Second graders have been learning to be observers of the world that surrounds us. By paying close attention, gathering data, and documenting what we see, we are building our questions about the many natural elements that make up our community. Second graders began the observations by journeying outside of our classrooms to the front field of Brookside's campus. Here we were amazed by how many interesting things we pass each day, and forget to notice! Over the past two weeks, each class has headed further from campus to Nishuane Park to discover a wider place. There, we found a wide variety of leaves, small animals, and insects nestled beneath the dirt. With the guidance of Ms. Glynn, we have taken time to record our observations into our beautiful nature journals. We are excited to continue this project and pay close attention to how our community changes through the seasons.
This week, we held our first Writing Celebration in our classrooms. Students have worked hard throughout the fall to brainstorm, plan, draft, edit, revise, and publish one of their small moment stories to share with their guests. During our writing celebration on Wednesday, teachers first shared information about the small moment writing process. Then children read stories to their individual guests, concluding the celebration with snacks and drinks provided by parent volunteers. (Thank you to all who helped to make our celebration special!) By looking at the drafts as well as the final product, we could see writers doing the hard, brave work of revising and editing their stories to make them the strongest they could be. The children met authors and illustrators during the Book Fair this week and noted that all writers, whether they are in second grade or professionals, go through a similar process. We are very proud of our second grade writers and are excited to launch into our next unit in Writing Workshop, Persuasive Reviews.
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