Update 2/28

Here is a look at what is going on in Room 7:

During reading groups we have been spending time focusing on the main idea of a story. We have also been continuing to review predicting and retelling. The children will use these important skills to write a summary of the book they have read. During the next couple of weeks we will spend some time assessing students one on one to help us prepare for progress reports.

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.  They are excited that we will be using the Chromebooks to type our restaurant reviews. These typed reviews will be added to the students writing portfolios that will be sent home at the end of the year. Our next writing unit will be informational writing. Students will use the information they have provided from home along with library research to write informational paragraphs about a country that they have ancestors from. I can’t wait to hear about all the different countries and cultures represented in our classroom!

In social studies students are learning that everyone who lives is Massachusetts is not the same. We have discussed different reasons immigrants come to the United States by using the terms “push and pull factors.” We have also shared the important traditions and customs they may bring with them. As mentioned above, students will be researching information about the countries their ancestors came from. Each student will use that information to create a piece of a classroom quilt representing the various cultural backgrounds of the children in our class. 

In math we have one more week to finish up Unit 6, which focused on multi-step word problems, ballpark estimates, and partial sums. These are all skills we will continue to practice throughout the year.

Our next math unit will focus 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.

Grade 2 has started rehearsing for our second grade musical. The students are working hard and doing a great job! We can't wait to welcome you to school for our performance on March 27 at 1:45.

Dates to remember:

·      Monday, March 2^nd-March 6^th Read Across America Week

·      Monday, March 2^nd- March 20^th Star Reader Program

·      Tuesday, March 3^rd No School Professional Development

·      Monday, March 9^th Grade 2 Field Trip to Concord Youth Theater to see Pinocchio

·      Friday, March 13^th Parent-teacher conference sign-up opens at 3pm

·      Friday, March 20^th Parent portal opens for parents to view progress reports

·      Monday, March 23^rd No School Parent-teacher conferences 2-8pm

·      Tuesday, March 24^th 2 hour delay parent- teacher conferences

• March 27th- Second Grade Performance at 1:45 

Update 1/31

This past Monday marked our halfway point in second grade- how exciting!  We've been working hard in school and have been learning many new things.  Unfortunately our school has been hit hard by the flu, strep, and other viruses.  We are doing our best to keep the classrooms clean and germ-free.  Thank you for keeping your child home if they are sick.  

Here is a look at what has been happening over the past two weeks...

We continue to use our content blocks to teach both science and social studies.  The students are really enjoying learning about the 7 continents in social studies.  So far we have visited 6 out of the 7 continents.  After reading about each continent the students have been answering some questions related to that continent.  We are keeping the questions in an Around The World folder which will come home when it is complete.  We have also had the opportunity to watch videos and/or slideshows to further our learning. Ask your child to tell you something they learned about each of the continents- I bet they will be excited to share their learning with you!

In science we are continuing our work with Earth's Surfaces.  After completing our landform models we did several experiments to show how wind and water change the shape of the land.  We learned that land surface is made of rock, sand, and soil, and these surfaces are constantly changing.  While some changes are fast (a landslide, a flood), some changes take 100s of years (such as waves crashing against rock to create a seaside cliff).  This week we had the opportunity to become engineers.  The students worked in groups to create something to prevent a landslide from reaching a road.  They used materials given to them to both prevent and stop the rocks, sand, and soil from falling.  They tested their models and discussed how they could improve their designs.  They were very invested and it was a lot of fun to hear their rich discussions.  

For writing time we are continuing our restaurant reviews.  We have discussed how to turn our graphic organizers into a complete and persuasive review.  The children were taught how to best start, as well as end, an opinion piece of writing.  We also learned about transition words and organizing the review in an understandable sequence.   Many students finished their restaurant piece this week and will be moving on to reviewing other things such as movies, books, video games, or toys.  

We finished up unit 5 this week in math and completed the Unit Assessment.  I will be sending it home early next week for you to review.  

I hope your child enjoyed the Great Kindness Challenge week at school.  I was very proud of the kind acts I saw happening throughout the week in the classroom.  At the end of each day I spoke individually with each child to hear about something kind they did either at school or at home.  Great job, second graders!

Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday, February 5th- 1/2 day for Professional Development  (dismissal at 12:20)

Friday, February 14th- Valentine's Day and Classroom Party

February 17-21st- No School for February Vacation

Update 1/17

It has been nice to get back into a regular classroom routine after the holidays. I love that we have a solid 6 weeks of learning between the Winter Break and February Vacation!

Over the past couple of weeks in math, we have spent some time wrapping up Unit 4 and doing our Mid-Year Assessment. We have also started Unit 5 which focuses on addition and subtraction strategies and using money to buy things at "pretend" stores. The next few lessons students will be using various diagrams to help them organize and solve number stories.

Our reading groups have been reading fictional texts and working on visualizing and making inferences while reading to help them with their comprehension. We continue to practice retelling and summarizing stories. We are currently using a summarizing strategy that asks the kids to answer the following: "Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then." This helps them organize their thinking when summarizing longer texts.

The children have been very excited about our new "Opinion" writing unit! Together we created a list of things we have opinions on and discussed supportive vs. not supportive reasons. The students have also completed a graphic organizer for their first opinion piece which is a restaurant review. This is being modeled by creating a class review of the Robinson Cafeteria. Over the next month or so, the children will have the opportunity to write several different reviews. They may choose to review a movie, book, toy, place, game, etc.

Our content blocks have been a combination of both science and social studies. We have begun to learn about the 7 continents of the World. The students will be exposed to one continent per week for the next several weeks. We are currently on our 3rd continent. The hope is that this will give them a general overview of the world and the various cultures and geography.

Our science unit is called "Earth's Surface." The children have learned that the world is covered by 70% water and 30% land. We have also discussed some of the landforms found on earth's surface such as: mountains, valleys, rivers, ponds, streams, oceans, islands, etc. The children enjoyed creating these landforms out of clay and will be bringing home their 3-D models soon! In the next couple of lessons, the children will investigate how earth's surface changes with wind and water.

The Second Grade compassion project is well underway! The Robinson community has collected over 550 books so far! We will continue to collect books until January 31st. Our goal is to get to 1,000. I know we can do it!

Upcoming Dates:
January 20th- No School
Week of January 27th-31st- Great Kindness Challenge Week
February 5th- Early Release for Professional Development

Update 12/17

Happy December! I hope you are all surviving and enjoying this busy and exciting time of the year! The energy is certainly felt in 2nd grade! :)

In second grade we have been very busy. We enjoyed an all school assembly last Wednesday.  During this community meeting the children were reminded how important each and every one of them is to the Robinson  School community. The whole school enjoyed a beautiful read aloud by Mrs. Rivet titled You're Here For A Reason by Nancy Tillman. At the end of the meeting the kindergarten shared with us how many hats and mittens have been donated. Then they challenged the whole school to bring in even more. I am proud to say as a whole school met that challenge in just two days!!

We have been enjoying our new social studies unit on Mapping Skills. The children have learned about the cardinal directions, map key, and how to "read" various maps. They have also created maps of Robinson School, including symbols, map keys, and a compass rose. We are also beginning to learn about the names and location of the 7 continents and the 5 major oceans. These are skills that will lead us into our next social studies unit, "Cultures and Migration." 

We are looking forward to starting our next science unit, "Earth’s Surface."  The children will explore the earth’s surface and how it changes. Students will be engineers while they build and test ways to protect a road from a landslide. They will also create a 3D clay model of land and water on earth. This is a fun and engaging unit for the children.

In math the children have been learning about telling time on an analog clock. This can be a difficult concept for some, so we encourage you to reinforce this concept at home. This is an area that we will continue to review throughout the year. At this point, the expectation is that the children can tell time to the hour and half hour. The expectation for the END of the year is that they tell time in 5 minute intervals. We have also worked with place value. The children have built various numbers with base ten blocks. The children have also explored the value of each digit in a 3 digit number along with comparing which number is largest by looking at the value of each digit.

During reading, we have spent some time enjoying holiday books. We have also been learning about making inferences and visualizing while reading fictional texts. The children have learned that when a reader makes inferences they use the words from the book along with their own background knowledge to make inferences about what the author is telling them. While visualizing the students learned to make a picture in their minds about what they have read. These are skills that the children will continue to practice as they begin to read longer texts and texts without pictures. 

