Weekly Update 11/18

I hope you are enjoying these beautiful fall temperatures this weekend!  I feel like the past two weeks have really flown by.  I'm happy to share some of the things your child has been working on…

We took a break from reading groups so that I could meet individually with the students to assess their reading progress.  All children are making great gains, and I look forward to talking to you more about this during our conferences next week.

As I read individually with students I wanted to have meaningful, engaging activities for the rest of the class to be doing during Daily 5.  One of those activities included a writing piece where they were convincing people to eat something other than turkey for Thanksgiving! These came out very cute and will be hung up for you to see during conferences.  I also introduced “Read to Someone” as a choice during Daily 5.  This allowed the students to read with a buddy during 1 round of Daily 5.  We discussed what this might look and sound look, as well as how to pick a good learning partner.  Although we are still fine-tuning this activity, “Read to Someone” has turned out to be a popular choice!

The past two weeks in math have been a continuation of Unit 3.  In this unit, more fact strategies were developed, with a focus on strategies for solving subtraction facts.  We learned a few games and routines to help support the development of fluency with addition and subtraction within 20. We were lucky to have some parents in on Friday to play some of these games with us!  The plan is to finish up this unit before the Thanksgiving break so we are ready to start fresh on Unit 4 when we return on November 28^th.

Our writing times have been spent continuing Personal Narrative writing.  Most kids have two complete, edited stories.  We also did a writing prompt where the children were asked to write a Personal Narrative story about a time they had fun. They worked on these stories independently so that we could use them to help assess where the children are in their understanding of all the components and processes involved in this type of writing.  

We are in the process of beginning our next science unit, Materials and Their Uses.  I hope the children will enjoy this unit as much as they enjoyed the Plant and Animal Survival Unit! The first lesson focused on the different types of materials objects are made of, the properties of the materials, and classifying the materials by their properties. Next we will discuss liquids and solids and how they differ.

I look forward to speaking with you next week during our parent/teacher conferences.  Below are some important upcoming dates…

• November 21st: 2-Hour Delay- Parent Teacher Conferences
• November 22nd: No School- Parent Teacher Conferences
• November 23rd: Race for Education Fundraiser
• November 23rd: Early Release (No PM Kindergarten)
• November 24th-November 25th: Thanksgiving Break: No School

A Look at What the Kids had to Say About This Week

Melanie- My favorite part of the week was reading to a friend during Daily Five. 

Rosalie- I enjoyed learning about properties.

Alexis- My favorite part of the week was science!

Nick- This week I learned how to "Read to Someone."

Nicole- My favorite part of the week was going to the Book Fair. 

Annabelle- I likes learning about science. 

Sangeeta- I really liked learning in math this week. 

Brielle- My favorite part of the week was writing. 

Allyson- I liked visiting the Book Fair. 

Raine- I really enjoyed learning about materials. 

Simra- This week I learned how to play 20 Questions during science. 

Elizabeth- I really enjoyed learning about "Read to Someone." 

Patrick- My favorite part was harvesting carrots from our school garden. 

Sohana- In art we made cute cats, it was so much fun. 

Malcolm- I liked watching brainpop videos about bones.

Saathvik- This week I learned the "Going Through 10" strategy. 

Mary- I liked learning about money in math. 

Weekly Update 11/4

We had a very busy and fun week in the classroom! The week started out with an exciting Harvest Party which was organized and run by our fabulous Room Moms! The kids had a great time making paper puppets, enjoying a yummy snack, and pumpkin bowling! The kids costumes were amazing as well! We are looking forward to our next classroom party, the Winter Party in December.

This week our reading groups focused on reading fictional text and discussing literary elements including: character, setting, problem, and solution. Next week I will begin doing reading assessments in preparation for parent teacher conferences and the end of Term 1.

Math this week focused on subtraction strategies such as: counting back, counting up, and subtracting 0 and 1. The kids also enjoyed playing a game called Salute. Ask them about it, as it's a great game to play at home to practice their math facts!

During writing this week the children worked on revising and editing their personal narrative stories. The children learned about starting sentences in various ways and having a variety of sentence lengths in their stories to make the writing sound more interesting. I also introduced an editing strategy called CUPS. This acronym helps the kids remember the most important parts of editing- Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation, and Spelling. The kids are really doing an excellent job with their personal narrative stories!

We wrapped up our Plant and Animal Survival unit in Science. The kids learned about the final habitat which was the Ocean Habitat. We also spend some time reviewing all of the habitats for the assessment which will be next week.

