St. Lucia Day

We are continuing our “trip around the world” this Advent as we learn about other countries and their winter holidays traditions and customs.  Today was St. Lucia day, and the class delivered saffron bread to the office in true St. Lucia Day Swedish fashion!  Well, true to American BSCS fashion that is.  Our “Lucia” was chosen by being the first girl in class that arrived at school this morning, and our “Star boys” were boys that had been exceptionally helpful today in the room. 

What is St. Lucia day?

December 13, St. Lucia Day, also known as the Festival of Light, is a day of celebration in Sweden, in the spirit of Advent and Christmas. Young girls are dressed in white robes with a red sash, with one girl selected as “Lucia” who wears a crown of lit candles (or battery powered ones), the others carrying a single candle. Processions with singing and revelry abound.

At home, the eldest girl dresses up in robe, sash, and candle crown, and delivers coffee and lussekatter, or S shaped saffron buns to her parents for breakfast.

The rolls are lightly sweet, buttery, and vibrant yellow from the saffron-infused dough. The raisins in the “eyes” of the rolls give them just a little extra sweetness when you bite into them..

 

  

 

 

What's happening in 2k

The class has been really remarkable this past week (considering we are only two weeks away from Christmas).  We've begun our science studies, and have completed two experiments already!  Our first experiment was “What’s in the container?” it helped us grasp the steps in the scientific method and help prepare us for documenting in our “Science Journals”.  The second was “Runaway Pepper” which demonstrated how soap can cause the pepper to move to the outer edge of a bowl.  We now learning about the three states of matter and have some really fun science experiments that coincide with this!

Data & Graphing

Every morning the 2K class documents the daily temperatures (current, high, low).  The current temperature is logged on a line graph,  then compared with the previous day's temperature and the difference between the two (if any) found and documented.  I print our line graph (that consists of two weeks) and now we are transfering the data from the line graphs to monthly tallies, then creating pie graphs and bar graphs.  Let the graphing fun begin!!

Performance Thursday

Thank you to all the parents who made it to Performance Thursday.   It's sometimes a struggle for many parents to get away from work for short periods during the day, but I know your children really appreciate it!  The children did such a wonderful job (I even received a thank you from our buddies' class that I'll read Monday to them).  They didn't even look nervous on stage!  What a great group of scholar students we have at BSS!

*Unfortunately my ipod battery was at 10% so I only got two pics to share!

Halloween Party Pics

Thanks to our wonderful homeroom mom's smart thinking the students made an edible spider craft!  (As opposed to more sugary sweets that they all would be receiving that night!)

 

Letters to veterans

2K’s annual Letters to Veterans project

           For the next week, we will be writing letters to     veterans thanking them for their service.  These letters will be used to create a book, in which we will be mailing to veterans.  If someone in your family is a veteran, (or if you know a veteran that you would like to receive our book) please complete the  form you receive in your child's ROYAL, or download a form from our weebly and return it no later than Friday November 8^th.

Apples and Actions

During their recent bullying and teasing unit, 2K recently  used apples as an analogy to further and deepen their understanding of kind and respectful behaviors.  The class compared apples, discussed how to care for them, then connected all this to their actions.  Just as apples are bruised by carelessness, when we are careless with our words and actions we can bruise another one's feelings.  The class used a venn diagram while comparing their red and green apples, then when connecting apples to actions discussed unkind and disrespectful behaviors that might bruise another's feelings.  A T-chart comparison was taken home to complete for homework then discussed again as a class.  This  wonderful activity by R. Davies  I found online called "Apples and Actions" and it was really a great experience for the class!  Thank you to Mrs. Brooks for supply our fresh apples from her family's recent trip to an apple orchard!

Proper Common Noun People

While learning about proper nouns and common nouns the class created mini common and proper noun people.  The common nouns were (like common nouns are) non-specific, and the proper nouns were colorful and specific (specific names).  Below are some pics from our proper noun - common noun town-

September News and Classroom Happenings

Last month we learned many new math computation (adding & subtracting proficiency) strategies; one of the strategies learned was "Make Ten".  To practice our skills, we played a game called "Bullwinkle", in which the students had to use their antlers (or hands) in silence with their partner and make a group of ten.  Below are some pics of the children in action.....

World Food Day

World Food Day is soon...BSS will be collecting donations for Sisters of Mercy Outreach.  Grades k-2nd will be collecting the following items:  peanut butter, jelly, cookies, and crackers.  Help us be good stewards of the community, send your child to school with your World Food Day donation items!

Phonics and Spelling Rules

We've been working hard on our phonics "Hunk & Chunks" and learning new spelling and phonics rules too!
What are Hunk & Chunks?  Hunk and chunk, or "hunking and chunking" is a decoding strategy that helps children with their accuracy skill.  "Hunks & Chunks" refer to vowel r-controlled vowels, digraphs, and diphthongs (letter combinations) as well as word ending variations (_at, _ake, etc).  The combinations we study and learn (and train our brain to recognize by hunking and chunking) are in the majority of the words that the children read.  To "train our brain" we circle the hunk & chunk.  Some of the consonant digraphs we've learned this week are: _sh, _ch, _th; word endings: _all, _ing, and
(super hero of all hunk and chunks) _eigh (/a/)  Ask your child to teach you the "Phonics Dance" so you can learn too!

