Merry Christmas

What a precious way to end the first half of our second grade year! Candlelight was a beautiful service and the children really performed well.

Second grade had a blast in the Candy Cane Lab. We made predictions on which liquid would dissolve the candy cane in the shortest amount of time. Most students thought the carbonated soda would win, but we quickly learned the hot water dissolved the water fastest! Science Friday’s are so fun in second grade.

Jaclyn Thane
Happy thanksgiving

Second grade is ready for a much anticipated Thanksgiving holiday. We have made the most of this term by learning as much as we possibly can and having fun all the while! Our latest reading unit was all about Earth in Action! We studied earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes and completed our study by creating our own creative eruption volcanoes.

Working collaboratively is an important part of being a a student at Saint James. Students worked together to classify and categorize community jobs and their importance.

Our class also had a unique opportunity to listen to fourth grade present their Native American study. We learned many thing about local Native American tribes like what they hunted or planted to eat, items they made to trade as a form of money, and also games they played.

We ended this week with some leaf painting fun! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Jaclyn Thane
Pumpkins and Plays

The last bit of October was filled with pumpkins and one very fun Fall Festival! Thank you Mrs. Denise for organizing an amazing day for the kids at St. James. Second grade took a hayride around campus, toured the middle school pumpkin patch and played games at the carnival. Second grade extends a big thank you to middle school students that helped design and run the games!

F2E2BCB1-A29E-48E2-B5FE-3B3A6CAC4585.jpeg
Jaclyn Thane
And at once summer collapsed to fall -oscar wilde

We ended the month of September with a visit from Cooper Kimmel and his Bearded Dragon lizard, Beardie. Cooper told the students all about what Beardie likes to eat and what his environment is like. Thank you Cooper for visiting second grade!

3CE340BD-4EFE-475B-835E-E31753A409F3.jpeg
62D368E1-5434-4918-9886-A8A7BC3B5F18.jpeg

October started with a special trip next door to 3rd grade to watch students as they performed their Poetry Cafe’. Our class learned that snapping is the polite way to applaud in a Poetry Cafe’. Students heard shape poems, cinquains, acrostics, limericks and alliterations from the third grade students. Awesome job 3rd grade and Mrs. Burks!

AAE44FA9-55EA-4D3D-8B25-96E808F1ACF2.jpeg

The weather has been very tolerable this week and we have made the most of being outdoors!

D68333F7-2F9F-49B9-8F45-1CDA8FD012F6.jpeg
13803EA4-C236-4CCD-87D6-6930642778FA.jpeg
280AB06B-A1F3-4D58-9BE2-4101DBFC1491.jpeg

Did you know the human skeleton has 206 bones? Second grade learned all about the skeleton this week and we even had time to make our very own X-ray image of our hands. Ask your child about how many bones are in their individual fingers and in their wrist!

9BDC9543-55CA-4996-9CEA-51730B097865.jpeg
8C57D606-55B8-4C33-9C64-6810DC85E293.jpeg
Jaclyn Thane
Fall Is In The Air

Second grade has enjoyed the cooler weather this week! We even practiced our spelling words with chalk on the brick path. We always look for opportunities to enjoy the outdoors!

In art, the class has been learning different ways to draw dinosaurs with Mrs. McCarley. There are some excellent artists in our class.

Recently, the students counted to 1,000 to begin a new mathematics unit covering place value. The students were challenged to figure out efficient and effective strategies to count 1,000 straws. They discovered bundling straws into units of 10, then 100 was a great way to keep track. This was a very fun introduction to place value!

We are wrapping up our first reading unit. We have discussed what it means to be a good teammate and we are learning a lot about working together by using our unique skills and abilities. Second grade is a blast!

Jaclyn Thane