I Know a Place To Go...

Last month we reported on the need for our students, everybody actually, to know how to calm down and focus.  As we mentioned, it sometimes takes practice finding a quiet place inside ourselves.  One way to practice is to have a quiet place out in the world, where you can go to breathe deep. This has been especially true around Boston recently.

Some of our second graders wrote about the quiet, calm places they can go and relax.  

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Common Core Has Many Uses, Part 2

For our last post, which you can see by scrolling down below, we showed one way Ms. Murphy's second grade class practiced the skills outlined in one of the new Common Core standards for second grade.

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 Last time you saw some of their letters to their parents, using evidence and reasons to convince them to grant a request.  This time they are "auditioning" for the advertising business.  Do you find their presentations compelling?

 

What will you buy next time you're at the store?

Common Core Has Many Uses

This is one of the new Common Core standards for second grade.

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Ms. Murphy's class is learning how to use research and evidence to support their opinions about history, animals, and other topics.  They are also learning that this Common Core Standard W.2.1 is very important in daily life.  One assignment they had was to write their parents and try to convince their mom or dad about something using reasons, logic, and evidence.

Are you convinced?

 

It's Spring!

Sadly in Boston, you can't always tell it's spring by looking through the window.  Or, by the date on the calendar.  Or, by the jacket you choose to put on.

If you look at the front hall in the Perkins School, however, you can see signs that spring has sprung.

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 First, there's Mrs. B working in the hallway, assembling the belts for Dragon Tail Tag.  

 

There are so many variations to the game.  It could be two or four teams of one color against the others or every dragon for her- or himself, dashing around snatching as many Velcro'ed tails as possible to win.  The important thing is the running, the dashing, the dodging--fun and exercise outside.

 Baseball is another sign of spring.

 

It gave Ms. Harden's class a more exciting way to learn to make diagrams than flowcharts or electrical systems.

If you still had any doubts, here is a plea posted in our hallway--a poem by Valerie, one of our second grade students.

Thank goodness, the weather has finally cooperated.

Meet Leo

Everyone, this is Leo.  Leo, this is the world beyond your home.

Oops, Leo is hiding.  He often does that, especially when people are around.

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Nevertheless, the kids in Ms. Murphy's second grade class have had many opportunities to see Leo, up close and personal.  There are times when Leo likes to stroll around his aquarium home.  There are even more times when he finds a good place to soak up some light.

"Leo is cold-blooded," explains Sacharis.  "That means he needs light and a heating pad to warm up."

Leo has a lot of kids who care about him.  They are also curious about what life is like for a leopard gecko.  It's nice to be able to learn about Leo in different ways.  

 

They can watch Leo carefully as scientists do and learn by observing his behavior.   They also have a book about geckos they can read to try and understand more about what they see.  They have seen Leo molt, for example.  The book says that leopard geckos shed their skins about once a month.  

"When it happens, it looks like the stuff on an onion," says Aliciana.  

It turns out that Leo eats that skin too.  "That's disgusting," said David, "but that's just what geckos do."

 

The kids have also seen Leo chow down--plenty of times.  He likes meal worms and has actually eaten up to fourteen in one day.  Some kids have watched and counted.

 

The guidebook is also supposed to explain how you can tell whether a gecko is male or female.  It's not as easy to figure out with lizards as other animals.  Even though the kids have read this section, they still haven't quite determined whether Leo is a he or a she.  Most kids think Leo is a he because of his name or because they want him to be.  

Others aren't as sure.  Even without a definite answer, there is a bright side to this problem.  Many kids have learned how to use a table of contents!

An Overdue Introduction to Leo

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This is a lovely letter from Brianna to Gecko, a welcome letter for when Gecko arrived in Ms. Murphy's second grade classroom.  It is heartfelt, but not entirely accurate. Gecko is the second graders' class pet.  They chose him (her?) in a true democratic process.  So it's fair to say that she (he?) is everybody's pet--at least, until summer vacation.  

Perhaps you remember way back in November, Ms. Murphy's class decided upon their class pet using the democratic process (reported on in four consecutive posts) .  They thought about the possible candidates--their advantages and disadvantages. What better way to learn to be a good citizen, especially at the same time another election was going on.  First they formed parties, so they could examine all the pros and cons of three animal choices.  (The idea of a cat never made the final cut.)

