a day-in-the-life:

2nd Grade

By Lila

Usually in the morning my mother will park and bring me onto the playground, or, if we are running late, she will drop me off at the "drop off zone" where one of the teachers will open the door for me and help me out. Then I get to play on the playground for a few minutes until a teacher blows the whistle. Everyone goes into their line. There are about ten lines. I get into my line behind the kids in my Advisory Class. Our teacher, Ms. Diane, walks us down to our classroom. Then Ms. Liz, the teacher who helps, brings us all in to the room. As we go in, she says each of our names and "hello" to us one at a time.

On Mondays, we all sit down and make a circle and say what we did on the weekend. When we are done we all get back in our places on the square carpet. We each have a different color square. Some days, a few kids get the share bag to bring home. They will have to bring it back the next day with something special to them and give a talk to the class. When the person is done talking, people get to raise their hands and tell what they like about it or ask questions. I had the share bag three times so far this year. I love sharing!

Our advisory teacher tells us about any changes or news for the day (like if its a "rainy day schedule.") We go over the principle of the week. (Aveson has 13 guiding principles) One principle is "There is no such thing as too much truth." When we are done with our morning business, we get ready to go to our first class (called a block). We have three blocks: Projects, Literacy and Math and are divided into three groups, red, blue and yellow. All groups are different. In my group, there are some kindergarten students, some first graders and some second graders. Every month the order of our classes changes. I'm in the yellow group so now I go to Projects class with Ms. Jenny first.

In Projects class we do projects and get to write and illustrate stories. We have made Snow globes and colorful trees out of paper. Sometimes we write about our day, other times we have free choice. After my first block, I have snack and recess.

My second block is Literacy with Ms. Diane. In there you get to be in a special order with different people that read at your level. You can also cross to a special room where you make books and present them in the classroom with a story and pictures. There are different literacy activities and games. We each have notebooks where we do diffent things to learn things like the vowel combinations. When we have mastered one, the teachers check it off in our books. Sometimes we have spelling tests. When I do this, Ms. Diane or Ms. Liz sits with me and I read for a minute while she times me.

During class we all go between the tables doing activities. When Ms. Diane needs to get our attention, she rings a chime. Everyone is quiet and puts their hands on their shoulders to show they are listening. At the end of class, the teachers give out "B Notes" for the kids who have done well. Mine usually say "Lila was being safe, respectufl and responsible in D-6 today. She read her book!" They always write little nice notes for my parents on them.

Next we go to lunch down in the lunchroom and eat. Then we go to recess. We have our lunch and recess with the other k-2 students. The older kids have lunch and recess at a different time.

My last block is with Ms. Cid. When we come in the room, we sit in our spots on the floor where we do math meeting. We go in ABC order by our last name and someone gets to be the "student of the day." They lead everyone telling the day of the week, and doing counting and time problems with the clock. Then, the second graders usually go to the back table and do math worksheets with Ms. Cid. The other students play math games with the assistant teacher or helpers. When we are done with our math worksheets we can do math games with one or two other kids in small groups.

After math, we go back to our Advisory teacher for the last few minutes of the day. We clean up and line up to go home. Ms. Diane walks us up to the pick-up area on the top of the playground. We sit in a group with all the other K-2 kids waiting to be picked up. Some of the parents come in and get their kids. Lots of parents drive up in their cars and Ms. Diane calls for us with her megaphone. Today she says, "Lila S." and I get up and am helped into my car. "Hi Mom! I had a great day. Can we get an icecream !?!"