December 10, 2018

December 10, 2018

Brrrr, it’s really cold outside!  Please make sure your child’s name is written inside ALL of their snow gear.  Many of our items are getting mixed up and take a while to find their proper owner without being properly labeled.  Listed below are a few important reminders to take into consideration…

Thursday, December 13^th is Parent/Teacher Conferences from 12-8 pm.  Please remember that it is also a half day with dismissal at 11:00 am.

Our Holiday Party will be on Friday, December 18^th from 9:30-10:15.  Look for updates and a Signup Genius from our Holiday Party Planning parent, Erin Roosen.

A great deal of learning has taken place since our last blog post.  Here’s what our amazing second graders have been up to…

Reader’s Workshop:

We’re digging deeper with our comprehension strategies as readers.  Here are some of our Learning Targets:

• ·         I can visualize part of to the story as I read.
• ·         I can infer to better understand the Author’s Message.
• ·         I can make connections to the story as I read.
• ·         I can summarize the story that I’ve read.
• ·         I can identify my characters wants, needs, or problems.
• ·         I can ask thick and thin questions about a story that I am reading.
• ·         I can build an understanding of who the characters are in the books I read.
• ·         I can make predictions about what will happen to the character as I read.
• ·         I can confirm or revise my predictions about the character.
• ·         I can keep track of my characters wants, needs, actions, or feelings.

Writer’s Workshop:

We took a break from our Realistic Fiction Unit for a few days in order to create our Thankful Turkey Bag Books.  I hope you enjoyed reading everything that our second graders are thankful for! 

This week we put the finishing touches on our second realistic fiction piece.  We used many of Judith Viorst’s books as our mentor texts for inspiration for our second realistic fiction piece such as: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday, Alexander, Who's Not (Do you hear me? I mean it!) Going to Move, and Alexander, Who's Trying to be the Best Boy Ever.  Look for this writing piece to be graded and sent home with your child in the next few weeks.  Some of our Leaning Targets included:

• ·         I can use graphic organizers to plan a story with a problem and solution.
• ·         I can start and end my story with an intentional circle-back idea.
• ·         I can use repeating lines in my story.
• ·         I can use juicy words in my story.
• ·         I can use transitional words in my story.

Word Study:

Our main focus of study has been working on consonant clusters at the beginning and end of words.  Prefixes and suffixes were also introduced to you child. It’s awesome to see student recognize words with consonant clusters, prefixes, and suffixes in word that they read or write!

Math:

Our mathematicians just finished our Unit on Subtraction Strategies and Fact Families.  Their Unit 3 Assessments will come home early this week.  Please make sure that you look over their test together so to help clear up any misconceptions and celebrate all of their new learning!  Some of the subtraction strategies that were introduced to your child included:

• ·         Subtraction from addition
• ·         Fact Families
• ·         Counting Up
• ·         Counting Back
• ·         -0 and -1 Strategy
• ·         Using Doubles to Subtract
• ·         -10 Strategy
• ·         Going Up Through 10

Our next unit focuses on time, place value and measurement.

Science:

Our botanists have finished their New Plants Unit.  Their grass, wheat, and garlic came home last week.  We transplanted the new plants that we started growing from the old plants that you brought in.  You should see how our potato plants are growing!  We’re going to take a short break on Science in order to concentrate on Social Studies.  Our focus will be on Communities.

Friday, November 2, 2018

Hello Weckie Families!

Can you believe it is already the beginning of November?? Our days are flying by as they are packed with fun learning in all subject areas! A special thank you to EVERYONE who contributed in some way to our classroom Halloween Party this week. The kids had a great time and lots of memories were made! Thank you to all who helped to plan the party and helped to send in donations. We appreciate all that you did to make our Halloween so epic!

Readers' Workshop

Lots has been happening in our Readers' Workshop. Mini-lesson topics have included:

• I can use word attack strategies to solve unknown words.
• I can use meaning strategies to solve unknown words.
• I can read many words in a snap and know that they make sense. 
• I can monitor my own errors while I read.
• I can collect new and interesting words to share with my partner.
• I can use every bit of info that a book gives me to help me figure out what words mean.
• I can read smoothly and when I hit a bump, I can re-read for fluency.
• When I'm stuck and lose parts of the story, I can go back and retell the big parts.
• I can predict and ask myself questions while I read a story.
• I can visualize parts of a story as I read.