Their next move was to form three parties and begin planning their campaigns.  There's nothing better to sell your case than a good-looking poster.  Go Fish!  Go Hermit Crab!     Go Gecko!

Part of any campaign's goal is to convince voters that your choice is the best one. After presenting their speeches, The Fish Party, The Hermit Crab Party and The Gecko Party all understood that one of that week's vocabulary words, persuade, means to try to convince others of your point of view.

Election Day--secret ballot, NO DIRTY TRICKS.  The tally was very carefully counted.  At first it was close, but do you want to know who won? 

We've gone on long enough today.  Next post, we will introduce you to LEO.

Ready, Aim...FOCUS!

Sometimes so much is happening all around you that it is hard to concentrate upon one thing--even if you are supposed to.  It's true for adults, and it can be especially true for kids.  

So, how can you help them?  

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One way is to remind them about places in their lives and their minds that are calm and quiet. Some times, we can learn to go to our real life places (like a closet or a bed) in our minds.  It's a great way to relax and be able to focus on what's important wherever you are.

It's not always so easy.  Practice, however, can help.  A lot. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. let us introduce you to some of the kids who have made it into our Focus Hall of Fame.

Helping Hands

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How do friends help friends?  Actually how should people treat each other?  Mr. Pelletier's second grade class came up with their ideas in words and pictures.  They had a lot of lovely, caring ideas.  Take a look at their helping hands tree.

Common Core? We're Working on It!

If you aren't in the education field, you might not know that we have new national standards to help improve our kids' learning.  They are called the "Common Core State Standards."  Teachers are learning how to incorporate them into lesson plans. So our teachers and kids are learning together!

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Mrs. Murphy's second grade class read some information about the Pilgrims.  Then they applied the new second grade KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS standard to what they read.  The kids were asked to identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.

Mrs. Murphy made it more fun by having the kids write (and illustrate!) their own books. Their titles labelled their interpretations of the key idea: The Pilgrims Difficult Lives, for example, The Pilgrims Story, The Pilgrims Journey.  Then each following page identified the main idea of each paragraph.  The kids learned to pick out the important information and will eventually be able to take home book of their own.

Here are a few pages from two students' work:

Democracy by Doing--Part 4

"Why don't we vote by raising our hands," asked Aliciana.

"We do sometimes," answered Ms. Murphy," but this time we are voting the same way that adults vote for president.  We'll use secret ballots.  That way you can choose to vote for whatever pet you want. If you're in the Gecko Party, but after thinking about it, decided that a fish is better, you can vote for the fish without feeling any pressure.  No one will know your decision, but you."

It was finally Election Day for Ms. Murphy's second grade class.  After a few weeks of campaigning, they were voting for their new class pet.

 
Ms. Murphy showed them how to go to the booth and write down their choices on the big yellow Post-its.  Then she demonstrated folding the paper up so no one could see it while they walked to slip it in the ballot box.  

"Will your vote count?" someone called out.

"No," Ms. Murphy said.  "Adults are the only ones who can vote for president.  Here, kids are the only ones allowed to vote for our class pet."

Then the action began.  Kids took their pencils and Post-it and sat in the "voting booth" that had sides so no one could see their writing. Then they folded their ballot--one, two, three times--and took it to the box.

Then they folded their ballot--one, two, three times--and took it to the box.  

Principal Brawer popped his head in and added to the discussion.  "Sometimes voting is hard," he said.  "People make their choices and can feel bad when lose.  The same thing happens to adults who vote for the candidate who isn't elected president.  It's still important to all come together and support the winner of an election--whether it's a president or a hermit crab."

But would the pet be a hermit crab?  The tally began.  Vote after vote came out of the box and Ms. Murphy made mark beneath the candidates. For a while it was hard to know that animal was going to win.

Then the votes for the gecko surged.  The gecko won!

From this picture, it looks like most of the kids were pretty happy.  Maybe they took Mr. Brawer's words to heart.  Maybe they were just all excited that they would soon have a brand new member of the class.