This is a link to a live video cam of a bald eagle pair and their hatchlings. Mrs. Santleman (Science and Curriculum Coordinator) shared this with us and the kids really enjoyed watching it!
The parents are named Romeo and Juliet. The babies are Liberty and Justice. They both just took their first flight. Awwww....
Video Cam
Monday, March 28, 2016
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Weekly Update 3/28
I hope you had a wonderful weekend! For those that celebrate, I hope you had a nice Easter with your families. We are looking forward to a full week of school!
Our writing blocks will be spent continuing our Poetry unit. This week your child will have the opportunity to write some final drafts of their poems. We will also be going to the computer lab to create Word Splash poems. The children will also write a letter to their Third Grade Buddy telling about themselves and asking their buddy questions about Crisafulli and Third Grade. I know this will create a lot of excitement about the upcoming year!
We will start the week in Math by taking the Unit 7 Assessment. By mid-week, we will be ready to begin Unit 8 which focuses on geometry and arrays. The children will describe attributes of 2-dimensional shapes and will identify shapes that have certain attributes while playing a game called Shape Capture.
Last week, we traveled to the beautiful continent of Australia. In the computer lab, we will be exploring the Great Barrier Reef and typing facts about the plants and animals that live in and around the coral reef.
During reading groups, we will continue our work with paraphrasing factual information. This will help the children as we move into our last writing unit of the year on Informational Writing. The steps for paraphrasing are:
1. Read: Read the fact.
2. Stop: What are the important words?
3. Think: How can I say it differently?
4. Tell: Tell the fact in your own words.
Upcoming Dates:
April 7th - We will be walking the trail to Crisafulli to attend the 5th Grade Chorus performance
April 12th- School Store for 2nd Grade
April 13th- Early Release for Professional Development
Our writing blocks will be spent continuing our Poetry unit. This week your child will have the opportunity to write some final drafts of their poems. We will also be going to the computer lab to create Word Splash poems. The children will also write a letter to their Third Grade Buddy telling about themselves and asking their buddy questions about Crisafulli and Third Grade. I know this will create a lot of excitement about the upcoming year!
We will start the week in Math by taking the Unit 7 Assessment. By mid-week, we will be ready to begin Unit 8 which focuses on geometry and arrays. The children will describe attributes of 2-dimensional shapes and will identify shapes that have certain attributes while playing a game called Shape Capture.
Last week, we traveled to the beautiful continent of Australia. In the computer lab, we will be exploring the Great Barrier Reef and typing facts about the plants and animals that live in and around the coral reef.
During reading groups, we will continue our work with paraphrasing factual information. This will help the children as we move into our last writing unit of the year on Informational Writing. The steps for paraphrasing are:
1. Read: Read the fact.
2. Stop: What are the important words?
3. Think: How can I say it differently?
4. Tell: Tell the fact in your own words.
Upcoming Dates:
April 7th - We will be walking the trail to Crisafulli to attend the 5th Grade Chorus performance
April 12th- School Store for 2nd Grade
April 13th- Early Release for Professional Development
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Our Class Superstar
Charlie was chosen to participate in our recent PTO sponsored enrichment program "Chinese Acrobats." The show was amazing!! Nice job Charlie!
Haiku Link
This is a silly video that we will watch this week to introduce how to write a Haiku poem. There is an error at the end with the number of syllables in a Haiku. They wrote 5, 7, 7 and it's supposed to be 5, 7, 5 but I will just be sure to tell the kids ahead of time to avoid any confusion.
Weekly Update 3/21
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I am not looking forward to the forecasted spring storm!! Let's hope it doesn't impact school this week. Here is a look at what we have planned...
As we finish up our study of South America and Brazil, we will prepare for one of my favorite destinations- Australia! There are many interesting things to learn and see on this continent. We'll look at the continent in general throughout the week, including it's location, landscapes, climate, and people.
In reading groups this week we'll continue looking at non-fiction texts. We'll explore the idea of paraphrasing- picking out the important parts and re-telling what we read in our own words. This is a skill that we are also using when reading books about the continents and countries we're studying. It is something we will have to practice a lot, as it is a very difficult skill to master.
Math will look at collecting data (Armspans and How Far We Can Jump!) and representing that data on a line plot. We will then use the data to answer various questions. The children will also be exploring more with Shape Attributes, Graphs, and Measurement.
The children are doing great with the poetry unit. They have already written a Cinquain poem, as well as 2 form poems ("I Like" and "I Meant To"). They are doing rough drafts and final copies of each to be included in their Poetry Notebooks. We will also learn how to write a haiku poem this week.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Weekly Update 3/14
It was wonderful to meet with all of you last week at Parent Teacher Conferences! Thank you for taking the time to discuss your child's progress. We are looking forward to a more consistent week of school this week. Here's a look at what we will be doing.
