomas

Davis

Sean

Christina

Lindsey

Mara

Bryce

Anna

John

Butterflies

During the past month Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars have been studying the Life Cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly. Each student raised a butterfly starting with the larva stage. They observed and recorded each stage of the life cycle (caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly)  except for the egg. The students also researched each stage of the butterfly life cycle by reading non-fiction books and butterfly websites. It was so exciting to watch our butterflies emerge from the chrysalises. The highlight of this science unit was releasing our butterflies to their natural habitat in the courtyard garden. Each student created a non-fiction text book incorporating the non-fiction text features that they learned about in our Non-Fiction Reading genre unit. Everyone also created a  collage book showing  each stage of the butterfly life cycle and wrote a poem for each stage. Click on your child's name below to view his/her non-fiction butterfly book.

Jacoby

Lily

Maggie

Arianna

Isabella

Marcus

Celia

Thomas

Davis

Sean

Christina

Lindsey

Mara

Bryce

Anna

John

Classroom Scientist

Today we had a very exciting science class. Our very own classroom scientist, Anna, conducted a volcano experiment today. Anna showed us how to set up the experiment and explained how the ingredients had a similar chemical reaction to lava erupting out of a volcano.   Anna has inherited her love of science from her grandmother, retired third grade teacher, Mrs. Williamson. Mrs. Williamson was able to come to visit today and assist Anna with her science experiment. It's wonderful to watch classmates teaching each other. 

Memorial Day

On Friday the second graders led the Memorial Day Assembly. They all did a wonderful job singing patriotic songs and reciting poems about Memorial Day. Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars recited Memorial Day Parade. Thank you for practicing this poem at home with your child. Below are a couple of short videos of their performance. I am very proud of the students in 2K!

Gardening in the Courtyardd

What a beautiful day we had for gardening today. Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars helped plant some of the vegetables for the garden in the courtyard. With the help of some wonderful volunteers, they planted some lettuce plants and onion seeds. The second graders learned how to dig a hole in the soil, put the plant in the ground, pat the soil down around the plant, and then of course water the plants. This was some great hands-on science learning today. We can't wait to watch the garden grow and hopefully we will get to sample of some of the organic vegetables.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms of Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars. I hope you are all pampered and spoiled today. Here is a special Mother's Day message from your sons and daughters.

Virtual Field Trip to Washington DC

Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars traveled  virtually to Washington DC, our country's capitol. This trip was even more exciting because we were one of the classes chosen  to be live on the camera along with another class from Texas. We prepared for this field trip by researching facts and questions to share with the host Brandon Hall. We visited and learned about some of the famous monuments in Washington DC. We ended the session with a fun Kahoot with  other classes from around the country to test our knowledge.

You can watch this field trip by clicking on the video below.

April Vacation

Have a great vacation week. Please share what you are doing on the padlet below.  Enjoy the beautiful spring weather.

D.A.S.H.

This year Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars were very fortunate to be able to participate in the D.A.S.H. Program. D.A.S.H. stands for Disability Awareness Starts Here. In second grade the focus is on visual impairments. The purpose of this program is to create an awareness and sensitivity among children to the needs of people who are disabled. The emphasis is on ABILITIES and what a disabled person can do rather than what they can't do. Through weekly activities, students experienced what it might be like to be visually impaired and the accommodations and modifications that are made so visually impaired people can do many of the same things that they can do. Developing a sense of empathy for people with disabilities is also emphasized. Some of the activities were a grab bag activity, eating at a restaurant, a help walk, cane walk, using aids and devices, and using a brailler machine. The D.A.S.H. Program concludes with a visit from a Mr. LaPoint and his guide dog.  Thank you to all of the volunteers who made this valuable program possible for the second graders.

This video shows some of the activities that the second graders participated in during this program.

Read Across America

Fuller Meadow teachers and students had lots of fun celebrating Read Across America this year. We participated in lots of fun activities to promote the love of reading. This annual nation wide event always takes place around Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 2nd.

Read Across America kick off assembly with some very special visitors.

We decorated our door by sharing our favorite books.

One of our favorite activities was reading our favorite books in our comfy clothes in our comfy reading spots.

We had a Google Hang Out  and read aloud a Dr. Seuss book to some reading buddies in Iowa and they read Green Eggs and Ham to us. 

Mrs. Twiss, Middleton's Town Clerk was our community guest reader. She read William the Curious Night of the Water Lilies to our class.

Our guest author Maryann Cocca-Leffler shared some of her books with us. She taught us about the writing process.

Silly Sock Day

Animal Adaptations

Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars have been doing a lot of research and learning about animal adaptations. They learned the difference between structural and behavioral adaptations. Animals all have different adaptations to help them survive depending on the different habitats of the animal. We had a wonderful in school field trip from the Museum of Science where we got to observe and learn about several live animals. A big thank you to our PTO for funding this field trip for us. Our class also participated in some virtual field trips to learn about some animal adaptations in far away places. Each student researched an animal and then designed a google slide as part of class presentation about Animal Adaptations. 

We observed and learned about a box turtle, bearded dragon, and a porcupine.

Virtual Field Trips to Yellowstone National Park, Komodo Islands, and Mexico. These field trips didn't cost a cent!

Good Bye Winter Hello Spring

According to the calendar spring arrived on March 20th.  Hopefully, the saying March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb will soon start to be true. Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars are using their observation skills and are on the lookout for signs of spring. Please add to the padlet below when you notice a sign of spring. You can also share about your springtime activities.

What's on your plate?

During our Health and Wellness block Mrs. Marshall has been teaching Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars about nutrition and making healthy food choices She taught us what the five food groups are and how there should be choices from each of the food groups on our healthy plates. Today the students made their own healthy plates with foods from all the different food groups. If you would like to share your healthy food choices please add them to the padlet below.

