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

Friday, April 12th

Friday, April 12, 2013

It was a great to be back into our routines this week!  Can you believe we are ¾ of the way finished with 2^nd grade? Thanks to EVERYONE who sent in donations for our "Beach Day" basket with Mrs. LaBlanc's class for the Sock Hop last night! Our basket brought in $105 for technology at Dublin! We had a fun time dancing the night away with everyone last night! :-)

If you have not yet turned in the field trip money ($2) for our bird presentation, please send it soon.  Thank you!!

Word Study

We’re taking a close look at spelling patterns.  Students studied cvvc (consonant vowel vowel consonant) patterns as well as word families and played with word ladders. 

Reader’s Workshop

This week in Workshop we went deeper into our study of non-fiction comparing different styles of non-fiction examining lay outs and more text features.  We introduced a new book, My Favorite Tree.  Like other texts we noticed that this book has a layout of a fictional story, but is actually in the  Informational Fiction genre and set up like a field guide.  We also spent time discussing how one prepares to read a non-fiction text.  Students brainstormed questions they ask themselves before beginning an unfamiliar non-fiction text such as “What do I already know about this topic?” or “What text features should I be aware of when reading this book?”  We also talked again about being able to “dip in” or “dip out” of the book dependent upon the structure of the text.  Finally we’re beginning to learn about the strategies readers use when reading non-fiction.

Writer’s Workshop

We continue to develop our ideas, structures, interest and strategies for writing about birds.  This week students practiced taking information from texts and putting it into their own words.  This is a difficult concept for many.  Try practicing this at home.  We are also examining what should be included in a piece about birds…specifically, what makes a bird a bird.  Finally, students are starting to look closely at birds they are interested in reporting on.

Math Workshop

We’re off and running with unit 10 working further with decimals and place value.  We’re using our calculators to show numbers with decimals to represent money amounts.  Students are learning proper notation for recording money.  We find that they often will record correctly with the decimal but forget the $ sign.  We’re revising double digit addition using money amounts as well.  For this we’re using self-calculation and then checking with a calculator again using decimal forms.  Students are being reminded to first estimate the answer with a ballpark estimate and then check to see if their answer is close and makes sense.  We’ve discussed that the reason we’ve worked so much with ballpark estimates this year is because it’s a useful skill that we need throughout our lives.  Finally, we’re practicing making change again.  This is a tough skill for 2^nd graders.  During workshop times students had fun playing several money games keeping it upbeat and fun!

Social Studies

We are introducing our 4^th unit on the history of Walled Lake.  Students will learn about the differences between past and present.  This week we started by reading The Keeping Quilt, a story by Patricia Pollaco about her family’s history. 

Science

This week we reviewed some important instruments that meteorologists use to study weather.  On Monday, we made pinwheels and realized that they could be used as anemometers to measure the wind speed.  We also talked about how meteorologists use a rain gauge to measure how much rain or snow has fallen.  If you made an extra credit rain gauge, it’s probably collected A LOT of rain throughout the week!

Important Upcoming Dates:

April 16^th: Artifact for Social Studies is DUE

April 24^th:  In school field trip with “bird lady” (she’ll be visiting in the afternoon)

Thursday, March 28th

Thursday, March 28, 2013

We really enjoyed our Camp Read S’more Day today in Second Grade! Our camping day was a fun conclusion to a month of many different reading activities for March. Thank you to everyone who sent in tents and contributions to our S’more Trail Mix snack!

Reader’s Workshop

This week in Workshop we took a further look into Non-Fiction features in texts and we introduced a new book, A Wood Frog’s Life. We noticed that this too fell into the Informational Fiction genre. We also spent time looking at new nonfiction books and began brainstorming a list of strategies to use when approaching an unfamiliar non-fiction text.

Writer’s Workshop

Birds, birds, birds… BIRDS!! We are spending time learning about the different types of bird books we will be using for our research on birds. We continue to gather questions and wonderings about birds as we look at field guides, bird type specific books and general bird books. Please remember, if you have any bird books at home, we’d love to take a look at them at school too!

During our Camp Read S’More event today, our Writer’s got to celebrate their published Small Moment stories with peers from all four second grade classrooms. The kids were split up and spread out amongst the rooms. It was fun to share our personal narratives with new students across the grade. Be sure to look for these up in the second grade hallway after Spring Break.

Math Workshop

This week in math we spent a great deal of time reviewing major concepts for our Math Benchmark. We took a look at fractions, at area and perimeter and at pictographs (where the symbol does not always represent one item, but most often, multiple items). I will be working to grade benchmarks over Spring Break and scores will come home with report card information after break. We also took a look this week at money amounts on the calculator in math. We noticed how coin values can be represented with decimals and how some numbers, like $3.50 appears on our calculator like 3.5. We will be spending a great deal of time with money after break, this would be a great time to review coin combinations and dollar amounts over break!

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week we were BUSY! Our Market Day was a huge success! We have some very creative producers and consumers in our class! The stores were jammed with items and consumers were eager to shop. We were able to write about our experiences after and incorporated in words like: goods, services, producers, consumers, opportunity cost and scarcity! We also spent time this week reviewing for our Economics Test that we took on Wednesday.

