Miss Miller's 2nd Grade

February Break

2011-02-28T08:49:00.001-05:00

Welcome back to school! I hope everyone enjoyed their vacation. I didn't go anywhere special over vacation but I did enjoy spending time with my family. For me the best part of vacation is being able to curl up with a book and read for as long as I want! What's your favorite part of vacation?
Miss Miller

Katie's 100th Day Writing

2011-02-18T09:39:00.000-05:00

If I had 100 dollars I would buy 2 gerbils because they are cute adorable fluffy things . I would name them Angel and pumpkin.

Hannah's 100th Day Writing

2011-02-18T09:36:00.000-05:00

If I had 100 dollars I would buy a horse because I love horses.I would get a horse that is copper colored and name it Penny.I will care for her and love her.

BY:Hannah

Connor R.'s 100th Day Writing

2011-02-16T10:30:00.000-05:00

If I had $100 I would buy 100 toys to give to the poor children. They don't have any toys.

Hugh's 100th Day Writing

2011-02-16T10:24:00.000-05:00

I wish I had 100 footballs because I like to play football. I wish I had 100 baseballs because I like to play with them. I would share them with my friends in this class.

John's 100th Day Writing

2011-02-16T09:55:00.001-05:00

I wish I had a 100 soccer balls because I like to play soccer. I would ask a friend to kick the ball to me and I would kick it back.

Dominic's 100 day writing

2011-02-16T09:44:00.003-05:00

I wish I had 100 dollars because I could donate some of the money to the church. Yes I can buy some food too.

Jaydan's 100th Day Story

2011-02-16T09:36:00.004-05:00

Once upon a time there was a boy named Jaydan. He had 100 dogs and cats, but he did not want 100 pets so he sold some of them. After he sold 98 dogs and cats he had 2 pets left.

Michael's 100th Day Writing

2011-02-16T09:30:00.002-05:00

I wish I had 100 puppies because I like puppies. I would play with them and share the puppies with my friends.

Winter Break

2011-02-11T10:43:00.003-05:00

February break is just 1 week away. What do you plan to do on your vacation from school?

100th Day Plans

2011-02-10T09:44:00.001-05:00

St. Thomas School's 100th day of school will be Wednesday, February 16th this year. What do you think we should do to celebrate on that day?

Dr. Seuss Books Read

2010-02-26T11:33:00.007-05:00

Grade 2 is spending two weeks reading Dr. Seuss books. We need people to take two surveys! Can you help us? The links below take you to the surveys. Thank you for your help!
The shorter, easier books: Easier Dr. Seuss Books Read
Longer Dr. Seuss Books: Dr. Seuss Books Read - Longer Books

The Keyholder Series

2010-02-02T15:25:00.003-05:00

Second Grade just finished listening to the first two books in the Keyholder series written by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thorton Jones. This Side of Magic and The Other Side of Magic are the titles of the first two of four books in the series. Second Grade strongly recommends this series!

The Goblins in the Book

2010-02-02T12:48:00.008-05:00

The goblins were surrounding Mr. Leery's house. Penny said, "Luke show your bracelet." "I didn't wear it today because it is too girly." Natalie had to come save Penny and Luke.

Isabel

Summary of the Magic Books

2010-02-02T11:05:00.007-05:00

In the first two books Mr. Leery chose Natalie, Penny, and Luke to be keyholders. Mr.Leery went to a far away place because one of the old keyholders died. Natalie heard Mo say mround and Natalie thought Mo was talking and she was right. Penny and Luke did not believe her. Then they saw a strange boy named Bobby on Mr. Leery's porch. Bobby was a boggart. The next morning Luke's milk was sour and he had no clean underwear and Bobby kept on sniffing Luke.

Carolyn

My Predictions for What Happens Next in the Series

2010-02-02T09:49:00.008-05:00

Kailee

In the next book I think the Queen of Boggarts will use the spells she has learned to get the keyholders out of the way so she can go to the side of the humdrums to attack and rule over them. Then she will be real and not just a story; the evil creatures will be free to do whatever they want to do and the humdrums will be slaves. The border will be broken and the humdrums will see the other side of magic and the keyholders will not be able to stop them. Mr.leary will be put in a place where the kids can not learn more spells to save the world.

