We have jumped into 2nd grade!

On Sunday mornings I swim in  the ocean.  I love the swelly, blue-green salt water and the chill in the misty morning air.  It is an amazing way to start the day.  As much as I love it, I am always a little bit nervous right before I jump in. I stand at the waters edge with butterflies in my stomach.  Will the water be really cold?  Will I see any dolphin or seals?  What direction is the current traveling?    Slowly I get my toes wet, then I go in up to my knees and before I know it I am swimming through the first wave, then down the coast.

As I was swimming today I was thinking about how starting the school year is a lot like going out into the ocean.  Most of us, on the first day of school are a little nervous because we don't know what to expect.  But as the first few days pass, we meet our teacher and make new friends, we learn rules, routines and begin to work together as a class. Friday was the 8th day of school.  In class we talked about what we can do better today compared to the first day of school.  Every day is a new opportunity to learn and make better choices. We have memorized poems, played math games, we are working on our reading stamina, we started working in math on number sense and writing in our journals.  We are reading books of our choice, and as groups we made either a rural, urban or suburban community.

Our class has jumped in and we are diving through the surf :-)

Our Pen Pal Visit

Personalize a picture slideshow

Martin Luther King Found Poetry

Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other places and putting them together as poetry (a literary equivalent of a collage) by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text.  

Today we create MLK Jr. Found Poems

Celebrating MLK Jr. with our blogging buddies

 The past few weeks we have been learning about civil rights heros.  We have read about Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges and Martin Luther King Jr.  In honor of MLK day we spent some time with our 3rd grade blogging buddies asking each other questions about Martin Luther King and their own dreams.  

We also watched a video of some of Mrs. Levy's past students talking about their dreams for the future.  (Video credit goes to some of our fabulous parents!)

Write a comment to your friends about the videos they created. Do you agree with their answers? Did they say something that made you think or share an idea you hadn't thought of?  What do you think about working with 2nd grade?

Remember the best comments start a conversation, so be sure to ask a question!

Winter Holidays

Winter Holidays 

One of the most exciting things during winter are all of the holidays people celebrate with their friends and families. There are many different holidays that fall during the winter season. 

Watch the BrainpopJr. video on Winter Holidays. 

No matter what holiday you celebrate, you and your family have special traditions. 

A tradition is something that family, friends, or another group of people has done for many years and continues to do on a regular basis. 

Learning about other people's traditions is an excellent way to learn  about other cultures, beliefs and more about your friend!

We got together with a Mrs. Broussard's third grade class.  Each student in Third Grade has had the privilege of participating in a 1 to 1 program. This means that each student gets their own Acer to work on in class. Working together we will collaborate on creating a blog comment about our family traditions for the winter holidays.  We will be posting our comments on both our class blog and 

Mrs. Broussard's blog.  

After completing your interview, leave a comment with your "Blogging Buddy"about the winter holiday traditions you celebrate.

What are some traditions you and your family practice over the winter holidays? Which is your favorite tradition? Why is it special?  

Don't forget, excellent comments include:

- complete sentences

- high vocabulary

- questions that can spark a conversation

How can you make an addend a ten to help solve an addition problem?

Welcome Voracious Readers!

In our class we are becoming voracious readers. 

What is a voracious reader? 

What are your favorite books?

What scares you?

Each year around Halloween we talk and write about what scares us.   

Some people are scared of insects. 

Some people are scared of the dark. 

Some people are scared of heights. 

What scares you?  Do you like scary stories or movies? 

Today in Room 202

"In music I liked when we learned a new song," said Trentyn.

"At recess I played with my friends.  I played handball,"  dictated Grant.

"In read to self we read a lot of books,"  explained Harper.

"We did word work.  My favorite was writing in clay,"  noted Siya.

"We wrote in our writing folders.  I wrote about when I was having a playdate with my friend,"  noted Olivia.

Baxter dictated, "Our teacher Mrs. Levy won "Teacher of the Month."


"I liked doing in math models,"  explained Nolan.

Today at school...

"I played with my friends, I was playing tether-ball. I liked it because it was fun," exclaimed Noah.

"I did trash pick up. I got a Cub Kudo," said Siya.

"Today we did an art project about dogs. Mine looked like a hot dog" explained Phoenix.

 Jenna said, "in P.E. we did a bean bag toss, and hula hooping."

 "We learned about the 100's 10's and 1's place in math," dictated Grant.

"Today we read Henry and Mudge," noted Ryan.

"We did read to self," said Harper.