Reading with Mrs. White

This week in reading we explored the different ingredients or elements that go into a story to make it fun such as setting, character, conflict, climax and resolution of a story. After reading A Bad Case of the Stripes our class broke the story down into the literary elements and wrote about it. Once we finished with our writing we decided that we all had a bad case of the stripes and drew ourselves with multicolored stripes. But our stripes aren't any ordinary stripes, they have patterns!

Esta semana en lectura hemos explorado los diferentes ingredientes o elementos que van en una historia para hacerla divertida,  como el escenario, los personajes, el problema, el trama/argumento y la solución. Después de leer Un grave caso de las rayas nuestra clase  hablo sobre los elementos literarios y escribió sobre la historia. Una vez que terminamos con nuestra escritura decidimos que todos tuvimos un mal caso de las rayas y nos dibujamos a nosotros mismos con rayas de multicolores. Pero nuestra rayas no son rayas ordinaria,  tienen diferentes patrones!

Somebody Wanted But So

In reading this week we learned about writing summaries using the “Somebody wanted, but, so” strategy.

On Thursday we worked in partners to make summaries of stories.  Some of us chose Moon Bear’s Pet by Frank Asch, and some of us read Lemonade For Sale by Stuart J. Murphy. 

Lemonade for Sale

Andrew and Kobe:

Somebody: Elm Street Kids

Wanted: Money to rebuild their clubhouse

But: on Thursday they hardly sold any lemonade

So: Friday they moved next to the juggler and got enough money to rebuild the clubhouse.

Sebastian and Felipe:

The Elm Street Club wanted money.  But no people came. So they went where the guy did tricks.

Ben and Marc:

The kids wanted money but nobody comes to their lemonade stand.  So then they made money because the new kid was juggling next to the kids.

Ryan and Rodney:

Once there were kids and their piggy bank was empty.  They needed money.  But a new kid came and got in their way.  In the end they made lots and lots of money.

Moon Bear’s Pet

Collin and Angelo:

Bear wanted a pet. But they were arguing.  In the end they were happy.

Corey and JaCorey:

Bear wanted a pet. But bear and bird started to fight.  So bear and bird and frog are friends.

Rock Star of the Week

Way to go, Omar!

Beetles!

Each week we get out mealworms out and examine their life cycle stages.  We started with 52 larva.  This week we had 27 larva, 10 pupa, and 15 adults.

Our chart showing our mealworms' growth.
The sticky notes are our predictions for this week.

The mealworms like to hide in the oat bran.

We use a magnifying glass to see them better.   

  

We observed our mealworms and beetles.

We recorded our observations.

We added information to our chart.

  

We played a little bit, too.  Yes, parents, we washed our hands and tables afterward.  :)

Fact Families

Lions, Zebras, and Ghost oh my! Our Fact Family Houses were full of all kinds of animals and creatures! Second grade this week created houses full of facts and created stories to go along with their fact family.

A Fact Family is a group of addition facts together with the related subtraction. For example, 5 + 6 = 11, 6 + 5 = 11, 11 -5 = 6, and 11- 6 = 5

After we created our fact family houses we adventured outside and drew our families on the sidewalk with chalk. We love being able to show our amazing math skills everywhere we go.

Personal Narrative

Last week we started writing our personal narratives.  We hope you enjoy reading our stories.

Christian R:

Me and my family went to the pool.  When we got to the pool I ran to the pool and jumped.  Splash!  I got everyone wet.  Then they got me wet on purpose.  Then I went under water.  Then I pretended to be a shark.  I came up and scared everyone.  Then we left.

Sebastian:

I went outside.  I hate getting my dog, but I had to.  Now let’s go to the good part.  My dog growled at me.  Grrrrr!!!  He was chasing me.  Aaaaaahhhhhh!  Then I got him and my brother came outside.  Then I took fleas off my dog with my brother.  Then it was a good day.

Ryan:

I went to the water park.  My mom came with me.  Me and my mom went into the water castle.  There was a giant bucket of water.  It tipped over and splash!  We got soaked.  My friend Kylie and her mom, Amanda, my, and I were being pulled around a giant rock surrounded by water.  My mom helped me when the water was pulling me away from her.  In the water park there was a place with waves.  My mom and Amanda were sitting in the wavy water while me and Kylie were in giant floats.  The waves were pushing us away from our moms.  In the water park there were other giant water slides and they were yellow.  There were some water beds.  They had handles, so we layed down on our stomachs and we slid down the slide.  I was scared.  At the park they had life jackets at water land.  It was fun because there were giant mushrooms.  Kylie brought her life jacket.  On the mushrooms was a waterfall.  Me and Kylie went through the waterfall and under the mushroom.  We left the water park.

Alejandra:

When it was the first day of school I was happy to learn about math and get books so I can get smart and to read chapter books.  I want to draw and color stuff so the drawing looks good.  Then I did my work at my table.

Eric:

It happened at my house that was my sixth birthday.  There was cake at my birthday.  My friends were there, and my cousins were there, too.  There were presents, too.  It happened at 8:00 on Sunday.

Interesting Writing

Our classes are practicing making our writing interesting.  This week we learned three ways to begin a story that will make our readers want to continue reading.


First is to use a SOUND to start our story.  "Splash!  My friend did a cannon ball into the swimming pool."


Second is to begin with an EXCITING STATEMENT.  "Emma raced across the room to the fireplace and grabbed the green birthday gift bag."


Last, we learned to use TALKING at the beginning of our writing.  "Yum!  This cupcake is delicious."


Next week we will be working on the stories some more.