Currently, in math, we have just begin a geometry unit. Students will be exploring plane and solid shapes, as we focus on their attributes (vertices/corners, angles, surfaces, sides, edges, lines, curves). We will also learn about how shapes move, and about how their attributes impact the way that shapes can be combined and separated. Please see below for details. Our next math unit will be fractions, where students will look at splitting a whole into equal parts, and on identifying halves, thirds, fourths, and fifths.
Currently, in math, we have just begin a geometry unit. Students will be exploring plane and solid shapes, as we focus on their attributes (vertices/corners, angles, surfaces, sides, edges, lines, curves). We will also learn about how shapes move, and about how their attributes impact the way that shapes can be combined and separated. Please see below for details. Our next math unit will be fractions, where students will look at splitting a whole into equal parts, and on identifying halves, thirds, fourths, and fifths.
As 3rd trimester begins, I wanted to note how lucky I feel to teach this wonderful group of students, who are hard-working, creative, and supportive of one another. Throughout the year, it has been exciting to be a part of your children's growth and I look forward to being a continued part of it over the next few months. In Reading: We are wrapping up our reading groups about fairytales. Over the past month, students engaged in book talks about fairytales, identifying patterns, discussing character traits, and providing evidence from the texts to support their answers to comprehension questions. Our next reading group texts will discuss animals and historical figures. We will also read other interest-based fiction texts that will serve as jumping off points for our next writing unit. In Writing: In 3rd trimester, our main focus will be on opinion writing. Students will write their thoughts and feelings about books and provide evidence from the texts to support their opinions. We will continue to work on adding details to our writing, to employ our writer's voice, and to utilize appropriate capitalization and punctuation. In Math: We have just completed our unit on bar models, and are learning the foundations of multiplication and division. When practicing this at home, you can remind your child that the X in a multiplication problem is basically a substitution for the term "groups of" (ie: 2 x 4 = 2 groups of 4). We draw out our number of groups by making that many circles and then we place the number of objects inside of each circle. For example, 2 x 4 is the same as 2 circles with 4 objects in each circle. When we transition into division next week, we will utilize the idea of dealing cards as an analogy for the process. For example, for 24/6, we would draw out 6 circles and place one object into each circle on an alternating basis, until all 24 are dealt. Then, we count how many objects are in each circle to find our answer. In Social Studies: Students have been learning about contributors by reading and discussing biographies throughout the year. Some of our favorites are Tree Lady, Miss Moore Thought Otherwise, and On a Beam of Light. We have identified traits that influential people have in common, what a contribution is, and how we can make an impact on the world. Recently, we have begun to work on a project called, "Making Change." First, students generated a large list of local and global issues they were interested in changing. Then, they researched those topics and decided which issues interested them. Most recently, we brainstormed who we can reach out to and what resources we have to begin taking action. This week, we will begin taking action! In Science: Now that our force and motion unit has come to a close, students will very soon begin to learn about animal adaptations, and about the connection between animals and their environment. Stay posted for more information! In Social Emotional Learning: Students have been working on emotion management and they have done a very nice job of problem-solving and role-playing. Most recently, these lessons have specifically focused on managing embarrassment and anger, and on handing mistakes. Students practiced strategies like belly breathing, counting to 10, being assertive by respectfully asking for what we want/need to solve a problem, and using self-talk. Recently, we have been reviewing our digital citizenship lessons from earlier in the year. Our next digital citizenship lesson will be about our digital footprint and we will learn about the impact our footprint has in the longterm.
