Brignac's Brightest: November 2015

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Second Grade Smiles...plus a little SLIME!

Good afternoon!

Whew---Today was a crazy (but FUN!) day. Take a look:

Veteran's Day:

We took time to learn about Veteran's Day and the importance of honoring those who have served our country in the armed forces. We read articles and stories about Veteran's Day, watched a short video on the history of the holiday, and wrapped up with our latest issue of Scholastic News. Ask your child what he/she learned about this important day!

A Wednesday that felt like a Friday:

What does that mean for us? MATH GAMES! Students reviewed time, money, and place value all while having fun together!

Read-A-Thon

Today, we celebrated reaching our class goal by having a "Root Beer Float Read Aloud" party. Students enjoyed a sweet treat while listening to a story about honoring our troops. :-) Then, we celebrated meeting our school goal with an all-school assembly!

Congrats to Ronan, Tommy, Liam, Charlotte, and Elise for reaching the minute-club milestones!

Root Beer Floats!

Ready for the assembly!

Mrs. Hagebock is a brave soul. She allowed the students to VOTE on what would happen if we reached our school-wide goal. The students decided.....

that...

Mrs. Hagebock would get SLIMED!

Watch a VIDEO of the fun below!

Have a great evening (and stay DRY)!

:-) Mrs. B

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Help Promote a Growth Mindset in your Child!

Good afternoon!

I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weekend! As I am sitting here planning for the week (and maybe watching a little football....SKOL Vikings!), I found this great handout on mindsets. You may remember this video from last year in regard to praise and how it can impact positively or negatively impact your child:

So...What is a GROWTH Mindset? How can you help foster a growth mindset in your child? Take a look!

If you have any questions about this topic, please let me know. I am no expert, but I am trying to learn more about this important topic and will try my best to help! :-) You can also learn more about mindsets (a truly fascinating topic, no matter what field you study) from the book, Mindsets: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck.

Have a great day!

:-) Mrs. B

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

October Update/Fall Harvest FUN!

Good evening!

My oh my...we have been BUSY at Somerset! The month of October was FULL of fall fun, and I can't wait to share it with you!

Butterflies!

First, we began the month with our science unit on the life cycle of butterflies. Students received a small cup with a caterpillar inside. They observed the caterpillar until a chrysalis was formed.

It's a little blurry, but this is a picture of a chrysalis ready to be transported into the butterfly net!

After 7-10 days in a chrysalis, the butterflies began to emerge!

We released the butterflies into our school butterfly garden. It was such a special day!

We wrapped up our unit with a trip to Dodge! Here are some photos I captured from our outing:

4th Grade Buddies!

We also met our fourth grade buddies in Ms. Duellman's class. We had a great time getting to know each other!

Writer's Workshop:

Our new writing curriculum, Being a Writer, has brought much-needed structure to our writing time. We have grown so much even in one short unit together!

One of the most important components of a Writer's Workshop is prioritizing sharing time. Each day, students have a chance to share their writing work with a partner, small group, or to the class.

During full-class shares, we practice responding to writing by using sentence stems such as, "I learned..." and "I liked when..." It is a great way to build class community and confidence in both speaking and listening skills!

We wrapped up our first unit by writing SPOOKY stories. Thanks to Dani's grandfather, we even had a Jack-o-Lantern in our room to "set the mood!"

We read many spooky stories together and discussed using "sight and sound words." Students got really good at describing what spooky things look and sound like in their writing. :-) As we wrapped up our stories, students published their work using Educreations! It was our first try using this app as a class, but I think they turned out great! I can't wait to continue to share our stories in this way. The sound can be tricky to hear, so be sure to turn your volume up. We'll work on that!

Take a look:

Charlotte's Spooky Story

Lamont's Spooky Story