Overall, it was a great week in Second Grade! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Upcoming Dates:
- Monday, November 7th at 3:30 Online Conference Sign-up begins
- No School November 8th for Professional Development
- No School November 11th for Veteran's Day
- Friday, November 18th- Mismatched Clothes Spirit Day
- Monday, November 21st is a Two Hour Delay for Parent Teacher Conferences
- No School Tuesday, November 22nd for Parent Teacher Conferences
- Wednesday, November 23rd Race for Education
- Wednesday, November 23rd Early Release for Thanksgiving Break
- No School November 24th and 25th for Thanksgiving

Weekly Update 10/21

I can't believe we're nearing the end of October already!  I'm looking forward to our first class party on Monday, October 31^st. Children may bring their costumes to school if they'd like to wear them for the party.  Please have your child bring their costume instead of wearing it to school (in a bag marked with their name).  I will give them ample time to change before the party begins.

During the week we were very busy with Daily 5, math groups, writing our personal narrative stories, and exploring our science concepts.  We took a “Rainforest trek” by following a series of short video clips that were narrated by a tour guide.  After the trek the students wrote a blog detailing some of their favorite aspects of the trek. I was very impressed with what they learned through this experience.  I hope you had a chance to read their blogs. They were returned to them at the end of the week.  Our next lesson focused on the desert habitat. Ask your child to tell you about the “Jeopardy” game we played to explore this habitat more deeply!

Thank you for sending in the photographs for the “Looking Back” writing assignment.  This week we began our stories. The students have learned to use an opening, write the events in chronological order using transition words, and to have an ending to wrap up their stories. I am also asking the students to begin revising and editing their stories for word choice, capitals, and correct spelling of high frequency words. I'm very excited about the stories they are writing and the children are eager to share them with their classmates next week.

Math groups continue to go well.  We've added in a new technology component. The children are using a program called Dreambox. This is a program that is directly linked to the common core standards. It is an adaptive program that tailors to your child as they work. This allows children who need a challenge to work at a level that is appropriate for them. It also gives kids more time with the concepts they are having more difficulty with. The goal is that the students work on this program 15-20 minutes, 3 times a week. We will provide them the time and resources they need here at school.  We ask that the children don't use this program at home at this time so that we can closely monitor their progress and usage time.  Thank you for your understanding!

Here is what the kids had to say about the week:

Sangeeta- This week I learned about the rainforest habitat.

Sohana- I really enjoyed making a new friend this week. 

Sofia- My favorite part of the week was writing my "Looking Back" personal narrative. 

Raine- This week I learned that a spider monkey's baby hangs from her body. 

Melanie- My favorite part of the week was getting ready for Star Student. 

Annabelle- I really enjoyed learning about spelling because it helps my brain. 

Malcolm- My favorite part of the week was the spelling word search. 

Nicole- I really liked making the guidance posters. 

Saathvik- I enjoyed writing a pumpkin acrostic poem. 

Allyson- I learned a new math game called "Name that Number." 

Sujit- This week I learned how to make a new friend. 

Weekly Update 10/14

A look at what the kids enjoyed this week:

Nicole- I really liked the Community Meeting.
Omkar- My favorite part of the week was using the field guides during our rainforest trek.
Simra- I really enjoyed learning about Dreambox which is a math computer program.
Raine- I enjoyed doing math rotations.
Patrick- My favorite part of the week was when I went to the assembly.
Melanie- I liked writing my personal narrative story.
Allyson- My favorite part of the week was when Mr. Lacoste read Kindness is Cooler Mrs Ruler to our class.
Sofia- This week I learned about nature.
Sangeeta- I liked the new writing sheet that has us check for capitals and spelling.
Annabelle- I really enjoyed learning about the animals in the rainforest.
Elizabeth- My favorite part of the week was my Star Student time.
Malcolm- This week I learned about habitats.
Mary- I learned about math and how you do number grid puzzles.
Saathvik- I liked writing my personal narrative story which is a story about your life.
Rosalie- My favorite part of the week was Wellness because we got to play basketball.
Brielle- The best part of the week was Math and Daily Five.
Caitlin- My favorite part of the week was learning that there is jaguars in the rainforest.
Alexis- The best part was starting Dreambox which is a fun new math computer game.
Sujit- This week I learned about the things in the rainforest trek.
Tanner- My favorite part of the week was playing catch with Mr. Lacoste during recess.
Nick- I really liked reading books in library.
Sohana- My favorite part of the week was Mr. Lacoste reading our Care to Read book.

Weekly Update 10/7

We had a great week last week! It started off with a trip to the Living Lab on Monday. The kids had so much fun and learned about plant and animal survival. The students learned about frogs and the various types of feet that they have depending on where they live. We also had fun exploring the Reed Brook and even saw a real frog! The kids had the opportunity to take on the role of either a plant or animal. They found out how the needs of their plant or animal are met by other brook plants and animals. We are excited to go back for another visit in the spring.