Hello, families! We have been busy working and learning in the frog class, and students have been growing every day! In Math: Students have completed chapter 3, in which they learned three-digit subtraction with and without regrouping. Although we have finished the chapter, students will continue to work on three-digit addition and subtraction throughout our next unit on bar models. Bar models enhance students' understanding of the relationship between parts and a whole. Students will work on examining bar models to find missing parts and totals, and on creating bar models to show their work. The home link from this chapter is attached below, and if you'd like to learn about bar models and how we will use them in the classroom, I highly suggest visiting this link. In Science: Our current unit is force and motion. Students learned about the two types of force: pushes and pulls, including a general overview of gravity. We also read about and discussed the relationship between the two concepts, leading students to recognize that force causes motion, and that movement can occur when there is a force present. Second graders conducted collision trials. They worked in groups, using different combinations of balls on a ramp, with the challenge of making the balls travel greater and lesser distances. Throughout the experiment, students learned about the impact of weight, size, friction, and incline on the force and motion of objects. In Writing: Students have been working on lab reports, which they are really enjoying! We are using the content from our force and motion unit to learn how to be scientific writers. This includes identifying a problem or question, making a hypothesis, determining the materials needed to execute an experiment, writing and executing a detailed procedure with multiple trials, recording the results, and writing a conclusion. We spend the a lot of our time on our procedures and conclusions. When writing a procedure, students envision how a fellow scientist will interpret their directions and they must make sure they provide enough detail to recreate their work. We even had some friends practice following our directions, which really helped us see the need for detail! As we work on our conclusions, we write about if our hypothesis was correct and why or why not. We also share what we learned during our trials, we make connections to prior learning, and we ask new questions inspired by our learning. In reading: Students have begun their fairytale unit! In reading groups and as a whole class, we have been comparing classic fairytales to fractured fairytales (new versions of classics) and we always look for the lesson in these stories. We will also use fairytales to work on our fluency (reading smoothly, pausing for punctuation, using an appropriate tone of voice, etc.) and as a jumping off point for discussions on story structure. In reading groups, students continue to work on sets of skills that are tailored to their learning goals. These include stretching out the words, expressing our understanding of what we've read, using evidence from the text to support our ideas, making inferences, identifying character traits, asking and answering our own questions, identifying the main idea or lesson of a text, and much more! Please let me know if you'd like some ideas of what to work on at home to enhance your reading experience. Also, I highly encourage you to reference the handout on the parent information page, in order to make the most of your time reading together. Thank you for reading!
Hello, families! I hope you all enjoyed a restful break and are having a happy new year : ) Upon our return from winter break, we will be very busy beginning new units and building on our work from the past few months. In literacy: Students will begin formulating informational writing pieces. This unit involves students writing about topics on which they are experts. They will write the facts on a topic and elaborate on their ideas. We will continue to focus on capitalization, punctuation, grammar, expressive language, and using our voice. We will build on this in reading groups, as we read non-fiction texts and in science, when we begin our force and motion unit. In the next few weeks, we will also focus on adjectives, adverbs, prefixes, and suffixes. This will occur throughout the curriculum (in reading, writing, math, science, etc.). In math: Students will continue their unit on three-digit subtraction with and without regrouping through 1,000. We began to work on these concepts before break and will dig in deeper in the weeks to come. I encourage you to ask your child about the games he or she has learned at school. There are a few that require only a deck of cards and two players. Attached below is the home-to-school connection from this math chapter. As part of math, we frequently work on our calendar routine. This includes writing and saying the date, working on a 100-chart, making one number in different ways, practicing telling time, making combinations or coins, and making change. These are all skills students can practice at home on an ongoing basis. In science: Students will begin their force and motion unit. This includes learning about the two types of force: pushes and pulls. It also incorporates the study of different types of movement. Students will make observations of movement around them and they will read about how force and motion are connected. They will also participate in a hands-on experiment, where they will use their knowledge of force and motion to make a ball travel the shortest and longest distance with materials of different weights and sizes. In social emotional learning: We will continue to work on identifying emotions and using this knowledge and respond in different types of situations. We will also review our digital citizenship lessons from the past few months (private information, our digital footprint, and appropriate online communication).