How Was Your Christmas Break?

2010-01-02T18:28:00.005-05:00

How did you spend your Christmas break? I hope that everyone had lots of time to do something that they enjoy. This year my Christmas was very special because all of my family gathered at my house for Christmas. We were very, very busy. We had lots of food and there was lots of laughter. We went to Proctor's Theater on Sunday and the movies on Monday. I've never been to the movies before 9:00 in the morning before! We saw Avatar. Great movie - can't wait for the sequel. How did you spend your break?

Christmas Plans

2009-12-22T10:49:00.001-05:00

What are your plans for this Christmas? How will you be spending the holiday this year? Second Grade hopes that everyone enjoys their vacation. Please tell us what you will be doing.

Tongue Twister Exchange Fall 2009

2009-11-11T00:02:00.007-05:00

This fall 24 classrooms from the United States joined 1 Canadian classroom and 2 classrooms from Scotland for this year's Tongue Twister Exchange. Each classroom represented one letter of the alphabet and mailed one tongue twister to each of the other classrooms. St. Thomas represented the letter "T". We worked on creating many for the letter and then combined them all into one really long twister. Here's our slideshow:

Clicking on the title of this post will take you to the project WIKI.

Where the Wild Things Went

2009-10-26T23:10:00.009-04:00

Second grade has been working on Jenuinetech.com's Online Project: Where the Wild Things Went. First we read the story aloud and to ourselves many times. Then we thought about what might happen next in the story. The original story only has ten sentences so we tried to make our story additions only have ten sentences as well. Some students worked with partners while others decided to work alone. In Technology class we learned to use Microsoft Paint and created our own wild things!

Cameron and Aidan - What happens next?
When he got home he went downstairs and kissed his mom goodnight and said he was sorry. Then he went back upstairs to eat his dinner and go to bed. When he woke up he had breakfast and went to school. When he got to school he played Legos and his best friend did, too. Then he read a book. It was called Where the Wild Things Are. It started to rain so he had inside recess. then he went to his classroom and did schoolwork. After he did that he went home. He did his homework.

Carolyn and Lily - What happens next?
. . . where he found his supper waiting for he and it was still hot.
And that very night he had a dream about the wild things.
A monster said what are you doing here?
I am trying to find my way home.
Then the monster said . . . We don't allow people here, we only allow monsters here.
What is your name?
My name is Max.
You are on the V.I.P. list for the party.
Cool! said Max.
And then the monster ate him.
But it was all just a dream!

Anna - What happened next?
When Max go home he ate his dinner and played King of the Forest. He jumped around and made a lot of noise. His mom said can you be more quiet, please? Ok, Max said. Then he went to bed. In the morning he put on his fox costume and had fun. His mom put him to bed because he was making so much noise. It was just a dream.

Maeve, Tony and Kailee - changing the tense of the verbs.
The night Max wears his wolf suit and make mischief of one kind and another his mother calls him Wild Thing! And Max says, I'll eat you up! so she sends him to bed without eating anything. That very night in Max's room a forest grows and grows until his ceiling hangs with vines and his walls become the world all around and an ocean tumbles by with a private boat just for Max and he sails off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are. They are roaring their terrible roars and roll their eyes and show their terrible claws till Max says Be Still! and hi tames them with a magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once and they are frightened and call him the most wild thing of all and make him king of all wild things. And now cries Max let the wild rumpus start! Now stop! Max says and he sends them to bed without their supper. And Max king of all wild things is lonely and wants to be where someone loves him best of all. Then all around from far across the world he smells good things to eat so he gives up being kind of where the wild things are. But the wild things cry Oh please don't go - we'll eat you up - we love you so! And Max says No! The wild things roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth and they roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws but Max steps into his private boat and waves good-bye and he sails back over a year and in and out of weeks through a day and into the night of his own room where he finds his supper waiting for him and it is still hot.

