In Math we worked on Subtraction! We started by practicing two digit subtraction and made these adorable turkeys to hang on our cabinets!
We also spent a ton of time mastering 3 digit subtraction. Here you can see the cornucopia that we created as a class for Thanksgiving. Each student was given a fruit or a vegetable with a 3 digit subtraction problem. They had to solve the problem, and color it. We then placed them in our classroom window with a sign that said, "Thank goodness for Math!" The kids came up with the slogan. They thought it was hilarious.
In the month of November we also spent a ton of time learning about the pilgrims and Native Americans that lived in our country along time ago. We studied pilgrim society, reading books like, "Samuel Eaton: A day in the life of a pilgrim boy" and "Sarah Morton: A day in the life of a pilgrim girl." We compared our own lives today to their lives back then. The kids made these pilgrims and wrote information they learned about the pilgrim boys and girls on the back of their heads.
For our November Mass, we created an alter cloth using these leaves. Each child in K-2 wrote something they were thankful for on a paper leaf and then watercolored it. We taped them to a white cloth and laid it on the alter for mass. It was beautiful!
In class we read the book, "Too Many Turkeys" by Linda White. I just love her! We compared it to her book, "Too Many pumpkins" and discussed how interesting her characters are. The kids especially loved the character Buford, the turkey. We decided to make our own class Buford. For homework, each child took home a feather and decorated it anyway they wanted. We then put them together. I think it turned out really fun!
Along with our study of pilgrim society, we also studied Native Americans. We learned about the impact white settlers had on them, and learned that not every Native American tribe is the same. Students split into groups and researched different tribes. They created these posters and made videos about each tribe. You can check out the videos below at the first link. You can also check out a more comprehension explanation of this study at the second link.
This month in Writing we focused on persuasive writing. Common Core standards require that second graders be able to determine the purpose and reasoning behind a text. As a result we decided to create our own stories persuading readers to eat something other than turkey for Thanksgiving. We learned different ways that writers attempt to persuade their writers and then created our own stories. If you're interested in the resources I used for this project. You can find them here.
Finally, we learned about Saints! We put on a Saints play and researched the parts we played. The kids learned about "see not think" drawing and drew their saints based off of famous paintings. They then had to work on writing informative pieces about their saints. Each child was given a biographical article on their saint and a trackstar site that they could further research their saint on the classroom iPads. If you're interested in recreating the project, my resources are available here. There are 30 different Saints to choose from and the link to the websites for the Saints. I'm currently trying to make the Saints book into an accessible iBook or Shutterfly book. I'll post information about it when I do. More examples of the project lie below.
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