Stevie’s Amazing Month at Scott School!!!

Stevie Beario has enjoyed his visit to our 2nd grade classroom at Scott School in Naperville, Illinois, USA. Naperville is about 30 miles away from Chicago, Illinois, which is a big city with amazing artwork and architecture. That means Chicago has really cool, tall buildings! Chicago is also located by a giant lake called Lake Michigan. Naperville has the DuPage River running through it, where people enjoy fishing and kayaking. We thought you might be interested to know that the USA has different kinds of candy than other countries. Some of our favorite types of candy are cotton candy, jelly beans, Jolly Ranchers, Kit Kats, and Sour Patch Kids.

Prior to Stevie’s arrival, Mrs. Jacobucci’s 2nd graders watched and discussed videos about paralympian Steve Serio and wheelchair basketball. We then read three different fiction books about characters with disabilities: Max the Champion, Susan Laughs, and Just Because. Students wrote opinion letter book reviews recommending one of the three books and sent them to Benito Juarez Elementary School in Anaheim, California, which is where Stevie began and will end his journey.

When Stevie first arrived, we all gathered on the carpet in a huge circle. Everyone couldn’t stop moving around because we were so excited to meet Stevie. In Stevie’s box, we saw lots of different things, such as pictures, money, coins, trophies, toys, and Stevie’s passport. We noticed that the USA has different money than other countries. We enjoyed seeing all of the different types of money in Stevie’s box! We also liked see his other adventures on the blog, such as pretending to be a teacher and climbing a climbing wall.

During readers’ workshop, one of our favorite things to do was sit by Stevie and read with him!

Stevie learned how to identify the main idea in nonfiction.

He learned that some poems rhyme and some don’t. Some poems don’t have punctuation, while other poems do. He also learned some vocabulary words about poetry, like stanza and line.

In writing, Stevie helped us make Google Slides presentations to publish our research about nonfiction topics like Australian animals. Thanks to Stevie, one student even felt inspired to research and write about using wheelchairs!

In social studies, we learned about the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. He learned that if you touch the polyps in the reef, the coral dies. Stevie also learned that if you put metal in the Great Barrier Reef, the plants or coral will die.

In science, we learned about the butterfly life cycle. Stevie got to observe our caterpillars transforming into a chrysalis. Unfortunately, he is leaving us before he will get to see them emerge as beautiful butterflies.

It is so cool that Stevie traveled all around the world and we were lucky enough to be one of his last stops! We hope to see him or meet one of his other traveling teddy bear friends next year. We will miss you, Stevie!!! Thanks for teaching us more about the world and people with disabilities!