Looks Like We Made it...Finishing Up Our First Week

We cracked out our brand spankin' new "Handwriting Without Tears" printing curriculum. (Cursive is next year,  much to the disappointment of many Bumblebees.)
We are learning to use our very best handwriting: this subject is not about who finishes quickly, it is about who finishes with the best work possible.
Concentration is essential.
Parents are still working to get the second grade garden up and growing. Today E spied his mother putting in some hours clearing the ground. (Have I mentioned a time or twenty how much we LOVE having all these windows in our new room?)
The temperature finally dropped enough where we could begin WOW time. (Did you know the first day of school it was 107 degrees? Well, we had a "cold front" last night and it was "only" in the high 80s when we took to the track today.) WOW time is when we Work On Wellness by exercising in different ways. Because we are in second grade, we'll be doing TWO laps on the track this year. Here comes the first group of runners...
...and here comes the second group.

Because of our schedule, we will have WOW time after lunch and recess time about an hour later. This breaks up our afternoon which is a long stretch after our early lunch time.
Playground time today included a lot of hanging around.




This afternoon, we wrote criteria charts for what math class should look like. We decided to work a problem we should:

1. Study it.
2. Plan it.
3. Work it.
4. Check it.

Sounds like a great plan, Bumblebees! We then spent time working in groups writing story problems. We wrote the problems (using our own names!) on the front, and the math sentence to solve it on the back. (Example: G had 4 apples. B had 5 apples. How many apples did they have in all?)

 Mrs. O printed some of the problems on labels, and we worked them in our Math Journals. We had to represent our problem first with figures, work it out, and then check it. When we were sure of the answer, we could write the math sentence that solved the story problem. WHEW! We did a wonderful job.

If I may brag a little, I've been testing this week. Every child in the class can read the 100 first grade sight words and spell all the kindergarten  non-negotiable words. (We'll be tested on the first grade non-negotiable words soon.) I can tell that you parents worked with your children over the summer, because the retention has been amazing. No "holes" in these second grade brains leaking out what we learned last year!

Have a great weekend. Looking forward to seeing you on Monday.