Happy Summer!

Hi there, THIRD GRADERS!!!

Wow! It's hard to believe second grade is over. Kids - I miss you already! We had an exciting and busy week this week and today we celebrated all of our hard work with Camp Learned A Lot and a class picnic! It was so much fun!

Camp Learned A Lot was great! In the morning we wrote about our favorite memory in second grade, we did a scavenger hunt to find out interesting facts about our classmates, we read on the Smart Board and we did the class favorite, math races! After math races the kids went to PE and they returned just in time for our picnic! After our great class picnic we had more Camp Learned A Lot. We did 5 centers:
1. Create A School - The kids created, designed and drew their perfect school! They worked together and they had lots of great detail!
2. Camp Learned A Lot - The kids got to show off their writing skills by writing all about the school year. The kids came home with a Camp Learned A Lot packet where they described what they learned and their favorite things from second grade.
3. Build It - The kids had a variety of unrelated materials and they had to work together to brainstorm and create new objects. They were all so creative and different!
4. Paint It - The kids showed off their artistic side by using water colors to paint flowers on coffee filters. They look so pretty and they reminded us of Eric Carle's art!
5. Fabulous Father's Day - This week in guided reading we learned about the history and celebrations of Father's Day. Today the kids made cards for their dads for Father's Day next month!

After centers we watched a video on Amazing Wild Animals! We enjoyed cupcakes AND donuts! Yum! Thank you so much to the children who brought treats in to share with the class.

We ran off our treats at recess and then we came back to say goodbye to our 5th grade friends in the 5th grade send off!

After the 5th grade send off there was just a little bit of time left...for Rainbow Club!!! As an end of the year treat, everyone was on Rainbow! It was a great way to end such a special day.

To my students: thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for such an amazing semester! I LOVED being your teacher and getting to know you and your parents. You are so smart and so special! I know that you are going to have a successful third grade year!

To the families: thank you so much for all of your kindness and support! It was so wonderful to know that I could count on all the great moms and dads to help out in the classroom and be such an important part of second grade.

Thank you for the wonderful and thoughtful gift cards! Mrs. Bennett and I are excited to go shopping and pick out our matching pink marathon outfits! I look forward to picking up some summer reading at Borders and getting some treats at Trader Joe's. Thank you!

Have a stupendous summer!
Mrs. Johnston

Friday Is Our Favorite Day!

Wow! Today was our last Friday in second grade! We have 4 days left to learn a lot and have a lot of fun!

Our Math Madness week was a success! We did two lessons each day and we are almost done with Chapter 10! In math we learned all about money and place value. We learned how knowing about money can help with our place value cubes. Kids - be sure to tell your parents how counting with money and counting with place value cubes are similar. We learned how to use place value tools. These will be great to use over the summer for math practice!

We are in the home stretch with our Eric Carle essays and some students have completed their books! This is a challenging project and I am so proud of the students for working hard to complete it. The finished books look great and I can't wait until all 25 are done!

We learned about persuasive writing! Mr. Johnston and I were trying to decide whether or not we should get another miniature schnauzer so Sophie Pink could have a sister (I was in favor and Mr. Johnston wasn't sure). This debate turned out to be a great teachable, real-life moment! We learned what it means to write persuasively and when persuasive writing can help. The students decided their position on the dog issue and wrote letters to support their position. The letters are sweet, funny and very convincing! How did things turn out? Check out the new picture on the blog to find out!

Get ready for a great last week of school! Our class will have a picnic on Thursday, May 20 at 11:30 in the courtyard. Parents are welcome to attend. It's going to be a great week!

Have a super weekend!
Mrs. Johnston