Friday, October 11th

It has been another fantastic few weeks in 204! As many of you are aware, I am going to be rescheduling Parent-Teacher Conference times in hopes of guaranteeing that I can be there! With an upcoming due date of November 18^th, I have spoken with Mr. Drewno and I will be holding Parent-Teacher Conferences on November 4^th through 6^th, (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). Monday and Wednesday will run from 4:30-7:30pm and Tuesday will run from 4:00-7:00pm. I will be sending home info with your child to pick dates/times. Thank you for being flexible! I would much rather be able to have a P-T Conference with all of you, then leave this in the hands of Janelle Bensek (our long term sub) because she will just be getting to know your children.

Additionally, we need more people to help plan and work our Halloween Party on the 31^st. The party will run from 3:00-3:45pm. Right now we only have two parents which is concerning! If you can help, please email me at: JenniferPhillips@wlcsd.org ASAP! Thank you! :-)

A fun pumpkin painting project in anticipation of Halloween!

Word Study
In Word Study this week we have taken a look at forming possessives in words. Second graders learned that to show ownership of something, you add ‘s to a word. Then we worked with words with double consonants. Students worked on identifying two-syllable words with double consonants in the middle (lad/der, muf/fin). Children sorted word parts to create their own two-syllable words! Last, we learned about forming past tense in words by adding –ed or –d to the end of words.

Reader’s Workshop
In Reader’s Workshop this week, each child set reading goals for themselves. Time was spent talking with each child about their goal and the importance of setting goals for their reading. Ask your child the two reading goals that they set for themselves.  Look for a special reading bag to come home with your child …  Inside you will find the specific reading goal that your child and I have drafted, “just right” books and materials to help your child reach their reading goal. Please spend time with these books; do not return them the next day! Your child’s bag will have materials inside for them to either complete orally, written or use your help to answer questions, practice fluency, accuracy, etc.   I would expect the bags to come back to school one time per week if not twice. Each marking period, your child will set two new reading goals.  Your child also met their Reader’s Workshop partner and learned different ways to read and discuss books with their partners.  Ask your child about their new Reader’s Workshop partner.

Partners read side-by-side, with a book in the middle!

Writer's Workshop
This week as writer’s we spent more time with mentor poetry texts looking for similes and onomatopoeia’s! We then began drafting our own poems using different formats. Some were free verse while others were composed of a given topic – Halloween was one we did as a class using adjectives and nouns. This type of poetry will help us to create list of “Juicy” words we can use in future poems! The kids have especially loved our share time each Workshop where they have been given the chance to share a poem with their classmates.

Share time with the Pink Team!

Our Halloween adjective-noun poem!

Math Workshop                                                                                                                                                                      In Math this week our students spent time gathering different strategies for addition and subtraction using their doubles facts as a guide. We taught our students a chant that can help them to remember their doubles facts to the tune of “The Ants Go Marching”. Ask your child to sing the chant for you.  Once we had our doubles facts, we were able to learn the +9 strategy for addition. Put simply, if you can easily add 10 to any number, you can add 9 just as easy. Add 10 to the number and take away one. We also spent time with turn-around facts. Turn-around facts for addition is a reminder that 4 + 6 has the same sum at 6 + 4.  Next we spent working on counting strategies for subtraction, subtraction from addition and short cuts for harder subtraction facts.  We ended the week by exploring more with numbers in our math stations.  Look for a set of fact triangles come home with your child during the next week.  These are for you to keep at home.  It’s important for your child to practice their addition and subtraction facts on a weekly basis.  This will only make future math concepts easier for your second grader.

Social Studies                                                                                                                                                                          To continue our look into “Our Community”, we took a look at the region in which we live and zoomed out to see how our house is in a neighborhood, our neighborhood is in a city, our city is in a state and our state is in a country. We then moved on to “Needs and Wants” and talked about how needs are things we need to survive compared to wants simply being things we want to have. Try using that at home with your child – is it something you need or something you want? They probably won't appreciate me telling you this (wink wink).

Important Dates and Reminders:

-Friday, October 18^th: Fun Run- We will be running from 1:50-2:05 on the soccer field. All are invited to come and cheer us on! Please make sure to check the weather and dress your child appropriately.  Also remember to return your donation envelope as soon as possible.

-Thursday, October 24^th : Pumpkin Sale from 4:30-7:30 in the new gym.

-Thursday, October 31^st:  Halloween Parade at 2:30.  Our classroom party will follow from 3:00-4:00.

-Monday, November 4-6^th : Parent-Teacher Conferences in 204

-Tuesday, November 5^th :  Walled Lake Schools Safety, Security and Technology Bond Election.  Please remember to vote!

 

We love Dublin!