Summer Blogging

2009-07-05T19:27:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Second Grade's Blog!

What are you doing with your summer vacation? I try to spend as much time as I can outside. I spend a lot of time weeding and taking care of the flowers and plants in our yard. On hot days I go swimming in our pool.

I started a Tongue Twister Project for elementary classrooms! Together with 25 other classrooms we'll create an alphabet book of Tongue Twisters by mailing our tongue twisters to each other.

I joined Postcrossing, an international postcard exchange. It's always a surprise where you'll receive postcards from. I mailed my first 5 postcards to Taiwan, Finland, Germany, China, and Ohio. We won't receive any postcards until those cards have been registered at Postcrossing. I'll bring any postcards I receive to school in September.

Would you like to leave a comment for us to read in September? Here's how: Click on the word COMMENTS underneath one of the posts. After the last comment you'll see a blank box you can type in. Write your entry. Under the box you'll see the words: COMMENT AS. Click on the down arrow and choose Name/URL. You can type just your name. (A URL would be typed if you have your own website.) Next double click on the button: Post Comment. If a word verification request appears, please type the letters you see.

I look forward to reading your comments! Have a really great summer.
Love,
Miss Miller
http://www.homestead.com/millergrade2

What was your favorite activity in second grade?

2009-06-07T18:10:00.004-04:00

There are many things that I like about second grade; things that I do year after year. Think about which topics or activities you enjoyed learning about the most. Please write about at least one thing and include the reason WHY it was something you enjoyed. Miss Miller

What was your favorite day in second grade?

2009-06-07T18:06:00.005-04:00

Take a moment to think about your year in second grade. What was your favorite day in second grade? What day was the most fun or the one you remember the best? What day would you like to have again if you could choose one day from this year? Miss Miller

Keyholders Series by Dadey and Jones

2009-05-20T18:46:00.008-04:00

Grade 2 has discovered a wonderful new chapter book series!! Here are the links to the series authors:
http://www.marciatjones.com/
http://www.debbiedadey.com/

Books #1 and #2 were released in May. Miss Miller read book #1 This Side of Magic first. We absolutely loved it! Then Madeline's Mom ordered #2 The Other Side of Magic online and Madeline brought it to school and we're reading it right now.

Books #3 Inside the Magic and #4 The Wrong side of Magic are coming in November 2009.

Write a comment about this new series!
Miss Miller

Second Grade Plays

2009-05-19T12:06:00.011-04:00

This year second grade wrote their own plays based on fairy tales and folktales. On May 18, 2009 we did our plays and showed them to the kindergarten and first grade. The first play was Cinderella. We were in that play. The second play was the Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. That play was cool. The third play was the How the Sun Came Back to the Sky. That play was a puppet show. The fourth play was Little Boy Riding Hood. It's Little Red Riding Hood, but it's a boy. The next play was the Magic Fish who was a prince who was turned into a fish and gave wishes. The last play was the Tortoise and the Hare. A hare is a bunny. All the plays are fairy tales. Our favorite fairy tales are Peter Pan and Aladin. You can read our plays at http://millergrade2.homestead.com/StudentWriting/Folktales.html.

Gabriella and Madeline

Symbolic Migration

2009-05-17T19:00:00.006-04:00

In September St. Thomas first and second graders watched Monarch caterpillars change into butterflies. We released our adult butterflies on September 29th and hope that that flew south for the winter.

Information from Journey North:
About the Symbolic Migration: Students across the United States and Canada send symbolic butterflies to Mexico each fall. At the monarch sanctuaries in Mexico children protect the butterflies all winter and send them north in the spring. United by the monarch butterfly, children across North America learn lessons of conservation and ambassadorship.

In the fall St. Thomas Second graders sent 22 paper butterflies to Mexico. If you "click" on the title of this post you can view the map of returning butterflies. Our butterflies are not on the map yet.

