Second grade had a visitor last week! Mae the Boykin Spaniel came to Lower School for show and tell and the second grade was in love! We all took turns playing, petting and loving on Mae. Since her visit, there have been many class discussions on what type of pet would be a good class pet.

We recently read the folktale Stone Soup. Second grade learned about the elements of a folktale. Folktales are passed from generation to generation and always teach a lesson. Good always prevails over evil in folktales. In the folktale Stone Soup a stranger convinces a village suffering from drought and famine to share their food with one another and learn the lesson of looking out for one another and sharing with those in need. Our essential vocabulary word was contribution. Each villager made a contribution to the soup and learned to be happy together again. This week students brought their contributions to class and we enjoyed a bowl of stone soup together. Some of the class love the soup and other we’re not so thrilled. We all had a great time feasting together!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!