HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM PONTE VEDRA

We are in high gear here for the holidays. The weather has been back and forth between hot 80 and cold 45.  Our students have been busy doing service projects.  Our classrooms collect pet supplies to give to the Humane Society.  We had a service dog come and visit the other day.  We collect dog toys, food, crates, paper towels, bleach and many other things that they need.  We will soon be off for the holidays.

Howdy and Happy Holidays from Utah

We finally had snow.  We hardly ever get snow before Christmas.  It snowed about 6 inches.  It has been very cold for our desert blood.  Our playground was a winter wonderland too.  But, after a week most of the snow has melted.  Now we are playing in the leaves again. We have been learning about subtracting 2-digit numbers, place value and a little addition with 3-digit numbers.  We learned to write numbers in expanded form and the word form.  We have been learning about working together.  It is better to work together than to work alone.  Last Friday we had a t-shirt party.  We have worked very hard to be respectful, responsible and safe to earn this party.  We made designs on our shirts with masking tape.  Our 4th grade buddy class helped us.  Then our mothers sprayed bleach on them and it made cool designs.  We are all looking forward to the Christmas Break.  We will be back in school on January 2nd, 2014.  Have a Hi-Ho Happy Christmas and a Howdy-Doody New Year.

Snowy December, by Mrs. Conwell's Crew

People all over the world celebrate many holidays in December. Do you celebrate Christmas? We do! Christmas is here in six more days! Yesterday we made snowmen out of milk containers for our holiday party. Everyone is bringing a treat and we are going to add them to the snowman buckets. Then we are going to take the snowmen home to use as decorations and give as gifts. Yesterday we also went to see a holiday concert. It had instruments and singing.

Some people celebrate Hanukkah. Every night for eight nights, people light a candle on the menorah. When you celebrate Hanukkah, you eat potato latkes. We ate them in our class! There is a spinning top that is called a dreidel. To play dreidel, you need gelt, which is chocolate coins.

We read about Three Kings Day. On this day, January 6, the Three Kings have three cakes, and there is a crown on each one. On Three Kings Day, the children find presents in their shoes! Do you celebrate Three Kings Day?

Mexican and Spanish people celebrate Las Posadas. There is a red flower called a poinsettia. The piñata is made out of clay and has special candy and toys hidden inside. You get the candy out by breaking it with a baseball bat.

We had a lot of snow this month. We can make snowmen. We have a break from school for two weeks. It starts on Monday. It also is the last day of the year on Friday. When we come back from break, it will be 2014! We wish you Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Greetings from Scarborough, Maine

In Scarborough, we have been having snowstorms. We got 12" of snow on the weekend and 8" on Tuesday. There was so much snow, we can play that we are swimming and diving in it. It was soft and fluffy so it was easy to fall in it. It was not good snow for building snowmen. Our playground is a winter wonderland!! We don't always have snow for Christmas. The first picture is our upper playground area. We have a fire truck that is fun to climb on, swings, a natural play area, and to the left of the picture there is a walk way where we can play Four Square, and have movable hoops to shoot baskets. The second picture is the lower playground area that is nearest to our classroom. We can sled on the hill, play on the equipment and play in the ball field. The ball field area is where we have been swimming and diving in the snow. Tuesdays and Thursdays we are on the upper playground and the other days on the lower. We mix classes and split the recess times with the kindergartners, first graders, and other second graders. We have been studying about neighborhoods and learning about the different kinds. We live in a suburb of Portland which is urban. Scarborough has some rural areas. The farms in the rural area grow fruits and vegetables like blueberries, strawberries, potatoes, corn and tomatoes. We are studying multiplication and division and we count by 2s, 5s, and 10s. Are you doing multiplication now, too? We look forward to learning more about your area in the New Year. Happy New Year!!

The Land Around Buffalo, NY (Mrs. Conwell's class)

We live in Cheektowaga, NY, and where we live the land is flat.  When it's wintertime, we get to go sledding on the big snow piles and build snow forts.  Since Buffalo gets so much snow, we also make many snowmen.  If you go north of Buffalo and Cheektowaga, Niagara Falls is there.  Niagara Falls in the winter has lots of cool holiday lights.  It has big waterfalls everywhere.  You can go on a helicopter ride and see the big icicles that are starting to freeze.  If you go up on the Rainbow Bridge, you can see rainbows and Canada.  Our county is named after Lake Erie, which we live very close to.  If you go west, you find Lake Erie.  There are lots of beaches near Lake Erie, and we like to play in the water and build sand castles in the summer.  In the winter the lake freezes and some people skate on it--they have a "pond hockey" tournament!  If you go south, you come to Allegheny State Park.  It is a great place to camp because you get to go hiking in the big hills.  If you travel southeast, Beaver Meadow is a forest with many different kinds of trees where you can see beavers and lots of wild animals.  Many animals are hibernating right now.  As you can see, the land around Buffalo, NY, has many activities to do, even when it's cold and snowy.

Ponte Vedra

It has been cooler than usual here.  The leaves fall but only because the get blown off the trees, not all of our leaves fall down.  We have leaves on our trees all year long.  We have been busy getting ready for the Thanksgiving Holiday!! We celebrated Grandparent's Day this week!  Our grandparents came for a great presentation by the fourth grade and then spent the day in our all of our classrooms.  In second grade we did Turkey crafts with them.  We are ready for the holiday to start!