Students have been working diligently to add many of these lesson topics into their own personal CAFE boards in their Response Logs. CAFE is the model by which we teach for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Extended Vocabulary. Students have also been working on a small project about a book using these "Reading is Thinking" strategies (so far predicting and visualizing, next week we will be looking at: connections, inferring, questioning and summarizing).

Guided Reading Groups have also begun for some of our readers based on iReady Reading performance. Students in groups should pay careful attention to the yellow sheet in their book bags about when reading groups will be meeting. Thank you for taking the time to read these books with your child. Students who are not yet placed into a reading group will be joining a Book Club later this year...More to come!

Writers' Workshop:

In Writers' Workshop we have wrapped up our first unit on Poetry and your child has brought home everything in their poetry collections! We have now moved onto a personal narrative writing unit. Mini-Lesson topics have included:

• I can organize my story ideas about problems characters face (in list form).
• I can fill in a Beginning-Middle-End chart to begin to plan my story events.
• I can consider my audience and create an interesting lead for them.
• I can use the "Rule of 3" in my story.
• I can use quotation marks to show dialogue in my story.
• I can use the "Show... Don't Tell" author's craft in my story.
• I can use double adjectives in my writing.
• I can end my story with closure.

It has been awesome to work with these writers' in conferences and hear all that they have created and brainstormed for their narratives. There are lots of great writers and loads of great ideas in our classroom. We have especially been enjoying our "Share Time" at the end of workshop where our student authors' have gotten to show their work up on on the big screen with the document camera - they love having their work being the center of attention!

Word Study:

In Word Study we have been busy! Lesson topics have included:

• "Some words have a vowel, a consonant, and a silent e. The vowel sound is usually the name of the vowel." (ex. cane, hope, kite) Students made word pairs and did two three way sorts with these types of words.
• "Some clusters of consonants stand for one sound that is different from either of the letters. They are called consonant digraphs." Students did a sorting activity using the different digraphs of: sh, ch, th and wh.
• "Some consonants make two or more different sounds." Students used this concept to do a sort with the soft c like in city and the hard c like in car. Then they played a concentration game using the beginning of the words to compare the two different sounds a consonant can make.
• "You can hear each sound in a consonant cluster." Students looked at words beginning with the following clusters: sc, sk, sm, st, sp, sn and sw.
• "A group of two or three consonants is a consonant cluster."  Students sorted words that either began with one consonant, a consonant cluster of two letters or a consonant cluster of three letters.

Math Workshop:

In Math Workshop we have just wrapped up our second unit of study! We spent a great deal of time in this unit focusing in on different strategies for addition. We used many different strategies to show how you can solve the same problem in different ways. A lot of time was spent with double tens frames on Quick Look cards. Be sure to ask your child about Quick Looks!

 Math mini-lesson topics have included:

• Doubles and Combinations of 10
• The Making 10 Strategy
• The Near Doubles Strategy
• The Turn Around Rule for Addition/Using Domino Facts
• Continuing to work with Even and Odd Numbers
• Subtraction and the Turn Around Rule (hint: it doesn't work!!)
• Even Numbers and Equal Addends
• Name Collection Boxes
• Adding and Subtracting on a Number Line
• Frames and Arrows

Math games this unit have included:

• Fishing for 10s
• Two Fisted Penny Addition
• Number-Grid Game
• Doubles Flash Cards
• The Exchange Game
• Even and Odd Addends
• Name that Number

Please look for Unit 2 work to come home next week. Students were given a Unit 2 Assessment, a Unit 2 Challenge and a Unit 2 Cumulative Test which looks back at topics we have built upon in Units 1 and 2.  It is important that you go over these assessments with your child and work to fill in any areas or concepts where your child may still be struggling.

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. We are also attempting to see if we can grow a new pumpkin plant from an actual pumpkin with it's seeds... To be continued...

Upcoming Important Dates:

Tuesday, November 6: NO SCHOOL - Election Day @ Dublin

Tuesday, November 13: PTA Meeting - 4:15pm in the Media Center

Friday, November 16: Family Game Night - sponsored by PTA

Thursday, November 22 and Friday, November 23: NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Holiday 

Tuesday, October 9th

Wow have we been busy in 2^nd grade! It is hard to believe we are already two weeks deep in October! What have we been getting to know the kids and It has been fun to see lots of new friendships form as everyone settles into their new classrooms and routines. It's hard to believe we are already thinking about Fall and Halloween! Remember, if you are able to sign up to help with our class Halloween party, please click the link below! Our Halloween Party will be on Wednesday, October 31 from 10:45-11:45am. Please remember to send your child to school with their costume, we will put them on later that morning. Also, please remember this is a half day of school for Teacher Professional Development in the afternoon.

