Our Top Choices from the Top 20 Books of 2019!

Every January in 2nd grade we countdown the top picture books from the previous year.  We start at number 20 and read one book each day until we get to the top book of the year.  It's so much fun to read these books!  We are introduced to many new titles and get to revisit a few favorites we've previously read.  After reading each book, the students choose their current favorite all the way up until the end.  Once book number one has been read, the students make their top choices and write up a short review to post in the hallway so we can spread the word of our new favorites!

Here were our favorites:

          
    

High School Collaboration Art Project

Back in December, Mrs. Lieb arranged a collaboration between her high school art students and the 2nd graders.  The 2nd graders created an idea of a character with details of what it would look like and what would be included in the background.  The high school students came into our classroom to visit with their assigned students to get more details of what the project could look like.  During the next few months, the high school students worked on their version of the project.  Mrs. Lieb dropped off the final products and the students were thrilled!

Camp Out With a Good Book: Week 3

Yesterday we enjoyed our cozy read in.  The students found a comfy spot in the room to enjoy reading in their pajamas along with a s'mores snack.  It was a great way to end our week!

Social Studies: Learning About our History

We have brought our social studies units to a close by learning about some history.  We began the unit by discussing several old pictures of Lanesboro.  The class loved these pictures, and it was fun to look at how Lanesboro has changed over the years.  We were able to pick out the similarities, but we also had many questions about different parts of the town.  Here is an example of a picture we discussed below.



 This lead us to put some events from the history of Lanesboro in chronological order using a timeline.  The students then brought in and shared their own timelines from their lives.  It was fun to see their pictures and learn more about each other!

We also learned about the history of the Dakota Native Americans who lived in Minnesota.  This lead to great discussions about how we should treat people fairly and equally.  The students made some Native American art work.

Our final topic was about the history of the United States originating with the 13 colonies and their break away from King George the III of Britain. We learned that we elect people to our government through a democratic process of voting.  We practiced this in our classroom through a class election. The students chose a classroom job that they wanted to "run" for.  Then we had an official vote with each student filling out a private ballot. After the votes were counted, we had our elected officials carry out that classroom job for this past week.

Banana Bingo Celebration: Show and Tell Day

Last week the students earned a banana bingo.  The class brainstormed several ways to celebrate and ultimately voted on Show and Tell Day.  The students had the opportunity to bring in something to share with the class.  We then used our second recess to stay in the classroom and play with the items the students shared.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The 2nd graders were so excited to get to our Valentine party yesterday!  They couldn't wait to hand out their Valentine's and enjoy the party with their classmates! 

Camp Out with a Good Book- Week 1

We've completed our first week of Camp Read-A-Lot!  On Friday the students read with a 5th grade buddy.  Half of our students stayed in our classroom and 5th graders joined us, and half went down to Mrs. Ruen's room.  They enjoyed meeting up with an older student to share books with.  A few students had the chance to read with a sibling or cousin which is always extra special!

Opinion Writing

We just finished up our writing unit on opinion writing.  When we begin talking about what it means to have an opinion, we use the idea of school uniforms as an example.  We talk about the pros and cons of wearing school uniforms.  This class stands united that they don't want to wear school uniforms!

 We started with writing about what we thought would be the best pet or not the best pet.  The students brainstormed their ideas on a graphic organizer and then used these ideas to write 2 paragraphs with a topic sentence and a concluding sentence.  This writing went into a class book.

We followed this up with writing about the best thing about ourselves.  I love this writing project!  They turn out so unique to each student!