Field Day 2013

It was another fantastically fabulous day to be a Weckie

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Friday, May 10th and Friday, May 17th

Teacher Appreciation Week was PHENOMENAL this year at Dublin!!! A HUGE thank you to all of our 204 families for all of the love I received last week... Carnations, cards, snacks, school supplies, gift cards... You sure are the BEST!! Then add in all of the extra meals/snacks/drinks PTA provided for Teacher's.. it was quite a week! I love what I do, and wouldn't want to spend my days any other way than with your kids. Thank you, thank you, thank you! :-)

 

Word Study

Last week students worked on spelling patterns with long a sounds and also ending consonant clusters such as st and nk.  They also worked with high frequency words playing a “Go-Fish” game.  This week we’ll be working again with homographs, words that sound the same but have different meanings.  Students will also revisit plural words looking at plural endings we’ve learned such as –ies while looking closer at irregular plurals such as mice, children, feet etc.

Writer’s Workshop

While we are still in progress with our non-fiction writing unit we have had to take a break to complete our end of the year DWA writing piece.  Students were asked to write a personal narrative about a time they were hurt.  We took a few days to walk back through the writing process from start to finish.  It was rewarding to compare the progress made from fall to now.  We also completed our poems about our mothers.  Hope you enjoyed them.

This week we’re back on track with our bird investigation.  Students will be turning note taking facts into paragraphs for our bird articles.  Once students have a complete article ready to publish we will be asking parents for help from home with the typing.  Each student will bring his/her piece home, a parent will type it and send it back electronically so that I can put it into a word document.  More details will be coming as this draws closer.

Reader’s Workshop

It has been interesting studying Gail Gibbons and Joanne Ryder.  To quote one of my students, “I love getting to know new authors!”  It doesn’t get any more rewarding than that!  These students amaze me when I see them analyze an author’s style.  We made anchor charts for both authors and they are quick to point out the similarities and differences.  We’re working on a Venn diagram that shows this comparison.  We will continue to look at authors and styles as we end the year.  Students are learning to fit books we read into genres we have studied.  I would say that informational fiction has become a favorite genre in our room this spring.

Math

We have begun our final math unit of the year.  This is a unit that reviews and extends concepts we’ve been working at throughout the year.  This past week we practiced telling time and also worked towards understanding elapsed time.  We also looked closely at the calendar memorizing the number of days and weeks in a year.  Ask your child if s/he can tell you either of those.  Multiplication continues to be a focus as we end second grade.  I’ve been preparing my students with the fact that these will need to be memorized next year.  I’ve encouraged them to work very hard next year with these as they are a basic building block for all future math learning.  As for now, our goal is for them to understand what multiplication is…simply adding multiple times.   This week graphs are coming back!  These too are important for students’ future learning in all subject areas. 

Social Studies

Our Walled Lake history unit is coming to an end.  I think this unit was enjoyable for students.  They were most amazed to find out that Walled Lake used to have a large amusement park here.  We looked at the land it once occupied and had discussions about who might or might not want to have an amusement park here now.  Students will be happy to know that this unit and our next do not have tests!  Our last unit is titled “Leading our Community”.  We will learn a bit about government and patriotism.

Important dates to remember…

·         Book fair purchases this Thursday during our morning media time (Tuesday it will be open till 5pm for parents and Thursday until 6pm)

·         Field Day this Friday (2^nd grade participates in the morning hours…Hot dog lunch is provided and please don’t forget your cookie donations! 

·         June 7^th: Ice cream social!

·          May 18^th: Mom to Mom sale

·         May 21^st: Volunteer Tea

 

Friday, May 3, 2013

Word Study

We are diving deeper into words that have the same consonant cluster.  Students played Consonant Cluster Dominoes, they had to match a domino with the beginning or ending cluster.  Then we moved on to words with the vowel sounds of ou, ow, and aw, like in the words, house cow, and paw.  To practice the skill the children played Crazy Eights were they had to match words with the same vowel sound. The last lesson we learned this week was all about the sound of   “a” as in cake, pail, and day.  Then the phonics groups sorted words into the correct spelling pattern.

Reader’s Workshop

The readers this week are doing an author study on Gail Gibbons.  The readers are making a list of things they noticed as they investigate Gail Gibbons’ books.  During this time we read several of her books and pointed out many features that are used in her books.  We also filled out an author study chart looking for: voice, writing structure/style, illustration style, page layout, titles, and features.   During this author study the readers became more comfortable with Gail Gibbons as an author, they knew what to expect from her books.  Gail Gibbons writes non-fiction pieces in “third person”, she reports on a certain subject. 

Writer’s Workshop

Did you know that the Blue Jay is not really blue?  (Ask your child why the blue jay is not blue).  This is an example of an interesting fact that students are working on this week in writer’s workshop.  The writers are finding so many interesting facts about their Michigan bird and putting these facts into their own words.  All students have completed the research part of their project and they will begin to write their own magazine article soon.  Students created a picture of their Michigan bird using Kidpix in the computer lab.

 

Math Workshop

This week we worked on multiplication and division.  Students have begun to make division number stories, many students drew pictures or used their chips to solve the problem.  Then we focused on multiplication facts, students made arrays to solve various multiplication facts.  They learned that multiplication facts can be turned around (2 X 3 = 6 and 3 X 2 = 6).   It’s important that students know how to solve these problems for third grade.  The mathematicians also filled out a multiplication product table from 0 to 100.  They discovered many counting patterns in each row and column.  We discussed the number zero, anything X 0= 0, so 5 X 0 = 0.  This all moved nicely into learning all about fact families, which is very similar to addition and subtraction fact families.   Students practiced with their fact triangles to learn some multiplication and division facts.   Please practice these facts throughout the summer to be prepared for third grade.

Social Studies

The students shared their Venn diagram of NOW and THEN of schools.  So much has changed, yet much is the same.  We also talked about the Walled Lake Amusement Park that was built and operating from 1918-1968. Now we are working on a written piece about why a new amusement park would be both a good idea and a bad idea depending on your perspective.

Science

We have completed our final science unit this year.  Please look over your child’s science test.  Grades for Air and Weather will be posted on the 4^th card marking period. 

Important Upcoming Dates:

Friday, May 10^th:  Field day –AM

May 24^th and May 27: Off For Memorial Day

Wednesday, May 29^th: Jiffy and Teddy Bear Company

Please send in your permission slip and money on Monday, May 6^th for the field tripJ