Friday, October 21, 2022

 Hello Weckie Parents!

We have been SO busy in 2nd Grade! It appears the cold weather season is upon us and I have a couple of suggestions to help out your Weckie at school this winter. On Thursdays, we go outside for Block Recess anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes (depending on weather). Then the kids are in for 40 minutes before they go to lunch, and then recess again. It would be super helpful for them to have an extra: pair of gloves, pair of socks and hat on these cold, wet days. You might want to just get in the habit of leaving these in their backpacks in a gallon Ziploc baggie. 

Thank you to EVERYONE who has signed up to help with our Halloween Party! We are good on three parent volunteers now and the sign-up genius looks pretty great too! It is linked here as a reminder for all who have volunteered to donate items. Anything that is NOT food, can be sent in ahead of time! Kids will be allowed to wear their costumes to school that day but all scary masks and weapons should remain at home. 

Boo Bash 2nd Grade Sign-Up

Readers' Workshop

We are approaching the end of our first unit, "Readers Grow Like Beanstalks" and I can confirm our readers are growing like beanstalks!! Mini-lessons have focused on:

• I can notice the beginnings and endings of new words.
• I can tackle tricky vowel team sounds in my reading.
• I can not only say the words, but I can figure out what they mean.
• I can check myself by fixing my mistakes when my reading does not make sense.
• I can notice how an author makes reader's react.
• I can notice when and how an author makes a powerful text.
• I can notice powerful author's craft and try it in my own writing. 

I am in the midst of doing reading assessments with many of our readers and hope to launch guided reading groups and small group instruction soon!

These are the mentor texts we have read, re-read and LOVED these last two weeks:

Anchor charts from our Unit of Study in Readers' Workshop.

Writers' Workshop

In Writers' Workshop we continue to focus on writing personal narratives in the form of a smalll moment (a time we did something). Mini-lessons have focused on:

• I can tell a meaningful story like a master author.
• I can use my partner to help make my beginning stronger.
• I can make a plan for my small moment.
• I can stretch out a tiny moment into one story.
• I can elaborate my writing with actions and feelings.
• I can magnify my small moment with details.
• I can fix my ending to make my story better.

Phonics/Word Study

We continue our work in word study with vowel teams and first grade SNAP words! We have spent time looking at different vowel teams and in particular lately, when the vowel plus 'y' makes a long vowel sound. Our word detectives have done a nice job finding examples of these words around our room and in books that we read!

Math Workshop

In Math Workshop we have been learning MANY different strategies for addition! I have attached a picture of the chart we have created and will continue to add onto during this second unit. We have spent time working with doubles. The hope is for all second graders to know their doubles facts up to 20 pretty routinely by the end of the year. We have worked with combinations of 10. We have learned to use a double tens frame when adding two numbers. And we have looked at the near doubles strategy for addition facts that are almost doubles facts! Lastly we have spent the last few days with the turn-around-rule, learning how it works great for addition and proving how it does not work for subtraction! We ended this week with math stations that reviewed new math games including: Doubles are no Trouble, Fishing for 10s and the Money Exchange Game. 

Social Studies

In Social Studies we are wrapping up our first unit about our local community! We have had great discussions about the people and places that make up our community. We have learned about human and natural features of a community. Then we took time to talk about needs and wants and how they can be met in our community. Last we learned about the three different types of communities as we read the story, The Little House (urban, suburban and rural). 

It's a Weckie World!

 Hello Weckie Parents... and happy Friday!!

We have had another stellar two weeks in second grade here in 202! The Weckies have been working hard and have also been playing hard too ;-). It has been so nice to enjoy the mild fall air lately that it was a bit harder to accept the chill in the air today! Please make sure to send your child with layers as the temperatures outside (and inside) seem to fluctuate lately!

We are beginning to put plans in place for our Halloween Party at the end of the month. With Halloween being on a Monday morning, we've decided to get creative and do a "Boo! Breakfast". We are going to work as a grade level to put together a Sign-Up Genius that will come out next week for parents to volunteer donations. Each class is going to have three parents come in as helpers to run the buffet and serve the food/drinks. If you are interested in volunteering IN PERSON for our Halloween Party, please email me by the end of the school day on Tuesday, October 11th. If we have more than three, I will put the names in a hat and we will draw them out of a hat. Remember, there will be many more parties this year. We are asking that ONLY those three parents come to the party to help with congestion in the building. While we still have limited parking options, it is going to be tight here on the 31st. We are also asking for each child to contribute $1 to the costs of the waffles and craft we will be making. Please send this in with your child in the next week. 

Word Study

In Phonics we have had two major focuses the last two weeks... one has been vowel teams the other has been SNAP words (high frequency words we want our kids to be able to read and spell, in a snap). We have been working on the vowel teams of: ea, ai, ou, ee and oo. We have found these teams in words around the room, words in books, words on charts, etc. We have also spent time using these vowel teams in our own writing! Coming home with your Weckie today is a BINGO board filled with 24 SNAP words from first grade. Please use this as a review with your child as we have a goal of being able to spell our SNAP words from 1st and 2nd this year. We will use these words in games and practice making them with: magnetic letters, chalk boards, magna-doodles, letter tiles and with whiteboards/markers. You can do the same at home too!

Readers' Workshop

In Readers' Workshop we have begun a look into different strategies we can use when trying to solve tricky words... the saying is: When Words Are Tricky, Roll Up Your Sleeves! We have talked about: checking the picture and thinking, "What would make sense?" and we have used what's happening in the story to help us figure out new words. We will add five more strategies and share this chart when it is complete in the coming weeks! ALL have finished their iReady Reading Diagnostics and information will be coming home early next week with their reading scores (as well as their math scores). I will reach out later next week if your child will be on an IRIP (individualized reading intervention plan) and communicate our goals for moving forward with their reading instruction! Using the iReady data, I have also placed the kids with just-right Readers' Workshop Partners. Continually practicing ways to read with our partners is a big goal in second grade. 

Writers' Workshop

In Writers' Workshop we have continued to work on our small moment personal narratives! These kids have SO many great experiences to write about and love writing time. It has been fun to have them share their writing and work with partners to improve and clarify their work for an audience.

Math Workshop

Unit 1 Math tests have come home this week and overall were REALLY good!! I can see a lot of skill growth and development from first grade and most have a really solid number sense (which is awesome). We will continue to work on patterns on number grid puzzles, odds/evens, skip counting and making combinations of 10 in the coming weeks. Remember, Homelinks are not mandatory, and are never 'late'! They are simply just a great refresher and second round of practice for skills covered in math that day in school. 

Social Studies

We have launched our first Social Studies Unit, Our Local Community, and the kids are LOVING talking about our community of White Lake. They appear to be White Lake experts!! We have brainstormed a list of places in our community, learned about community helpers that keep a community safe and productive and we have learned about human and natural features of a community. Today we did a brief introduction to the geography of a community and talked about how our one home is a part of a larger neighborhood, which is a part of a larger township, which is a part of a larger state, country and continent! 

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Important Upcoming Dates:

-October 12th 7pm Dublin PTA Meeting

-October 21st Dublin Spirit Wear Day

-October 28th Dublin Trunk or Treat @ Clifford Smart Middle School (they have a bigger parking lot ;-))