Gandhi

As Brynn pointed out yesterday, January 30th was the anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi's assassination.  We then calculated that he would turn 143 years old this year.  This article was passed on to me by a former parent, which I shared with the class.  In honor of his death, children in India dressed up as Gandhi for Martyr's Day.

We hope you can attend assembly on Thursday, February 16th to see our small presentation by the second graders on the life and quotations of Gandhi.

"500 Tiny Gandhis"

Spelling Words Week 1/30/12

Ed and ing endings
1. walked
2. looking
3. planted
4. asked
5. jumping
6. filled
7. talking
8. needed
9. spelling
10. played
11. inspired
12. studied
13. listening
14. researching
15. celebrated

Parents: Our flight to India is Friday morning right after assembly. We hope to see you there. Namaste!

Students watching the Tiger Dance and getting in on the fun. Below Liam is determining whether he can turn his triangles into a trapezoid.

Weekly Highlights 1/27/12 Mrs. Barulich

Dear Parents,
Just a reminder that all Civil War historical figure books and internet printouts are due on Monday, January 30, 2012. We've started note taking off our new internet source Ed1Stop. If you haven't checked it out please do so. There is so much information available. We also went to our Woodland School library today and many of the students were able to check out books on their historical figure. They have all been talked to about plagiarism and we are reminding them that this is going to be THEIR research report.

The Willy Wonka Jr. Play is still available to the public in San Carlos. There will be three performances this weekend. It is being performed by children the same age as our students that reside in San Mateo-Woodside. Well worth watching.

Also, please note that next Friday we will be flying to India on Pretendly Airlines. An indian costume will be brought home by each child on Thursday night. The students are to arrive at school in their Indian costume Friday morning with their Woodland School uniform in their backpack so that they can change after recess. All are welcome to attend this flight.

We hope that you are enjoying the progress your child is making with their cursive writing. They are so proud of themselves and are taking such pride in their writing.

Stefan: I LOVED the story, The Five Chinese Brothers, working on our Mondrian art in Mrs. Switkes' art class and playing Protect the Pin in P.E. with Coach Schneider.

Kenna: I really LOVED music and Miss Hamill, the story of the Five Chinese Brothers was very funny. Also working on our Mondrian art was great too!

Vicki: I really liked doing our painting project about Mohandas Gandhi, having Clara Barton be my historical figure for our Civil War research report is exciting and Mrs. Barulich.

Madeline: I really liked starting our new literature book: Sarah Plain and Tall, it's a little sad because Anna and Caleb do not have a mother. I also liked art class this week and the story of The Five Chinese Brothers was hilarious. Also, the Tiger Dance on the Smart Board was so funny!

Aidan: I really liked starting my note taking about Abraham Lincoln. Boy he failed a bunch of times but never let it stop him from moving forward. I also liked P.E., The Five Chinese Brothers and Mrs. Barulich!

Nathan: I liked science and working with the Gobstoppers, we each got to eat one after our experiment! I also liked The Five Chinese Brothers, the Tiger Dance on the smartboard for the Chinese New Years and learning about Mondrian art.

Rohan: I liked watching our Gobstoppers dissolve in science and determining the colors it produced, The Five Chinese Brothers was so funny and the Tiger Dance was cool!

Ivan: I liked the Tiger Dance for Chinese New Year, Mrs. Junaid coming in and talking to the class about the school they worked at in Pakistan. It was very nice of Mishal to bring us each a gift from the children of Pakistan. P.E. was a lot of fun too.

Oliver: I liked painting my Indian flag and writing about Gandhi, the Tiger Dance for Chinese New Year was super! The Five Chinese Brothers was very good.

Renee: I liked the Mondrian draft in art class, The Five Chinese Brothers, Mrs. Junaid's presentation of the school in Pakistan that they visited, science was fun watching our Gobstopper produce different colors and the Tiger Dance!

Weekly Highlights 1/27- Ms. Der Yuen

Thank you to the Junaid Family for sharing such interesting photos and stories about your trip to Pakistan this week. We were moved by the stories of building schools to support rural villagers. Thank you also for generously sharing crafts handmade by children in the school.

We also began the writing process for our Civil War research reports. The children worked in small groups to take notes on encyclopedia material. We learned about the concept of plagiarism, so we practiced putting ideas from reading into our own words. Please kindly make sure your child brings his/her research books and/or internet print outs to school on Monday.

And finally, thank you so much for all the birthday love!  I can't imagine a better way to celebrate than with funfetti, freeze dance, and squealing second graders- so much fun!  Thank you!