During writing we have been learning about character traits. Discussing character traits led us to a fun writing activity. We received a letter from Santa explaining that he was looking for some friends to help the elves at the North Pole. The children brainstormed the character traits that they felt they had that Santa would be looking for and the reasons why those character traits would be important to Santa. Next, we wrote letters to Santa explaining which character traits would make them an excellent helper at the North Pole. After the writing the children created their own elves (with real photos of their faces). They will be coming home soon! After winter break we will begin our next writing unit which is "Opinion Writing." 

I wish you all a fun and relaxing Winter Break and hope that you enjoy the holidays with your families and friends! See you next year! 

Upcoming Dates:

December 19th- Winter Party

December 20- Pajama Day, Whole School Dance Party, and Holiday Sing Along 

December 21-January 1st- Winter Vacation

Update 11/8

Happy November!  I am amazed that today was our 50th day of school already!!!  As usual, we've been busy in 2nd Grade...

We had a wonderful time celebrating Halloween last 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.

After spending several weeks reading fictional texts during our Guided Reading groups and focusing on story elements (characters, setting, problem, and solution) and retelling, we moved  onto nonfiction texts this week. This past week the children worked on reviewing non-fiction text features (Glossary, Index, Headings, captions, labels, Table of Contents, diagrams, maps, etc..) by doing a scavenger hunt through a non-fiction text.  We also had an opportunity to read non-fiction texts in our groups and discuss the many new and interesting things we learned.

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.  Your child should have brought home their fact triangles last week.  Using fact triangles is a really great way to increase fact fluency. We hope you will pull them out every once in a while to practice with your child.  Second graders need to be fluent (answer within a few seconds) all of their combinations of 10 facts and their doubles facts by the end of term 1.  

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. Their completed stories will become part of their writing portfolios that will be sent home at the end of the year.  We are also doing a fun writing story about Thanksgiving.  We look forward to sharing these stories with you at conferences.

Our Science unit on Plant and Animal Survival has come to an end.  Our culminating activity was 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.

Now that our science unit is complete we will begin our first social studies unit of the year, Mapping.  We started talking about this topic this past week, and we look forward to some fun, interactive lessons coming up in the next few weeks.

Parent teacher conferences are coming soon! The online sign-up will go live on November 12th 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. 

Lastly, there will be no spelling homework for next week, November 12th-15th. With the shorter week we have decided to spend our spelling time in class doing some assessing as we near the close of term 1.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Upcoming Dates: 

November 11th- No School for Veteran's Day

November 25th- No School- Parent Teacher Conferences 

November 26th- 2 Hour Delay- Parent Teacher Conferences

November 27th- Turkey Trot and Early Release for Thanksgiving Break 

Update 10/25

It is hard to believe it is almost the end of October and the cold weather is approaching. Please be sure your child comes to school with a jacket or sweatshirt to wear out to recess. We go outside everyday.

We have a lot to share about what's been happening in our classroom over the past two weeks...

In math, we have finished Unit 2, which focused on addition fact strategies. Near Doubles, Turn Around Facts, and the Making Ten strategy were some of the strategies we practiced. The children will continue to use these strategies while playing games during guided math and completing their math journal pages. This week, we started Unit 3. This unit also works on fact strategies but with a focus on solving subtraction facts.  Frequent practice of addition AND subtraction facts will help second graders develop math confidence and fluency. If you're looking for ways to help build your child's math skills, please work on fact fluency at home. Second Grade students are expected to know addition and subtraction facts to 20 with automaticity by the end of the school year. Thank you for your help in developing this important skill. 

During writing, the children are working on their “Looking Back” stories. They are using the photos and brainstorming sheet brought in from home to write the first draft of their stories. It has been so much fun seeing all the wonderful photos and the stories are off to a great start! The children also had an opportunity to create their own "monster" and write a creative story about their monster. 

Daily 5 is up and running and the children are doing a wonderful job! In our reading groups, we are currently focusing on retelling and identifying important story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution). The children will be using the “five finger” strategy to identify the story elements and will use them to help retell stories. These are skills that we will practice throughout the school year.

