Friday, September 30th

Math Workshop

Our mathematicians have been quite busy this week! First, we finished up Unit 1 and took our first math assessment.  We also worked on addition and subtraction number stories.  Our mathematicians looked at the different types of addition and subtraction strategies that will help us solve problems faster.  Finally, we learned a nifty song to help us remember our doubles facts!

Reader’s Workshop

During our Reader’s Workshop this week we have talked about our comfy reading spot and the things that we need to have in place in order to have a good reading experience.  We have really enjoyed sharing our favorite books with each other and will keep them on display for the kids to read next few weeks!  We also brainstormed ideas of how we want our Reader’s Workshop to look like and sound like in order to do our best reading work.  Then our second graders were introduced to two different types of readers.  Be sure to ask them if they are a “wow” or a “so-so” reader at school and how they know what type of reader they are.  We will be learning about the “oops” reader next week. 

Writer’s Workshop

This past week we used our writing hearts to generate story ideas during Writer’s Workshop.  We spent time talking about our “Jobs” as writers and that our routines in Writer’s Workshop will look the same way every day.  Our second graders learned how to use certain strategies as writers to increase our writing stamina, such as, rereading what we’ve written from the day before to help us add to an unfinished piece.  I’ve been very impressed with the creative ideas that our wonderful second grade authors have drafted!

Social Studies

We continued our unit on Communities this week by taking a look at what types of groups they belong to in their community:  family, school and other.  Students then made a web of how they are connected to many different sub groups in our large community.  Using their Thinking and Writing Journals, your child selected one of their groups and wrote about one way that they helped out in their group.  I was very impressed with all of our helpful second graders!

Word Study

Our second graders worked this week with short vowels like the ‘a’ in apple and the ‘e’ in egg. As table groups, students worked to put together two parts of a word to create a whole word. Then our kids worked with word patterns at the endings of words. This included endings: -aw, -ip, -ap, -ug and –ay. We also reviewed works with long vowel patterns.  Students learned how once they know how to read these patterns they can also read and write other words with the same patterns independently. *You will see many "Word Study" activities come home in Friday Packets. These are words the kids have "built" and "played" with during a partner activity. While these words will not be up on our classroom Word Wall, you can reinforce recognition and spelling of them at home. Below are photos of Word Wall Stations where the Weckies are practicing words that are "No Excuses" in 204. These are words that we will work with that are high-frequency words for second grade. These words we will be expecting them to know how to spell, hence the fun and hands-on activities for mastery!

Important Dates & Reminders

• Tuesday, October 4^th – PTA Meeting at 7:00 pm.

• Friday, October 14^th – Dublin’s Fun Run. We run around 9:20am!! Please remember to bring in your pledge envelope with the proper funds.  The PTA’s goal is to collect $50 per student to reach their goal.  Please remember that 100% of the funds collected will go to finance programs for your child during the school year.  Any donations are tax deductible!

• Please be sure that your child is reading for 20 minutes at least 5 days per week.  Your October Reading Calendars were sent home with your child today.

Have a fabulous weekend! And of course, GO GREEN!! Mrs. Weckstein 

Friday, September 23rd

Welcome 204 Families!

This free scrapbook created with Smilebox

Thank you for taking the time to check out our News Blog, your home for up to date information about the Weckies on Fridays!

We have had three fantastic weeks in Room 204… it’s actually pretty hard to believe it has only been three weeks, I feel like I’ve known these kids for a long time! The kids have really come together well as a group as I am witnessing first-hand the formation of new friendships, the patience of one student helping another with a tricky math problem, or the excitement of hands shooting up into the air as a question is posed and everyone is eager to answer. From my view, it’s an awesome time in Room 204!

Reader’s Workshop

This week we launched our Reader’s Workshop. Daily we will have Reader’s Workshop where our kids have a chance to talk about their reading, demonstrate how to be good readers and build on their interests of books on many different topics! We begin our Workshop with a mini-lesson (no more than 5-10 minutes) on a new topic. This week we have focused on our “Reading Lives” and in particular: our favorite books, our favorite reading memories and our comfy reading spots. Then the kids have time to read books back at their tables independently. Once individual reading assessments are complete in a few weeks, students will actually “shop” for new books to read once a week that will be at their own independent level. Soon we will also introduce “Partner Reading” another component of Workshop before we end with a share! At “Share Time” we reflect on our work during Workshop.

