Friday, October 28th

Math Workshop
In Math this week we spent time preparing our mathematicians for our first Math Benchmark.  Everyone in 204 enjoyed the math BA as we kept the atmosphere relaxed and laid back! Jadyn was VERY spirited as you can see!

We worked on making change this week by counting up as well as telling time to the nearest five-minute interval. We also worked with double frames and arrows as we looked at patterns that had two different rules. SIDEBAR: Making change is a difficult concept for second graders. Frequent reinforcement with making change at home would be very beneficial. You may want to practice making change with a hands-on activity at home. An idea could be setting a price for dinner one evening. Give your child a $5 bill to purchase the dinner. They would have to figure out the amount of change owed to them after purchasing the dinner.


Writer’s Workshop
Students became “juicy word” detectives as they listened to and read stories. One example was when they listened to the story, Pumpkin Eye. They learned about nouns and adjectives and how to use them to jazz up their writing. Our poets found interesting words and started adding them to a word list to use in their own poetry! We also learned how to write list poems and wrote a list poem together as class entitles “Fall”.

Reader’s Workshop
In Reader’s Workshop this week our students began the week talking about choosing “just right” books and using the “FIVE FINGER RULE” to help us select our “just right” books. Ask your child how to use the “FIVE FINGER RULE” at home. Students also went book shopping for the first time. While doing our shopping we stopped to talk about how to pick “Just Right” books when browsing books. We talked about being able to abandon books that are too easy or too hard for us. Next, we practiced an important comprehension strategy called visualization. As your child grows as a reader, the books that they will be reading won’t have as many pictures to help them support the meaning of the text. The second graders practiced listening to the words of a poem “My Baby Brother” in order to create mental images in their mind. This helped them comprehend the poem.



Word Study
In Word Study this week we continued to explore the world of syllables by playing a game called the Syllable Race. We also made connections between words that start the same. Some beginning sounds we worked on included consonant digraphs (i.e., sh and ch).


Our classroom smelled delicious on Wednesday when we made applesauce. Everyone lent a hand at: cutting, measuring and adding ingredients, stirring and mashing in order to make a tasty treat! Listed below is the recipe that we used so you can make some to share with your family!


CROCK POT APPLESAUCE


• 12 apples (peeled and cored)


• 1 cup water


• ½ cup sugar


• ½ teaspoon cinnamon


• ¼ teaspoon apple pie spice


• 1 tablespoon lemon juice


Peel all of the apples and slice ‘n dice into small pieces. Add all of the ingredients and heat in a crock pot. (4-6 hours on HIGH, 6-8 hours on LOW). Be sure to stir every so often. Enjoy! 


Important News & Reminders


• Monday, October 31st – Happy Halloween! Halloween Parade at 2:30 pm. outside on the soccer field & Halloween Party in our classroom afterwards


• Tuesday, November 8th– NO SCHOOL – Professional Development Day – No students


• Thursday, November 17th – NO SCHOOL – Parent/Teacher Conferences All Day

Friday, October 21st

It has been another fantastic week in 2nd Grade! We have been busy doing all sorts of neat things…

Math Workshop:

In Math this week we completed our second unit as we practiced short cuts for subtraction problems. After taking our Unit 2 Test and Unit 3 Pre-Test we moved on to look at place value using base-ten blocks. We also took time this week to look at money and created a “Table of Equivalencies” using different coin combinations. Throw in a few math games and it has been a great week in Workshop! *Just a reminder that a review packet did come home for our upcoming benchmark assessment on October 27th. This does not need to be returned to school.

Reader’s Workshop:
This week we continued to build our understanding of how partnerships work. Students helped brainstorm a list of ideas of ways they can talk about books with their partners and learned how to solve problems that may come up in their partners. We talked about noise levels and kind reminders we can give our classmates when they are making noise or distracting us from learning. Last our Reader’s got to experience Reading Conferences and find out what they will do when they meet individually with me.


Writer’s Workshop:
We did two different things in Workshop this week. We began the week with a grade level project creating cards, letters and a banner for U.S. Soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. We have a connection with one of our second graders to a man from Detroit who is currently stationed in Afghanistan. Each class worked on their own project to say “Thank You” and show our support. The second half of the week was spent writing poetry. We learned about the “Hello, Goodbye” poem, we looked at samples of kid poems and we talked about features we might put into our own poems. We have FANTASTIC poets in our class!


Social Studies:
This week was spent focused on “Needs and Wants”. We talked about the definitions of each word, read the book, But I Want It, and created a giant list of needs and wants. We spent time looking specifically at our needs as the four main things we need to survive: food, water, shelter and clothing.