Students are hard at work as we transition into 2nd trimester! Attached below is information about the 2nd Grade Book Swap, taking place on Thursday, November 20th. In Math: We are beginning our next math chapter, where students will work on three-digit addition with and without regrouping. Please see the attached homelink from this unit. In Literacy: Students have begun their Pilgrim journals. This includes writing about our experiences during Pilgrim simulation from a first-person perspective. Though our new lessons on small moments have come to a close, student will continue to practice small moment writing during writers' workshop. All students are working in their reading groups at their instructional reading levels. They routinely practice skills, such as:
In Social Studies: Students have concluded their unit on Native Americans and have begun their Pilgrim Simulation. This is an unforgettable 2nd grade experience, where students will have the opportunity to learn by doing. Students will learn about the Pilgrims' decision to come to the New World, the challenging journey to North America, and the struggles of life in a new land. They will make laws, build settlements, try new foods, and write about Pilgrim life in first-person. I encourage you to ask your child about his or her Pilgrim experience each day until Thanksgiving break! In SEL: As part of our Common Sense Media digital citizenship lessons, students are learning to show respect online. Students practice using our classroom blog website, Kidblog, as a communication tool where they share their writing and practice commenting on others' writing by asking a question, giving a compliment, and/or making a connection. We have also learned about cyberbullying, and how to handle a cyberbullying situation by using our STOP acronym (S-top using the device, T-ell a trusted adult, O-nly go back online when an adult says it's OK, and P-lay online only with kids who are nice). Attached below is information to reinforce these lessons at home.
Hello, families! Can you believe we've already completed two months of second grade? Students have worked hard, stayed focused, and learned a lot! At your earliest convenience, please read about the procedures for Halloween here. In literacy: Students continue to work on small moment fiction narratives about experiences in their lives. Currently, we are working on enhancing our writing by stretching out our small moments by adding more detail about the setting and our senses. We are also setting goals to incorporate descriptive language, action, and dialogue. In reading groups, students have been reading Native American legends in coordination with our current social studies unit. We have used these stories to focus on our typical skills of decoding and comprehension. More specifically, all reading groups are discussing the lesson of the story, cause and effect, and inferring. In math: We recently began a short unit working with number patterns, place value and comparing numbers 1-1000. Attached below is the parent information sheet on this chapter. We will also continue to review addition and subtraction with and without regrouping throughout this unit. In SEL: Students continue to review their skills for learning: listening, focusing, self-talk, and being assertive. This week, we began to discuss feelings. This included examining a person's face, body, and the context of a situation to help us identify feelings. This is the first step in developing empathy, which we will learn about in a few weeks. Attached below is a homelink about identifying feelings. As part of SEL, we are still progressing through our Common Sense Media digital citizenship lessons, in addition to the skills and concepts that are embedded into our daily use of classroom iPads. Our most recent lesson involved identifying red, yellow, and green websites. Students decided upon criteria to distinguish between which websites are appropriate for independent use, supervised use, or no use until they are over 18. Green/independent websites are ones that parents or teachers have introduced to us and told us we may use on our own. They are usually bookmarked for us and are familiar. The only personal information these would ask for is a username or password that has been created by our teacher or parents. Yellow/supervised websites may have ads or ask us to create an account, but are safe to use with a grown-up. Red websites ask us to buy things, show us ads, ask for personal information, have pictures that are not kid-friendly, or may just make us uncomfortable. Any time we see a pop-up, end up at a website/app that we did not intend to visit, or become uncomfortable, we immediately bring our device to a grown-up to handle the situation together. Attached below is a parent tip sheet to provide you with some useful digital citizenship information for home about online safety. In social studies: We recently began our Native American unit. Thus far, our main focus has been on legends in reading groups. Soon, we will write legends with Mrs. Sabin in the library, and we will learn more about the historic and current relationships between Native American people and the natural resources around them. Thank you for reading!
Students have been hard at work, academically and socially, in the classroom and they have really hit their 2nd grade stride! We receive a lot of positive feedback from specials teachers about their performance in P.E., music, art, and Spanish. I cannot say enough positive things about their daily conduct. All of the frogs exercise kindness, patience, and hard work on a daily basis. This is why they have been filling their class bucket so routinely!