2k Student on Math

"I LOVE Math! Math is so fun and I can understand it too!" Kasha

Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses!

2nd Day in Second Grade

It's the second day in second grade here in 2K-how has it gone?
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!  We whizzed through our day (just introducing activities and studies for most) getting a glimpse of what a regular day in 2K is going to be like.  Everyone has done an excellent job, and I have an awesome group of great students!       Mrs. King

Showcase of Scholars

This year Mrs. King's 2nd grade BSS scholars will showcase their best.  2k will be filled will "Royal Rockstars of Learning". .....can't wait!

Outdoor Lunch

Two more days!

Two days left, I'm actually a little sad :(  I'm almost finished with my end of the year conferences with the children and I am LOVING their end of the year questionnaire answers.  Some of the "best part of second grade" answers....."everything", "all the math", and "Market Day", "worst part of second grade" answers....."getting clipped down", "lunch detention", and "Math book pages" so funny and so sweetly honest.  Love these kids!

Market Day 2

Below are some more pics from "Market Da

 

Market Day

Well, today was the day-Opening day for our second grade "Market".  The students learned (and are still learning) so much with this project.   Market Day is an economics culmination project.
The students have learned:

•  the basic concepts of economics
• the way businesses in our community meet the needs and wants of consumers (mainly our awesome port and railways  and how they help distribute consumer goods)
• that people all over the world trade goods and services
•  the concept of supply and demand
• money can be saved, spent, borrowed, and given away
• experience how producers and consumers work together in the making and using of goods and services
• working together as a team/company
• persuasive writing & advertising (advertisement headings, catch phrases, main facts audience/reader needs)

What a wonderful way for our second graders to use concepts and standards learned in a higher order of intellectual thinking.  With their critical thinking skills put to work, they "opened" their businesses and went shopping.  Afterwards, they reflected on the lessons learned (mistakes made, achievements made, and made a plan for tomorrow's Market Day)    Check out some of our pics below:

Beautifully written prayer by St. Joseph Catholic Regional School

https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcatholichill%3Fref%3Dstream%26hc_location%3Dstream&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGveRmH_0Y4OKw2F01p-O_yzc1-NA

Math Meeting parts

Daily Number Work

To Market to Market, Skype interview about starting and owning a buisness

Finally our Skype interview went through this morning.  Like I said the class had some great questions, and all seemed to be even more motivated (as if they needed any more) to begin their next phase of business & product creations!

Skype Interview

With all the students' business plans filled out and planned out, we were ready to begin creating our businesses.  Being a daughter of a business owner myself, I thought why not use my mom as a resource!  She is now an administrative assistant, but owned a successful dance studio for 25 years.  The students thought up questions in which they would ask a business owner (should they have the opportunity to ask one) and I must say the questions where great!  We attempted our Skype interview with my mother this afternoon, however the internet connection did not cooperate with us so sadly we only got one question in.  Props to my class as well as my mom for hanging in there and continuing to retry the Skype.

May Mayhem

May Mayhem!

It's that time of year again...spring fever is in full swing, baseball, soccer, and tennis practices, the school year starting to come to an end, oh and all the extra fun and festivities!!

Our parents are so great none of this has effect the students' homework and project assignments and everyone seems to be on top of things!  Way to go 2K parents!!

Here is a list of this week's May Mayhem:

Wednesday, May 8th.......First Communion Practice (BLESSED SACRAMENT PARISH  ONLY)

                                               5:30PM

Thursday, May 9th...........First Communion Practice (BLESSED SACRAMENT PARISH  ONLY)

                                               5:30PM
                                        Spring Program 7pm in the Hall
                                                (students arrive IN COSTUME & go to their classrooms @ 6:30 pm)
Saturday, May 11th.........First Communion (BLESSED SACRAMENT PARISH ONLY)
                                                     pictures @9:30 am

Eco tour field trip!

We had the best time on our field trip!
The 2^nd grade classes (2K & 2D) began our field trip with a boat ride through some tidal creeks, where we learned about the blue crab.  We got to see a pregnant blue crab and learned that she could have 8 MILLION eggs!  Unfortunately only 8 of those millions will survive.  Some of our awesomely smart students where overheard saying “one out of each million then survive”; we are so proud!

After arriving at Capers Island State Heritage Preserve, we explored the island as we saw and learned about many creatures.  Jellyfish, and sea cucumbers were among some of them; we also learned about erosion and different shells found on the island.  There were many stops at different tidal pools where we discovered and learned about tiny creatures, such as the Coquina (ko-KEE-nah) clams.