Friday, November 16, 2012
A special
Thank You to everyone who attended Parent-Teacher Conferences yesterday! It was
great to spend time talking with so many of you and getting to share all of the
hard work our Second Graders are doing each and every day!
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| A special thank you to EVERYONE for wearing their pajamas to school today! Remember, if you haven't donated new pajamas yet to the Pajama Drive, you can do so all through the month of November. Thank you to those who have already donated to this worthy and special cause. |
In Workshop
this week we spent time looking for ways writer’s use “said” alternatives in
texts. We brainstormed a giant web of different words for “said” and nearly
found over 25 variations! We spent time looking at how these ‘alternatives’ can
influence how we read a passage, such as if a character whispered or yelled.
Students spent time acting out passages from their texts to continue their look
into dialogue and using contextual clues from the author to signal dialect
changes. Last we spent time looking to see if all books have dialogue. We made
some big generalizations, such as non-fiction tends to not have dialogue while
chapter books are loaded with conversations.
Writer’s Workshop
This week in
Workshop we’ve done a couple of different things… First, we learned about
writing a persuasive paper! We transformed your children into Thanksgiving
turkeys and gave them the task of persuading the shoppers not to eat them for
Thanksgiving dinner! If you have not had a chance to read these in the hallway,
you need to stop by, they are instant classics! Our writer’s also spent time
this week editing and revising a poem that they would like to publish for our
Poetry Celebration next week. Mrs. Weckstein has been frantically typing poems
so that our students can illustrate their published pieces!
Math Workshop
In Math this
week we have been learning to use different diagrams to help solve addition
problems. We have learned about “Part-Part-Total” diagrams as well as “Change
to More” diagrams. Students have also continued working with money – a fun
concept for second graders! At home remember you can use real money (coins) as
well as a hundreds grid to help your child count coins and make change.
Word Study
In Word
Study this week we spent time working on High Frequency words by playing a
“Follow the Path” game. We also played a concentration game this week that
taught us about antonyms (words that mean the opposite of each other).
Social Studies
This week in
Social Studies our Geography Unit shifted to look at the ways we take care of
our environment. We spent time reading a book by Don Madden called The
Wartville Wizard. In this story, an ordinary man continually cleans up the
litter and pollution around his town of Wartville and finally becomes fed up.
He ends up gaining a special power over the trash and uses it to teach the
citizens of Wartville a very important lesson. Be sure to ask your child about
this story! We then brainstormed a list of environmental problems and solutions
for taking care of our environment. We ended the week by learning about
absolute location on a coordinate grid. While our Science Kits have arrived,
Mrs. Weckstein will be responsible for teaching Social Studies to the kids of
203 and 204.
Science
Our Science
Kits have ARRIVED! Mrs. Brown will be responsible for teaching Science to the
kids of 203 and 204. Our second graders started their first science
unit this week…NEW PLANTS! The botanists planted brassica seeds and found that
plants need space, light and water to grow. We also documented our findings in
our plant investigation journals. Brassica is a very fast growing plant and we
hope to observe the full life cycle of a plant within the course of a few
weeks. They are also a plant that need light 24/7, so we have them under
artificial light during the entire day and night. We are looking for a family
who would volunteer to take our brassica plants home over the Thanksgiving
holiday to make sure that they are well taken care of. All they need is light
to be watered every other day. If you are interested, please let me know.
Important News and Dates:
·
Thursday, November 22 – Monday,
November 26th – No School. School resumes on Tuesday, November 27th.
·
If
you volunteered at Conferences to bring in an item for our special “Turkey
Treat” on Wednesday, November 21st, please send that in to school as
soon as possible!
·
If
you did not receive a PTA Dublin Directory at Parent-Teacher Conferences,
please email me so that I can send one home with your son or daughter.
~Mrs.
Weckstein
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