Ms. McRainey and Mrs. Greer’s 2nd Grade Class

Hi second graders!

I have a story that I cannot put in my pocket for Writers’ Workshop.  I cannot wait.  I’m simply going to share it now!

Around lunch time on December 24 I was in my parents’ living room in Fayetteville chatting with them.  The TV was on in the background with the local news.  This is usual for my house at lunch time, but this did not turn out to be a normal afternoon lunch.  The TV lured my attention away from our conversation when the reporter began to talk about the Durham Rescue Mission.

Have you heard about the Durham Rescue Mission?  It is a place in our community that seeks to help people who are in trouble.  People who are homeless, people who have no food, people who cannot find jobs, people who need healthcare can go there and find help.

My parents turned their attention to the TV when they saw my interest in the report.  Suddenly, the camera zoomed in on a flash of blonde hair… blonde hair that looked very familiar.  I jumped out of my chair and ran to the TV and screamed in a very excited voice, “THAT’S MY 2ND GRADER!!!!!!!!!!!”

I’m sure it’s not hard for you to imagine me doing this, and that you are probably giggling at the thought of me bolting from my chair and jumping up and down.  AND I BET YOU ARE ALSO CURIOUS.  Who did I see on TV?  What was this Forest View 2nd Grader doing on TV?

My dears, our very own Megan was LIVE on the TV screen being interviewed!  She was being interviewed because she wanted to make a difference in our community and to do something for those people I mentioned before, people who are in need.  Megan was at the Durham Rescue Mission passing out gifts to families.  She was there passing out presents because she wished to help the homeless and the hungry.  In the weeks leading up to our winter break, Megan went around her neighborhood and raised over $500 for the Durham Rescue Mission and the Food Bank of Durham.  Her selfless wish and generosity is going to help a lot of people.

You can read an article and watch the video of Megan’s interview on ABC’s website.

2nd graders, one of the most important things you need to know now and remember always, is that you can ALWAYS make a difference.  I hope daily that I can teach you to see how you can help others and make our world a better place, but I think it’s even better when YOU can be the teachers and learn from one another.  Thank you, Megan, for teaching us what it looks like to serve our community and for showing us that no matter how old we are, how much money we have in our piggy banks, or how much time we have in our busy days, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!  We are so proud of you!

This is what it means to soar high in the clear blue sky, Falcons!

Much love,

Ms. McRainey 

Hi second graders!

I hope you are enjoying your vacation!  I am having a teacher workday, so I get to start my vacation tomorrow!  Yesterday I went with some friends to see The Nutcracker at the Progress Energy Center in Raleigh.  It was great!  The North Carolina Symphony played the music and the North Carolina Ballet performed.  I thought today might be a good day to share some information with you about The Nutcracker since you enjoyed the story and music so much! I’ll also post our video from our new flip camera.

What did you like best about The Nutcracker?  I really liked how it allows us to go on an imaginary journey to a fantastic world filled with sweets!  I think that’s one of the best things about reading and writing fiction… we can go wherever we want!  I also really like how Tchaikovsky (the composer who wrote the music) chose to have dances from different countries like the Arabian coffee dance and the Chinese tea dance.  It’s fun to see all of the costumes and different ways of dancing.  It’s really neat how people from different places have different ways of dancing and different kinds of music.  We are so lucky to have people from so many different places at Forest View!  We can learn a lot from each other!

And it’s nice to see when we work together.  For example, our class dancing!

I hope that you have a wonderful winter break!  Be sure to read some good books and enjoy time with your family!  If you read a good book, post it on here so we can all check it out!  I am taking the new 39 Clues book, Marley, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (another book by Kate di Camillo who wrote The Tale of Despereaux!), and a grown up book by Charles Dickens called Hard Times with me to Fayetteville!

Happy Holidays!

- Miss McRainey

P. S.  Here’s a nutcracker coloring page!

Hi second graders!

We haven’t had a chance to get on the blog lately.  I just got a new computer at home, so now I can post things from my house.  I have a bunch of photos and things to write about, so that should keep me busy over the next few weeks!  Be on the lookout for pictures from our last two field trips.

I really liked how you worked together today in math, showing your friends the shapes you made on your Geoboards and how you found their perimeter.  That was so kind of you!  It makes everyone feel good when we work together.

Speaking of working together, I LOVED the dance two of our friends choreographed (that’s a big, fancy, grown-up word for when someone makes up a dance) at recess.  You can check out the video of their performance on TeacherTube.  It makes us feel so proud when we work hard on something and get along.  Nice job!

I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving holidays.  I’m looking forward to seeing you again in December!

Much love,

Ms. McRainey

P. S.  Why did a turkey join a band?… Because he had drumsticks!!!

Hi second graders!

I hope you had a fabulous Friday! I missed you a bunch, but I know you had a great day. It will be so good to see you on Monday. I did something really awesome at my workshop today! Mrs. Ommen and I worked together on a Claymation movie. It’s about the life cycle of a butterfly, which we will study later on this year when we take care of painted lady butterflies. Check out my movie below!

Butterfly Claymation

I hope you enjoy it! Have a fabulous weekend!

Big hugs,
Ms. McRainey

In our study of wind, we sure did make a lot of wind catchers!  Do you remember the pin wheels we made and decorated with weather words and pictures?  They looked so great!  Check out our hard work in the pictures below! You can click on a picture to make it larger.

Nice job, meteorologists!

Much love,

The McRainey

Hey Meteorologists!

I’m so excited about all the great observations you’re making.  You are such scientists!  It was really cool when you noticed the clouds moving across the sky during the fire drill today.  It was also pretty neat when you noticed the gust of wind that came in our window today was strong enough to close our classroom door.  You are so smart!

I gave you a hint on Monday during our morning meeting about the awesome way we are going to show what we’ve learned about wind.  Here’s a friendly reminder:

I’m so excited to see the kites you design on Friday afternoon!  You can check out some cool kite links at the Big Wind Kite Factory site or the National Kite Month site. Your parents and other teachers might also like this site.

I hope you have a wonderful end to our exciting week! Happy blogging!

Much love,

Ms. McRainey

Dear 2nd graders,

How cool is this?!  I am so excited that we can have a classroom blog!  People use blogs to share about what’s going on.  Now we can talk more about the things we are learning at school and cool things we find out at home.

I am going to post links to cool websites like this one, neat videos, and pictures of your awesome work.  You can talk about your work and tell us about things you see at home.  Your families can also post compliments about your hard work!

So, let’s start out by talking about clouds!  Post and let us know if you see any cool clouds!

Here is a picture from my road trip this summer.  Do you know where this is?  What kind of clouds do you see?

Can anyone tell me what happens if there is a nimbus cloud?  What do cumulus clouds look like?  Have you seen any cool shapes in the sky?

Happy blogging and happy cloud watching!

Much love,

Ms. McRainey