Hello, families! Frogs have been very busy in 2nd grade! They are working hard and have been developing a wonderful, supportive classroom community. Last Friday, Sprague held a whole-school assembly and our class spoke in front of the rest of the students/staff about bucket-filling. They did a wonderful job explaining the concept and speaking in front of a large audience! In Reading: During reading groups this week, we worked on refreshing our reading vocabulary and on reading group procedures (making predictions, reading aloud, answering comprehension questions, etc.). Next week, we will begin working on writing about our connections as we read. I highly encourage you to discuss what you read at home, in order to make the experience more meaningful and interactive. If you are looking for ideas about what to highlight, please refer to the comprehension handout from Curriculum Night (also on the Parent Information tab of this website). In Math: We completed our first unit, where we worked on further developing our number sense. This included a large emphasis on place value, as we examined and manipulated the tens and ones in numbers. We also began our newest math unit, where we are focused on vertical addition and subtraction with regrouping. Below is a screenshot summarizing the unit and attached is a homelink about it. In Social Studies: We "visited" many different countries this week! So far, we have been to The Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Greece, and Canada. We had to get our passports stamped to enter each country and then, we learned about their culture and the connections to our own culture! If you are attending our Diversity Share, you will have the opportunity to see all the work we've done throughout this unit! In Social Emotional Learning: We have learned about being respectful, whole-body listening, ways to stay focused and re-focus, and how to be assertive. Attached below is a homelink about being respectful. We are also learning how to be responsible digital citizens. So far, this included learning the 2nd grade rules of responsible use: 1. I will use my iPad as a tool, not a toy 2. I will only type or share private information when I have permission from a teacher or my parents 3. I will hold the iPad with two clean hands 4. I will keep food, liquids, and anything sticky away from my iPad 5. I will charge my iPad every night and I will work at a charging station when my battery is red We discussed what each of these rules means, and students came up with their own definitions and examples of the important vocabulary terms (ie: private information and tool). Thank you for reading!
Welcome to the 2nd Grade Frog Class blog/newsletter! Here, you will find updates about the goings-on in our classroom. You can also stay informed more frequently by visiting the homepage and reading the tweets, Over the past two weeks, we have spent a lot of our time getting to know each other and setting up our classroom environment. This included organizing our supplies, getting a feel for our classroom, creating a class contract (rules), and playing some fun games. Students did a beautiful job of cooperating, being positive, and being respectful. All of these actions are part of "bucket-filling" and we are always trying to be bucket-fillers at Sprague School! You can learn more about bucket-filling here. We are also working on consistently following expectations and adjusting to the 2nd grade schedule. You can support your child with the transition into the new school-year by helping to make sure he/she has his/her home folder and homework each day, and library books on Friday mornings. You can also help by sharing any changes in routine with your child and with me. In literacy this week: Students have done a lot of reading and writing centered around our Diversity Unit and they are currently writing books based on Todd Parr's book, It's OK to Be Different. This included them examining how people are diverse and reflecting that in their writing. It also required students to work through the writing process of planning, writing, revising their ideas, editing their work for grammar and punctuation, publishing, and illustrating. They are all off to a thoughtful start! Next week, we will begin our regular routine of guided reading groups and centers, which we began to practice this week. In math this week: We continued to work on calendar, as we will do daily this year. Calendar time includes work with the date, patterns, algebraic operations, money, time, measurement, and number sense. During group math and math centers, we focused on looking for groups of 10 in a number or group of objects, and we examined how that skill can help us with estimating, counting, and math in general. We will continue to work on our number sense, as we examine counting on from different numbers by 10s and 1s, completing number lines and number grids, and comparing numbers. Attached below is the Home Connection from our current math chapter (chapter 16). In social studies this week: We are beginning to learn about communities. This will include identifying what a community is, and the roles within a community. We have also begun to examine the diversity within our own community and throughout the world. FYI: Next week, we will begin sending home spelling words to study from our Words Their Way program. Your child will be sorting words that follow a pattern and they can practice using methods suggested on the homework menu. Words will also be made available on the Spelling City website and I will let you know how to search for them next week. Thank you so much for reading! I look forward to seeing some of you at the Back to School Bash on Friday night!
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. CategoriesArchives
April 2015
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