Dr. Seuss Fun!

On Wednesday morning we buddied up for a fun Dr. Seuss math activity with Mrs. Murphy's kindergarteners. The students used a 100 hundred chart to make a mystery picture. Listening and following directions were very important skills needed in order to solve this mystery picture correctly. Second graders had the important job of checking to make sure their kindergarten buddy filled in their paper correctly. Can you tell what our mystery picture was? We also got to visit Miss Van Rhee in kindergarten.  Then we had some fun with Thing One and Thing Two!

Virtual Field Trips

This week as part of our Animal Adaptation science unit  Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars did some virtual traveling. On Monday we traveled to Komodo Island to learn about the Komodo Lizard or Dragon. The host of our virtual field trip, Brandon Hall, shared his adventures while visiting this island.   We got to see this huge lizard up close and live. At the end of the field trip students competed with lots of other classes globally in a Kahoot quiz game.

 On Wednesday we traveled virtually to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming to learn about some adaptations of the animals that live in this national park. We got to ask the Park Ranger lots of questions about the park.

Here are some facts we learned:
 The Komodo Dragon is named after Komodo Island.
Komodo Lizards have fork tongues.
The Komodo Dragon can run 12mph.
The Komodo Dragon is longer than a person.
The Komodo Dragon is the biggest lizard in the world.

Komodo Island

Yellowstone National Park

Here are some facts we learned:

There are more than 20,000 animals like bears, bison, wolves, and elk that live in the park.

There are geysers that are 300 feet tall in Yellowstone National Park.

Grizzly bears have a hump on their backs.

Yellowstone National Park has a volcano in it.

If an animal has eyes on the sides of its head then it hides from its prey.

Black bears eat fish.

A ram's horn can break off if it gets too big.

February Vacation

Please share on the padlet below  how you are spending your vacation week. It will be fun to share when we return to school next week.

February Fun

This past week was filled with lots of fun and learning. On Tuesday we celebrated Valentine's Day with a fun party thanks to our wonderful moms. Everyone enjoyed making a fun craft, playing Heart Bingo, and reading valentines. We also had a valentine mystery skype with another second grade class in Illinois. We spread some valentine kindness by sharing our virtual valentine globally.

On Wednesday we celebrated World Read Aloud Day by skyping with author Molly Burnham. The students had a chance to ask Ms. Burnham questions about being an author. Some of the questions were, "How long does it take to write a book?", "How many books have you written?", "How do you make a book?", "How do you get your ideas?" Some students still have some questions so they can add them to the Google Doc in Google Classroom and then we will email them to Ms. Burhnam. Lots of us are excited to read one of her Teddy Mars stories. On Thursday we continued our World Read Aloud celebration by having a reading virtual read aloud with a class in Texas. We read The Mitten by Jan Brett and the other class read The Paper Crane to us.

Mystery Location Skype

Valentine's Day Party

Author Skype with Molly Burnham

Read Aloud Skype 
 

The Mitten
Retold by Jan Brett Read Aloud by Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars

Winter/Snow Day Fun!

Another snow day!!!! What have you been doing on your snow days? Maybe you have been playing outside, reading a book, playing a game, doing TenMarks, Xtra Math,sledding, shoveling, or making a snowman. Please share how you have been spending your snow days on the padlet below.
Please add a picture or comment to the padlet so we can all share our winter time fun.

100th Day of School

February was the 100th day of school at Fuller Meadow! Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars participated in a day full of 100s day activities. During math the students rotated through different centers using the number 100. During writing everyone wrote what they think their lives will be like when they are 100 years old. Then the students recorded their writing. We also shared about what we couldn't do on the first day of second grade but we can do it on the 100th day of second grade. In the afternoon students worked in pairs or groups to create different structures using 100 items such as cups, legos, popsicle sticks, blocks, and pattern blocks. One of the favorite stations was timing an activity for 100 seconds such as clapping, sit ups, and jumping jacks. This was a great motor break as everyone rotated through the stations. What a fun day of hands on learning! I hope your second grader shared this fun day with you. If not, you can see what we did in the pictures and videos below. Now we are closer to being 3rd graders than second graders.

 

  

Mystery Skype

Today Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars participated in another Mystery Location Skype. This activity involves a global connection with another class somewhere in the world. Each class asks yes or no geography questions back and forth until the correct location can be figured out. Today we figured out that the mystery class is in Texas. Some of the questions were - "Are you landlocked?" "Do you border the Atlantic Ocean?" "Are you a western state?" Are you west of the Mississippi River?" "Do you border Mexico?" We also exchanged some interesting facts about our states. It is a lot warmer in Texas than in Massachusetts. Our question asking skills and geography vocabulary and knowledge is improving. This is fun game you can play at home using a map.

Multiplication Stories

Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars have been busy in math learning the concepts of multiplication and division. The students are so excited that they can multiply. One of our math stations last week was to write multiplication stories using the iPad. It's always exciting to see such creative mathematicians.

Goodbye President Obama, Hello President Trump

Last week Mrs. Kennedy's Second Grade Super Stars experienced history in the making on Inauguration Day. We watched a very interesting live streaming video about flipping the white house. It was amazing to see the hour by hour timeline of how the current president has to move out of the White House and hours later the new president moves into a newly redecorated White House. On Inauguration Day we witnessed President Trump taking the presidential oath. The students found it fascinating that they were babies the last time we had a new president and they will be eleven or twelve the next time we have a presidential election. Below is a video of the messages that the students have for President Obama and President Trump.

Be sure to have your volume turned up while the children are talking.

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 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.

Please share about your vacation week by adding to the padlet below.