Maya: I liked watching the dragon dance, learning and memorizing my Gandhi quote, and playing charades for Ms. Der Yuen’s birthday.

Brennan: I liked watching the dragon dance, learning my Gandhi quote, making Gandhi flags, making Chinese paper lanterns, learning more cursive, celebrating Ms. Der Yuen’s birthday with Tim, Kate, and Ryan, and the science Gobstopper experiment.

Nina: I liked doing the Gobstopped experiment, Mishal’s VIP and when her mom came in to talk about Pakistan, celebrating Ms. Der Yuen’s birthday with Tim, Kate, and Ryan, and the dragon dance.

Alexander L.: I liked finishing Matilda, gym, science, and playing charades with Tim, Kate and Ryan for Ms. Der Yuen’s birthday.

Matt: I liked everything! I liked seeing Tim, Kate, and Ryan on Ms. Der Yuen’s birthday, finishing Matilda and watching part of the movie, making paper lanterns, painting and writing about Gandhi, cursive, computers, and PE.

Lindsay: I liked celebrating Ms. Der Yuen’s birthday playing charades with Tim, Kate, and Ryan, making Chinese lanterns, starting my Harriet Tubman research, writing and painting about Gandhi, the Gobstopper experiment in science, watching the dragon dance, and finishing Matilda.

Mihir: I liked seeing Ms. Der Yuen and celebrating her birthday with Tim, Ryan, and Kate. I also liked the Gobstopper experiment in science and basically everything else! I liked cursive, PE, and math.

Riley: I liked the Gobstopper experiment in science, finishing Matilda and watching a little bit of the movie, watching the dragon dance, and seeing my mom come into the class.

Alexander C.: I liked jump roping PE, science, finishing Matilda, starting the Gandhi project, making Chinese lanterns, and I’m looking forward to Bingo night!

Brynn: I liked when Mr. Schneider called me “Lady Brady” at kickball, Mishal’s VIP and Pakistan presentation, especially seeing the crafts that the kids made- I can’t believe that kids could make all that! I liked being Announcer this week, learning j, p, d, and a in cursive, the Gandhi project, the Gobstopper experiment, and celebrating Ms. Der Yuen’s birthday. I guess I liked everything!

Spencer: I liked the Gobstopper experiment, PE, Mishal’s VIP week, and Ms. Der Yuen’s birthday.

Mishal: I liked everything! I loved seeing Ms. Der Yuen and playing charades for her birthday, I liked math, science, PE, art, cursive, computers, and finishing Matilda.

Many children wanted to add that they are looking forward to Bingo night! Have fun!

"Tiger Dance" for Chinese New Year

This morning Mrs. Barulich shared a video of a Tiger Dance for the Chinese New Year.  It's an adapted version of a traditional Dragon Dance.  The kids all laughed when the music switched over to, as one student described, "radio music!"  We hope to use this for our next round of freeze dance.

Tiger Dance (YouTube)

Spelling Words Week 1/23/12

Dear Parents,
Regarding the link below my password is: mbarulich_stu Please check out these amazing links at www.SMEdCenter.org
Also, the chaperones for 2A for the February 10th field trip will be:
1) Koryne Smith
2) M.J. Hawes
3) Grace Tan
All students are to report to school by 7:45 a.m., no later as the bus will leave at 8:00 a.m. We will send out another reminder before February 10th.

Plurals:
1. birds
2. boxes
3. eggs
4. glasses
5. boats
6. dishes
7. boys
8. foxes
9. girls
10. wishes
11. families
12. potatoes
13. sandwiches
14. people
15. guesses

Great Resource- Ed1Stop, San Mateo County Office of Education

Ed1Stop is an aggregator of many internet resources to which Woodland subscribes.  All families and students have access to these subscriptions, which we wanted to share with you particularly as we embark on our first research project.  Students can access World Book Encyclopedia online, Brain Pop, National Geographic, PBS, the Peninsula Library System, and more.  Each historical figure for the research reports are included in the World Book Online for kids.  You can also check out the Core Links bar on the side of the blog for some pages specific to the Civil War biography research project.

To access, please bookmark the link: www.SMEdCenter.org.  Each class has a student login, 2B's classroom username is "jderyuen_stu", password is "woodland".

We hope you take advantage of this great resource!

Plural Noun Matching Game and Practice

Since we are working on plural nouns in spelling this week, we thought it'd be fun to share this game of matching irregular verbs in their singular and plural form.

