Author Share

As our year draws to an end, we took the time this week to reflect on some of the hard work our students have completed throughout second grade. I certainly enjoyed seeing the progress they have made as we pulled out their work, old and new, and it seemed as though our families did as well!

Thank you to everyone who could join us, what a great way to celebrate our year!

-Mr. Kilham

Gloucester Maritime Museum

We had an excellent time at the Maritime Museum today! We learned about how our skeletons are similar to whales' and how the shape of different fish give them different adaptations. We got to hold some interesting sea life and observe some of the tiniest creatures in the sea with the help of powerful microscopes. And, personally, I was SO impressed with our class's behavior as well as how much they already knew from their ocean animal research. 

Thank you to our parent chaperones who were able to join us today: Mrs. Strunk, Mrs. Licata, Mrs. Leiss, and Mrs. Gustafson!

Praying Mantises

What a cool way to end the week! Mr. Sandman had given our class two praying manis eggs last week, and we were beginning to wonder if they would ever hatch. But just this morning, lo and behold! One of the pouches opened and out came TONS of the little critters! We made some great observations today, but because praying mantises are much harder to feed than butterflies I had to set them free this afternoon. So if you happen to find a praying mantis this summer, it may be one of our little friends :)

They were white when they first came out!

Look at them all...

And they just kept coming!

By the afternoon they were green

On my hand, getting ready to go.

Spring Update

I hope everyone had a relaxing, enjoyable vacation! From what I heard today it sounds like the kids had a great break.

In the weeks before vacation, we wrapped up most of our projects and units, which means this week we start lots of new learning! In reading and writing we will be focusing on How-To or Procedural writing, where students will practice following and writing instructions for different activities. For math, we started our fraction unit today and will be discussing how they are equal parts of a whole. During our social studies time, our learning shifts to economics, where we will talk about producers and consumers, goods and services, and work and income.

We will be busy! :)

Mr. Kilham

Famous People

WOW! Presidents, athletes, inventors, and scientists. People who broke records and people who changed our world. What a great performance from our students today!  They have worked so hard the past few weeks and it really shows. I have learned so much about so many interesting people, and I couldn't be more impressed with the results of our students' efforts.

In addition to the in-class speeches, we made a ChatterPix presentation to share some of the important facts we have learned. Check it out!



Famous People from Ben Kilham on Vimeo.


Parents and students, leave us a comment below! What was your favorite part of the project? What was the most interesting thing you learned? Did you learn anything neat about a friend's famous person?

Fables and Folktales Chatterpix

Our students did an awesome job coloring, writing, and recording for the Fables and Folktales unit! We learned all about parts of a story, personification, and morals, among other things. Listen to the characters of some of our books tell you their story :)




Chatterpix Fables and Folktales from Ben Kilham on Vimeo.

The Penguin Lady

Today we had special visit from Dyan deNapoli, aka the Penguin Lady! 

Dyan shared her extensive penguin knowledge with us through pictures, quizzes, stuffed animals, and her very own penguin calls. Did you know that some penguins can dive down 1,700 feet? Or that rather than the hollow bones that most birds have, penguins have solid bones that help them swim? How long do you think a penguin can hold its breath? Ask your student what else they learned!