Friday, November 16th

Friday, November 16, 2012

A special Thank You to everyone who attended Parent-Teacher Conferences yesterday! It was great to spend time talking with so many of you and getting to share all of the hard work our Second Graders are doing each and every day!

A special thank you to EVERYONE for wearing their pajamas to school today! Remember, if you haven't donated new pajamas yet to the Pajama Drive, you can do so all through the month of November. Thank you to those who have already donated to this worthy and special cause.

 

Reader’s Workshop

In Workshop this week we spent time looking for ways writer’s use “said” alternatives in texts. We brainstormed a giant web of different words for “said” and nearly found over 25 variations! We spent time looking at how these ‘alternatives’ can influence how we read a passage, such as if a character whispered or yelled. Students spent time acting out passages from their texts to continue their look into dialogue and using contextual clues from the author to signal dialect changes. Last we spent time looking to see if all books have dialogue. We made some big generalizations, such as non-fiction tends to not have dialogue while chapter books are loaded with conversations.

Writer’s Workshop

This week in Workshop we’ve done a couple of different things… First, we learned about writing a persuasive paper! We transformed your children into Thanksgiving turkeys and gave them the task of persuading the shoppers not to eat them for Thanksgiving dinner! If you have not had a chance to read these in the hallway, you need to stop by, they are instant classics! Our writer’s also spent time this week editing and revising a poem that they would like to publish for our Poetry Celebration next week. Mrs. Weckstein has been frantically typing poems so that our students can illustrate their published pieces!

Math Workshop

In Math this week we have been learning to use different diagrams to help solve addition problems. We have learned about “Part-Part-Total” diagrams as well as “Change to More” diagrams. Students have also continued working with money – a fun concept for second graders! At home remember you can use real money (coins) as well as a hundreds grid to help your child count coins and make change.

Word Study

In Word Study this week we spent time working on High Frequency words by playing a “Follow the Path” game. We also played a concentration game this week that taught us about antonyms (words that mean the opposite of each other).

Social Studies

This week in Social Studies our Geography Unit shifted to look at the ways we take care of our environment. We spent time reading a book by Don Madden called The Wartville Wizard. In this story, an ordinary man continually cleans up the litter and pollution around his town of Wartville and finally becomes fed up. He ends up gaining a special power over the trash and uses it to teach the citizens of Wartville a very important lesson. Be sure to ask your child about this story! We then brainstormed a list of environmental problems and solutions for taking care of our environment. We ended the week by learning about absolute location on a coordinate grid. While our Science Kits have arrived, Mrs. Weckstein will be responsible for teaching Social Studies to the kids of 203 and 204.

Science

Our Science Kits have ARRIVED! Mrs. Brown will be responsible for teaching Science to the kids of 203 and 204. Our second graders started their first science unit this week…NEW PLANTS! The botanists planted brassica seeds and found that plants need space, light and water to grow. We also documented our findings in our plant investigation journals. Brassica is a very fast growing plant and we hope to observe the full life cycle of a plant within the course of a few weeks. They are also a plant that need light 24/7, so we have them under artificial light during the entire day and night. We are looking for a family who would volunteer to take our brassica plants home over the Thanksgiving holiday to make sure that they are well taken care of. All they need is light to be watered every other day. If you are interested, please let me know.

Important News and Dates:

·         Thursday, November 22 – Monday, November 26^th – No School. School resumes on Tuesday, November 27^th.

·         If you volunteered at Conferences to bring in an item for our special “Turkey Treat” on Wednesday, November 21^st, please send that in to school as soon as possible!

·         If you did not receive a PTA Dublin Directory at Parent-Teacher Conferences, please email me so that I can send one home with your son or daughter.

 

At this point in the year there is SO much to be thankful for! We are thankful for the days we get to spend with your children. We wish you all a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday!

~Mrs. Weckstein

Friday, November 9th

Word Study

This week we looked closely at word endings/spelling patterns.  Students sorted words by these endings.  The endings all included silent e.  To read these words fluently students must be able to look beyond the first letters of the word to solve it.  In our discussions we stressed the importance of our word study carrying over to our daily spelling.  

Interactive Read Alouds

This week we used a Frog and Toad story to continue our learning on visualization.  We are finding that if we listen carefully for key words it helps us build our mental images.  Partners are enjoying sharing the pictures they’ve created in their minds with each other.  We also revisited our Poppleton chapter from last week and used a venn diagram to compare the story with Frog and Toad.

To add to our visualization unit we used a fun song called “The Princess Who Saved Herself” by Jonathon Coulton. Students listened to this song (story) several times and then illustrated part of the song.  We’ll be sharing this with families soon.

Reader’s Workshop

We are beginning our study of dialogue.  Your child should be able to tell you what dialogue is and what types of books have it.  Students searched their books during independent reading for examples of dialogue.  They also are learning about patterns of books that use dialogue.  We used Cynthia Rylant books to compare how authors choose to use or not to use dialogue in a book.  It was interesting to see that her series Mr. Putter and Tabby  uses no or very little dialogue in them while Henry and Mudge books seemed full of dialogue.  This study will continue for several weeks.

