Happy Friday Weckie Families!
It's hard to believe we have completed the entire month of February THIS QUICKLY! We have been busy here in Second Grade doing all sorts of things and learning lots. It appears that maybe we have survived the coldest of this winter's weather and are really enjoying the milder temperatures we have had at recess this week! That being said, please remember to still send ALL winter gear as there is still snow on the playground AND it is SUPER muddy and wet out there! I have also suggested to our kids that they keep a spare set of clothes in their backpacks - extra pants and socks would be great as they come in soaked!
Word Study
In Word Study we have been "tackling long words part by part"! We have been practicing breaking up new words starting at the beginning and figuring out how to break them apart to figure out what they say. Words like: against, before, begin, either, excited, favorite, several and usually, have been added to our word wall as words we can break a part into smaller parts to read them bit by bit. This is a great strategy to review with our readers!
We also spent time this week reviewing the words on our Word Wall and trying to use these words in our Writers' Workshop work!
Readers' Workshop
In Workshop the week before break we wrapped up our unit about growing as readers! We finished up lessons on stamina and focus while reading. We also dug deeper into books and the main character in the story - we looked at their character traits, how they solved problems and if we saw any patterns between the same character in a different book. The characters we studied included Otis the Tractor from Loren Long's "Otis" series and Alexander, from the "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" series by Judith Viorst. Both characters taught us lessons and gave us many laughs along the way.
Our new unit was launched this week and is all about series book reading. This week we spent time:
- collecting information about the main character
- paying attention to how characters respond to problems
- noticing the things that are the SAME across the series
Thank you to ALL who returned book bags the Friday before break. ALL of those books have been quarantined, sorted and returned to our literacy library. New books will come home either today or Monday! Please be sure to spend the week with the books reading WITH your child, talking about their reading, and helping them along the way with tricky words or to retell you the events of the story. These books are at their just-right levels which are adjusting slowly as I work through reading assessments with the kids in the coming weeks!
Writers' Workshop
Our new writing unit is ALL about writing friendly letters! Students learned the features of a letter on Monday including: the date, the greeting, what goes in the body of the letter, how to add a closing and where to sign their names. The rest of the week was spent writing letters about favorite books we have read this year! There was lots of enthusiasm about writing about our reading! We will share these letters in the room with each other as we make book recommendations to our classmates!
Math Workshop
In Math Workshop we have been working our way through the beginning of Unit 5. We have covered lessons 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 so far. In the Homelink packets, this would b be a great place to work up to over the weekend and coming days. Next week we will work through lessons 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8. It would be a great idea to try to time these lessons in the next week so that you can review and practice these skills with your children!
The first few lessons about counting coins and making change were tedious but also really good! The kids have a had a lot of practice showing coins for different values but we will continue working on this in the coming weeks too. Try having your mathematician count coins for you the next time you need to buy something; the more we practice working with money, the better!
Science
We have launched our Air and Weather Unit and boy are these scientists excited! Coming home today you will see a baggie for some science at home. Please make sure to do these activities this weekend so we can talk about them in Science on Monday. These were all things that required breathing air through and obviously not safe in our current set-up. In school we have explored the past two days with parachutes! We learned about air resistance and how we can essentially trap air in a parachute, know that it is there, without actually being able to see the air. Next week we will explore with plungers, air and water!
March is READING month!
The month of March is always a busy one at Dublin as we celebrate March is Reading Month! We will have a couple of Spirit Wear Fridays as well as some special activities going on at Dublin, like Battle of the Books. In past years we have had a PTA sponsored Family Literacy Night, and this will return again this year, except it will be virtual! More info will come home in the coming weeks about how to access the webpage which will be filled with literacy activities and videos from the Dublin Staff.
Friday, March 5th - Hat Day
Friday, March 19th - Dublin Spirit Wear (or Green) Day
Friday, March 26th - Pajama Day and school-wide "Read In" (more details to come)
Additionally... March is like my MOST favorite month to get parents into our classroom and this whole pandemic has really crimped my style! Typically I would aim to have one or even some days two, Mystery Readers, who would come and surprise their child and read to our class. In the past I have used: student relatives, former students - both current Dublin kids and kids who are much, much older, my district employee friends and my own family. This year looks so different as we cannot even bring parents in on a normal basis to volunteer or even help with copying. What I am thinking, is we could use the power of technology.
IF you are interested in being a Mystery Reader for March, for this year, I'd like to just keep it to parents of our children. I will also create a Sign-Up Genius and email that out later today with a Zoom link (I'll email the link out prior to your time), so you can "virtually" visit with us and share a story. Another teacher has also mentioned if you are tech saavvy, you could even record a book and send the video file or link to me to share with our class. Please know either way works, and anyone who does volunteer, is greatly appreciated.
