Gardens and Playhouses: Week 5 of Connecting Cultures with Hong Kong

This is a guest post from our library media specialist, Beth Redford.

Writing Celebration With Third Grade!!

Today 2nd graders met with Miss Darby's 3rd graders to share their published stories!  2nd and 3rd graders shared all of their hard work and complimented each other on their favorite part!  Way to go kids!

Storms and Sustainability: Weeks 2 and 3 of Connecting Cultures with Hong Kong

This is a guest post from our library media specialist, Beth Redford.

As part of their "Comparing Cultures" Unit, RES second graders are connecting via the Internet with a classroom in Hong Kong. For the last two weeks we have been talking about Typhoon Haima, foods, farms, and sustainability!

Pilgrim Life

In social studies, students have been learning about our Founding Families, the Pilgrims.  We have been learning about their journey from England on the Mayflower, how they built their homes, and what life was like in the New World (Plymouth Plantation). Throughout this unit, students have realized that life was HARD!

Each student made a triorama of a typical Pilgrim home called a Keeping Room.  It was called this because everything was kept in one room!  That one room was your living room, kitchen, dining room, and bedroom!  It was very crowded!
Here, students recreated Plymouth Plantation with their trioramas and acted out what life would have been like with paper Pilgrim people.

Announcements and Highlights From Last Week!

Announcements:

• Thursday-Homework-Reading Log Due (short week)
• Thursday-Return Library Books
• Friday-No School
• Parent Teacher Conferences: October 10th-October 20th

Chromebooks in 2nd grade!

Last week students got use their new Chromebooks for the first time.  After discussing expected behavior with Chromebooks, partners practiced logging on with their username and password, choosing an avatar, and playing games on Great Sites For Kids!  Throughout the year students will use computers to support their reading, math, writing, thematic, and typing skills.

Students practiced taking turns, sharing, and teamwork skills!

Not to mention, we had fun playing computer games!!

RES Second Graders are Comparing Cultures with Students in Hong Kong

This is a guest post from our school library media specialist, Beth Redford.

As part of their "Comparing Cultures" Unit, RES second graders have started connecting with a classroom in Hong Kong! They are looking forward to exchanging questions and answers about Chinese and American culture. So far they have shared class pictures and a little bit about our school and play areas. The class in Hong Kong is a Year Three class (the same age as second graders). They attend the Renaissance College school, an international school for students ages 5 to 19. Here's a link to their school website:

http://www.rchk.edu.hk/

Reading! Reading! Reading!

2nd grade readers have been working very hard on their reading skills.  As part of our reading curriculum, readers read independently, with adults, and with partners.  Partner reading is an important part of a balanced reading program. Partners have been working on taking turns, helping each other to read tricky words (without telling), and discussing what they learned about characters.

We also read the book Those Darn Squirrels and students had to stop, think, and write what they knew about the characters; Old Man Fookwire and the Squirrels.

Look at all of our amazing thinking!