One Day...

Although we are excited for summer the end of the year is always bittersweet. I will probably be up all night from last day jitters, just like the first day of school. I will miss these smiling faces! We have had a great year together and have had a laid back couple of days tying up loose ends, reflecting on our year and enjoying each others company. One day left before we become 3rd graders! 

Ocean Stories

It was quite the marathon to end our year, but we successfully finished our picturing writing ocean stories. We each picked an ocean animal to research and create a story about. This was a big process, but gave us the opportunity to follow each step of the writing process from plan to final published piece. We created our pictures first using beautiful watercolor techniques. The pictures helped bring our stories to life. We worked hard to generate lists of descriptive words to enhance our writing and used many picture books to model detailed, descriptive writing. We have enjoyed sharing them with each other. It has been fun to see how unique each story is. Look for them in your child's APE book soon and enjoy reading together!

 

Field Day Fun

We had a beautiful morning for field day this past week, and beat the rain just in time to finish all our stations! It was fun to work together as a 2nd grade team and support each other. Team Yellow did an awesome job! Now on to the talent show to wrap up a wonderful school year!

Odiorne Point

We couldn't have had a more perfect day at Odiorne Point. The sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze over the ocean.We had a great time exploring the rocky shore and learning more about sea creatures. We found many crabs, periwinkles and barnacles hidden within the rocks. Some of us found ourselves knee deep in water. I think this was the wettest class yet! Thank you to the chaperones who were able to join us and enjoy a morning at the rocky shore. It is a trip we will remember forever.

Spring Concert

What a good looking bunch.... and great singers too! We did an awesome job at our spring concert! This time of year makes me so grateful to have such a wonderful bunch of kiddos- I am always  in awe of how much we have grown since our  winter concert - soon to be 3rd graders! Wow! 

The Wonderful Ms. Higgins!

We were so sad to say goodbye to Ms. Higgins. She has played such a huge part in our learning this year and we have enjoyed every minute with her.  We wrote letters of recommendation to help Ms. Higgins get a job and we are happy to announce that it worked! Ms. Higgins was given a great offer to teach in a 3rd grade classroom! Those are going to be some lucky kiddos.  

Ms. Higgins loved the books that the kids selected and signed for her. She will use them in her new classroom! Thanks for your support. If you are "spring cleaning" and have any other gently used books Ms. Higgins will put them to good use! 

We had hoped to see more of Ms. Higgins in the next few weeks, but she was asked to cover a sudden maternity leave in 2nd grade (where she will be teaching next year) We will have to Skype her in so she can be a part of our end of the year activities. We are very happy for her and wish her the best!! 

Great Bay

We had an awesome time exploring the Great Bay Estuary! See if we remember what an estuary is. We spent the past few weeks learning about the creatures that you may find in an estuary and specifically the life cycle of a Horseshoe Crab. It was so neat to see them up close and have the chance to hold one. We were so careful and respectful of all the animals we saw. We spent our day with 2O and went on a nature walk, had a chance to touch and learn about animals in the touch tank (Flounder, crabs, Horseshoe crabs) and spent time at the estuary searching for Horseshoe crabs... Unfortunately we didn't see any this time but we didn't seem to mind. Horseshoe crabs come to shore in late spring to lay their eggs so we may have been a bit early. We learned some very cool things about Horseshoe crabs...ask us!

Thanks to our chaperones for joining us! Our next trip will be to Odiorne state park on May 28th to visit the rocky shore. If you would like to join us, we would love to have you!