Update 11/16

We are barely into fall and the winter chill is already in the air!  It's hard to believe we woke up to snow this morning.  I hope you enjoyed the extra time with family and friends over Veteran's Day weekend.  I wanted to provide a quick update about what's been going on in your child's 2nd grade classroom over the past two weeks.

Last week we were SO lucky to have 2 special events.  The first was a visit from author Salina Yoon.  She did a fabulous presentation for the students, and it was so exciting to meet a real, live author!!  We have several copies of her books in our classroom and the students can't seem to get enough of them.  It's great to see kids get excited about literature- Salina clearly had a positive influence on our students.

The second special event was our trip to the Concord Youth Theatre to see Willy Wonka.  What a great show!  It was neat to see a live show with kids as actors.  The best part of this theatre is that it's small- we filled the whole theatre with our 3 second grade classes!  This means every seat was close to the stage and we all felt like we had a front row seat.  If your child had a positive experience and you are interested in seeing other shows at Concord Youth Theatre, you can see what's up and coming by viewing their website:  http://concordyouththeatre.org/

We have been working hard to finish up projects and writing assignments in preparation for parent-teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday.  The most exciting project we've been working on is our habitat dioramas.  We will be using the dioramas as a performance assessment to show what we've learned about Plant and Animal Survival.  This project will take the place of a written assessment that we've done in the past, and we are thrilled to see how the dioramas demonstrate what the students know!

For writing we have spent the last 2 weeks doing a fun turkey writing assignment where the children came up with an alternative to eating turkey for Thanksgiving.  The turkey projects will be up for you to see when you come into the classroom.  I look forward to showing you this project next week.  In addition, each child also wrote a personal narrative story about a time they had fun.  I will be sharing these with you at conferences as well.

Our math lessons have been focused on subtraction strategies such as: counting back, counting up, subtracting 0 and 1, and using what we know about Doubles Facts to help us subtract. The kids also enjoyed playing 2 new games called Salute and Subtraction Top-It. Ask them about these games, as they are great games to play at home to practice their math facts! You can find the directions by logging onto your child’s Everyday Math Account. Their login information is in their Take Home Folders inside one of the plastic sleeves. Once you login, click on the Everyday Math book image to enter the site.

Thank you for all that have signed up for Parent-Teacher Conferences during the week of November 19th.  I look forward to having the time to discuss your child's transition to second grade.

Please note that next week will be a short week for the children.  There is NO SCHOOL on Monday for parent/teacher conferences, we will have a 2-Hour Delay on Tuesday, and Wednesday is an early release.  Our all-school Turkey Trot will take place on Wednesday around 10:00.  If you are still interested in donating to this Robinson fundraiser, please click on this link.  All funds go directly to Robinson students by helping to provide exciting enrichment and technology opportunities.

Upcoming Important Dates:

11/19- No School for Parent/Teacher Conferences

11/20- 2 Hour Delayed opening for Parent/Teacher Conferences

11/21- Early Release (12:20)

11/22 & 11/23- No School for the Thanksgiving Holiday

11/30- Grades Close for Term 1

Update 11/2

It's hard to believe that it is already November! As usual, we've been busy in 2nd Grade!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Halloween this week! The children enjoyed the Harvest Party and looked awesome in their costumes. Thank you to everyone who helped to make the party a success! We appreciate all of the donations and helpers! We look forward to our next classroom party, the Winter Party in December.

Over the past several weeks, we have been reading fictional texts during our Guided Reading groups and focused on story elements (characters, setting, problem, and solution) along with the 5 Finger Strategy to retell a story. Now, we are moving onto nonfiction texts. This past week the children worked on a KWLQ Chart. The K and W are completed before reading the text. The K stands for "What the children KNOW" about the topic. The W stands for "What the WANT to know" about the topic. Then after reading, the children complete the L which is "What they LEARNED" from reading the book, and the Q which is "QUESTIONS they still have" about the topic. We have also spent some time reviewing non-fiction text features (Glossary, Index, Headings, captions, labels, Table of Contents, diagrams, maps, etc..)

In Math, we have begun Unit 3. The focus of this unit is on addition and subtraction fact strategies. The students solved a practice open response problem using their own fact strategies. Then we discussed their drawings and explanations and the children had the opportunity to revise their work if needed. During another lesson, the children wrote subtraction number stories and generated related addition and subtraction facts. We also spent time discussing "fact families" by using dominos and fact triangles to explore how 3 digits become a "fact family."

We hope that your child is practicing their facts at home at least 2 nights per week. Suggestions for ways to practice are on the back of the weekly Homework Graph that is sent home every Monday. Thank you for your support with this as fact power really helps the children with their everyday math.

During our writing blocks, we have spent time continuing to work on the Looking Back personal narrative stories that the children brainstormed for at home. The children are doing an excellent job applying the learned structure of personal narrative stories. We are currently working on revising and editing their work. The children also had the opportunity to create a friendly monster and do a creative writing activity where they got to pretend to BE the monster and tell all about themselves. The children really enjoyed this special Halloween activity!

Our Science unit on Plant and Animal Survival is coming to an end. We spent time exploring the Ocean Habitat and the children became experts on one ocean animal. Then the children presented their information to their classmates in order to learn more about various ocean animals. We are looking forward to doing some library research where the children will get to pick one of the habitats that we study to learn more about. Finally, our culminating activity will be to pick a habitat and create a diorama showing at least 1 plant and animal that lives there and show how a plant depends on an animal or how an animal depends on a plant. Thank you to everyone who has already sent in a shoe box. If you haven't already done so, please try to send in the boxes by November 7th. Thank you!

We are doing our Habitat Research on the following days and I would love some parent volunteers to assist. If you can help out on the following dates, please send me an email and I will confirm once I have heard from parents.

November 8th 1:30-2:15
November 9th- 11:45-12:30

Parent teacher conferences are coming soon! The online sign-up will go live on November 6th at 3:30. Please watch for information to be coming home from the school office. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss the growth that your child has already made in Second Grade.

We will be going to the Concord Youth Theatre next Thursday, November 8th. We will be leaving Robinson at 9:15 and will be back in time for our regular lunch. The children will be eating their morning snack on the bus. Therefore, we are asking that you send their snack in a separate bag from their lunch and in containers that can be thrown away. Thanks for your help!

Upcoming Dates: 

• November 7th- Author Salina Yoon visits Robinson 
• November 8th- Field Trip to Concord Youth Theatre for Willie Wonka play 
• November 12th- No School for Veteran's Day
• November 19th- No School- Parent Teacher Conferences 
• November 20th- 2 Hour Delay- Parent Teacher Conferences
• November 21st- Early Release for Thanksgiving Break