"Wrapping" Up Our Semester

It was a little quiet today.  We missed Lily and Sofie.  (I know Lily was enjoying her school festivities and we hope Sofie is traveling safely.  We can't wait to here about her South American adventures!)

The students worked so hard all morning!  I was really surprised, delighted and impressed by their focus so close to our winter break.  We started our day working on our math problem solving skills in the TOPS Math program.  They are very good problem solvers as a group.

Next, the students used the snowman cards we have received to gather data about the average high temperature on December 15th in each city.  After lunch, we learned to use Microsoft Excel to graph their data.  Here are three of the student graphs (Brianna's, Scott's and Charles'.)

We ended our day with Spanish.  Ask your child to sing their Spanish Jingle Bells!

Have a fun and relaxing winter break!  We will look forward to seeing the students in January!

Building Our Research Skills

So for me, blogging and preparing for the holidays are not tremendously compatible.  My posts for the past two weeks and probably the next two will be a bit less elaborative.  Hopefully things will settle down after that.


The second grade SAGE students have been working on their research skills the past several weeks.  We have reviewed and confirmed our ability to locate a topic in alphabetical order with the help of guide words.  The students have knowledge of how to use the table of contents and index as well headings and sub-headings to locate a specific topic or information.  We have also learned how a traditional, bound encyclopedia is organized and when and why it might be necessary to cross-reference a topic with the index.  We have discussed the importance of using current sources as well as a variety of sources when  researching a topic.


Additionally, the students completed a pretest on goal setting.  Over the next few SAGE days, we will be discussing the importance of goal setting, learning to evaluate a goal to be sure it is realistic, creating a plan of action and discovering how our effort impacts our success.


This past week, the students finished their snowman cards and wrote the final draft of their winter poems.  They made a second copy of their poem for you.  I will send them home right before winter break.   Today, each student made a mini-podcast of their poem that you will find in the previous post.  They did a great job on their poems and their first audio presentation!


All of our cards were mailed out this week.  We ended up making and mailing 62 cards. Thank you so much for your donations of stamps to assist us with the postage costs.  We have received 21 cards so far.  It is kind of exciting to check my box in the office now.  

Today, the students worked in their individual, exploratory area.  Ask your child about their current task and progress.
 

Have a great week!
In the afternoon, the students continued our discussion on endangered animals in
preparation of our research unit.  They completed their pretest this past week.  Today,
they went to www.arkive.org to learn more about the threats that are bringing some species near the point of extinction.  If your child has the time, encourage him/her to explore some of the video and  photos to become more aware of the variety of animals that are endangered.

Wishing Each of You Wet, Wonderful, Snowman Snow!