Hawley’s Second Grade

By Kaitlin Eckert  &

Rachel Buethe

The second grade has reached that exciting time of year where the Africa unit begins. Each class will soon be assigned an area of Africa to concentrate on. They include the rainforest, the plains, the marketplace, and the desert.

Mrs Giordano’s class read Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, a book based on Cinderella that takes place in Africa. Mufaro’s daughters, being so beautiful, wore brightly colored clothes. After reading the book, the class colored in pictures of beautiful clothing using markers, colored pencils, crayons, or pastels.

“It was cool!” says Brendan Blawie, one of Mrs Giordano’s students, referring Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters.

Mrs Fanelli’s class is reading the book Mole and Shrew. The class is divided up into groups of three, four, or five children. Those are their reading groups. In math they are doing word problems.

“The math word problems are fun!” says Jacey Mattegat, of Mrs Fanelli’s class.

Mrs Tedesco’s class is reading a book called I Speak English for My Mom. It is about a girl and her mother, who move to America from Mexico. The daughter learns to speak English at school and eventually her mother goes to a school that teaches English. In math, Mrs Tedesco’s class is learning about Place Value. Each child receives a bag, full of the “Place Value Blocks.” For example, the teacher might write on the board, 4 HUNDREDS, 5 TENS and 8 ONES. The children try to figure out that number and see if that’s the number of blocks they have in their bag.

“It’s fun to try to figure out which bag is the right one,” says Christiane Buethe, one of Mrs Tedesco’s students.

Mrs Pesce’s class has learned about Egypt for the beginning of the Africa unit. For independent reading, Mrs Pesce’s class, and the rest of the second grade, have their “Book Boxes.” They are made from cereal boxes and were decorated by the students. They hold all their books. In Mrs Pesce’s class Erica Larnerd is reading Little Bear and Jessica Cherry is reading One Step, Two Step.

All the second graders can’t wait to do more in their Africa unit. Right now, in music class, they are learning some African songs.

“I enjoy the songs,” says Jessica Cherry.

“It’s fun!” says Paige Woodhouse.

On Monday all the classes had their Valentine’s Day party. Cards were distributed and candy as well. Everyone had a great time!