Word Matching

Weekly Highlights 1/20/12 Mrs. Barulich

Dear Parents,
The San Carlos Children's Theatre will be performing Willy Wonka Jr. January 25th - 29th. Each performance is at 7:00 p.m. with an additional one at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. This is exceptional children's acting. I believe that our second graders would enjoy this production tremendously.

Rohan - I enjoyed watching the movie about the Chinese New Year in Ms. Der Yuen's classroom, P.E. and finding the hidden colors in science this week.

Kenna - I always like music, learning about the Chinese Zodiac and our creative writing story about the magic carpet ride. I took mine to Hawaii!

Aidan - I liked science, gymnastics was fun too doing the bear hunt. I also love cursive writing. We can write kiss, she, little and sweet!

Nathan - I liked watching the Chinese New Year movie, learning more cursive letters, we're up to twelve lower case letters so far! I also liked gymnastics.

Liam - I liked Ms. Der Yuen showing us the Chinese Zodiac movie, not having to do dailies on Thursdays anymore! I really liked doing the magic carpet writing. I also liked P.E. and science.

Oliver - I liked it when Vicki came in with her braces. Math with the menus was a lot of fun and science.

Madeline - I liked dissolving the colors in science, art, gymnastics and cursive writing.

Vicki - I liked getting my braces, gymnastics and learning to write more cursive letters. I also love being with Mrs. Barulich!

Stefan - I liked P.E., cursive writing, watching the movie about the Chinese New Year and the S'mores party.

Renee - I liked it when Vicki came in on Tuesday and showed us her braces, gymnastics, working on our creative writing story about the magic carpet and the S'mores party!

Ivan we miss you! We hope to see you on Monday and that you are feeling better.

Weekly Highlights 1/20- Ms. Der Yuen

Spencer: I liked being VIP and bringing in my shares, the Chinese zodiac cartoon, combining the second grade classes, when Matt and Alex C. came back, jump roping in PE, and science.

Brynn: I liked combining the second grade classes, looking at rupees, the last etiquette class, jump roping in PE, more cursive, reading Matilda, and I loved seeing Ms. Der Yuen.

Alex C.: I liked PE, Spencer’s VIP, Matilda, coming back to school after being sick.

Riley: I liked Matilda, Spencer’s VIP poster and shares, and listening to My Father’s Dragon on CD.

Mihir: I liked Spencer’s VIP, comparing the rupees with the American money, cursive, math, Matilda, listening to My Father’s Dragon on CD, when 2A came to our class and we worked together, and when Alex C. and Matt came back to school, the Chinese myth and the animation about the zodiac. I liked that more than half of the second graders are monkeys!

Lindsay: I liked seeing Ms. Der Yuen, Matilda, jump rope in PE, learning about the Chinese zodiac and the cartoon, the Chinese myth about the Kitchen God, looking at rupees, the giraffe project, and Spencer’s VIP week and everything!

Matt: I liked everything! I liked Matilda, Spencer’s VIP poster, writing about Gandhi and MLK and how I am a giraffe too, cursive, and gym.

Kayla: I liked everything! I liked reading Matilda, jump rope in PE, the Chinese zodiac cartoon, combining the second grade, seeing Ms. Der Yuen, and listening to My Father’s Dragon on CD while we worked.

Alex L.: I liked listening to My Father’s Dragon, science, Spencer’s shares and poster, jump roping in PE, combining the second graders, cursive, Matilda, seeing Ms. Der Yuen, and the rain.

Nina: I liked the Chinese zodiac and cartoon, the rain, Spencer’s VIP poster and share, art, science, French, and everything!

Brennan: I liked the Chinese zodiac cartoon and story, jump roping in PE, Spencer’s VIP poster and share, mixing the colors in science, and combining the second grade classes.

Maya: I liked mixing colors in science and art, jump roping in PE, I’m looking forward to more PE later today, the Chinese zodiac cartoon, and seeing Ms. Der Yuen.

Mishal: I loved seeing Ms. Der Yuen! I liked PE, science, cursive, spelling, watching the Chinese zodiac cartoon, and morning gathering.

Studying rupees

Looking for Gandhi when the rupee is held up to the light

Happy New Year!

Although it starts on January 23rd, we started learning about Chinese New Year today, learning about the lunar calendar and zodiac. The kids observed that they are all either sheep or monkeys and quickly made the connection that it's because they were all born in 2003 or 2004. We read a story about the legend of how the animals were chosen and then watched a funny short video (posted below). The kids had differing opinions on whether the rat won the race fairly, riding on the back of the ox. However, they all agreed that the dragon was quite heroic to help the rabbit floating downstream. 

Zodiac animal race (YouTube)

Chinese New Year (PBS Kids)