Friday, March 15, 2013

March is Reading Month!

Did you know that the single-most important thing you can do for your children is to read to them (and with them) for twenty minutes, every day?

Consider just a few of the benefits, especially when you start reading with your children at an early age:

• Listening skills are built
• Children learn to sit still and stay focused
• Comprehension and understanding of events (cause and effect relationship) is enhanced
• Vocabulary is increased as children discover new words
• A child's ability to guess meanings of new words grows
• Children become more confident because they know they are cared and loved and because they can express their thoughts and needs
• Imagination and creativity is encouraged and fed
• Children are better-enabled to make friends and good relationships because their communication skills are increased
• Learning in all subjects become much easier because the brain is literally being wired to learn and take in new information
• Family bonds are strengthened and reinforced, creating an atmosphere of love, trust and communication in the home (for which you will be grateful when your kids are teenagers)

Adapted from PKE's PTA Press-March 2012

Reader's Workshop: 

We continued our Nonfiction Study this week in Reader's Workshop.  First, we decided that we had to do something about the "on the fence" books that we've been reading.  We thought that the name "on the fence" books would confuse other readers who may visit our room.  So, we brainstormed some possible names for the new "genre" that we discovered and felt that informational fiction would be the best name for books that teach us new facts (frogs are cold blooded amphibians), but are fictional in some of its content (frogs can't talk and draw a picture of the pond that they live near).  Students worked hard scouring our classroom library to find books that will fit into this genre.  Next, our readers took a closer look at the nonfiction text features that are found in books.  We discovered that:  the table of contents page, labels, maps, photographs, life-like illustrations, glossary page and close-ups are all examples of nonfiction text features.  Students went on their own scavenger hunt to find examples of different nonfiction text features in their "just right" books.

 

Writer’s Workshop:

We have moved onto the illustration phase of our Small Moments. Our writers needed to zoom in on one important part of their writing piece and create a detailed sketch of that moment. They also needed to make sure that their illustrations matched the words in their stories. We will be celebrating our writing in the next few weeks.

Calling all bird experts!! We are just beginning our Non-Fiction Unit of Study on Michigan Birds! If you have any field guides, books, magazines, etc. at home that have information about Michigan Birds please send them to school (with your child’s name visible on them). We will be spending the next few weeks sifting through field guides and bird books as well as listening to bird calls, watching for them outside and even learning about their nests and more! Next week students will begin learning about different types of books to use for research and create wonderings of their own about birds.

 

Word Study:

This week we took a look at words that end in a "y" and how to make them plural.  This is a difficult task for second graders to do because they need to remember several different rules.  Who made the English language so tricky anyways?  We ended the week by taking a word and adding letters to it in order to create a new word.

 

Math Workshop:

Our mathematicians practiced finding the area and perimeter of objects. Ask your child our chant that we learned for area and perimeter. We also talked about capacity and what units are used to measure liquids. A practice packet for our benchmark assessment was sent home on Thursday. Please make sure your child is preparing for our math benchmark, which will be on Tuesday, March 26th.

Science:

What a crazy science week in science! We finished up some important journaling from last week and colored some wind catchers.  On Wednesday, we talked some more about air and the students participated in a balloon rocket race! Students learned that air can expand things (i.e. the balloon) and used their balloons to race one another on a rocket course. They also learned that the escaping air from the balloon propelled it across the rocket course.  We ended our week by learning about an instrument that meteorologists use to measure the wind speed...an anemometer!  Students learned about the different levels in the wind scale and we built a classroom anemometer and took it outside to test the wind speed (Friday was pretty windy).

 

Social Studies:

Opportunity Cost has been the topic of discussion this past week. We learned how in life we have to make choices and the opportunity cost is the item we give up when making a choice. For instance, if I had to choose between summer or winter, I'd choose summer and winter would be my opportunity cost. We also took a look at resources this week: human, natural and capital.

Important Dates and Reminders:

Our Beach Day basket is looking a bit sparse.  We have only received an inflatable float and a pair of goggles. If you can donate items to our basket, please send them in ASAP!

 

• Friday, March 22nd – Spring Pictures: Our class doesn't have a time yet.