Scarborough, Maine

In Scarborough, Maine, it was 18 F when we got up this morning and 24 F when we got to school. We have been learning about the Pilgrims. Thinking of the weather now and reading about how little the Pilgrims had,we are glad that we have homes and warm clothes to wear. Our leaves are all off the trees now. On our way to school, many of us travel cross the salt marsh. Scarborough is located on the Atlantic Ocean and has the largest salt marsh in the state. On cold mornings we can see the steam coming off the marsh because the marsh is warmer than the air. Some mornings this week we have seen ice on the edges of the bank. When that happens, everyone comes in excited thinking that we might get snow soon. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

FALLING LEAVES

In Santa Clara our leaves have finally turned yellow and are just starting fall. The temperatures have been so pleasant in the high 50's and low 60's during the day. We are having lots of fun making piles of leaves and jumping in them. Some of the students made a nest with the leaves and pretended to be birds in their nest. Four-Square is a favorite game at recess along with another game called "Infection" that is sort of like tag. Two boys in our class have played in baseball tournaments because the temperatures are still warm enough. We are happy to say they won first place in both tournaments.  This week is our Parent Conferences and Book Fair.  We have been able to enjoy long afternoons since we are dismissed at 1:15 each day. We give thanks for living in such a beautiful area.

MIA

Hello, group!  We have been MIA for awhile because of technical problems.  Hopefully we are up and running again!
It has finally begun to cool off a bit in Manor.  We are in the upper 70's and 80's.
This week we are having Red Ribbon Week for being drug free.  Tomorrow our theme is our future is so bring without drugs.  We will all wear brightly colored clothes.  Thursday is the most fun day!  We get to dress up as our favorite book character.  Then we will have a book parade around the school.  We will be certain to post a picture.

Have a great week from Mrs. Lyons' second grade class at Presidential Meadows Elementary School.

Pumpkin Day!

On Friday we are having a pumpkin-themed day!  We are going to do some science experiments, have pumpkin treats, read pumpkin books, write about pumpkins, and do pumpkin math. We are also going to decorate our pumpkins.  We are really excited and happy about our upcoming theme day!

A Windy Fall Walk

We went on a walk on a really windy afternoon to look for signs of fall. We took pictures of leaves on the ground and the wind blowing. Our leaves aren't all off our trees yet. It's really rainy and the leaves are falling hard to the ground. We rake the leaves and we like to jump in them.

We are celebrating Red Ribbon Week. Today we all wore red to show we're making good choices. Tomorrow we are teaming up against drugs and wearing sports jerseys.

We are having a pumpkin contest in the library. We had to decorate a pumpkin as our favorite character from a story we read.

Happy fall and happy Halloween!  From Mrs. Conwell's Crew

In Scarborough, Maine, the leaves have mostly all fallen off the trees. We had lots of orange, red, and yellow leaves. We love to make leaf piles and jump in them. The temperature has gotten down in the 30s but gets warmed up to the high 60s. Sometimes we have to wear jackets in the morning. 
We have been studying about Columbus and Fire Safety. Now, we are starting to learn about the Pilgrims. 
It was fun to hear that some people in Utah go hunting. One dad has gone to Utah to hunt and will be coming home soon! Some of our classmates have woods near their homes and can see turkeys and deer.
After school some kids play on field hockey teams, are on swim teams, take swimming lessons, are on gymnastic teams,play soccer and play basketball in our yards. We have a lot of fun in the fall. 

In Santa Clara Utah we are really enjoy cooler weather.  The leaves on the trees are just starting to turn colors.  Most of them are yellow. Last week we had our Fall Break.   Some of us went camping and others went deer hunting with their families.  One girl even camped outside in her backyard.  It was nice to be out of school so we could play with friends, stay up late, and even play video games.

Happy October! 

What is fall like in your area? What activities are you doing with family and friends?

Prompt Dates & Person in Charge of Reminders

Hello! Could you please view this document and sign up for a month to send a reminder on the MONDAY prior to the prompt date? Perhaps if you put that you need to send a reminder on your calendar you will remember better than I did this month;). You could find the email I sent out today to the group (10/9/13 from the account cgraffius@scarborough.k12.me.us) then "Reply all" so you don't have to input all those email addresses. Thanks!

~Courtney Graffius

Temperature Data Bar Graphs

Leave a comment to post what you think!! Group 1 Group 2

Group 1 and Group 2

Here you will see which group you are in and who and where your other group members are from. Please see the previous post for more info on groups.

Group 1
View Second Grade Studies, Group 1 in a larger map Group 2
View Second Grade Studies, Group 2 in a larger map

Welcome to this blog! The inspiration for this came from the book On the Same Day in March by Marilyn Singer.

This book is about what is going on all over the globe exploring both longitude and weather and culture.

Our project is a spin-off of this. Here we will be collaborating, communicating and presenting information about America with information gathered by select second grade classes.

There are two groups enrolled in this study and group has a page, "2nd Grade Studies Group 1" and "Second Grade Studies Group 2". The tabs for these groups are across the top. This will be where each group will be sharing primary communications specific to their group. If, however, you have something you think both groups would be interested in please post it here! Examples are a picture or graph of a certain weather or seasonal phenomenon. For instance, if we were doing this last year and you were impacted by Super Storm Sandy, sharing a picture here would make a very interesting post for all to see!

On the first Tuesday of the month, collect data to report about the weather. The first data collection would be Tues., Sept. 10 then please try to report out by the Friday of that week which in September would be Sept. 13.

By the end of the third Tuesday of the month, share some other aspect of your area (see list below). As you can see, there are some blank areas. Teachers, please feel free to fill these in with an idea of your own!

• September: school
• October: fall
• November: native plants
• December: terrain
• January: winter
• February: fun with friends
• March: spring
• April: environment
• May: celebrate together

Feel free to be as simple or creative with your sharing posts! Some months which might be busy you could just use text, other months you might choose to do something a little more fancy. Please see the page "Ideas for Sharing" FMI.