In May we received 17 back in return from the following schools in the U.S.A.
1) South View Elementary in Muncie, IN
2) Norrie Elementary School in Ironwood, MI
3) St. Ferdinand School in Florissant, MO (Paul, Mauri)
4) Trinity Episcopal School in Charlotte, NC
5) York Middle School in York, NE (Hannah, Jacob)
6) Hampton Public School in Hampton, NJ
7) Carthage Middle School in Carthage, NY
8) Ichabod Crane Middle School in Valatie, NY
9) Robert Seaman School in Jericho, NY
10) Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Cuyahoga Falls, OH
11) Grove Patterson Academy in Toledo, OH
12) Greenwood Elementary in Kennett Square, PA
13) Skippack Elementary School in Collegeville, PA
14) Hugh Cole School in Warren, RI
15) Balmoral Ridgeway Elementary, TN
16) Cummings Elementary School in Memphis, TN
17) JEJ Moore Middle School in Disputanta, VA

Results of the Places We Will Go

2009-05-14T17:50:00.010-04:00

In May we participated in JenuTech's The Places We Will Go project. This internet project was open to K-6 classrooms around the world. Classrooms from 16 USA states, Canada, Thailand and Australia participated in this project. http://www.jenuinetech.com/Projects/pwwg/index.htm Students will used Google Earth to locate a variety of well-known landmarks around the world and calculated distance from their school to the location of each landmark. Mrs. Sica and Miss Miller worked with students during Technology class on this project. Second graders were able to locate each landmark; Miss Miller needed to calculate the distance for each landmark.

Our results from St. Thomas the Apostle School to:
Landmarks Everyone Used:
Acropolis, Athens 4,894 miles
Badaling Great Wall, China 6,668 miles

Big Ben, England 3,373 miles
Bungle Bangles, Australia 10, 161 miles
Easter Island, Chile 5,264 miles
Great Pyramids, Egypt 5,527 miles
Mount Everest, 7,360 miles
St. Louis Gateway Arch, USA 899 miles 899
Table Mountain, South Africa 7,877 miles

St. Thomas additions:
Grand Canyon, 2,132 miles
Statue of Liberty, NY 134 miles
White House, Washington, D.C. 307 Miles
Disney World, Florida 1,073 miles
Tokyo Tower, Japan 6,628 miles

The Places We'll Go

2009-05-13T09:41:00.009-04:00

We went to Google Earth on the computer. We used the internet to fly to other places. Our favorite place was the Statue of Liberty. At first you see the whole earth and then you zoom down and can see other things. You can only see the top of a building; you can't see inside. You can type in any address or see your building or place you type in. That is how you go on Google Earth.
By Patrick, Andrew and Jake

Gym Class

2009-05-13T08:48:00.005-04:00

Juliana and I are in the Green group. Are favorite game is Island Hop. Sometimes we play and sometimes not. How we play it is someone who is a pirate go's on the island and that person try's to get us. The last two people are the winners and they get to be the pirates. It 's a very very fun game. The islands are the circle in the gym. You get picked from Mrs. Heim to start the game. We don't like to be picked. One time our travel buddy, Curious George came to gym class.

Juliana and Gabriella

Flat People Begin Their Adventures

2009-05-12T21:27:00.013-04:00

Flat Stanley is a book written by Jeff Brown. Classes around the world can join the Flat Stanley project and mail paper Stanleys to other classrooms. St. Thomas 2nd graders have hosted several flat people this year.

This week our Flat People were mailed to their host schools. They'll visit the other schools for 1 or 2 weeks and then return to us.

Julia's Flat Person went to Mrs. Singsank's Grade Two class, Saint Mary School in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. (Arrived 5/22)

Harry's went to Ms. Ronquillo's second grade at our "sister" school, St. Thomas Apostle School in San Francisco, California.

Juliana sent hers to Chystal Baker's 2nd Grade class at St. Patrick School in Lufkin, Texas. Chrystal Baker.

Kate sent her Flat Person to Ms. Young's 2nd Grade at Noble Academy in Columbus, Ohio.

