Special Visit by Author Liz Scanlon

Today second graders heard from Liz Scanlon, author of All the World, A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes, and Think Big. To start she highlighted some her favorite books and some of her favorites to read to her daughters. She spoke to the kids about the craft of writing--a perfect complement to our writing workshop. The first step in Liz's process is coming up with an idea from the world around her and in her head (her imagination). Then she brainstorms lists of details, after several iterations she works on rhyming. After several drafts she shares her work with her editor and gets feedback on how to make the story better. "You don't get it right the first time." Well she talked about how to overcome writer's block, by finding inspiration outside, in the world right around her. She encouraged the kids tom"think big!"

Ask your child what they learned from Liz's talk. Do they remember what a thumbnail sketch is? What is "writer's block?" Where to find inspiration?

Exploring Rocks

Today Willow scientists observed rocks. They described attributes and generated wonder and hypotheses about rocks. After making observations students tested their ideas by putting their rocks under stereoscopes, and plopped them in water. "Cool!" "Wow!" Ask your resident scientist noticed, wondered, or thought about rocks today.

Writers Hard at Work

Today we reviewed our writing process. We look for inspiration in our everyday lives, jot ideas in our "Tiny Topics" notebooks, plan our stories, write notes, then we start our drafts. Willows worked hard to add more details (and pages) to their stories. They also enjoyed a mini-lesson on "powerful endings." We are learning so much about each other through our stories!

Measuring Our Waste

After our Monthly Celebrations we combined all of the second grade trash. We decided to weigh it using a balance (or lever). First we used snap cubes, only to discover that they didn't weigh enough. So on Monday we tried wooden blocks and snap cubes. We came pretty close to finding a balance.

Ring Mountain

We kicked off our Geology unit with a hike up Ring Mountain. Up at the top we enjoyed listening to Everybody Needs A Rock by Byrd Baylor. Ask about the ten rules about how to choose the perfect rock. We even collected our own Ring Mountain rocks!

Paul the Apple Farmer

Did you know...

-we have at least 4 different kinds of apples at MCDS--Golden Delicious, Rome Beauty, Jonathan, Rhode Island Greening?

-that the Willows met Farmer Paul when they were in Kindergarten at his orchard?

-if you find a worm in an apple, it's a healthy apple?

-if you find a hole in an apple just put your finger on the hole and eat around it. You'll miss the worm?

-the brown spots on apples are where it's "sun-kissed" and super sweet?

-Farmer Paul uses lots of math in his job?

-that Farmer Paul grows two million pounds of apples a year?

Feel free to ask your child what they remember about Farmer Paul.  See if they can identify any of the apples below. Find out which one was the favorite apple.