Word Study:
Word Study this week focused in on the –ed and –d endings added to words in the past tense. We practiced making words that end with –ed or –d and also looked at the sounds that we get from words with these endings. Last we spent time looking at how we can break words apart into syllables to help us read new and tricky words.


Important Upcoming Dates:
-Monday, October 31st: Halloween Party – Parade at 2:30pm and party right after in our classroom


-Tuesday, November 1st: PTA Meeting – 7:00pm in the Media Center – ALL are invited to attend

Stay warm this weekend… It looks like the sun will reappear! Mrs. Weckstein

Friday, October 14th

The weather was perfect for our Fun Run this morning. Everyone was pumped up and excited to move their feet around the track. Thank you for all your Fun Run donations!

Math Workshop


We are nearing the end of Unit 2. This week our mathematicians practiced making fact families using dominoes and fact triangles. A set of fact triangles came home with your child on Monday. Please make sure that you keep them in a special place and practice them with your child. We spent significant time on frames-and-arrows, addition and subtraction number stories, function machines and some counting strategies for subtraction. Students also learned a new math game called Name That Number. A practice packet came home with your child today to help prepare for their first Math Benchmark Assessment on Thursday, October 27th. Please make sure you are completing the study guide at home.
Word Study


In Word Study this week we have taken a look at forming possessives in words. Second graders learned that to show ownership of something, you add ‘s to a word. Then we worked with words with double consonants. Students worked on identifying two-syllable words with double consonants in the middle (lad/der, muf/fin). Children sorted word parts to create their own two-syllable words! Last, we learned all about the world of synonyms. We practiced finding synonyms talked about the importance of words that have the same definition.
Reader’s Workshop


Wow! It’s been a busy week in Reader’s Workshop! We started the week exploring the importance of reading by interviewing family members about their own reading lives. Students shared their findings with their classmates. The class realized that to become good readers we need to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Thanks for all of your great advice. Additionally in Reader’s Workshop this week, each child set reading goals for themselves. Time was spent talking with each child about their goal and the importance of setting goals for their reading. Students were also introduced to their new reading partners and they selected their permanent comfy reading spot. They focused on how to be a good partner during partner reading. We learned that partners sit side-by-side with a book in the middle, have a cozy spot to read and plan ways to read together (choral reading, echo reading, I read, you read).
Writer’s Workshop


In Writer’s Workshop this week we started our Poetry Unit! Our writers began by brainstorming a list of familiar poetry elements and learned how to read like a writer. Students spent time with a partner exploring several great works of poetry. Next we talked about similes after reading the mentor texts As Sly as a Fox and As Quick as a Cricket. Students became simile detectives as they looked for poems that contained similes. They also tried adding similes to their own poetry.
Social Studies


We continued our unit on communities this week by reading Me on the Map and discussed where we live. Students learned the term region and how it relates to their community, state and country. Then we reinforced the concept by creating our own region books.
Important News/Reminders


• Friday, October 14th – Memory Collection Notebook photos and index cards DUE


• Thursday, October 20th – Pumpkin Sale in the New Gym, 4:30-6:30pm


• Thursday, October 27th - Math Benchmark Assessment


• Monday, October 30th – The Halloween parade starts at 2:30 and the party will follow!


• Monday, November 14th- Picture retakes from 1:00-3:00pm

Fun Run TOMORROW, October 14th at 9:30AM!!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the Dublin Fun Run!! A large percentage of our PTA funding for various activities at Dublin comes directly from the Fun Run. Please make sure to bring back all donation envelopes TOMORROW morning to school... Thank You!!

As we are running at 9:30am PLEASE dress your child accordingly for the weather. It may be wet, it may be sunny! I tried to convince our PTA President Angie Meloche to put up a dome over the playground - we'll see if she's REALLY that good (wink wink).

Please make sure your child wears:
-comfy clothes for running (they will get their bright green "Fun Run" shirt in the morning)
-gym shoes
-weather appropriate clothing (rain coat? sunglasses?)

We hope to see you out on the soccer field tomorrow morning at 9:30 to cheer us on! We promise, it's gonna be a rockin' good time! :-) Mrs. Weckstein & the Weckies

A spirited message from the Weckies :-)

While I've never tried uploading a video to the blog, I'm eager to share this with you! I'm going to try several different formats, so we'll see which works best :-). Go Tigers!

Friday, October 7th

It’s been another fabulous week in 2^nd grade! The Weckies have been mastering the routines of daily activities and have kept me laughing a great deal as of late!

Reader’s Workshop

In Workshop this week we concluded our discussion about the kind of reader we want to be as we talked about the kind of reader we don’t want to be! Last week as you may recall, we learned about the “Wow” and the “So-so” reader. This week we talked about the “Oops” reader. Be sure to ask your child what kind of reader they want to be this year (they better say a “Wow” reader). Next we introduced our Reader’s to their Independent Reading Logs. They will learn to use their log this year as a tool to document the books that they read. It’s pretty neat to look back at these logs throughout the year to see how their reading interests and abilities will change over time.

