March Madness

 As we approach the mid-March mark, there is lots of exciting news to report on!

 

Science Fair: WOW! I was so impressed with the hard work your children put in to their Science Fair projects. I was able to speak to every student in the class, and they all did a wonderful job explaining their projects to me. I love when students are able to talk about their projects without having to read straight off their poster. All students were all well-behaved and respectful at the fair and I was (and still am!) so proud of them. 

 

Coins for Cures: Coins, coins, coins! Please continue to help your child look for any spare change. Any small amount makes a difference. Last week, we collected $50.14. We still have 5 weeks to make it to our classroom goal of $400.01. It's a big goal, but I think we can do it!

 

Dr. Ilda King: Dr. King, Elmwood's Reading Consultant, will be speaking to parents TONIGHT in the Elmwood School Library from 6:30 to 8:00.

This workshop will provide:

·       An overview of the stages of reading development   

·       An understanding of Instructional/Independent reading levels

·       Ways to support your child at home

I encourage you to go if you can!

 

Junior Achievement: Yesterday, Mrs. Thomas came in for our first Junior Achievement lesson. Junior Achievement is a program that focuses on how a community works. We look forward to learning with Mrs. Thomas over the next several weeks!

 

Academic News:

 

In Writing, we have completed our unit on persuasive writing! Hopefully, all of you received a persuasive letter from your child. I have to admit, I was pretty persuaded myself reading their letters! They did a great job. Today we will begin learning about a paragraph/how to write a paragraph. I encourage the students to think of a paragraph as a sandwich. They have the top of their bread (the topic sentence), the lettuce, tomato, and meat (the detail sentences), and the bottom of the bread (the closing sentence). We will be paragraph writing professionals by the end of this unit! If you have time at home, please practice writing paragraphs with your child at home. They can be about anything!

 

 In Math, we have just completed Unit 7. Be on the lookout for your child's test coming home with them at the end of the week. One thing many students struggled with in this unit was finding the median. They have to remember that numbers need to be put in order from smallest to largest before finding the median. They also struggled with accurately placing larger numbers on a number grid. This is a skill we will continue to work on in class.  We will be starting Unit 8 on Fractions today. This is a fun, yet difficult unit for students. I'm looking forward to it!

 

In Reading, our skill for the week is working on making predictions. Something we have been working very hard on lately is our writing in response to reading. In an effort to assist your children in producing stronger writing, I have implemented a checklist that they will now use to assess their writing in response to reading before handing their work in. The students will assess their spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and whether or not their writing makes sense. I will then use the same checklist to assess the students' work. Be on the lookout for this checklist stapled to your child's reading work. We are almost third graders now, and the expectations have risen in regards to finished products. If they do not accurately complete the work to the best of their potential the first time, they will have their work handed back to them to fix their mistakes. I know your children will rise up and meet the challenge!

Pictures from Dr. Seuss' Birthday

Wrapping Up February

It has been a very busy month for us with lots to do in little time. Here's what we've been up to...

In Math...
We have completed Unit 6. Unit 6 focused largely on subtraction (trade first), multiplication, and division. Students were encouraged to solve multiplication stories by either drawing an array or drawing a picture. They also solved division by drawing pictures. Multiplication and division were simply introduced, mastery was not expected, but all students did a fantastic job! Their Unit 6 exams will be going home with them on Monday. Please sign and return the test at your earliest convenience! Thank you so much.

We also began a new problem solving strategy. We just started the strategy: "Make An Organized List." This specific strategy requires students to draw a "tree chart," which can be difficult. Students have learned that sometimes when solving a problem it is best to make an organized list because it helps that to organize their information in a way that's easy to comprehend.

In Writing...
We continue to work on persuasive writing. Students have been writing pieces as a whole class, in a small group, and independently. Although they are only required to have 3 convincing reasons in their persuasive pieces, many of them give over three reasons to try convince their audience. We are still working on having specific reasons. "We should start school later because it would be cool" is not a specific reason. "We should start school later so that everyone can be well-rested and get more sleep" would be a specific reason. Below you will find drafts of letters students wrote in small groups. After writing their persuasive letters, they presented them to the class.

In Science...
We are wrapping up our unit of fossils. Last week we learned about how fossils are discovered and the process of transporting a fossil from the ground to a museum. It is not an easy task and requires many different people with different occupations. We will do culminating activities this week before beginning a new unit on the continents.

In Grammar...
We began talking about the linking verbs "is, am, and are." As a class, we worked together to complete sentences with the appropriate linking verb. Next week we will talk about helping verbs! Below you will see another grammar activity where students worked in small groups to combine sentences. The students got to be the teacher; be sure to ask your child about it!

In Reading...
Last week, we began Unit 4 of our reading program. We read a great selection called, "Splish Splash! Animal Baths." Using this selection, we compared and contrasted two different animals. Students learned that when you compare and contrast, you are looking at similarities and differences. Not only did the students compare and contrast animals, but they also compared and contrasted each other! To make this comprehension concept more meaningful to students, each student was assigned a partner at random. They looked at their commonalities as well as differences. Their beautiful completed venn digrams are hanging proudly in the hallway outside of our classroom.

Other Business...
Coins for Cures: Coins for Cures will be starting soon. Students and families are asked to bring in any spare change that they have at home, in the car, etc. Over the course of the next eight weeks, each classroom will be collecting/counting coins. All of the coins brought in will be donated to Children's Hospital. It is a wonderful cause so please send in any spare change you may have at home. Any amount makes a difference!

