It's hard to believe we are already a week into November... these days are FLYING by!! We have been having lots of exciting events in Second Grade and there is SO much to tell you about... Let's go!!
Halloween 2019
Halloween was a pretty epic half day to be a second grader in 204! Our awesome parent volunteers put together a fantastic morning party for our costumed kids! They had so much doing crafts, decorating cupcakes, playing games and guessing the amount of fun Halloween objects in containers. Thank you to EVERYONE who helped make our party so great or who came and attended to help!!
Readers' Workshop
In Readers' Workshop this week we have wrapped up our very first unit of study, "Second Grade Reading Growth Spurt" from the Lucy Calkins series for Readers' Workshop. Mini-lessons have included:
- I can notice how an author creates a powerful text.
- I can notice powerful author's craft and try it in my writing.
- I can notice different kinds of author's craft (i.e. flashbacks, circle back, repeating lines, similes, onomatopoeia, etc.)
- I can tackle tricky vowel sounds by reading them more than one way (long and short vowels)
- I can say words and figure out what they mean.
- I can check myself by fixing my mistakes when my reading doesn't make sense.
- I can identify how the author made the whole story click.
- I can determine what the author wanted to teach me from the story.
- I can celebrate how much I have grown as a reader!
Writers' Workshop
In Writers' Workshop we have just wrapped up our first unit of writing! Our young authors have been working long and hard on their small moment narrative texts: a time when I did something! We spent the last couple weeks of the unit deep in studying mentor texts for writing craft, editing and revising. Mini-lesson topics included:
- I can choose careful words to fit my writing
- I can edit/revise my story to make it more readable for my audience
- I can try new craft moves from any author of my choice
- I can be bold in trying new ideas if it doesn't work out
- I can make sure my story has a solid ending - either a flashback, lesson learned or recap of my small moment piece
Last Friday we had two different writing celebrations! First we split our class into thirds. One third remained in our room, one third went to Mrs. LaBlanc's second grade and one third went to Mrs. Brown's second grade. In the same fashion, they each sent 1/3 of their authors to our room. We did a three way share in our classroom which was pretty awesome! It was fun to meet new second graders and reunite with old friends to share our written work.
THEN, we came back to our room and did a Compliment Sprinkling activity! We put our written narratives out at our table spots along with a donut paper that needed "sprinkled compliments" to make it complete! We spent a good 20 minutes reading each other's small moments and sprinkling compliments! The kids loved looking at all of their compliments from their classmates!!
Science!
Our Botanists are LOVING our new plants unit!! Thank you to everyone who sent in plant clippings so that we can begin the process of growing new plants from these existing plants! We currently have a green house going in our classroom! We are growing: brassica, grass, alfalfa, pumpkins AND all of the clippings that you have sent in (ivy, wandering jew, coleus, spearmint and more) We will be spending time the next few weeks learning all about plants, plant parts, plant needs and doing experiments with these plants! More to come...