Morgan's is off to Scottie Anderson's class at Bradley Creek Elementary located in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Emiko sent her Flat Person to Mrs. Bergland's 2nd Grade at Crossroads Christian School in Portland, Oregon. (Arrived 5/19)

Gabriella's is visiting Ms.McCann's 2nd grade at Screven Elementary School in Screven, Georgia.

Julie B. sent her flat person to Mrs. McFall's Class at Robinson Elementary School in Fresno, California.

Mrs. Josephine Smith's class at Big Springs Elementary School in Simi Valley, California is hosting Madeline's.

Michael sent his flat person to Mrs. Dykman's 2nd grade at Woodwared Academy, Detroit, Michigan.

Mrs. Boelman, a retired kindergarten teacher, is hosting Emily's flat person in Iowa.

Art Class

2009-05-11T10:27:00.008-04:00

Mrs. Dwyer teaches us art. In first grade one of the first things we did was the owl project. A few weeks later we did the 3D fish. In second grade we made a cat. The Christmas wonderland was fun to do in art. And the shoe master was cool too. We made a picture of Mary with a mask plate. We also sketched a table of food. The last thing we did a Mother's day card. by Jenna and Kate.

The May Crowning

2009-05-08T10:54:00.007-04:00

We got into church and we all had a rosary. We had time to talk to friends and then we had to quiet down. Then we all went into the church. When it was time to do the rosary two eighth graders and four second graders went up and did a decade of the rosary.Then the second grade said a decade and then the boys. Then the eighth grade did a decade. Then we all did it together. Then the grownups took pictures of the class.
Reported by: Emiko, Julie, and Anna

May Crowning 2009

2009-05-08T10:30:00.003-04:00

Monday night second and eighth grades gathered at St. Thomas the Apostle Church for the May Crowning. When we got in to the gathering space we took pictures. People talked for 5 or 10 minutes and then sat down in the church. Then second and eighth graders all processed into church. First the court lined up and said one decade of the rosary. Then the second grade girls said their decade of the rosary. Then the 2nd grade boys. Then all of the 8th grade. Finally the 8th graders and 2nd graders led the last decade. Then the court crowned Mary.

Then the priest took a cross that had the host in it and it was time for the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. We ended with a closing hymn.

Reported by: Anthony, Morgan, Julia, and Madeline

First Holy Communion

2009-04-26T15:38:00.000-04:00

Our big day finally arrived! Today 19 of our second graders made us all proud as they celebrated the sacrament of First Holy Communion for the very first time. The church was crowded and everyone was so excited. Jimmy started our day off when he read the Introduction. Kate helped carry the banner and led the procession into the church two-by-two "just like Noah's Ark". It was wonderful to see all those smiles greeting us. Julie read the Acts of the Apostle for our First Reading. The gifts were brought to the altar by Juliana and Michael. I was so happy to see everyone receive the gift of the Eucharist that I had happy tears in my eyes! What did you enjoy the most about our day?

Write a comment for all to read!

Love,

Miss Miller

Our New Classroom Blog

2009-04-17T23:29:00.004-04:00

Welcome Back from Spring Break!

Last week I was surfing the net and found some other second grade classrooms that have websites and classroom blogs. I thought that we could try our own.
On the right side of this page you'll see My Blog List. Mrs. Harju's 2nd Grade class in Grand Rapids, Michigan wrote and recorded their own stories about What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs. Check it out!

2RR's Blog belongs to a class from Sydney, Australia. You'll notice that in Australia they write the date by putting the day first. 09/04/2009 is April 9, 2009. You can read their first blog entries.

Mrs. Diaz's 2nd grade class is all boys! Their current blog is about the books they are reading.

Our Shelfari Bookshelf on the bottom right shows some of the books I've recently added to our classroom library. Have you read any of them?

What should we include on our blog? You can write your answer by clicking on the comment button. You can write a short comment about whatever you'd like. Don't forget your first name! After making your comment you need to look under the box. Where you see "Comment as" select "anonymous" as your profile because 2nd graders don't have online profiles. Then choose "post comment".

Happy Blogging!
Love,
Miss Miller