We had a wonderful Spring Concert on Tuesday night.  The students all looked and sounded fantastic.  We are enjoying the many different lessons from our classmates.  Here a a few of the lessons that we've had so far:

• Making Flubber
• Making Play Dough
• Making Strawberry Shortcake
• Making butter
• Playing the Violin
• Playing basketball
• Running competition
• Learning to act and memorize lines
• Learning about California Redwood Trees
• How to take care of a baby and how not to
• How to make an origami fortune teller
• How to make a flashlight
• How the human digestive system works
• Doing Kid Yoga

     We still have the second half of the class to present this coming week.  We are learning so much from each other.  
     Our ABC reader came in on Friday and read the OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld.  The book reminds students that it is important to try and to have a growth mindset when faced with challenges or opportunities.  The book  celebrates the real skills and talents children possess, encouraging and empowering them to discover their own individual strengths and personalities.
     We continue to learn about immigration in the United States.  In math we are working on solving addition and subtraction problems with 3-digit numbers.  
     This Friday, June 2 is "Color Wars Day."  Second graders should wear yellow to show you second grade pride. 

     We let our butterflies fly free on Friday afternoon.  The students observed and documented their progression from larva, to pupa, to adult.  It was very exciting to see them emerge from their chrysalises on Wednesday. They flew in the classroom enclosure and we fed them orange juice for a couple of days.  The students even gave them names, although I have no idea how they could tell one from the other.  
     I am grateful to all the families in the class.  It was so nice to receive your kind words, letter, flowers, drinks, and other gifts.  I am humbled by the generous gift from the whole class.  Thank you.  

     In celebration of Earth Day students learned about the layers of the earth and ways to take care of our planet.  Ask your child some ways he or she learned to help take care of the earth.  We made a model of the earth out of clay.  Your child should be able to tell you some facts about the different earth layers.  
     In math we are exploring equal groups as we continue to lay the foundations for multiplication.  We are working with cubes to make buildings.  Each building has the same number of rooms (cubes) on each floor in the same configuration.  We are using tables to figure out the total number of rooms each building contains based on the number of floors.  Then we consider the multiplicative relationships in the tables and consider why some tables look the same even though they represent different building designs.  All this hands-on modeling with cube arrays helps students develop their understanding of arrays and is an important step in developing student understanding of why the dimensions of a rectangle can be multiplied to determine the area, work they will encounter in grade 3 and beyond.  
     We had another pocket day this week.  This time students worked with a list of classroom names.  Students stated how many pockets they had and we wrote down the number next to the student's name.  Then students added up all 23 numbers to figure out the total number of pockets.  This was great practice using their math facts.  When we finished doing our own addition, we learned how to use a Google Sheet to add a column of numbers.  
     Please mark your calendars to attend our Open House this Wednesday evening.  

     As we study insects we have learned a great deal about their behavior, habitats, life cycles, and diet.  Often the facts we hear and photos we observe may result in the students exclaiming, "how scientific!"  Learning about the dung beetle was a highlight of our scientific interjections.  
      Students began their research with great enthusiasm.  Each student has selected an insect and we wrote the rough draft for the appearance portion of the report on Friday.  We will continue next week with the other sections of the report.  Your child may do research on his or her own at home, but the writing of the rough draft takes place at school.  At the end of the week students will have a completed rough draft. They will bring it home and work on their final copy for homework over spring break and the week following spring break.  The final copy of the report will be due on Friday, April 10.  Also, students will be using the information they learned while writing their report to create a diorama to go with their report.  This will be on display at open house. Dioramas are due on Friday, April 21.  
    In math our focus this week has been on reading and writing 3-digit numbers.  We learned about place value and how to identify numbers as hundreds, tens, and ones.  We used 0 to 1000 charts to find ten more and ten less of a 3-digit number and 100 more and 100 less as well.  We discovered how to show a 3-digit number in standard, expanded, unit, base ten, and word form. Also, we used sticker notation (sheets, strips, singles).  
    A thorough understanding of place value is one of the crucial building blocks for students to develop computational fluency.  To support the development of fluency we play a number of mathematical games such as Close to 100 and Capture 5.   These games offer repeated practice with adding and subtracting 100s, 10s, and 1s.     
    We created amazing art work inspired by the artist Piet Mondrian.  You will see the product of their creative efforts at open house.  In the meantime, ask your child what he or she learned about the artist and what inspired his art.  This art lesson was brought to you by one of our very generous classroom volunteers.  You can watch the video below to get a preview of what you might see at Open House.  ​

     The students enjoyed Green Vegetable Day on Friday, March 17.  Students brought brussel sprouts, celery,  lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, broccoli, snap peas and more.   It was healthy way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  We also created a place for leprechauns.  Some students built traps, but others just wanted to offer a comfortable place for a leprechaun to stay.  Their creativity was truly amazing.  It was a joy to see them collaborate with each other on ideas and use teamwork to put together their creations. ​

     To demonstrate their understanding of complete and incomplete insect life cycles, students created skits about the life cycle of different insects.  They enjoyed performing them for their classmates.  

     Our ABC Reader came to the class and read “René  Has Two Last Names, ” by René Colato Laínez  In the book the main character is from a culture in which families give their children last names to include both sides of the family.  However, at school his teacher only uses one half of his name.  René, the main character, illustrates why it is important to continue cultural traditions and how we can accept the differences of others and create an inclusive community that celebrates differences..
  To help illustrate the unique contributions of everyone in our diverse environment students were asked to draw a picture first using only one color crayon.  Then, they drew the same picture using a variety of colors.  This exercise helped students appreciate the value of diversity in our classroom.  ​

Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 12.  Don't forget to move your clocks ahead one hour at 2:00 AM.  Make sure you use all that extra daylight to go outside and play.  

Second trimester report cards will go home on Friday, March 17.  You will receive the report card in your child’s Friday Folder.  Please take the report card out of the envelope and keep the report card.  Please sign the envelope and return it to me.  

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     We completed our math unit on data and graphing.  Students learned to make their own representations of data using bar charts, picture graphs, Venn diagrams, and line plots.  We began a new math unit on adding and subtracting numbers with two and three digits.  We will be learning about place value, and different strategies for solving problems.  We will be practicing reading and writing 3-digit numbers. And, we will learn to show the numbers in standard, unit, word, and expanded form. Throughout this unit, students will work on story problems with an unknown result. 

    Nordstrom School participated in Read Across America Day with a special guest reader.  She read Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts.  In the story, the  main character sets out to discover the root cause of an odor  using the scientific method in developing hypotheses in her smelly pursuit.   
    In addition, the students learned about the man we know as Dr. Seuss.  Ask your child to share some of the facts he or she learned in our Web Quest.  

     We wrapped up our unit on the Civil War.  We learned about the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most famous documents in the history of the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation let everyone know that President Lincoln was not only determined to preserve the Union; he also wanted to make sure that slavery would never cause another war. Once the Emancipation Proclamation took effect it allowed free African Americans and escaped slaves to fight for the Union. The famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass helped recruit African Americans—he encouraged them to join the Union Army as soldiers.
     In addition, we heard about the compassion of Clara Barton who cared for the wounded soldiers during the war.   Discuss with your child what it means to be compassionate. Talk about ways for your child to be helpful to those around him/her, even when it isn’t easy. Whenever there is mention in the news of the work of the Red Cross, ask your child who founded the American Red Cross.
      Also, students learned about  Robert E. Lee, who was torn by his loyalty to the United States and his home state of Virginia.   Ask your child why he finally decided to serve as a General in the Confederate Army. And, we learned about a commander of the Union Army named Ulysses S. Grant. President Lincoln put General Grant in charge of the entire Union Army because General Grant promised that he would do whatever it took to win; he would chase General Robert E. Lee and his army all over Virginia, and he would not stop until the war was finished. This outlook earned him the nickname “Unconditional Surrender,” because he would accept nothing less from the Confederate Army than a complete surrender.
     Finally on April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee offered his sword to Ulysses S. Grant and surrendered the remainder of his Confederate Army. The Rebel soldiers laid down their weapons, made oaths to give up the rebellion and never fight against the United States again, and walked home.  At last, the long Civil War was ended, and the North had won. It was time to return home, rest, and rebuild the nation. It had taken four long years, but the United States was on its way to being united.