Friday, September 26th

Fall was in the air this week though our room temperature felt a bit like winter most mornings.  I mentioned to the children that they may want to bring sweatshirts in their backpacks until the heat is turned on here. 

We continue to settle into our routines in all subject areas and I’m hopeful that you’re hearing about our learning first hand from your child.

Word Study

This week we studied our first lessons with long and short vowel sounds.  Your child should be able to tell you two ways to know when a word will likely use its long vowel sound.  We used word cards to make long vowel words.  Students also worked again with consonant blends.  As a teacher I appreciate that our word study program spirals back to concepts covered for review and to deepen understanding.  For many students in my class I have discussed with them the benefits our word study lessons will have on their reading and writing skills. 

Reader’s Workshop

I completed most of the DRA testing this week and will be analyzing the data this coming week.  I’ve found that most students maintained their reading comprehension and word decoding skills, but have fallen with fluency.  Fortunately, this is often easily remedied with practice, practice, practice.  It is important for children to read “just right” or appropriately leveled books when reading to increase fluency.  In fact fluency building happens when reading texts that are familiar to the reader.  Please encourage daily reading at home.  Research shows that the number one way to increase reading is simply time spent reading regularly.  We kicked off our workshop this week learning about 3 types of classroom readers…the “Wow” reader, “So-so” reader and the “Oops” reader.  We created charts for our classroom to remind us what these readers look like.  Of course we are all striving to become “Wow” readers where we stay on task, are involved with our books, are quiet, use our known strategies, find comfy spots quickly etc.

Writer’s Workshop

Our class enjoyed several wonderfully written stories this week, which we explored for the author’s craft.  We spent time looking at Cynthia Rylant’s writing using repetitive text, lists, and circle backs (where the other comes back to  a particular phrase/ part of the story).  Students attempted using some of these crafts in their writings.   We also looked at Kevin Henkes’ stories again for similar crafts.  I was amazed to hear some of the pieces written this week during our workshop time.  Students enjoy  the sharing component of our workshop too!

Math Workshop

Our unit 1 (review of beginning math concepts) finished up this week.  Students seem more comfortable with coin counting, time telling and skip counting than they were our first week of school.   Most days I am able to check journal pages completed, but  I will take these home over the next week and complete any that I missed.  Once these are sent home it will be beneficial for you to review these with your child and have him/her redo any pages with which s/he struggled.  You’ll notice that it’s not always the concept that is misunderstood, but the directions (something we will be working on throughout the year asking students to slow down and process before jumping in too fast).  We completed the unit 1 review assessment Thursday.  This is only a unit review and not the benchmark test I referred to during curriculum night.  Remember that when the benchmark test is coming up, a study guide will be sent home.   

Social Studies

Students began our unit on Communities this week. We spent time brainstorming places we can work, live and play in a community. We read the book On the Town to look into all of the places and workers a person finds within a community. We generated a huge list of the workers and places in our community. Next week we will be learning about groups in our communities and create a map of our own neighborhoods for homework!

Important Dates/Reminders

-I am still missing several student faces for our face project. Please make sure these are turned in ASAP.

-In Friday packs this first week in October, please pay attention for papers with a “B” for beginning on them. These need to be reviewed, fixed and returned in a timely manner.

Friday, September 13th

Hello Weckie Families!

What a most awesome 8 days we have had so far in Second Grade!! The energy level in the room is contagious and these kids are ready for some learning and some fun!! Thank you to everyone who made it out to either the: Meet and Greet, Welcome Back Picnic or Curriculum Night. It was great to meet so many of you and fun to reconnect with familiar families as well! We have been busy, busy, busy in 204 as you have probably heard!

Reader's Workshop:
This week we launched our Reader's Workshop. We spent time talking about our favorite books as we all shared our own favorites. We have created a display in our classroom library of these books and have been enjoying the chance to read our classmates favorites. Then we talked about our favorite reading memories. Look for your child's favorite reading memory in this week's first Friday Packet! We ended the week talking about "Comfy Reading Spots" and what makes an area a good reading spot for comfort and for noise/distractions. Please look for homework to come home on this topic!

Writer's Workshop:
In Writer's Workshop this week we began a fun writing project called a "Summer Sandwich". The Weckies each created a rough draft first of: how their summer began (lettuce page), something they did with their family (meat page), something they did with friends (cheese page) and how their summer ended (bread page). They spent a great deal of time creating each page with neat handwriting and colored illustrations. Look for these books on the big picnic blanket bulletin board out in our hallway next week!

Word Study:
We began our word study lessons this week by learning first about consonant clusters. We created words that began with two or more consonants in what we call a "cluster". This helped us to review consonants and vowels from first grade. Then we did an activity that helped us to notice the difference between long vowels and short vowels ('a' in apple compared to 'e' in egg). Periodically lists of words will come home for each month that are a great thing to review at home with your child, and in particular the patterns or parts to the words. The list that just came home showed us how to break a word into chunks when looking at familiar endings.

