Weekly Update for 4/27

I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable vacation! It's hard to believe that we are in the home-stretch of the school year.

There are a few exciting things happening this week:

• We will be walking to Crisafulli to hear the 5th Grade Chorus sing on Wednesday.
• The First Grade performance is on Friday and we will be attending in the morning with the rest of the school. 
• We also have an all-school assembly on Wednesday to discuss our last Care to Read Book. 

We will be working on the following during class time...

Reading - We will be reading non-fiction books this week. We will begin our reading groups by discussing our background knowledge on the text subject. Then after reading, we will discuss/write about what we learned from the book.

Math- This week's focus will be on place value. The students will model and write 3-and 4-digit numbers using base ten blocks and money. They will also make exchanges with base ten blocks and relate that change to money. We will also identify the value of each number up to the ten-thousands place. Lastly, the children will be introduced to the idea of parentheses in number models and will learn that they need to start with that part of the problem first.

Writing- The students are continuing to write their informational paragraphs answering their "I Wonder" questions from our library country research sessions. The kids are doing an amazing job and really seem to be enjoying this project!

The students will also be writing letters to their Third Grade Buddies to learn more about Crisafulli and third grade. Their buddies will write back to them to answer their questions and the children will have an opportunity to meet their buddy on Move-Up Day.

Social Studies- We are still in the continent of Africa and will be learning about the country of Nigeria this week.

Hope you have a great week!

Weekly Update for 4/13

Happy Monday!  Only 1 more week until April Vacation!! The Red Sox will open up their season today at Fenway Park.  We hope you will participate in our all school spirit day to support the team by wearing anything baseball related to school today, Monday April 13^th.

A couple other things to note this week:

• Tuesday will be 2^nd grade school store
• Wednesday is a half day (dismissal at 12:20) for professional development
• I am looking for volunteers for research on Monday mornings (see below)

Here is what 2^nd graders in room 7 will be working on throughout the week…

Writing- We completed our first day of research in the library on Thursday.  The children worked very hard at finding the answers to their “I Wonder” questions.  We then learned how to turn our notes into a paragraph to answer our "I Wonder" question. Our class will be visiting the library on the next three Mondays from 11:45-12:30 (4/13, 4/27, and 5/4) to continue our research.  Parent volunteers are much appreciated (and needed!), so please let me know if you are available to help out during any of these times.

Guided Reading- The students did a wonderful job last week identifying character traits and supporting their opinions. This week groups will work on picking out their favorite part of the story and writing down why. The written comprehension part of reading is a big focus for 3^rd grade, so we are really trying to prepare them with all of the strategy work we've been doing with our groups.

Math- Our math work over the next few days will be on data collection and graphing.  The children will practice creating and interpreting line plots, as well as vertical and horizontal bar graphs.  They will also have the opportunity to survey their classmates on various topics and use that data to create a graph of their own.

Social Studies- We had a great time in Antarctica, but it is time to move to warmer climate!  We will visit AFRICA this week!

**Lastly, the PTO will be sponsoring a Robinson School Family Picnic on Friday, May 15^th from 4:00-7:00. The organizers of this event are looking for 1-2 contacts from each classroom to help get the word out and/or help with the picnic. If you would like to be a contact for our class, please let me know and I will forward your contact information to the organizers. Thank you!

Square 1 Art Deadline

Your child created some awesome artwork for you and the order deadline is here! Last day to order is Wednesday, April 8th. Don't miss out on celebrating your child's artistic achievement by ordering a keepsake featuring their artwork. You can order by:

• www.square1art.com/shop
• Personalized paper order form sent home with your child 
• Call 888-332-3294

Weekly Update for 4/6

I hope you had a nice weekend! Happy Easter to those families that celebrate! Here's a look at the week ahead...

Reading- We will be continuing to discuss character traits while reading fictional books during our Guided Reading time. The students will be asked to pick a character, name a trait for the character, and then give evidence from the text to support their trait choice.

Writing- We are excited to begin our unit on Informational Writing. This is where the kids will get to research a country from which their ancestors came from. We will begin by creating a list of "I Wonder" questions that will be used when doing our library research over the next 4-5 weeks. These will be open ended questions such as: What kinds of foods do they eat in my country? or What sports do they play in my country? Each child will write their own questions based on what he/she wants to know most about.  Each week they will research and take notes as they seek to find the answers to their “I Wonder” questions.  The end goal will be teaching them how to turn their notes into complete paragraphs and, finally, a book about their country!

Math- This week we will begin Unit 10 in the Everyday Math program which focuses on money. We will review notation and equivalencies for money amounts, dollars-and-cents notation, and names for a dollar, a dime, and a penny. The students will also learn how to enter money amounts into a calculator. Finally, the students will be solving word problems that involve money and price differences. 

Social Studies- This is our second week in the cold continent of Antarctica. We will be learning about penguins and creating our Antarctica scrapbook page which includes "Frozen Facts" about the continent.