We have been super busy lately in Second Grade and just having the BEST time learning and growing together!! This group is pretty fabulous...maybe I'm bias but they truly have been doing a really great job as a class lately and I'm one proud teacher. Thanks to everyone who came out to Walled Lake Northern for the homecoming parade - we had a great time showing our Dublin School Spirit!
Now, there is lots of learning to tell you about, so let's get going!
Readers' Workshop:
In Workshop LOTS has been happening over the past few weeks. Learning goals have included:
Strategies to make us better readers:
- I can stop and re-read when something doesn't make sense.
- I can take care of my reading partnerships by using my listening skills.
- I can plan ways to read with my partner.
- I can talk with my partner about our reading.
- My partner and I can solve our own problems.
- I can use reading strategies to tackle unknown words
- I can use a book log to keep track of my reading and I can write thoughtful comments in my log about the books I have read.
Each day we have used these targets as our focus for instruction. Students have built up to about 25 minutes of independent reading stamina where I can count on all reader's to be "Wow" readers. With partners we are up to about 20 minutes of solid reading. What happens while the kids are reading?
Mrs. Weckstein has started our guided reading groups! Each child has a reading book bag in a bright color. The bag is where your child will need to keep their book, reading forms, group schedule and anything else work wise that might come home for reading. Please pay attention to the schedule indicating which days I will see your child. Please make sure that they are doing this reading with an adult, not simply on their own. Please be sure to sign the reading form once you have finished the reading task so that Mrs. Weckstein knows it has been completed.
Last week we launched our groups but our couple of days off this week has thrown our groups off schedule. I anticipate with Halloween early next week, groups will not be resumed until Wednesday. After that we should be able to be pretty consistently meeting on scheduled days. Thanks for being flexible with this!
Writer's Workshop
In Writer's Workshop we have just completed our Poetry Unit! We wrapped up the unit with a fun Halloween Poem for the hallway. The writers' in this unit have learned to do so much with poetry, it was fun to see them show this off in their Haunted House Poetry! Writers' have learned to use: alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, show not tell, line breaks, repetition and more! Be sure to stop by the hallway and check out this last published piece of poetry.
Please look for a packet of poetry work to come home with your child in the next week or so. There will be a lot! Please take time to look through this packet with your child and celebrate all that they have created and learned to do. I know that they will be just as eager to share with you as they have been to share with me and their classmates here! In their packet you will also find a rubric of what your child should have learned to do in this unit, and should be demonstrated in their work. Feel free to use this to help encourage them to write poetry at home. With poetry having very few rules, it's a great writing style they can continue to use at home and at school this year.
Math Workshop
We have been learning all sorts of great things in math these past few weeks. We have been doing a ton with different strategies for addition: adding doubles, adding combinations of ten, using double tens frames to make ten, and using what we know from doubles to help do doubles plus one facts. You'll be sure to see lots of addition practice coming home in Math Journal pages, Homelinks, Exit Slips and practice sheets. Topics we have covered include:
- Turn Around Rule for Addition
- Even and Odd Numbers
- Doubles Facts
- Addition Number Stories
Then this week we did a challenging Open Response problem. Students are very comfortable with the Turn Around Rule for Addition (3 + 4 is the same as 4 + 3). Students were first asked to create their own Subtraction Number Story and then solve the problem with an illustration and a number model. On the flip side they were asked if the Turn Around Rule can apply to subtraction. They had to use the number model from their self-created problem to prove it works or does not work, and then explain this with words. Let me tell you, this was TOUGH!!! Lots of conversation, lots of time to share ideas with partners and then off they wen to work. The fun of the Open Response is that we spend two days grappling with a tricky problem like this. On Day Two the students got partnered up and had to share their work with their partner and discuss their findings. They were then given time with a colored pencil to modify their response based on any new info they gained from their partnership. It was VERY interesting to see what they came up with when we shared in the end of the lesson!
Science
We are having SO MUCH FUN being botanists!! We have been planting and planting and planting and planting!! Thank you so much to everyone who sent in plant clippings! We are eagerly watching them regrow roots and grow a new plant. In our science activities we have planted several things. Each botanist is currently growing a brassica plant. The brassica is awesome because it grows rapidly so we can see the life cycle pretty quickly. Students have been taking care of their plants with water and light daily. Next our scientists have planted grass and alfalfa sprouts. The scenario we are setting up is to make it look like a lawn - grass and weeds! More to come with what we will be doing there, however, the kids did love mowing their lawns this week as the grass is growing fast. Later this week we planted garlic bulbs in hopes to create another type of new plant. To be continued...
Social Studies
Our first unit in Social Studies is all about our community. We have spent time lately talking about the groups within our community and our roles in the community we play in different groups (i.e. church, soccer, dance, etc.) Next we moved on to talk about our families and the importance of our family in our community. Coming soon we will be learning about the different types of communities: urban, suburban and rural, and deciding which community we would want to live in if we could choose and why!
Important Info/Reminders:
-October 31st - Halloween Parties in the classroom at 10:45-11:45am. We have awesome parents who will be running our party. We ask if more parents want to come, that you offer to help in the classroom with the party as the more who help, the more we can do! Please remember to send your child with their costume to school this day - no weapons please.
-October 31st - Half Day of School
-November 7th - No School - Election Day
A few other fun shots... Main Moose, Reporter, Extra PBIS Recess...