Halloween Party Sign-Up:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0444AEA82DAA8-halloween1

Readers’ Workshop

In Readers’ Workshop we have been digging deeper in our own reading and in reading with partners. Readers’ Workshop mini-lesson topics have included and will include this week:

• ·         Preparing myself to read a new book by reading the title and taking a book walk (preview)
• ·         Using the “Five Finger Rule” for Just-Right books
• ·         Using the skill of re-reading to hold tight to the meaning of a story
• ·         Using the skill of re-reading to stop and re-read when things don’t make sense
• ·         I can take care of my partnership by using good partner reading skills
• ·         I can take care of my reading partner
• ·         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

Students have been continuing to use Book Logs once a week as well to record their findings about their books, paying careful attention to the author, title, whether the book is fiction or non-fiction, and how to write good comments about books.

This week our students will be concluding the Reading component of the iReady Assessment. If your child qualifies for extra support (called an iRIP) after the assessment is complete, we will be in touch directly with you.  All students will be bringing home information on their performance on the iReady Reading component later this week. I will be using feedback from the iReady as well as student reading tests done with me (DRA) to group students with partners, in guided reading groups and later this year, book clubs.

Sharing reading interviews with our partners.

It was fun to learn about other reader's reading habits!

We learned a lot of great advice about working hard as a reader to accomplish our goals!

Writers’ Workshop

In Writers’ Workshop we are deep into our poetry unit and wow, what Poets we have in our classroom! It has been great to hear the different kinds of poetry our writers are creating and sharing with partners and the class. Mini-Lesson topics in Writers’ Workshop have included and will include this week:

• ·         I can use beautiful language (juicy words) in my poetry
• ·         I can write a meaning ful poem about myself (using form poetry)
• ·         I can show not tell in my poetry.
• ·         I can use repetition in my poetry.
• ·         I can use alliteration in my poetry.
• ·         I can use a simile in my poetry.
• ·         I can write a Halloween poem.

Look for our Halloween poems to be featured in the hallway soon inside of our Haunted Halloween Houses project!

Math Workshop

Math Unit 1 Tests will be coming home this week. Please make sure to take time to review this with your child – what they can do, and what they are still learning how to do. For many, the “Challenge” and the “Open Response” were tricky and would generate an awesome conversation with your child at home.

We have now begun Unit 2. Mini-Lessons and topics covered in Math already and coming this week include:

• ·         Counting  by fives and tens
• ·         Grouping by 10s to count (practiced with Fishing for 10s game)
• ·         Counting money ($1 dollar, $10 dollars, $100 dollars)
• ·         Playing The Exchange Game (students practicing trading 10 singles for a $10 bill and then trading in ten $10 bills for a $100 bill)
• ·         Playing Spinning for Money (students use a spinner to accumulate coin amounts)
• ·         Creating addition number stories
• ·         Representing and solving addition number stories
• ·         Digging deeper with number grid puzzles going beyond 100
• ·         Exploring strategies for learning doubles facts (calculators, flashcards, double tens frames)
• ·         The “Making 10 Strategy” for addition

Our mathematicians also completed their iReady Assessment for math this past week. Information regarding their progress will be coming home soon with your child!

Social Studies

Second Grade Social studies teaches kids all about their community – what makes up a community, the geography of our community, the economics of our community, the past of our community and the government of our first community. We are currently learning about the three different types of communities and the features that make them unique. These include: urban (big city), suburban (us) and rural (living in a small community spread far from a big community). It has been fun to discuss the pros and cons of each with the kids and when given the opportunity, to see which community they would pick to live in if they were an adult.

Word Study

In Word Study we have really been zooming in on short and long vowels with our students. They should even be able to give you examples of short and long vowels at home! The rule stands that a long vowel in a word always says the name of the vowel (i.e. the ‘a’ in name or the ‘e’ in me). Students have been practicing sorting long vowel and short vowel words, generating short and long vowel words from word cards, playing a concentration game to reinforce the concept and helping me to generate a giant list of short vowel and long vowel words.

We LOVE Books!

