Second Grade – Page 11

Historical Characters Seen at Saklan

March is biography month in second grade. We have been reading many stories in our social studies and reading textbooks as well as individual biographies about people who have made a difference in our world. Each student then selected a particular biography to read. They wrote down facts from their biography book and Internet material about their famous person. They also drew portraits which we displayed in our classroom. The next step was to transfer this information to note cards, and plan their one-person show, costumes, props, and all.

The second grade parents were invited to our class to witness this historical presentation. The second graders also dressed in full costume and shared some of the information they had learned at our Friday Flag.

Guide Dogs

guide dogs

Members from the San Ramon Valley Guide Dog Puppy Raising Club brought some “guide dog puppies in training” to visit the second grade.

We presented them with our check of $343.00 that we had raised from our school bake sale. They gave a short lecture about what they do to raise a puppy to be a possible guide dog.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

The second graders are busy exploring the properties of sound and learning about the parts of the ear. They have done several experiments to see how sound waves travel. They discovered that without vibrations there is no sound. The students brought in “eggs-full-of-sounds” for us to guess, learned how to sign their names using the manual alphabet, and created original instruments. They enjoyed playing their instruments for some of the classes at Saklan. Who knew we had a brand new orchestra at Saklan!

Chinese New Year

Last week, the 2nd graders celebrated Chinese New Year at Chef Chao in Moraga.

Bake Sale Success

Cute group shot

Thank you to everyone for contributing to the success of the Second Grade Bake Sale. I also want to take this opportunity to give a special thank you to Lori Anders who organized this event and to all the special second grade parent bakers and helpers. The second graders raised $343.00 for Guide Dogs for the Blind!

Bake Sale for Guide Dogs

Guide Dog posters

Next Thursday, March 1st, Mrs. Schofield’s second grade class will be hosting a bake sale. All proceeds will go to the Guide Dogs for the Blind. All items will cost $1.00. The bake sale will start at 2:15PM in the Hoot Owl Classroom. Please come support the Guide Dogs!

A Magical Time

January was a magical time in second grade as the students worked on their Dragon and Fairy Tale Unit. After reading many fairy tales and fables they wrote original fairy tales. This assignment involved filling in a story map, writing a rough copy, editing, recopying, and then illustrating their stories and designing a cover.

They have enjoyed reading their fairy tales to some of the younger classes at Saklan.

There were also several projects that went along with this unit including making an “egg carton” dragon and painting a dragon and castle using watercolors. The students also memorized fairy tale poems and performed them for their parents. Lastly, the second graders and first graders went to St. Mary’s College to see a theater production of Puss in Boots.

What is Your Heritage

These last two months have been very special in second grade. We have been working on our Family Heritage Unit. The second graders and their parents have completed several projects: a family tree and discovering where their ancestors came from, making a paper quilt square telling about their family, finding out the origin of their first and middle names, and interviewing a grandparent about what life was like when they were young. In class the children read many stories about families from other countries.

They made passports and wrote Immigrant Kid stories pretending they were coming to America in the early 1900’s. They also read the book Molly’s Pilgrim and created a clothespin ancestor doll. One of the final activities was to bring in a memory box filled with personal items, but not revealing their identity. There was a lot of excitement trying to guess the owner of each memory box. It has been so fun sharing all our family heritage stories with each other.

Teddy Bears At Saklan, Oh My!

During the first two weeks of November, teddy bears arrived in second grade. They came for a visit, but unfortunately we did have some trouble when we left them overnight in our classroom. They put teddy bear stamps all over our work, hid in the classroom from us, and even escaped to Mr. Metzger’s office. But, most of the time they stayed with us in class. We read many Berenstain Bear books and other bear stories, wrote our own stories about our teddy bears, and had a lot of fun doing teddy bear math using scales and measuring tapes. We also interviewed our teddy bears and worked on comprehension activities. We loved having our special visitors in class. They even surprised us with a pancake breakfast.

Second Grade Monster Stories

The second graders have completed a month long project. First, they read many books from The Monster Series by Ellen Blance. This monster is lovable and kind. The next step was to choose a title for their own “monster” story and map out the plot. They then wrote a rough draft, proofread and revised, recopied, illustrated, and finally designed a cover.