Speaking of science, in the classroom we did a lesson on how plants and animals depend on one another. The kids had a blast working together in small groups to create their own "hand pollinators." This was done with various materials, such as: plastic spoon, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, clay, marbles, paper clips, etc. They even tested them and every groups worked!!! Nice work scientists!

In Math this week we focused on addition strategies. Some of which were: combinations of ten, doubles, near doubles, and making ten. It's exciting to see the children putting these strategies to use while playing games and doing various math activities.

We had a great first week with our reading groups! It's always so much fun to hear them all read! Most of the groups this week had the opportunity to read, discuss strategies for when they encounter difficult words, and to discuss the book through various oral comprehension strategies. Next week we will discuss making predictions before and during reading.

Here's what a couple students had to say about this week:

Melanie- My favorite part of the week was my birthday! I really enjoyed learning about bees. This week I learned that bees help flowers.

Nick- My favorite part of the week was Living Lab. I really enjoyed learning about habitats. The week I learned about living things and how they survive.

Upcoming Events: 
- No School on Monday, October 10th for Columbus Day
- Tuesday, October 11th is School Store for Grade Two

Weekly Update 10/3

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend with your families.  The past two weeks we have really settled into many of our routines, and we are working nicely as a classroom community.  Below are some highlights I’d like to share…

Daily 5 is off and running great!  The children now have 4 choices to make during our language arts blocks.  Those choices include:  Listen to Reading, Work on Words, Work on Writing, and Read to Self.  We are doing 3 “rounds” each day, each lasting 15-20 minutes.  It’s neat to see kids working on a variety of tasks independently for such a lengthy amount of time.  Now that we have our Daily 5 routines down we are excited to begin reading groups next week!

At this time they have 2 choices for Listen to Reading:  Raz- Kids and Tumble Books.  Hopefully you all received your login information for Raz-Kids.  This is a great program to use at home because it is tailored to your child’s reading level.  Also, the kids can use their Raz-Kids time towards their 15 minutes of reading.  Tumble Books is a free program offered through the JV Fletcher Library where children can listen to 100’s of picture books!  As long as you access the website through the library page http://www.westfordlibrary.org/pages/JVFletcherLibrary_JustforKids/index you can use the program without a username and password. 

In Social Studies we completed our Apples Economics Unit this week.  The children had several opportunities throughout this unit to work in groups and do some fun, interactive activities that helped them learn the concepts.  I hope your child enjoyed learning all about apples- what a fun way to start off the fall!!

We have been talking about Personal Narratives during our writing time.  We learned that these are true stories about things that have happened in our lives.  We have begun writing a personal narrative about a celebration as we learn about the structure of personal narrative.  After that the children will be able to write about other topics of their choice.

In Math we have begun our Guided Math rotations and it is going really well! The kids are excited to have 3 different activities during the math block. The various activities are: Teachers Choice, Technology, At Your Seat, Hands-On, and Math Facts. "Teachers Choice" is when small groups of kids working on a similar skill level meet with me. For "Technology" the kids have the choice of Prodigy Math, Games on the Everyday Math website, or various math apps. "At Your Seat" is typically math journal pages that reinforce the day's lesson. Finally, "Hands-On" is usually a math game that is part of the Everyday Math program. 

Over the next few weeks we will be turning our focus back to Science.  On Friday we started an investigation to see if plants need water and sunlight in order to survive. We will be watching our plants throughout the upcoming week. We are also lucky to have a chance to visit the Living Lab at the Day School on Monday to explore more about Plant and Animal Survival.  We will be taking a bus to get there. The permission slips were sent home at the end of the year.  I have already received a signed permission slip from everyone so we should be all set!  We may spend some time outside by the Reed Brook, so please keep an eye on the weather so that your child will be comfortable during the outside portion of our visit.

 Lastly, WEDNESDAY IS PICTURE DAY!!  Our picture time is at 10:15. 

Weekly Update 9/19

We had a great first full week in Second Grade! A few of our highlights were:

• Beginning our Apple Economics unit 
• Continuing to learn the components of Daily Five including "Listening to Reading"
• Building our reading stamina
• Began launching our Writer's Workshop
• Discussed CAFE (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding Vocabulary) strategies 
• Read more books by our author study-Kevin Henkes
• Our first Star Student 

Reminder that Monday, September 19th is Curriculum Night from 7:00-7:45. This is a night for parents only as we will spend time sharing the second grade curriculum and routines. If you're unable to make it, I will send home a folder with all the handouts on Tuesday with your child. 

I hope you have a wonderful week!