Day 140 - Special Author Visit: Judith Jango-Cohen - Mrs. Tigges - Fox Hill Grade 2

This post first appeared on Mrs. Tigges Blog

Today the second graders were treated to a special presentation.  Local non-fiction writer, Judith Jango-Cohen came to speak with the children.  This is an annual event sponsored by the Fox Hill PTO.

Ms. Jango-Cohen is a Burlington resident who writes non-fiction books for children.  She explained to the children how she does research for her books.  Then Ms. Jango-Cohen demonstrated how to write with painting a picture with words using vivid verbs and techniques such as alliteration, metaphors, similes, and rhyming. The children also role played some animals to see how the adapt to their environment.  Everyone was quite involved in the presentation.

Coming home with your child today will be a book order of Ms. Jango-Cohen's books.  The orders will be due on Wednesday, May 3rd. Ms. Jango-Cohen will be coming back next week to talk with us about immigration to kick off our Social Studies unit on Cultural diversity.

Day 70 - Holiday Traditions and Customs - Mrs. Tigges - Fox Hill Grade 2

This post originally appeared on the Fox Hill Blog for Rooms 17 and 18

As part of our Social Studies curriculum, we have been discussing the  diversity in our classroom.  We have so many ways to celebrate our holidays, customs and traditions.

This week we have invited parents to come in and share their family traditions with the class.

On Monday, Krish's Mom came in to talk with us about Garba.  Garba is a type of folk dance originated from Gujral, India.  It is mainly performed during the festival called Navrati. It is a festival that lasts for 9 days and comes around September or October, based on the Hindu calendar.

The Garba represents the life in the mother's womb.  The dance worships the divinity and Power of the Goddess Durga, Amba.

The Garba is performed usually on the late evening.  People gather up in an open space.  They start with a traditional ritual like Aarti.  It begins with a slow tempo and as time passes the energy level increases.  Traditionally people used to perform Garba on the rhythm of Dhol (drum) and other instruments.  Garba is a colorful, vibrant, high energy dance with a fast beat music.

Dancers use their hands and feet in synchronization and  move around in a circle.  Dancers wear colorful costumes. Girls wear "Chaniya Choli" and boys wear "Kediyu".

On Tuesday Emmett's Mom came in to talk with us about their family tradition of kindness.  Each holiday season Emmett's family adopts a family to help with holiday shopping.  The family purchases gifts for the children and household items for the parents.  They also purchase food for the family. They make sure to include activities for the family to enjoy together.  Emmett's family then wraps all of the presents to deliver to the family.

Over the years, Emmett's family now includes friends in their family tradition.  This year a group of friends purchased and donated gifts to two families in need.  

Emmett's Mom focused on the spirit of kindness and giving to those less fortunate.  She encouraged the children to find ways to reach out and support those who need assistance. 

Day 50 - The last few weeks...Mrs. Tigges - Fox Hill Grade 2

This post originally appeared on Mrs. Tigges' Blog 

We continue to have busy, fun, exciting weeks in second grade at Fox Hill.

In reading rooms 17 &18 we:

• continue to work through our Fundations units-closed exceptions: old ,ild, ind, olt, ost are called exceptions because they break the closed syllable rule and have a long vowel sounds rather than a short vowel sounds, as well as suffixes s and es.

• read our Core Book Bigmama by: Donald Crews.  We read the book, discussed it and answered open response questions using TTQA-turn the question around.
• meeting in our guided reading groups
• finished our read aloud story Gooney Bird Green by: Lois Lowry and have started the second book in her series: Gooney Bird and the Room Mother.
• practicing our reading fluency
• reading books independently
• reading Scholastic News and using the i-pad to find archived issues on Veteran's Day
• doing listening activities
• working on i-ready lessons on the Chromebook

In Math we:

• continued with the first unit: counting on and back with subtraction, using addition facts to help with subtraction, using fact families to assist with addition and subtraction, solving word problems, and made math arguments
• we took the Unit 1 Assessment
• started Unit 2 Working with Equal Groups: odd and even numbers, using and making arrays to find totals
• practicing facts including facts through the the 6 fact family as well as doubles and doubles +1

In Science we:

• have continued our tree unit
• With the help of Ms. Scheffer we learned how to use the app Explain
  Everything to begin an online tree journal.  We went outside to adopt a tree that we will follow throughout the seasons.  We recorded the temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius, measured around the tree in inches and centimeters, observed the weather and animals we saw, and wrote about our tree.  We also took pictures of our tree with our i-pads to upload the picture in Explain Everything. Afterwards, the children recorded their voices to describe the tree.

In Social Studies we:

• have continued our unit on land forms, bodies of water and continents
• talked about the importance of Veteran's Day

We did a fun following directions craft: orange cats.

Also, we had a Halloween party with a craft and Party in a Bag.  The children made ghosts with cotton balls.

Day 38 - Pumpkin Science - Fox Hill Grade 2

This post first appeared on the Fox Hill Grade 2 (Rooms 17-18 Blog)

Today was an  exciting day.  Mr. Mussleman, from the Science Center, came to visit us.  We had an informative program on the study of.....PUMPKINS!!

First of all we discussed if the pumpkin would sink or float.  After some "turn and talk" time we made a prediction....would the pumpkin sink or float? Most children thought it would sink.  Make your prediction before you look at the picture!

Next we dissected the pumpkin to see what was inside. We learned some new vocabulary words such as stem, skin, pulp, ribs, seeds and fibers.

After that we learned about the fire triangle.  There are three parts to make fire: heat, fuel and oxygen. Mr. Mussleman used another pumpkin and carved it into a jack-o-lantern.  As he lit the candle (the fuel) and put it into the pumpkin we predicted what would happen if the eyes, nose and mouth were put back in.  The flame went out because there was no more oxygen.

Lastly, Mr, Mussleman showed us an exciting chemical reaction.  Watch the video below to see what happens.