Mrs. Ransom's Second Grade: Making Models & Reading Nonfiction

Dear Families,

I have had such a fun solo week, teaching the children about maps, models, subtraction, and so on! This semester has been such a wonderful learning experience for me and the children have helped make my time as amazing as it has been.

During Writer's Workshop this week we have been working on making models of the landforms and bodies of water that each student chose to research. Using their research from last week, the children made models that had at least four labels. The children were able to choose whether they wanted to use the salt dough for their landform or body of water or the space around their landform or body of water. To label their models the children used toothpicks and labels to pinpoint what they were labeling.

Step 1: Planning and Molding the Salt Dough

Step 2: Painting and Labeling

In Reader's Workshop this week we have been learning about how we can read more than one non-fiction book on the same topic to add to what we already know. The children have been trying this out by reading at least two books on one topic such as dolphins, bats, horses, or bees. They have been noticing parts from both books that go together, adding on to what they already know, and growing their knowledge about topics to become experts!