Math Workshop:
In Math this week we took time to do lots of neat things! Our mathematicians learned about their math tool kits and all of the different tools they will use this year (calculator, ruler, deck of Everyday Math cards), tape measure, hundreds grid, pretend money, pattern block template and more!) We worked on Number Grids this week and created a giant number scroll with partners. Each group was responsible for one hundred boxes and together we created a grid that counts from 1 to 1,500! As the week went on we took a look at equivalent names for numbers as we learned to play a game called "Broken Calculator". We also worked with time this week - both on a calendar and on a clock. We reviewed the hour hand (short) and the minute hand (long) and practiced on our own smaller clocks. Math games introduced tihs week included: Addition Top-It, The Number Grid Game, and Clock Concentration.

Look for Math Homelinks to begin next week! :-) If you were not at Curriculum Night, please be advised that we spent a great deal of time talking about our new re-aligned math curriculum. To better match the Common Core State Standards and research about student learning, the district has re-organized our lessons. This means we are no longer going 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. in math but rather, jumping around. This week we covered 1.8, 1.9, 1.2 and 1.3. You will notice too that Homelinks may appear to come hom out of order. Please look for more info on this in the coming weeks!

Important Classroom News:

• Please make sure to pack your child a hearty and healthy snack. Lunch at 1:20pm is late and the kids are hungry! We have snack midway through the morning and healthy snacks will help them to last this long morning period.
• If you were not at Curriculum Night, you can sign up for a Parent-Teacher Conference time on the bulletin board outside of the Office.
• If you were not at Curriculum Night, materials came home about 2nd grade curriculum and classroom routines. There was information about classroom volunteers. Please make sure to send these forms back in a timely manner if you would like to help in the room as I am going to start getting volunteers in towards the end of next week and you must have a "Criminal Background Check" form on file before coming in to help!
• Additionally, we are short MANY volunteers for classroom parties. If you are able to help with either our: Halloween Party, Valentine's Day Party or End of the Year Picnic, please email me at JenniferPhillips@wlcsd.org immediately. I'm worried about our lack of participation! Additionally we also need two parents to work our Market Days month (one day on a Friday afternoon in a month to be told soon) so that our class can have important funding towards our Field Trips this year.

Thanks for everything you have done in making these first two weeks so fantastic! It's going to be an awesome year to be a Weckie, for sure!

:-) Mrs. Weckstein

Congrats on Becoming a Weckie!!

Welcome to the land of the Weckies!! 

I am so excited to have you in my second grade class! If you have typed in the blog address correctly, you have found one of our many websites that we will use throughout this year!

Check back here over the weekend for a look back at my summer break and some important info about the weeks to come!

Get ready for a fantastic year... Because it's gonna be a FABULOUS day each and every day, to be a Weckie!

:-) Mrs. Weckstein

Field Day 2013

It was another fantastically fabulous day to be a Weckie

This picture slideshow made with Smilebox

Friday, May 10th and Friday, May 17th

Teacher Appreciation Week was PHENOMENAL this year at Dublin!!! A HUGE thank you to all of our 204 families for all of the love I received last week... Carnations, cards, snacks, school supplies, gift cards... You sure are the BEST!! Then add in all of the extra meals/snacks/drinks PTA provided for Teacher's.. it was quite a week! I love what I do, and wouldn't want to spend my days any other way than with your kids. Thank you, thank you, thank you! :-)

 

Word Study

Last week students worked on spelling patterns with long a sounds and also ending consonant clusters such as st and nk.  They also worked with high frequency words playing a “Go-Fish” game.  This week we’ll be working again with homographs, words that sound the same but have different meanings.  Students will also revisit plural words looking at plural endings we’ve learned such as –ies while looking closer at irregular plurals such as mice, children, feet etc.

Writer’s Workshop

While we are still in progress with our non-fiction writing unit we have had to take a break to complete our end of the year DWA writing piece.  Students were asked to write a personal narrative about a time they were hurt.  We took a few days to walk back through the writing process from start to finish.  It was rewarding to compare the progress made from fall to now.  We also completed our poems about our mothers.  Hope you enjoyed them.

This week we’re back on track with our bird investigation.  Students will be turning note taking facts into paragraphs for our bird articles.  Once students have a complete article ready to publish we will be asking parents for help from home with the typing.  Each student will bring his/her piece home, a parent will type it and send it back electronically so that I can put it into a word document.  More details will be coming as this draws closer.

