Friday, April 27, 2012

A word about our Second Graders:

Expectations are higher for second graders as we approach the end of the year.  We need to make sure that they are ready for third grade.  For example, your child should be putting capitals at the beginning of sentences along with the correct punctuation at the end.  Basic sight words should be spelled correctly.  Do they know their basic addition and subtraction facts?

My expectations for quality work and social skills have also increased.  I know your child pretty well by now and am aware of what they are capable of in order for them to produce their “personal best”.  I also know that they are all capable of being respectful listeners.

Second graders should also be able to come to the classroom unassisted by an adult.  Backpacks, lunches and Everyday folders should be taken care of by the student, not a parent.  We are trying to instill a sense of accomplishment and responsibility in your child, and this can’t happen if they are unable to complete these simple tasks independently.  I promise you that your child will feel loads better about themselves knowing that they are capable of doing things on their own.

I ask for your support in encouraging these higher expectations for your child. I also ask that homework to be returned in a timely manner.  I realize that spring is a busy time for everyone, but school work must come first.  Together we can!

Reader’s Workshop: This week in workshop we continued our look into “informational fiction” books as we finished reading Salamander Rain and Wacky Plant Cycles.  As a class, we completed a Venn diagram talking about the two book’s nonfiction text feature similarities and writing structures. Next, we talked about nonfiction and informational books having  to either be read from “cover to cover” or as a book you can “dip in and dip out” of as a reader. We also created questions that all good readers ask themselves before approaching an unfamiliar nonfiction book.  Students were sent off to see what questions they asked themselves before reading a “just right” nonfiction text of their own.

Our comparison of two different Informational Fiction books!

Writer’s Workshop This week we took all of our bird research and transferred the collected information into a newspaper article format. Students spent time making the facts that they collected “interesting” for their readers as well as making sure that their facts were put into complete sentences. We worked on our physical description, habitat and nesting, food and three interesting facts for the birds. Our week ended by crafting an interesting lead that will “hook” our readers.  We are VERY excited about birds! Look for a note coming home about helping type out your child’s writing. 

An example of one piece we shared where facts were turned into interesting sentences for a magazine article!

Math Workshop: We continued to review different strategies for multiplication and division by solving story problems.  The students were pretty excited to be learning these new facts.  A student set of multiplication/division fact triangles will come home soon.   Please keep these triangles handy when reviewing multiplication and division facts this summer. 

Word Study:  This week we have been forming plurals for words ending in –f, -lf, -fe as we learned to change the ‘f’ to ‘v’ and add ‘es’. Next we learned how to form comparatives by adding –er and –est to words.  Students then had to draw pictures to show their comparatives:  tall, taller, tallest.

Social Studies: This week we have spent time learning about the economy in our community by introducing the terms opportunity cost and choice and scarcity.  Opportunity cost is the value of the next best choice that one gives up when
making a decision.  Scarcity is when there is not enough of something that everyone wants.  Students had to select two items that they would like to have such as their favorite food.  If they selected the first choice, then their opportunity cost would be their second choice.  Students ended the week by taking a closer look at different types of careers that are available to them.  They were assigned a homework assignment where they needed to interview an adult about their career.  Next week students will decide upon a career that they would like to pursue and complete their very first resume!

Can you guess which career each Weckie was for our sample careers?

A glimpse at our hallway if you haven't been by lately...

Our cloud poems from our Air and Weather Unit in Science!

A giant list of ways we can help save the Earth for Earth Day!

Important Dates/News:

Tuesday, May 8^th:  PTA Meeting @ 7:00pm

Friday, May 11^th:  Mom’s and Muffins @ 8:30am, Dublin Spring Clean-Up 4-6pm

Friday, May 18^th :  Field Day

Monday, May 14^th: Items that are due:

-MVP person selection form

-2 different pictures of your child and their MVP (no computer printed copies please)

-A digital copy of those photographs emailed to my school email.

-$5.00 to cover the cost of the project and celebration

­-Please also note that the MVP Celebration is strictly for 2^nd graders and their MVP.  Please make other arrangements for any younger siblings during this special event.

Friday, May 18^th :  Field Day

Thursday, May 24^th:  MVP Celebration @ 2:30-3:30 pm in Old Gym

Reader’s Workshop: This week in Workshop we introduced our readers’ to two new “Informational-Fiction” books. We spent time looking at Salamander Rain by Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini and Wacky Plant Cycles by Valerie Wyatt. Both books exhibit many different non-fiction features and were used to model journal entries that our students completed. Each reader was asked to write about the features they found in a non-fiction book they were reading and explain how the features help them to better understand the topic. We spent time sharing strong examples of journal entries and even practiced fixing up a not so strong ‘teacher-created’ entry! Please look for book bags to come home with your child. The bags give detailed instruction for how they should be used at home!

