10/24/16

Today in Room 210 we began our study of geometry.  We will look at the attributes of both 2-D and 3-D shapes.  The children have already been introduced to sophisticated mathematical vocabulary: faces, vertex, rectangular prism, triangular prism.  We had someone talk about how they knew that "tri" means three, and we listed the words we know that start with "tri" and have something to do with three: tricycle, tripod, triceratops.  The students will be detectives later this week looking for certain faces of shapes at home.

We continue to write our small moment, narrative stories in Writers' Workshop.  It is exciting to see those children ready to try certain "craft moves" introduced to them: similes, suspense, dialogue or detailed action.  We have been reading aloud 26 Fairmount Avenue, Tomie dePaola's memoir growing up in the 1930s.  We hope to be inspired by the small moment nature of each chapter.

In Open Circle, the word of the week is cooperation.  We have learned that it means "working together to get the job done," and not necessarily "follow directions."  An easy mistake to make when you might hear "Why won't you cooperate?"  We understand that we can get a lot more done in our classroom if we learn to cooperate.

Finally, the students are really engaged in our discussions about the election.  Today we learned the steps leading up to the election, beginning with a person announcing her/his intentions, all the way up to Inauguration Day.  The process takes about a year and a half, if not longer!  When asked who in the class would like to be president someday, about 2/3 of the group said they would and said it's because they want to help people and make he world a better place (yay, second graders!).  We may make some campaign videos so these students can share their platforms....