Update 3/29

It was a pleasure meeting with you during Parent Teacher Conferences! It is always nice to share the growth that the children are making! Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. It's hard to believe that we are in our 3rd Trimester already! However, the students still have lots to learn!

Also, thank you for coming to our Second Grade Performance, Kids are Kids the Whole World Round! The children worked very hard preparing and were thrilled to share the performance with both the school community and the parents. I was incredibly proud of them!

Over the past couple of weeks, the students have been quite busy. During our reading groups, we have continued to read non-fiction texts focusing on the non-fiction text features and the purpose of those features. We have also been working on interpretation and reflection questions with non-fiction. We have done this skill throughout the year with fictional texts, but now the children are learning how to answer these questions when they are reading a factual book.

We are continuing to work on our Poetry Unit during our writing blocks. The children have written several poems, such as a Haiku, Cinquain, and template poems. They are really enjoying this type of writing. In April, we will begin Informational Writing in conjunction with learning about ancestors. Please be on the lookout for a form to be coming home on Monday asking for you to record countries from which your child has ancestors from. We will use this information to put the children into groups to research a country. The information that they learn will be used to write informational paragraphs and ultimately create a book about their country.

In math, we are continuing to work on Unit 7 which has a large focus on measurement. The children explored the U.S. Customary length units and measured to the nearest inch, foot, and yard. They also used the Metric System to measure to the nearest centimeter and meter. The children enjoyed finding personal references for both the U.S. and Metric systems in order to help them with making estimates in the future.  The students had fun measuring their long jumps and using the information to create a line plot.

We are continuing our trip around the World. The past two weeks we have been on the continent of Africa and focusing on the country of Nigeria. The children have enjoyed learning about the African Animals and the culture of Africa. We've learned about the African animals and even enjoyed doing some African weaving. Our next stop is Antarctica!

Next Friday, April 5th we will be visiting the Living Lab at Day School for our Spring visit. The children will be learning about beach erosion. We will be leaving Robinson at 10:50 and will be back around 12:30. Therefore, there isn't a need to send a special snack or lunch as we will have our regular snack and lunch at Robinson. We may spend a few minutes at the brook so please have your children dress for the weather.

Upcoming Dates:
April 3rd- Early Release for Professional Development
April 5th- Trip to Living Lab
April 24th- Attend the 5th Grade Chorus Performance at Crisafulli

Update 3/14

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Here’s a look at what’s going on in Room 7:

During reading groups I have spent some time assessing students and reading one on one. This week, the children read non-fiction books during daily 5. We focused on reviewing the features of non-fiction and reading to learn/find answers to questions that we have.  Over the next couple of weeks, we will also be continuing to focus on predicting and retelling fictional texts during our reading groups. 

In writing we have been working hard finishing up our opinion unit. The children did a wonderful job reviewing restaurants, toys, movies, and places they love to visit. This week we began our poetry unit by reading some poems together and discussing what we already knew about poetry. The children also had the opportunity to write their first poem which was a couplet. Over the next couple of weeks, the kids will also get the opportunity to write several different types of poems, some of which will rhyme, and some of which will be template poems.  In the end, every student will have their own published poetry book!

In math we finished up Unit 6 and have started Unit 7, which focuses on whole number operations, measurement, and data. The children will practice finding differences between 2-digit numbers and multiples of 10 by playing a game called "Hit the Target." We will also spend some time talking about adding multiple numbers in a logical way to make the problem easier. The children will be encouraged to look for "friendly numbers" which could be a multiple of 10 or a doubles fact. 

Room 7 is really enjoying our travels around the world. So far we have stopped on the continents of North America, Asia, Australia and Europe. Next week we are on our way to Africa. It has been exciting learning about the different continents, countries, landscapes, and cultures around the world. Be sure to ask your child where their favorite stop has been so far!

Everyone is doing an amazing job rehearsing for our second grade musical “Kids are Kids”. We can't wait to welcome you to school for our performance on March 22 at 1:45.

**Please remember the last day to sign up for parent teacher conferences is tomorrow, Friday, March 15^th. The sign-up link will be taken down after 3:30 pm. If you have any questions about signing up for a conference please let me know.

Dates to remember:

•   Thursday, March 14th: Early Release Day: Professional Development 

•   Friday, March 15th: Online Conference Sign-Up Ends (3:30)

•   Thursday, March 21st: Parent Portal Opens (Access to Progress Reports)

•   Friday, March 22nd: 2nd Grade Musical Performance “Kids are Kids” (Parents/Guardians Invited) 1:45 

•   Monday, March 25th: No School: Parent-Teacher Conferences 

•   Tuesday, March 26th: Two-Hour Delay: Parent-Teacher Conferences (Before School Care available from 8:00-11:00 for $8)