Writer’s Workshop: In Workshop this week we spent A LOT of time completing our bird research. We made sure that we had collected lots of facts about our birds including: physical description, habitat, nesting, food and interesting facts. There’s an excited buzz in the classroom at the mention of Writer’s Workshop as the kids are EAGER to dig into the field guides and bird specific books to become an expert on their bird! Next week we will start writing the rough drafts for our Non-Fiction Magazine Feature Articles.

Math Workshop: The theme this week is… MONEY! We have spent a great deal of time learning different strategies for comparing monetary amounts and making change. We have practiced counting up using coins and numbers as well as practiced learning how to subtract where we may need to borrow multiple times. Towards the end of the week we began working on a subtraction strategy that uses the “trade-first” algorithm.

Word Study:  This week we did a couple different activities in Word Study. We spent time looking at the endings of words including: -ain, -ight and –eam. Next we spent time working on homographs. These are words that look the same but have two different meanings. The kids created pictures and corresponding sentences to explain the differences between the two words.

Social Studies: This week we have spent time learning about four main words: goods, services, producers and consumers. We spent time talking about goods and services and their relationship to producers (who need goods) and consumers (who receive services). We read the book, From Cow to Ice Cream and created a diagram to retell the process the goods must go through to become the final product, ice cream! For a special treat, we then taught the kids how to make their very own ice cream! It made for a great surprise and treat on a Friday afternoon. Thanks for helping to supply funding for the ingredients and for sending in ice!

Important Dates/News:

Friday, April 27^th – Dublin Talent Show

Tuesday, May 8^th – PTA Meeting @ 7:00pm

Friday, May 11^th – Mom’s and Muffins @ 8:30am

Not just an ORDINARY week in 204...

Here's a preview of some special visitors we had in 204 this week...

Customize a free picture slideshow

Reader’s Workshop

What a fantastic week in Workshop! Students continued to look at Cynthia Rylant’s book, “The Whales” and Faith McNulty’s book, “How the Whales Walked” and compared Rylant’s book to McNulty’s piece on the topic of thinking that whales do and think.  Students noticed that Rylant’s words were more poetic, while McNulty’s were more factual.  Our readers also thought of many creative names for the new genre of “On-the-Fence” books.  Some of the most creative were: fictnon, nonfict and a little bit fiction and a little bit nonfiction.  We voted and decided that informational fiction would be the best name for this new genre of books.  Students then searched through our classroom library to find informational fiction books for our new book tub.

Writer’s Workshop

In computers this week students got a chance to visit the Cornell Ornithology web page to take a closer look at their birds.  They watched videos and heard the sound of their bird call.  Our writers began researching their birds to learn about the physical description, habitat and nesting of the birds. Thank you for sending in such great information from home! The enthusiasm that overcomes the room during Writer’s Workshop is evident at how much our kids love to write!

 Math Workshop

Our students were shocked to find out how parentheses are used in math earlier this week!  They learned that mathematicians should do the math work inside the parentheses first.  We took our Unit 10 math assessment mid week.  Next, we took the data that we collected from our March weather calendars in science and created a bar graph.  We looked at the bar graph to write three true fact about our weather bar graph.  Our week ended with some fun math explorations and iPod Touch apps!

Word Study/Writing Skills

This week the kids took their handwriting assessment. It will be very interesting to compare their handwriting on the same assessment from the beginning of the year until this point in the year. To end our "Switch Days" we played a fun reading comprehension game on the Smartboard called, "Kooky Carnival".

Science

We talked about clouds this week and what kind of rain they could bring.  Cumulus clouds we’re the favorite type of cloud, these clouds bring no rain, just clear skies and puffy white clouds.  The scientists of 2^nd grade showed they learned so much from their Air and Weather Unit; the results on their science tests were spectacular!  Sadly, our science units have come to an end, however, taking nature walks, exploring lakes or rivers, and doing various experiments will encourage the love of science within your child.

Social Studies

Students shared their homework about local businesses in White Lake and decided if they provided a good or service to our community.  Partners then selected one business in White Lake to create a business guide.  Students needed to write about their local business and talk about what goods or services their business provided to their community.  They also illustrated a picture of their business.  Please look for your child’s business guide page to be displayed in the hallway in the near future.  This was our final week switching with other second grade classes.  Next week students will be continuing social studies with their homeroom teacher.

Important News/ Reminders

The students had a wonderful time learning about birds during our “in school” field trip on Thursday!  They got to hold and examine all types of bird artifacts including:  wings, feet, eggs and nests!  Students learned how birds fly and why you aren’t able to hear an owl in flight.  They also got to visit seven different bird stations and practice “hands on” how different birds catch their prey and eat their food according to their special beaks and talons.  This was a perfect opportunity for our ornithologists to accumulate knowledge about birds for their research.

·       Friday, April 20^th:               Bingo Night

·       Friday - April 27th:              Dublin’s Talent Show

·       Friday, May 11th:             Mom’s and Muffins at 8:30 AM-10:00 AM in the cafeteria