Ms. Hibbard is a good teacher. She likes to play tricks on us. In the morning message, she makes mistakes that we have to find. She might put the word upside down on the chart. She likes to teach science.
        We go to the habitat to draw an ash tree named Ashley several times during the school year. Mrs. Hibbard takes a picture of Ashley every season.  We are also working on a project with the Square of Life. We are going to mark a square with sticks and then we are going to observe and see what we can find in the square. We are going to put our information on the internet so other schools that are doing the same project can compare our information.
        We have writing journals. We have a one inch binder and we write in them  almost every day. At the end of the year, we are going to be able to take it home and keep writing in it. We can write about anything that we want to. Mrs. Blake sometimes gives us assignments to do in the journal. Sometimes, Mrs. Blake reads what we have written. Mrs. Blake comes in two days a week during writing time.
        This year, Mrs. Hibbard and Mrs. Bolduc teach us reading. Most of us stay with Mrs. Hibbard. We have a few reading groups and they meet at separate times during the day. Almost every day, we have phonics. If we finish all of our assignments, we get to silent read. Some books that we like to read are Nate the Great books, The Magic Treehouse Series,  and the Adventures of  Old Mr. Toad.
        Math is fun. Ms. Hibbard finds ways to make learning math fun. We have math centers. We are learning about addition, subtraction, and multiplication. We do math with money.  Mr. Edwards comes in to our math class to help Ms. Hibbard.
       We are studying about apples in science. We learned how apple trees change through the seasons. We learned that there are many different varieties of apples. We went on a field trip to Shelburne Orchards and we saw how they made apple cider. Some people got to taste a dry apple. We picked apples for the cafeteria and we also got to eat one or two apples. When we got back from our field trip, we made applesauce. First the apples were cut in half and then cooked. We each got a turn to plunge and crush the apples for the sauce.
       We also have Four Winds come to our classroom once a month. Mrs. Tatlock, Mrs. J. Hatch and Mrs. D. Hatch come to our class to teach us. The topic of Four Winds this year is Designs in Nature. Each time, we have a different topic about that. We learned about spider webs and how animals can blend in with the things around them.
        We have a garden at our school. While we were out in the garden, we used our senses. We felt the plants and vegetables, we observed them closely with our eyes, we used our noses to smell scents in the garden. We also listened carefully for any sounds. We did not use our taste in the garden because nothing was edible except for the vegetables and we are saving those for the cafeteria to use. We have picked tomatoes for the cafeteria. We pulled carrots from our garden. We also picked a pumpkin for our classroom and for Mrs. Rusik's classroom. We also harvested red potatoes. The fifth graders had dug trenches in the ground, and then we had to dig the potatoes out. Some of the potatoes were really deep in the ground.  We also cleaned up the garden, by pulling out the old zucchini plants.
       Recess is fun, especially when we can go outdoors. We just got a new piece of playground equipment this fall. It is a hanging and climbing structure. There are monkey bars on it, circles that you can balance on, and there are rings like steering wheels that you can hang on and move around.  Our parents helped put the playground equipment together. If you look from a bird's eye view, the playground equipment is in a big X shape, with the climbing wall right in the middle.
       This year should be a great one. We are busy learning all about reading, writing, math, and science. We get to work in our classroom and in the nature center and play on the new playground equipment. Everyday is an awesome day. We love second grade.

    by Leah, Erik, and Molly