Welcome Back to School!

Welcome back to the new school year!  And welcome to our classroom blog.  Please try to remember to check in regularly for class news, photos, and updates.  Don't forget to also check out the Center Drive School website (http://www.cdsedu.org) for the school calendar, lunch menu, newsletter, and links to lots more information about our school. 

You are welcome and encouraged to keep in communication with me.  Email is the easiest - s.pelkey@cdsedu.org, but you can also send in a note, or leave a message so we can set up a time to talk, if needed.

Your child's "back to school" letter has been mailed and should be arriving soon.  If you happened to have visited this blog before you recieved my letter, here is a copy of it:


Dear (Friend),

     My name is Mrs. Pelkey. I am very excited to be your second grade teacher! I cannot wait for school to start. We are going to have such a great year! You are probably getting ready for the new school year and are eager to gather your supplies.

     Please bring to school the following items:

• 1 sturdy two-pocket folder (Home/School folder)
• 3 more two-pocket folders (for use throughout the year)
• scissors
• glue stick
• fine point black Sharpie marker (Don't worry parents, there will be rules around this!)

    Please remember to label everything you can with your name. I have a classroom supply of crayons, colored pencils, and markers, but you are welcome to bring your own. Your school supplies will be kept in a cubby bucket that I will provide for you. Instead of each student bringing their own pencils, I will have a classroom supply of pencils. I have several to start the year, but donations of #2 wood pencils are welcome (please not the fancy kind with plastic coatings – they ruin the pencil sharpener!). Also, notebooks and binders are not needed. We will provide any paper that you need at school.

        We will have a short snack break every morning. Please remember to pack a snack each day. Healthy choices are best! Keeping a water bottle at school is also a great idea.

    Please bring a family picture on the first day of school if you can. You will have a chance to talk about your family and the pictures will be displayed in our classroom. (They will be returned.)

    The best way to prepare for the start of the school year is to enjoy your summer, get plenty of rest, and if you haven't been reading, make sure you read at least 15 minutes each day.

    Enjoy the rest of your summer!

I look forward to meeting new friends and seeing old friends soon!  We have an exciting new year of thinking and learning ahead of us.

        
 

 

Our Days in Pictures

We have been a very active class in the last couple of weeks!  We went on our field trip to the Abbe Museum.  Thank you to all those parents who could help!  We ended up with a beautiful day in Bar Harbor and learned a lot in the museum.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in the upstairs part of the museum, but I do have pictures of us hard at work creating double curve designs in scratch art.

Last Friday, all students in our class performed a Reader's Theatre or plays that they had been working on all week.  One group of students wrote their play themselves!  All worked hard on teamwork, rehearsals, props, and more.



Friday afternoon, Mr. Mason came back to help us experiment with magnetism.  We learned about how scientists prove invisible magnetic fields exist.  We used bar magnets, "super" magnets, and even magnetic "slime"!  We learned that it is very important for scientists to follow directions.



Science News

Last Friday, Mike Mason visited our classroom to demonstrate more science experiments.  After a brief discussion of attributes of "living things", we created two different kinds of "goo" or "slime" that are not alive, but demonstrate some of the characteristics of being alive.  It was messy and FUN! 

The first experiment was making slime - sometimes called GAK.  There wasn't exact measuring that day, but here is a recipe I found to get you started.

Mix 1 teaspoon borax with 1 cup water.
In a separate container, mix 1/2 cup white Elmer's glue with 1/2 cup water. 
Add food color to the glue mixture, if desired.

Combine the two mixtures to polymerize.  You can use a Popsicle stick to blend.  Eventually you will need to mix with your hands.  There will be some remaining water left in your container, but that's OK. 

You can roll it into a ball and watch it bounce!  Or work it with your hands like putty. 

*Do not eat.  It is not toxic, but also not too healthy.

Store in a sealed zipper bag.

Is it a liquid, or is it a solid???  Our next experiment was to create something commonly known as "Oobleck".  You mix about 1/2 cup water with 1 cup cornstarch.  (Of course you can make adjustments to these measurements as needed.)  Stir slowly.  This suspension is sometimes called a "Non-Newtonian" liquid.  It is not like other liquids.  Play with it!  If you try to poke your finger into it fast, it won't go through.  If you poke your finger in it slowly, your finger will go right through!  Hold it in your hand!  Squeeze it until it feels like a solid in your fist. Then slowly release your fist and feel the liquid ooze out between your fingers.  



Thank you, once again, Mr. Mason and your helper, Andrew, for showing us the exciting world of science!

May News

The kids are counting down the days until summer, but there's still so much more learning to do!  May brings us a very busy month.  We are finishing up our Rain Forest unit with presentations of our nonfiction animal books created through our research. The students worked hard writing and illustrating their books, and are quite proud to display their work on the bulletin board in the hall.  Some students were even inspired to work together to create a large Rain Forest mural!   