In Science, we are finishing up our Habitat and Survival Unit. The children have learned about our final habitat which was the ocean habitat. We have also begun library research where the children are researching one habitat (ocean, rainforest, desert) to further their knowledge. This is also our first research project, so the children are learning how to "research" by learning about note-taking, putting their information into their own words, and about non-fiction text features and how they help them understand the test. The children will share what they have learned in small groups. Next week we will begin habitat dioramas, the children are VERY excited about this culminating performance project. 

Our first class celebration, the Harvest Party, will be on October 31st.  The children may bring their costumes in a bag marked with their name and will be allowed to put them on for the party. It is a Robinson rule that we don't allow weapons, face paint, or masks. If your child doesn't want to wear their costume, that's fine too! 

I will be organizing the class parties this year. I have sent a list home with each parent who has offered to donate an item or their time for the parties. If you have any questions about party assignments, please just let me know. Thank you for all the donations that have already come in to help support our classroom parties. If you have not yet sent in a $6 donation for the holiday parties there is still time. These donations will be used to pay for the crafts at each celebration.

Thanks for all you do and have a wonderful weekend!

Update 10/11

It is hard to believe we are heading into the third week of October! The cold weather is approaching. Please be sure your child comes to school with a jacket or sweatshirt to wear out to recess. We go outside everyday.

We have a lot to share about what's been happening in our classroom over the past two weeks...

In math, we are finishing up Unit 2, which focused on fact strategies. Near Doubles, Turn Around Facts, and the Making Ten strategy were some of the strategies we practiced. The children will continue to use these strategies while playing games during guided math and completing their math journal pages. The children will be taking the Unit 2 assessment next week. When the completed assessment comes home please be sure to sign and return it to school. In Unit 3, more fact strategies will be developed with a focus on solving subtraction facts.  Frequent practice of addition and subtraction facts will help second graders develop math confidence and fluency.

During writing, the children are continuing to work on their personal narrative stories. The children are learning how to edit and revise their stories so they can write a final draft. They are also beginning to write creative, descriptive monster stories. The students will have fun designing and writing about their own monsters!

On Wednesday of next week students will be bringing home a homework assignment titled “Looking Back” Please help your child find a photo of a recent special event/ moment from their life to use for this assignment. Please help them attach this photo to the homework sheet, then help them use the homework sheet to brainstorm all about the photo.  The students will use the photo and brainstorming sheet to write the first draft of their next personal narrative story. It is always so much fun to see all the wonderful pictures the children bring in! This homework assignment is due back on Friday, October 18^th. There will be no other homework next week.

Daily 5 is up and running and the children are doing a wonderful job!  In our small reading groups we have been  focusing on predicting, making connections and retelling strategies. Over the next few weeks we will focus on identifying important story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution). The children will be using the “five finger” strategy in small reading groups to identify the elements and retell stories. These are skills that we will practice throughout the school year.

During science the children have visited the desert, rainforest and the pond habitats! While visiting these three habitats we have learned all about the animals and plants that live in each habitat and what they need to survive. We have also discussed how the plants and animals in these three habitats depend on each other to survive. The children did a great job writing a blog about their visit to the rainforest, enjoyed playing trivia during their visit to the desert, and wrote letters to landowners persuading them about the importance of preserving the pond habitats. Next week we will visit the ocean habitat and collect and share data like scientists. During the week of October 21^st the students will break into groups and conduct research on three of the habitat with the library media specialist. As a conclusion to this amazing science unit each student will create a shoebox diorama on the habitat of their choice. If you have not sent in a shoebox for your child please send one in by next week.

Our first class celebration, the Harvest Party, will be on Thursday, October 31st.  Mrs. Frazier, Mrs. Longo, and myself  have work together to organize the celebrations for us this year.  If you have any questions or concerns about the parties please me contact me. Thank you so much for all the donations that have come in to help support our classroom parties! It is always a wonderful time for the children!

Thanks for all you do and have a wonderful long weekend!

October 14^th- No school Columbus Day

October 15^th- No School Professional Development