Science

Our scientists continued to have fun exploring with air this week.  First, we searched for moving air by blowing bubbles outside.  The bubbles helped us see the direction the air was moving and exactly how fast or slow the air was blowing.  The scientists were amazed to see how air moved in a doorway and around the corners of a building.  We ended our week by making our own parachutes!  We learned that a parachute falls slowly to the ground because the air pushes against the canopy.  Meteorologists also discovered that air resistance slowed the parachute down.

Important Upcoming Dates:

School Resumes: Monday, April 8, 2013

Sock Hop Basket Items DUE: Monday, April 8, 2013

Dublin Sock Hop: Thursday, April 11, 2013

Friday, March 22nd

Reader's Workshop: 

Non-fiction is still our focus in Reader’s Workshop.  We read aloud parts of Salamander Rain and noted on a chart the non-fiction text features that we noticed.  We discussed how to approach the text as a reader and what might good readers do as they come across these features.   We finished out the week by reading Wacky Plant Cycle, paying close attention to the voice of the narrator and character.  Students brainstormed a list of things they saw in the text.   Then we re-read the first part of Wacky Plant Cycle, the students had to “listen” to hear the different writing styles that were found in this story.  The students looked for non-fiction features and structures in their books and shared with other classmates.  During this time the readers wrote what non-fiction features they noticed in their reader’s notebook.

Writer’s Workshop:

Most students have finished with their small moment illustration and are getting excited to share their piece during our “Let’s Read S’More” celebration on Thursday, March 28^th.  This past week the writers had the opportunity to write about many topics.  One topic- “Being Lucky”, many students felt that having a family that loved them was very lucky, such sweet and loving kids!  Some kids wrote letters to Lucky the Leprechaun to thank him for the special treats we all received on St. Patty’s Day.  During this time, we are also talking about using the correct punctuation in their writing.

Calling all bird experts!! We are just beginning our Non-Fiction Unit of Study on Michigan Birds! If you have any field guides, books, magazines, etc. at home that have information about Michigan Birds please send them to school (with your child’s name visible on them). We will be spending the next few weeks sifting through field guides and bird books as well as listening to bird calls, watching for them outside and even learning about their nests and more! Next week students will begin learning about different types of books to use for research and create wonderings of their own about birds.

Word Study:

We recognized words that have the vowel combinations of- ai, ay, oa, ee, ea, ow.  These vowels that go together usually make the sound of the name of the first vowel.  The partners then sorted and wrote words with these vowel patterns.  The next lesson reinforced the same skill by playing Crazy Eights with their phonics group.  During this time they are learning new words and also how to cooperate with others.

Math Workshop:

Monday was an exciting day for the second graders as they all had to graph Lucky Charms.  The best part was eating the math treat.  The students then wrote true facts about their math graph.  Each graph looked very different from their other classmates.  Unit 9 Assessment test was given, they will be coming home this week.  We are just beginning unit 10 which is all about decimals and place value.  Students practiced ways to pay for a food item, then had the chance to play “Spinning for Money”.  We then sorted different ways to show a $1.00, $0.10, and penny.  The mathematicians are beginning to use a calculator to show money amounts, this is very tricky as $1.70 will show on the calculator display as 1.7.   Please make sure your child is preparing for our math benchmark, which will be on Tuesday, March 26th.

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies we talked about different types of resources – human, natural and capital, as we created cheese and butter sandwiches! It was a sight to watch the kids use plastic knives to butter their bread – the bread could not have been softer and the butter, more hard! Then we talked about economic choices we make in our families, such as what we need to live compared to what things we might want. Students will be reviewing for their Economics test on Monday in class, and the test is on Wednesday, March 27. Study Guides will come home on Monday.

**Please also make sure to send in your child’s items for our Market Day on Monday**

Science:

The scientists explored the wind this week.  We made a class anemometer and the students made their own with paper.  An anemometer shows how fast the wind is blowing.  We also made a pinwheel, which is similar to an anemometer.  The scientists had fun exploring with the pinwheel, so many ways to make it work.   We talked about the moon phases and how the moon is always changing its shape, but it doesn’t.  The moon is always a big ball/sphere, but we only see the part of the moon that’s lit.  The sun shines on the moon and lights it up.

Don’t forget- Weather calendar is due on Monday, March 25^th.

Important Dates and Reminders:

Our Beach Day basket is looking a bit sparse, we are still in need of many items.  Thank you to the families who have already donated items for our Sock Hop basket!

·        Monday, March 25^th – Desktop Flea Market Sale

·        Tuesday, March 26^th- Math BA Test

·        Thursday, March 28^th – Read S’More Celebration

·        Thursday, March 28^th- End of 3^rd Marking Period

•         Thursday, April 11^th- Sock Hop

•         Monday, April 15^th- Grades posted

•         Wednesday, April 24^th – In-school field trip- Bird Expert comes to Dublin