In reading, we will be finishing up our work with Twin Texts. The children have done a wonderful job of recognizing the difference between fiction and non-fictional texts. We will spend some time this week doing a T-Chart comparing and contrasting the two texts.
Our writing time will be spent working on poetry. The kids were excited to get started last week and have already come up with some creative ideas for poems. This week we will spend some time writing our own versions of already published poems.
We are still on the continent of South America and we are eager to visit the beautiful country of Brazil! The kids will learn more about the Amazon Rainforest and the Carnival celebration. The kids will have the opportunity to write a post-card home to their families about their experience in Brazil.
In math this week we will continue working on strategies to combine three or more addends. The students will also have some time to explore measuring with various tools. The children will explore U.S. customary length units and measure to the nearest yard. They will also learn about the metric system and will measure with meters.
On Wednesday, we have a special school-wide enrichment program called Chinese Acrobats. I know the kids will enjoy it and will most likely come home with lots of stories to tell!
Also, the kids voted to have a Show and Tell for their class marble jar reward. Therefore, the students may bring in one item to share with the class on Wednesday. Please help your child select an item that you feel comfortable with them bringing to school.
* Reminder that Thursday, March 17th is an Early Release for Professional Development.
In reading, we will be finishing up our work with Twin Texts. The children have done a wonderful job of recognizing the difference between fiction and non-fictional texts. We will spend some time this week doing a T-Chart comparing and contrasting the two texts.
Our writing time will be spent working on poetry. The kids were excited to get started last week and have already come up with some creative ideas for poems. This week we will spend some time writing our own versions of already published poems.
We are still on the continent of South America and we are eager to visit the beautiful country of Brazil! The kids will learn more about the Amazon Rainforest and the Carnival celebration. The kids will have the opportunity to write a post-card home to their families about their experience in Brazil.
In math this week we will continue working on strategies to combine three or more addends. The students will also have some time to explore measuring with various tools. The children will explore U.S. customary length units and measure to the nearest yard. They will also learn about the metric system and will measure with meters.
On Wednesday, we have a special school-wide enrichment program called Chinese Acrobats. I know the kids will enjoy it and will most likely come home with lots of stories to tell!
Also, the kids voted to have a Show and Tell for their class marble jar reward. Therefore, the students may bring in one item to share with the class on Wednesday. Please help your child select an item that you feel comfortable with them bringing to school.
* Reminder that Thursday, March 17th is an Early Release for Professional Development.
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Weekly Update 3/7
Congratulations to all the students for a fantastic performance on Friday! All of their hard work certainly paid off. Thank you to all who could join us for the Dr. Seuss show. This week will be a bit out of our routine with conferences, but here is a look at what we'll be learning in the classroom...
We will begin the next math unit, which is "Whole Measurement Operations & Measurement and Data". The lessons we'll be doing this week will look at finding differences between 2-digit numbers and multiples of 10. We'll also do a practice open response problem where the children will solve an addition problem with four or more addends. They will have an opportunity to show their work, explain their thinking, and revise their work as needed. On Friday we'll spend time playing games that practice various math skills we've been working on.
Our reading groups will continue their work comparing fiction and non-fiction texts that share the same topic. Some of the topics we're exploring are weather and various animals.
We are moving on to a new continent this week- South America!! On Tuesday we will "travel" from Rome, Italy to Brasilia, Brazil. We'll begin by looking at the continent as a whole, and next week we'll explore Brazil and the amazing Amazon Rainforest in a bit more depth.
Writing for the beginning of third term will focus on Poetry. This week the students will be introduced to this topic. We'll discuss what we already know about poetry, share some poetry with the kids, and begin writing a few poems of our own. As we write our poems we'll be keeping them here at school and sending them all home at once when we finish the unit. It's fun to see how creative the students can get with their poetry!
** Reminder that School Store for 2nd Grade is this Tuesday.
** Reminder that School Store for 2nd Grade is this Tuesday.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Performance
This is just a friendly reminder that our Second Grade performance, Dr. Seuss We Love You is this Friday, March 4th at 1:45 for the parents. If you ordered a shirt for your child, they have arrived but are being kept in the classroom until Friday. The children will be able to put them over the shirt they wear to school or have the opportunity to change into it before the performance. If you didn't order a performance shirt, we ask that you have your child wear a red shirt. The students should also wear jeans or dark pants and sneakers. We can't wait for our performance!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)