Writer’s Workshop

Our Writer’s REALLY are enjoying Writer’s Workshop this year. This week we continued to brainstorm ideas for our list of “Writing Starters”. Each child has a heart that the decorated with drawings of things/people that are important to them. We added the heart to our list as an inspiration for stories we can write. We also added to the list that as writers we could try to re-write one of our favorite books, or write a sequel or prequel. Several of our writers’ attempted re-writing some of their favorites and added different twists to the characters and storyline!

We spent the second half of the week learning to write to a topic. A major component of the MEAP testing (3^rd grade and up) is the ability to write to a given prompt on a specific topic. Each week our writers’ will be given a new topic to write to OR they will get to spend time improving upon a piece they’ve already done for a given topic. This week we modeled to our students how to respond to the prompt, “The Best Birthday Ever” as well as one that was fitting for our theme at Dublin this week (Fire Safety) “What would you do if the fire alarm went off at your house?” As the year goes on, we’ll give our students different tips/strategies for improving their ability to respond to a topic.

Word Study

 This week in Word Study we continued our work with consonant clusters. We did a “Make-Say-Chant-Check” activity where the kids made words with consonant clusters using letter tiles and magnetic letters. Then we moved onto onsets and rimes. We talked about how words can have the same ending (rimes) and we sorted words with –ack, -ick and –it endings. Lastly we worked with high frequency words and played a LOTTO game.

Math Workshop

In Workshop this week we worked with several different strategies for addition and subtractions. We learned about “Turn-Around Facts” (2+3 is the same as 3+2), reviewed how to use “Fact Triangles” to practice addition and subtraction, learned strategies for “Doubles Facts” as well as “Doubles Plus 1”. Lastly we worked with subtraction from addition as we used the dots on dominoes to add and subtract.

Social Studies

Our first Unit in Social Studies introduces the kids to several different new terms that they will learn more about in detail in the next four units. This week we touched on maps and more importantly the word “boundary” as we went and found the boundaries of our school and then labeled them on a large map. Additionally we learned about “Human Features” and “Natural Features” through a sort and poster project!

Fire Safety Week

This week was also Fire Safety Week at Dublin. This is a VERY important topic to discuss with the kids as three firefighters from the White Lake Township Fire Department came and spoke to the students in grades K-3. We learned about the dangers of fire and smoke, how to get out of our house if the alarm is going off, what to do if there’s a fire outside of your own bedroom and how important it is to have a meeting place. PLEASE take time this weekend to talk to your child about Fire Safety. It is imperative that they know what to do in case of an emergency at your house. We had a detailed conversation around this topic and there were many questions that the kids had that would be specific to their own home.

Information on the White Lake Fire Department Open House online says:

Where/when: White Lake Fire Department, Sunday, 1 p.m.

Why go: Meet your firefighters, see firefighting equipment, watch vehicle extrication demos, enjoy hot dogs, popcorn and goodies, spray water from hoses and participate in 'Palace Patrol' activities (balloon art, basketball).

Price: Free

Computers

This week we tried something new in the Computer Lab and it was a HIT with the kids! We earned carrot sticks! What’s that you ask? Your child can practice their addition and subtraction on a website called Carrot Sticks! Use the address: www.carrotsticks.com/dublin and then your child will need to sign-in at the upper right-hand side of their screen. Their username is their “magic number” and their name all lower-case. For instance, Sophia’s user name is 1sophia and every child’s password is 204. Then your Weckie can practice their math facts and earn carrots for correct answers. They can also challenge other kids (a list on the right-hand side) to duels to see who can answer the most problems in the 30-second time period. I’ll be honest, when our computer lab time ended on Monday morning, I felt bad asking the kids to STOP doing math!!

Important Dates/Info:

If you have not yet joined the Dublin PTA we strongly encourage you to do so. PTA is responsible for so many fabulous aspects of our day at school including funding that goes directly to your child and our classroom (field trips, classroom books and classroom supplies adding up to over $500 per classroom).

·       Sunday, October 9^th – White Lake Fire Department Open House at 1pm (see note above)

·       Friday, October 14^th – Memory Collection Notebook photos and index cards DUE

·       Friday, October 14^th – Dublin Fun Run at 9:30am on the soccer field

·      Thursday, October 20^th – Pumpkin Sale in the New Gym, 4:30-6:30pm

This collage created with Smilebox

Have a wonderful weekend - enjoy these warm temperatures while they last!! ~Mrs. Weckie