Mrs. Braun's 2nd Grade Class

Since school started we have learned several reading strategies including finding the main idea, noticing story elements, and giving a summary.  This chart helps us organize all of these strategies.

We learned that when you give a summary of a fiction story, it should include a little bit about the characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end.  We know that somewhere in there will be a problem and solution (that's what the lock and key represent).

In science we recently started a new unit about the moon and stars.  Here, students are using a flash light to represent the sun, a basketball to represent the earth, and a styrofoam ball to represent the moon.  We modeled how the earth gets day and night,  how the moon revolves around the earth, and how the appearance of the moon changes as it rotates around the earth.

We are learning to recognize the moon phases.  We have noticed there are many cycles in nature and the changing moon phases are one of them.

The final culture we studied in our most recent social studies unit was that of the Ute people.  We studied the petroglyph artwork of the Utes which can still be seen on rocks today.  We created our own petroglyph designs by painting and carving into plaster slabs.

In writing we have started a new unit on how-to pieces.  This week we wrote about how to make ice cream sundaes.

We are learning how to tell time to 5-minutes.  We made these clocks with flaps so we can check how many minutes each hour number stands for.

In our social studies cultures unit we learned about Egypt.  We wrote our names in ancient Egyptian heiroglyphics.  

Each of us also decorated a sarcophagus.  

When we studied Italy, we found that mosaics are a common art form in that country.  We made our own mosaics out of foam tiles.

We are learning about different genres.  Recently we have read realistic fiction and a folktale.

Our latest grammar skill is identifying synonyms and antonyms.  To help us remember the difference I made this poster about the Cinnamon/Synonym Bears and the Antonym Ants.

On Halloween, Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus visited our class.