Penguin Love

 Mrs. Cockrell LOVES penguins, and when she was out sick the week that we were supposed to study them, she was so sad!  We HAD to learn about penguins, so we did it the following week!  We read a lot of books, watched a lot of videos, read magazines, checked out Nat Geo Kids, and more.  We are definitely learning about all the places you can go to find out information about a topic.  This is great for our upcoming research project that you'll hear more about very soon!  :)

Please enjoy our pictures below:

 

 Left: Penguin Craftivity via Ms. Fultz's Corner (not our lovely librarian--different Ms. Fultz!)

Right: Penguin Book with Tree Map (idea found on Pinterest via Jean's Crafty Corner).

 

Tree Map about Penguins

 Penguin facts put into complete sentences

 I love how each penguin book looked so different!

Some wanted to use googly eyes, and some wanted to draw their own.

 Lots of great information!

 Some students added their own flair to their penguin craftivity! 

Love this penguin daddy protecting his egg.

 Penguin with earmuffs!

 Hair ribbon!  :)

 Love the earmuffs and speech bubble!

 Excited about all the new facts!

 Heart-shaped penguin!  :)

 Girly penguin!

They did really well putting their facts into complete sentences.  We are working up to writing paragraphs that flow, using a topic sentence and closing sentence.  2nd grade is a big year for writing growth!  Trying to get them prepared for all the writing in 3rd!  

Thanks for checking out all our hard work.  Not all the students wanted their pictures on our blog, but I hope you were able to see their awesome work when they brought home their projects.

Cooperative Thinking Maps

Often in class when organizing our thinking an learning, we will create Thinking Maps.

Today we created Bubble Maps to describe Johnny Appleseed.

We talked about how important it is for us to work together successfully and that we will be practicing a lot this year!

Here are some pics from today:

Exploring Maps

This week, we've been talking about maps, and today we got a chance to look at all different kinds of maps!

First, we watched a video all about map skills and created Circle Maps about maps! Ha, get it?

Then we partnered up and looked through atlases for maps that were interesting.

Then we got to share with the class.
We were VERY into maps today!
Think about looking at a map with your child at home and talking about the compass rose, the map key, the scale, and any other features included.

Human Circle Maps

Last week was our first week in 2nd grade, and we had a blast!

One of the fun "getting to know you" activities we did was to create "human circle maps" to tell about ourselves.

It was fun for me to see who prefers drawing and who prefers to use words. I love how we are all so different and have different talents, interests, and things we're passionate about.

Here are some of our Thinking Maps.