Second Graders Stretch Their Minds

Second graders spend some time each day throughout the week stretching their minds in different ways. Every day has a different theme: Mindfulness Monday, Tinker Tuesday, Word Wall Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, and Flexible Friday. “Each of these activities activates a different part of the mind and helps support the social-emotional growth of the students,” says teacher Penny Berry. During Tinker Tuesdays, students tinker with words (anagrams) or tackle group challenges where they have to build or construct something out of limited resources (e.g., creating the tallest tower out of index cards, paper clips, and tape). On Word Wall Wednesdays students discuss vocabulary words that have come up in their reading throughout the week (yesterday’s word was impudent) and add the word(s) to their word wall. During Thankful Thursdays, students give appreciations to one another for little things that might have happened throughout the week, and on Flexible Fridays the class participates in yoga.