Celebrating our first free book of the year from the Scholastic Donation Program! A special thank you to Mrs. Weckstein's family and friends for making this possible. Our October book will come home soon.

The Beginning of Second Grade

Welcome to our 2nd grade blog!

So strange to say we finished our 3rd week of school, but have had only attended for 10 days! With this gradual transition we are all settling into routines and creating new friendships. From my perspective we have a great group of students who show kindness and positive attitudes. I am excited to see what we will learn and accomplish this year together!

This first blog will be a bit longer than most, but please read it through to learn more about your child's 2nd grade experience.

Important items: 

·         Please always take time to review all work sent home in your child's folder.  Note that if they are marked with a B,D or S they represent beginning skill level, developing at grade level and secure (a 1/2 sheet explanation was part of the curriculum packet). These are the grades you'll see on the report cards as well.

·         Cookie Dough sales start this week.  This is a Dublin fundraiser to help raise money for the many activities our PTA plans and organizes for our families. 

·         PTA is running a contest for membership among classrooms.  Please consider joining, as it is an incredible support to your child's school experience. If you did not attend curriculum night, you may want to check out our PTA Website to see the video they presented.  It was fun and informative.  One of the myths it clarified was that you do not have to attend meetings to become a member...another point was the benefits you get from joining.  A big one is the Dublin student contact book with families' addresses for birthday parties and such.

·         No School this coming Wednesday (Yom Kippur)

·         Picture day is September 24th and we have one of the first time slots at 9:15am (PLEASE BE ON TIME!)

LANGUAGE WORKSHOP

Students enjoyed the story, Wolf. This book shares the concepts of perseverance and practice with learning.  As discussed at curriculum night, we use a growth mindset each day in our classroom. I'll send the video in case you missed it (https://youtu.be/KUWn_TJTrnU).  This coming week we will read Goldisocks and the Three Libearians to learn about choosing just right books and discuss comparisons between classic tales and fractured (rewritten) tales.

WORD STUDY

We quickly recognized that most 2nd graders are not confident with short and long vowel sounds.  This is a crucial concept they must learn quickly to continue with 2nd grade expectations.  We made plans to practice this through charts, chants and songs daily. We also had lessons on consonant clusters. Some students tend to place a vowel sound between the blend such as "bul" for "bl".  Please practice these with your child and ask him/her to name the blends. For example, ask what letters make the blend in dress.

WRITER'S WORKSHOP

Our launching unit teaches expectations and components of writer's workshop with poetry. Next week we begin writing our own poetry. Mini lessons included:

·         Basics of poetry

·         How to study a poem

·         Poets & writers write from the heart

MATH WORKSHOP

Math workshop seems to be the favorite at this point.  We do a lot of hands-on practice.  We have also started some work in our math journals.  Because we do much of our practice work in class in these journals, you won't always see a lot of math practice coming home.  However, our home link (homework sheets) will begin at the end of unit 1.  Please take time to review your child's home link work with him/her before returning them back to school.  This is a time when you will be able to help support your child's learning one on one. I am noticing a handful of students that seem to be struggling with basic number concepts including place value (tens and ones) and hundred grid concepts. 

 Here is a snapshot of our beginning lessons:

·         Practice making 10

·         Beginning year pre-assessment

·         Recognizing penny, nickel, dime and quarter (and the value of each)

·         Review of number lines and how they work

·         Review of 100 grid and 4 important rules on using them (ask your child to tell you the 4 rules...I taught and reviewed them 3 days (going down one adds 10, going up one subtracts 10, going right one adds 1 and going left or back one subtracts 1)

·         Students were introduced to math work stations

·         Open response work...students solve a problem and have to explain how they did so in written form.  This is difficult for many, but will be a large part of our math learning this year.  

SOCIAL STUDIES

We are beginning our first unit on our local community.  For this unit, we introduce it by first creating our classroom community. Here is the classroom promise our class created for our community after learning all about the Constitution on Constitution Day! We have set the bar high for the year with outstanding expectations from all of our learners in 204.

Welcome to 2nd Grade Weckies :-)

Hey, Hey New Weckie Families!!

 Welcome to our Classroom News Blog for our year in Second Grade!  Be sure to bookmark this webpage as updates will be posted on here with all of the news and photos coming out of our classroom this year. 

I am so excited to get to know you this year in my classroom. Here's just a glimpse of the fun Mrs. Weckstein had this summer with her family and friends!