Writer’s Workshop

Though we haven’t yet completed our poetry unit, we took a brief break this week learning about “how to” writing.  We used making grilled cheese sandwiches as a model for this type of writing.  Then students brainstormed something they were experts with and wrote their own “how to” pieces. Next, we asked students to write a how to on something they had to guess about…how to cook a turkey!  We will be compiling this writing for a class book to share in the new future.

Additionally, our poets are working on choosing a poem to revise and edit for a class poetry book.  We will work more on this over the next two weeks.

Math Workshop

Our unit 3 is now complete and we’re moving on to unit 4 working more with addition and subtraction.  We continued to work on making change throughout the week as students will need many experiences to better grasp the concept.  We used number stories with data charts to practice the change to more concept.  Students are listening to determine the outcome of a number story.  Our explorations this week included working with a thermometer (along with icy and hot water cups), using attribute blocks to sort and play “what’s my rule”, students also practiced stamping with coins and counting already stamped coins.  My students have come to expect and look forward to our Friday explorations!  Today when I asked students to take out journals for math, 3 quickly panicked and ran up to me asking why we weren’t doing explorations.  Of course once I explained the explorations and they realized they needed journal pages for some they were all smiles.

Social Studies

This week we looked at both good and bad changes in a community.  Ask your child about the story we read that had significant changes called Letting Swift River Go.

Updates:

·        Thursday, November 15^th: NO SCHOOL, parent-teacher conferences

·        Friday, November 16^th:  Pajama day at Dublin!  Please consider donating a new pair of pajamas for a child in need.  For every pair of pajamas donated, Scholastic book club will donate a book for that child as well.   In addition all Dublin students are invited to wear pajamas that day as well. 

Friday, November 2nd

Interactive Read Aloud

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 chapter in the book, Poppleton and Friends called “Dry Skin” in order to create mental images in their mind.  Students talked to their partners about their visualizations.  This helped them comprehend the story.

Reader's Workshop

In Workshop this week we fine-tuned our partner roles this week. We talked about what to discuss with our partners, what is expected of us to be a good partner as well as how to solve problems that come up in partnerships. To end the week we recited and signed a Reader's Workshop Contract. Read below to see what we have agreed to do as "Wow" readers.

Writer’s Workshop

Keeping to the theme of Halloween, students created their own haunted houses!  Our second graders included creepy creatures in the windows and chose their own color scheme to create a one-of-a-kind haunted house.  Next, they took a look at real estate advertisements on the internet and found the “juicy words” that would entice would-be buyers.  Next, students were given the challenge of writing a piece that would persuade others to buy their haunted houses.  Look for these “spooktacular” persuasive pieces in the hallway!  

 

We ended the week by reading Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O’Neill.  It’s a book that is filled with color poems!  Each poem demonstrated different ways to think about colors using your senses… How would a color look? How would a color taste? How would a color feel? How would a color smell? Using the author’s craft from these poems, we have been working to create our own color poems.

 

Math Workshop

At the beginning of this week, students took the first Benchmark Assessment.  I was impressed with how well our class scored!  Mid-week, we worked on making change this week by counting up.  YES, making change is a hard concept however it is something your child will need to be able to do. Please continue to practice this with them at home. 

Word Study
We began the week looking at words that have “oo”. Students learned that “oo” can sound like /oo/ as in moon or /uh/ as in look. We also tried adding on the silent ‘e’ to words to see how new words could be created. Students used these words to compose their own sentences.

Social Studies
Our second graders reviewed the cardinal directions and the use of a compass rose. We learned the acronym: “Never Eat Soggy Waffles” to help us remember the cardinal directions. Next, we practiced the cardinal directions by looking at map of the United States and answering statements like: Name a state that is south of Michigan. We also learned about the natural (trees, grass, mountains, hills, etc) and human features (bridges, roads, buildings, etc) that are found on map keys.  We read a poem “Making Maps” and students highlighted the natural and human features in the poem.  Students were given a homework assignment today that asked for them to draw a map of their bedroom.  These maps are due on Wednesday.

Computers!
Hopefully by now you have visited our classroom blog! Please make sure to stop by and check out our page on the web. Click here!

Special News & Reminders

·        We all had a super fun time at our Halloween Party!  Special thanks to all of the parents who planned or donated items for our celebration. J

·        Sunday, November 4^th– Daylight Savings Time Ends… remember to set your clocks back one hour

·        Tuesday, November 6^th– NO SCHOOL – Professional Development Day – No students!  Don’t forget to vote!

·        Wednesday, November 7^th- Map of bedroom due

·        Thursday, November 15^th  – NO SCHOOL – Parent/Teacher Conferences All Day