Last week, we read T’was the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey (a favorite author among several of our second graders). While listening to the story, students were to imagine they were one of the Turkeys on Farmer Mack Nugget’s farm. (Spoiler alert: Farmer Mack wants to eat one of them for his Thanksgiving dinner). We discussed how they might feel, what they might be thinking, and what they might do if they were one of the Turkeys. Students were then tasked with writing a persuasive letter (in the perspective of a turkey) to Farmer Mack Nugget in hopes of convincing the farmer to not eat them for his Thanksgiving dinner. Students ventured through the writing process by brainstorming and organizing their ideas, creating a rough draft, revising their writing, then publishing their work.

To prepare for the big day, students had several opportunities to practice reading their letters aloud to their peers, focusing on their pacing, fluency, and expression. One way we practiced reading our letters was by forming an inner-outer circle. Once both partners read their letters, students on the outer circle would rotate one spot clockwise and the inner circle would rotate one spot counter clockwise.

Finally, our little turkeys presented their persuasive letters to Farmer Mack Nuggett, their classmates, and families. They were a little nervous about the public speaking opportunity… but they nailed it! Families joined the fun, being great audience members and bringing small dishes to share. All of the turkeys were able to successfully persuade the farmer (Mrs. Keller) to spare their lives, therefore able to enjoy some goodies together and relish in their victory.

 

Big thank you to ALL of the families for supporting this fun project!

Our second graders have officially wrapped up their Maps and Landforms unit. Students have been expanding their understanding of interpreting and creating maps while exploring the “bumps and grooves” of the earth’s surface, otherwise known as Landforms. Over the past month we have worked together to identify 12 different Landforms, discussed their features and special qualities, and even shared our own experiences with these Landforms. We first recorded our insights with our own interpretive illustrations of each landform:

Students were then tasked with creating their own 2D map, displaying all 12 Landforms. Since the maps they were creating weren’t representing a real place, it was as if they were all creating their own little worlds… so of course they got to title their maps accordingly!

This week, students replicated their maps by constructing a 3D representation using salt dough. This was a long, messy, and exciting process (and totally worth it)! I think the quote of the day might have been tied between, “This project is harder than I thought it would be” and “Mrs. Keller, can we eat the dough?”. Ha!

The students had so much fun with these projects. Major shout out to all the parents that came to help out! We couldn’t have don’t this without you! Lastly, big thank you to Giovanni’s Pizza on Coast Village Road for donating the pizza boxes!