WELCOME SPRING!

So many wonderful sights and sounds are letting us know SPRING is here in St. Louis!  We are so fortunate to have this beautiful tree right outside our classroom.  We enjoy looking at it every day!  We wrote our Florida pen pals this week and sent this picture, along with some other pictures of flowers blooming around Spoede.  

"And the award goes to....."

We wrapped up our Opinion Writing unit on Friday with an AWARDS celebration.  The kids each wrote nominations for their favorite book(s), came up with different award categories (Action Packed, Funniest Character, Attention Grabber, etc), and even judged the different nominations.  The award winners were announced during a small ceremony in class on Friday.  

The books were given small ribbons to place on the covers.  

The kids have been encouraged to write a letter to the author of the books they nominated  (even if their nomination didn't receive an award), and let the author know how much they enjoyed reading the book.  We will mail the letter, along with the book nomination to the author or publishing company.  We  are all hoping to hear something back. 

The nomination forms and book covers are hanging outside our room to help
 entice other readers to try these
AWARD WINNING books out!

NEW MATERIALS!!!

The SSA has generously donated some new math games, as well as NEW LAPTOPS to our classroom.   The kids LOVE using them during our Math Workshop!  We also were introduced to a new game for fact fluency as well.  Our math time FLIES BY each morning, and the kids are engaged and working hard the entire time!

Latest Outdoor (indoor) Learning Classroom Experience

We continued on in our BIRD STUDY and learned all about bird's BEAKS.  We discussed the various FUNCTIONS of beaks, as well as the different KINDS of beaks birds have.  The class then had the opportunity to TEST OUT  materials that were very similar to a beak, and  use them to find different food sources.  Make sure to have your child fill you in a little more on this very cool, 

hands on experience!  A HUGE THANK YOU to the parent volunteers 

that were able to help out today!

Sending a little WINTER to FLORIDA!

We received some letters this week from our Florida pen pals.  We thought it would be fun to send them SNOW along with our letters back.  We know that when it gets to them our snow will have melted...but it is still fun to MAIL a little  WINTER!  

We bundled up and took a class picture outside in the snow! 

Lots of LOVE in 2L!

Our class had a WONDERFUL time at our Valentine's Day Party!  The kids passed out and enjoyed reading Valentine's from friends, as well as making a special I LOVE YOU craft to take home.  The PINK POPCORN was a HUGE HIT!  MANY THANKS  to all the families that helped make this party a fun and memorable event!

Video Chat with a REAL SCIENTIST!

We are wrapping up our Writing unit on Lab Reports, and I thought it would be fun for the class to talk with a real scientist, that uses LAB REPORTS in his job!  (Helping to make a real-world connection to what we have been learning.)  I was so happy to get to introduce my older brother, Dr. Chatham Callan, to 2L this week!  My brother is a marine biologist in Hawaii, and took some time out of his day to talk with the kids about how her uses lab reports in his job, as well as how he has to at times "tweak" and repeat experiments.  The kids were able to each ask him a question, and say hello!  

Here we all are with my brother in the background!

It is not everyday you get to talk with a real scientist!  

Nathan has a question to ask.

Mya asked if he had tried feeding the fish watermelon!  

Jay had a question to ask.

Carter says hello!

Here is Angela asking her question.

Peyton is reading her question to Dr. Callan.

My brother turned his phone around so the kids could see some of his labs (down below his office), as well as the mountains and Pacific Ocean in the distance.