Our next area of focus is Maine Native Americans.  We will learn about different parts of Native American life from story telling, to crafts, to other traditions of the tribes in Maine.  Through a read aloud chapter book, "Crossing the Starlight Bridge", we will learn just how similar Maine Native American families are to our families.  This unit of study will send us on a field trip to the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor on May 23, where we will extend our learning of Maine Native Americans.  We have so many parents who have volunteered to chaperone that day!  Thank you to all those who can join us!


In math, we are revisiting addition and subtraction, but this time we are using 3 digit numbers.  All the same rules apply for regrouping (see earlier blogs).  Check out your child's homework and corrected work sent home to get ideas for examples you can use to help your child practice at home.  


Dates to Remember:


Friday, May 11:  Last session of NWEA testing (morning);  Mr. Mike Mason will visit us for more fascinating science experiments (afternoon)


Wednesday, May 23:  Field Trip to Abbe Museum


Friday, May 25:  No School, Inservice Day


Monday, May 28:  No School, Memorial Day

Catching Up

Wow!  It's been a really long time since I've posted on here.  A lot has been going on!  On March 29, Mr. Mason came to our class to explain nanoscience.  We experimented by cutting blocks of play-dough in half, in half again, and again, and so on - until we couldn't get our play-dough any smaller.  Then Mr. Mason made it rain (rain!) in our classroom!  Outside, Mr. Mason made a cloud that we could walk through.  We had so much fun, we forgot that we were learning science!

Today was Community Reading Day.  Members from our community came to school to read to each classroom and share information about their job.  Officer John Carson from the Penobscot County Sheriff's Department came to our room.  He read the book Miss Brooks Loves Books, by Barbara Bottner.  We get to keep the book in our classroom.  The book and the day are dedicated to Mrs. Ring, beloved school librarian.

In science we are finishing up with our Rain Forest unit.  Students are researching the rain forest animal of their choice.  This information will be turned into a nonfiction book after vacation.  After the Rain Forest unit ends, we will begin a Social Studies unit on Maine Native Americans. 

In math our class has successfully finished units on geometry and measurement.  We are starting to look at place value in the ones, tens, and hundreds places, which will bring us into adding and subtracting 3 digit numbers. 

In Writing Workshop, we are focusing on poetry.  Miss Cameron, our practicum student, taught us a lesson on acrostic poetry.  We have also learned, so far, about using photographs to inspire poetry and personification.  Our work is collecting in our writing folders.  At the end of the month we will each choose a poem to be typed up, illustrated, and made in to a class poetry book.  Our Name Acrostics have also been made into a book, and will be delivered to Miss Cameron as a gift.  Her time with us is over, and she will be missed.  You might see her at Brewer Dairy Queen (where she works) if you're lucky!

Thank you!

Thank you to all those who were able to make donations for our Valentine celebration!  The students had a fun time sharing Valentines and enjoying snacks. 

Also, thank you to those who were able to donate toward the Penny Drive.  Mrs. Taplin collected all the money from the K-2 classrooms today.  We will get a total later on.  I know the receiving family is very grateful for all the help this community has offered. 

I have added new links to my Blog page.  There is a link for IXL, and also a link for Sheppard Software, an educational game site.
Have a great vacation!

February News

We have a new Practicum Student in our classroom!  Her name is Miss Cameron.  Miss Cameron is a student at Husson, and will be working on her 30 hour Practicum placement in our classroom.  She will be observing, helping, and eventually teaching her own lessons.  Miss Cameron will mostly be in on Wednesday mornings.

Thank you to Emily's mom, Mrs. Faulkingham, who has been coming in every other Friday in the afternoon to help with typing up student writing.  You have been a great help!

In math this month, we are continuing to work with subtracting 2 digit numbers.  Now we are challenged with thinking about all that we know.  When we see a paper with mixed problems on it, we have to think about everything we know about adding and subtracting to help us come up with the answers.  We will soon take a short break from adding and subtracting, and focus on basic fractions.

In Social Studies we are learning about the US Constitution, and will soon be discussing Presidents Lincoln and Washington.  This will tie in with the reading and writing concept of the genre "biography".  In Reading, we are taking a closer look at nonfiction and the features of nonfiction (what is a caption, diagram, fact box, etc).  After February vacation, in Science we will look at the Rain Forest habitat.  We will learn about the layers of the rain forest, plant and animal life, the importance of the rain forest, endangered animals, and the interconnectedness of life in that habitat.  Students will learn how to do research and write their own nonfiction book about a rain forest animal of their choice.  

Don't forget:  February 20 - 24 is school vacation!