Field Trip: I was so proud of Room 16 during our field trip last week! They were extremely well-behaved both on the bus and during the play. It was a wonderful time!

Discovery Museum: A few weeks ago, the students sat through/participated in a presentation on Matter. It was a great refresher for us, as Matter was our first Science unit. Below you will find pictures from the wonderful presentation. Enjoy!

Half Way There

Wow! As of yesterday, we are half way through our school year! I can't believe it; where did the time go!? I cannot say it enough... I LOVE working with your children! It has been a great 90 days learning with them, and I can't wait for the next 90.

Yesterday, we reflected on our first half of the year. I gave the students a writing prompt and asked them two questions. The first question was, "What have you done this half of the year that you are most proud of?" and the second question was, "What would you like to improve on for the next half of the year?"

I LOVED reading their responses. I loved them so much that I want to keep them, but I also want you to have the opportunity to see them, so I made a copy for you to keep at home. It's really neat for me as a teacher to see what my students believe are their strengths, and what they feel they need to improve on.

Be on the lookout for these prompts coming home today or tomorrow. I know you will be as touched and impressed with their responses as I was!!

An Update from Room 16

We have really hit the ground running since being back at school!

Math
We have completed Unit 5, which focused on Geometry. Geometry is a difficult concept due to the multiple vocabulary words students are expected to know, but your children did a fabulous job! Their hard work was reflected in their Unit 5 test scores; I am so proud of them. We did many fun things during this unit. A definite highlight was having Mr. Weatherhead, Mrs. Weatherhead, and Mrs. Sward in for rotating center work. During these centers, polygons, symmetry, and tangrams were reviewed. We also created 3-D shapes using straws and twist ties. We created square pyramids independently, and various pyramids (rectangular, triangular, hexagonal, and octagonal) in small groups. Here are some pictures below!

We have now started Unit 6 in math. Just a reminder, if you would like to see what we cover in Unit 6, there is a link on the side of my blog which tells you all of what Unit 6 entails.

Reading
The past few weeks, we have been working on a difficult comprehension skill, summarizing. Summarizing is a tough skill for students because they struggle to differentiate what information is important to include in a summary, and what information is not relevant. This week, we are reading a non-fiction text about dancers at the Alvin Ailey dance school. In our small reading groups, we are reading other non-fiction texts, specifically biographies, about people involved in the arts.

Writing
In writing, we have been working on How-To's. We completed our "How To Make a Snowman" in class (see pictures below), as well as selected a final How-To topic that we will publish and place in our classroom library. Those should be finished up this week- I am so excited to see the final products!!

Grammar
We have been talking a lot about verbs. Last week, the students were extremely creative when they made their "Verb Man/Woman." They thought of different verbs that various parts of the body use, and wrote those verbs on the appropriate part of the body. They are hanging proudly in our hallway. We have covered present-tense verbs, past-tense verbs, and this week we are studying the verb "have." The students should know that they use "has" when the subject is singular, and "have" when the subject is plural, or I or you. We will be playing a fun game tomorrow to help us practice this skill!

Science
We have officially started out unit on Fossils!! The students completed a K-W-L chart where they shared with the class what they think they know about fossils, and what they want to know about fossils. We have covered the initial definition of a fossil, and today in Computer Lab students watched a video and completed a scavenger hunt while watching. Next we will learn about the different types of fossils!

Other News...
Please sign and return your child's report card at your earliest convenience. Additionally, we are collecting Star Wars items for the gala this year. Any Star Wars donations you can give would be greatly appreciated!!

I'll leave you with some other pictures of students "playing teacher" while reviewing partial sums, and playing "Pico, Ferme, Nada," a game that reinforces place value skills.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. It is great to be back with your children; we're off to a wonderful start!

In Reading...

We read a fantastic folk tale this week called, "Head, Body, Legs." While reading, we focused on the comprehension skill of cause and effect. Cause and effect is a tricky concept for second graders to grasp. The way I explain it is that the cause is the "event" or "occurrence" that happens, and the effect is what happens as a result of that event/occurrence. I also teach the students to put the word "so" between their cause and effect statements. For example if the cause was, "I slept through my alarm" and the effect was "I was late for school" I would tell the children to think of it as, "I slept through my alarm so I was late for school." I feel like this strategy really puts things into perspective for the students.

In Grammar...

We are talking about verbs. We were already introduced to verbs in the beginning of the year when we learned that all sentences have a "who" (a noun) and a "do" (a verb). We had a lot of fun practicing verbs in the classroom (I think "run" was their favorite to act out!). We have also played fun games on the Smartboard, as well as partner guessing games, to further practice the concept.

In Writing...

We have begun a fun unit called "How-To." This type of writing requires students to explain to their reader how to do something. I introduced this subject by having my students verbally explain to me how to make a PB&J sandwich. To reinforce the significance of being specific and detailed in our explanations, I followed their directions exactly as they were told to me. So, when they said "take the peanut butter and put it on the bread," I ended up doing so with my hands, as they never said to use a knife. Hopefully, the image of my hand covered in peanut butter will remain engraved in their minds, and they'll remember to consistently add in important details to their writing!

In Math...

We have started our unit on geometry. So far we have discussed points, line segments, lines, and parallel lines. While around your house or out and about, please ask your child if they notice any parallel lines. Hopefully, they will be able to identify them, and be able to explain to you the definition of a parallel line.

We will continue to practice partial sums math as well as ball park estimates. I understand these are difficult concepts for second graders, and we will continue to practice this skill as the weeks progress.