Patriot Day

Second Grade observed Patriot Day by reading a book called 'Fire Boat: The Heroic Adventure of the John J. Harvey' by Maira Kalman. This story is about the adventures of a  fire boat that was built in the 1930's and how it helped fight the fires on September 11, 2001. Students also created 'Flags of Respect' to honor our country. 

Here is a photo of the students and their work: 

Meet Our Class!

 Drew

 Tyler

 Emma

 Collin

 Josie

 Brooke

 Francisco

 Ali

 Christa

 Hunter

 Zoey

 Mohammed

 Brian

 Iris

 Connor

 Aden

 Robin

Deena

Cold Blooded Creatures!

Mr. Jim Nesci and his cold-blooded creatures came to visit! The students were thrilled, and some took a few minutes to warm up to these creatures! 

Meet the Reptiles:

Bubba

Bubba the alligator is a phenomenon!  He is the one and only North American Alligator who takes commands from his trainer, Jim.  Bubba came to Jim as a rescue from the Chicago area. Of all the animals he has ever trained, Bubba is his pride and joy. Jim’s experience and patience has created a trust between them, that goes beyond the norm of pet and trainer.  He is a unique individual who builds bonds with special needs children and adults alike.  He amazes teachers and audiences wherever he performs.  He has appeared in schools, hospitals, museums and various TV shows and advertisements. Bubba is over 8 feet long, and weighs over 200 pounds.

Tank

Tank is an African Spurred Tortoise, from Central and Northern Africa.  He was the size of a silver dollar when Jim first received him, he was also captive bred.  These are the largest of the continental tortoises, not including the Galapagos and Aldabra tortoises.

Charlie

Charlie is a Burmese Python and is a poplular part of the audience participation. Jim lines up students  from the audience, who are thrilled to hold him.

Godzilla

Godzilla is a Black throat monitor lizard.  This specie is native to Tanzania.  They are known for eating venomous snakes, but are found to be immune from the bite of these snakes.



Here are some pictures from the day:

Have You Seen the Lorax?

Monitoring for Meaning!

To help them understand, students made 'Thinking Bubbles' with thinking stems written all over them to help them make connections and inferences while they are reading. Monitor for Meaning is a comprehension strategy that helps students to 'think about their own thinking' to help them understand the texts. All too often we hear a distracting voice while we are reading, so it's important to focus on the thinking voice we hear! 

Some of the thinking stems include:
I am wondering...
I am thinking...
I noticed...
I have a connection to...
I infer...
I picture...
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

These are great sentence starters that you can use at home while reading with your child. 

Here are a few pictures of the thinking bubbles: