In Science we are studying cycles. A perfect example of a cycle is the Painted Lady Butterfly. The whole second grade purchased jars full of caterpillars to observe. Two students in our class found, and brought in, their own caterpillars. We have been taking notes, drawing diagrams, watching videos, and learning about our caterpillars. This week most of the caterpillars have moved to the roof of their cups and attached themselves, getting ready for the metamorphosis from larva to mature butterfly. The yellow stuff in the bottom of the cups is Caterpillar Super Food.

Mr. Kelley's class is full of authors! We have been learning about the writing process as we tell our personal narrative stories. Personal narratives are true stories about the author (us!). Memories make the best personal narratives. We started by brainstorming memories we remembered clearly. Then, we drew pictures of the main events on notecards. We then added notecards with more pictures and details. That is the Brainstorming or Pre-writing stage. Then, we wrote about the pictures we drew on the back of the notecards. That is the Draft stage. The next steps in the writing process were Revise and Edit. They go hand in hand. That is where we made sure our words and sentences made sense. We moved words and sentences around to the story's flow. We made sure we had capitals and periods and that we spelled our words correctly using our student dictionaries. Now, we are at the Publish stage. We are transferring our corrected writing to a book and drawing and coloring our pictures. When we finish we will have published our own work, just like a real author!

2nd Grade GeoQuest Winners!

Everyone has been working hard here in Mr. Kelley's class so far this year and our latest achievement was winning the GeoQuest Trophy! Our class scored the most points in the September GeoQuest challenge. Everyone participated and many students scored points for all 5 levels. Thanks to all the parents who have been working with their student at home on this great activity. If we keep winning the trophy each month we can earn a pizza party at the end of the year! I have a feeling the other classes  are going to be working hard to beat us next month!

1st Week of School!

This has been an amazing week! I am so happy to be here at Bethany Elementary. I have been welcomed by staff and parents. I have met many new friends and run into some old ones! I feel completely at home here and I'm looking forward to a great year.

My class is Awesome! This is an amazing group of students. It feels like the 1st grade teachers gave me all the best kids, but I am a little biased:-) We are going to have a good time this year. Just look at those faces!!!

Bethany: The Next Adventure!

Well, it doesn't look like much but this is my new room at Bethany Elementary. Pretty soon it will metamorphosis into an exciting chamber of learning:-)

Jog-O-Thon!

Jog-O-Thon!  Well, it was one of the hottest days of the year so far, and Mr. Kelley's Class had the last time slot of the day, but that didn't stop us! We ran a total of 313 laps around the track here at Bonny Slope Elementary! Way to go 2nd graders!