Reader’s Workshop

It has been interesting studying Gail Gibbons and Joanne Ryder.  To quote one of my students, “I love getting to know new authors!”  It doesn’t get any more rewarding than that!  These students amaze me when I see them analyze an author’s style.  We made anchor charts for both authors and they are quick to point out the similarities and differences.  We’re working on a Venn diagram that shows this comparison.  We will continue to look at authors and styles as we end the year.  Students are learning to fit books we read into genres we have studied.  I would say that informational fiction has become a favorite genre in our room this spring.

Math

We have begun our final math unit of the year.  This is a unit that reviews and extends concepts we’ve been working at throughout the year.  This past week we practiced telling time and also worked towards understanding elapsed time.  We also looked closely at the calendar memorizing the number of days and weeks in a year.  Ask your child if s/he can tell you either of those.  Multiplication continues to be a focus as we end second grade.  I’ve been preparing my students with the fact that these will need to be memorized next year.  I’ve encouraged them to work very hard next year with these as they are a basic building block for all future math learning.  As for now, our goal is for them to understand what multiplication is…simply adding multiple times.   This week graphs are coming back!  These too are important for students’ future learning in all subject areas. 

Social Studies

Our Walled Lake history unit is coming to an end.  I think this unit was enjoyable for students.  They were most amazed to find out that Walled Lake used to have a large amusement park here.  We looked at the land it once occupied and had discussions about who might or might not want to have an amusement park here now.  Students will be happy to know that this unit and our next do not have tests!  Our last unit is titled “Leading our Community”.  We will learn a bit about government and patriotism.

Important dates to remember…

·         Book fair purchases this Thursday during our morning media time (Tuesday it will be open till 5pm for parents and Thursday until 6pm)

·         Field Day this Friday (2^nd grade participates in the morning hours…Hot dog lunch is provided and please don’t forget your cookie donations! 

·         June 7^th: Ice cream social!

·          May 18^th: Mom to Mom sale

·         May 21^st: Volunteer Tea

 

Friday, May 3, 2013

Word Study

We are diving deeper into words that have the same consonant cluster.  Students played Consonant Cluster Dominoes, they had to match a domino with the beginning or ending cluster.  Then we moved on to words with the vowel sounds of ou, ow, and aw, like in the words, house cow, and paw.  To practice the skill the children played Crazy Eights were they had to match words with the same vowel sound. The last lesson we learned this week was all about the sound of   “a” as in cake, pail, and day.  Then the phonics groups sorted words into the correct spelling pattern.

Reader’s Workshop

The readers this week are doing an author study on Gail Gibbons.  The readers are making a list of things they noticed as they investigate Gail Gibbons’ books.  During this time we read several of her books and pointed out many features that are used in her books.  We also filled out an author study chart looking for: voice, writing structure/style, illustration style, page layout, titles, and features.   During this author study the readers became more comfortable with Gail Gibbons as an author, they knew what to expect from her books.  Gail Gibbons writes non-fiction pieces in “third person”, she reports on a certain subject. 

Writer’s Workshop

Did you know that the Blue Jay is not really blue?  (Ask your child why the blue jay is not blue).  This is an example of an interesting fact that students are working on this week in writer’s workshop.  The writers are finding so many interesting facts about their Michigan bird and putting these facts into their own words.  All students have completed the research part of their project and they will begin to write their own magazine article soon.  Students created a picture of their Michigan bird using Kidpix in the computer lab.

 

Math Workshop

This week we worked on multiplication and division.  Students have begun to make division number stories, many students drew pictures or used their chips to solve the problem.  Then we focused on multiplication facts, students made arrays to solve various multiplication facts.  They learned that multiplication facts can be turned around (2 X 3 = 6 and 3 X 2 = 6).   It’s important that students know how to solve these problems for third grade.  The mathematicians also filled out a multiplication product table from 0 to 100.  They discovered many counting patterns in each row and column.  We discussed the number zero, anything X 0= 0, so 5 X 0 = 0.  This all moved nicely into learning all about fact families, which is very similar to addition and subtraction fact families.   Students practiced with their fact triangles to learn some multiplication and division facts.   Please practice these facts throughout the summer to be prepared for third grade.

Social Studies

The students shared their Venn diagram of NOW and THEN of schools.  So much has changed, yet much is the same.  We also talked about the Walled Lake Amusement Park that was built and operating from 1918-1968. Now we are working on a written piece about why a new amusement park would be both a good idea and a bad idea depending on your perspective.

Science

We have completed our final science unit this year.  Please look over your child’s science test.  Grades for Air and Weather will be posted on the 4^th card marking period. 

Important Upcoming Dates:

Friday, May 10^th:  Field day –AM

May 24^th and May 27: Off For Memorial Day

Wednesday, May 29^th: Jiffy and Teddy Bear Company

Please send in your permission slip and money on Monday, May 6^th for the field tripJ