Writer’s Workshop

We also launched our Writer’s Workshop this week! In the beginning of the week we took the kids through the six steps of writing a piece that we will use to assess their writing abilities. We discussed a topic (a story about an animal – fiction or non-fiction), wrote a short plan for our story, used a story board to create detailed drawings of the beginning, middle and ending of our story, drafted the piece, revised and lastly, edited it (ALL in TWO DAYS)!! Midway through the week we created a list of “What Writer’s Workshop Needs to Look Like” and set a high goal of achieving all that we listed. As the week went on we worked on a heart that will go on the front of our writing folders. This heart will showcase things that are important to us. We will use this heart to find motivation for our writing pieces this year as the heart will be mounted to the front of our writing folders. At the end of Workshop we also have a “Share Time” like Reader’s Workshop. Our first “Share Time” featured stories from the Pink Team (shown below).

Math Workshop

Math is one thing we have been doing since the FIRST week of school! We have actually finished up the first unit in our Math curriculum this week. Unit 1 of Everyday Math provides a great review of the math topics covered in first grade while also preparing the second graders for the routine of second grade math. Topics covered the past three weeks include: number patterns in counting, counting on a number grid, patterns on a number grid, addition, subtraction, time, money (coins and dollars), number lines, calculator skills and more! Several math games were introduced or re-introduced as skill builders for the kids once they are done with their math journal work. Please look for Unit 1 math journal pages to come home next week. If you notice a page that asks for the work to be fixed, please make sure to send it back to school in a timely manner. You may have also noticed that “Homelinks” started this week. They need to be returned the next day so that if your child is having difficulty with a concept, I can be aware! Many times a concept that a student understands at school, may be something that when they get home, they need more help with. Jotting a quick note to me on their Homelink will help me to better instruct your child at school!

Here's a picture of one of those math games up on the Smartboard... I have a feeling this is going to be a VERY popular way to play math games with this group!

Important Dates & Reminders:

If you have not done so already, please consider joining the Dublin PTA. Our two new Presidents have some fabulous ideas for the upcoming school year. Additionally, PTA provides each classroom at Dublin with spending money as well as money for Field Trips. Without the membership of the Dublin families, they would not be able to offer these opportunities in a time when finances are so tight! Thank You!

     ·      Monday, September 26th: "My Comfy Reading Spot" assignment DUE

·      Wednesday, September 28^th: Scholastic Book Orders DUE (online or a check made out to: Scholastic Books brought to school) *Coming home Friday, Sept. 23*

·      Thursday, September 29^th: No School for Religious Holiday

·      Friday, September 30^th: Picture Day at Dublin (11:30am for the Weckies)

·      Friday, September 30^th: Letters about your child’s name DUE

·      Tuesday, October 4^th: PTA Meeting, 7pm in the Media Center

Have a fantastic, fall weekend with your family!! :-) Mrs. Weckstein :-)

Our FAPES Schedule:

Monday: Computers 9:20-9:50am
     P.E. 1:00-1:30pm
Tuesday: Art 9:20-10:20pm
Wednesday: P.E. 9:20-9:50am
     Music 3:10-3:40pm
Thursday: Media 9:20-9:50am
     P.E.  9:50-10:20am
Friday: Block (extra 30min recess) 10:10-11:10am
    Music 1:00-1:30pm

By golly, I think I've got it!!

You should NOW be able to post comments here!! It'll look a little bit different, but commenting anonymously should work - just use your name in your post.

THANK YOU so much for your patience with this... I've never had a problem with comments before and tried to revert back to the look of the blog "last year's" style and that seems to have helped!

Mrs. Weckstein :-)

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Greetings Weckie Families! Please comment here so that I know you made it to the blog! I apologize for any confusion that this post wasn't published earlier! Mrs. W.

What did Mrs. Weckstein do this summer?

What have YOU been up to this summer? Take a look at what I've been up to while school's been out!

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