Friday, April 21st

Hellloooo Weckie Parents,

Yikes! It has been awhile since our last Blog post!! We have just been super busy doing so many fantastic things and I wanted to give you all sorts of updates. 

Thank you to everyone who has already sent in their field trip permission slip, $10 for students, $8 for adults and interest in chaperoning! We have had more than 2 parents ask to ride the bus so I'll be having one of the kids pull names out of a hat next week. If you are still interested in chaperoning and being on the bus, please fill out the form and return it ASAP. Due to some necessary steps we must take to get payment to the THV we need to have ALL permission slips and payments in to the school by Friday, May 5th. While I realize this is quite far from our field trip on May 30th, it sounds like it can take a couple of weeks for the district to cut a check and we want to make sure the payment is in our hands when arrive at Troy on the 30th.

Phonics

In our phonics we have been working diligently on tackling big words! We have spent time learning to: 

• read across a word methodically from beginning to middle to ending
• break words into two parts between the two consonants in the middle
• learn when a double consonant signals a short-vowel sound
• how to break up challenging words that end in consonant + le

Then we moved on to looking at letters that camouflage themselves into words! For example, we talked about the silent consonant in words that begin with: wr, kn and gn. We spent a lot of time noticing how the w in 'wr', the k in 'kn' and the g in 'gn' are actually silent! We learned that just like animals who can camouflage, some consonants can use camouflage to make sounds you wouldn't expect! To wrap it up, we even took some time to work with partners using word cards that fell into these three categories as we practiced reading and learning new words. 

Next we moved on to the soft and hard sounds of c and g!

• c can make a soft sound like: cider, cylinder, cycle
• c can make a hard sound (more like a k) like: carton, common, camp
• g can make a soft sound like: gym, gem, ginormous
• g can make a hard sound like: garden, goose, gobble

After each lesson we have taken time to find examples of these words in our own independent reading books and we have revisited some classroom favorite books to see how we read words all the time with the hard and soft c and/or g!

Readers' Workshop

In Readers' Workshop we wrapped up a brand new unit that coincided nicely with our phonics unit! We learned about tackling longer word and tackling longer stories! We applied strategies we learned in phonics into our reading but also dug deeper with shorter chapter books. "Sadiq and the Perfect Play" was our mentor text by author, Siman Nuurali. We learned different ways we could hold onto the important parts of a longer text by: jotting a post-it note that told about characters (names and features), practice retelling the parts of a story before reading the next portion (orally or mentally), jotting post it notes of main ideas down to keep track of what's being read and reading with fluency to practice acting out a part of a story to help you remember all that has happened.

We are approaching another round of iReady testing in May. We believe we will be starting around the first week in May for second grade and will communicate this a bit more as the time gets closer. It's a great idea to not only use the practice lessons at school but also try them out at home. I have been working with our kids who are on IRIPS in smaller guided reading groups and really trying to get them the additional support they need before the diagnostic as well! 

Writers' Workshop

In Writers' Workshop we have been learning all about opinion writing. We have learned how to: state our opinion clearly, give three reasons why we have that opinion and write more about each reason, and then restate our position in the ending! First we took our opinions and wrote about books in the form of a letter as we tried to persuade someone about a book award we were giving and why. I heard from all of our writers and boy did they give out some great awards to some incredible books! Award topics included: Funniest Book, Most Exciting Character, Best Graphic Novel, Best Graphic Novel Character, Calmest Book, Coolest Illustrations and more!

Once we had the form set for how to write an opinion piece about a book, we moved onto giving awards for other things. Popular topics included: favorite restaurant, favorite video game, favorite toy, favorite vacation spot, favorite summer sport and more! We have some pretty persuasive writers in Room 202!

Math Workshop

Math Workshop has been a VERY busy place! Double Digit Addition and Number Stories have CONSUMED us!! We have spent time learning different strategies for solving double-digit addition and have focused on: using base ten blocks to add, using open number lines and using the partial sums method. We have also taken time to learn about ballpark estimates and determining when to round up or round down! Lastly we have incorporated a lot of this into number stories for addition and subtraction. Unit 6 Math Assessments were completed last Thursday and MOST will come home tomorrow in Friday packets. I have a few kids with a few parts to still finish up and those may not come home until next week. Overall, the kids did really well with this! You'll see if I have marked anything on the test for your child to continue to review at home.

Social Studies

We are learning all about the economy in social studies! We started with a lesson on needs and wants, and then moved on to learning all about goods and services! With goods and services came work on producers and consumers. It was interesting to hear from the kids about times they were producers and consumers at local businesses, as well as what businesses they find to be important in our community! We will conclude this unit with a Market Day (way more info to come on that) probably some time around the beginning of June!

Upcoming Important Dates:

Thursday, April 27th: 1/2 Day of School - Staff Professional Development

Friday, May 5th: Field Trip forms/Chaperone papers/Payment DUE

Tuesday, May 16th: 1/2 Day of School - Staff Professional Development

Friday, February 3rd

 Happy Friday Room 202 Families!

There’s so much to tell about all that we have been up to lately in room 202! You have some very hard working children! Make sure you read all the way to the end to see reminders about upcoming important dates and events for our Weckies!

Phonics

In Phonics we have been working on common spelling patterns in words (aka rhyming patterns). We have spent time looking through several different books and zoomed in on a book called, “Knight School” which was filled with rhyming words. We have found that some rhyming words are spelled differently (more and floor) and we have found that sometimes there is one spelling that is more common than another. We have tried even fixing up our own writing to make sure we have spelled words correctly that have those common spelling patterns. 

Readers’ Workshop

Our focus the last two weeks has been on “Keeping Track of Longer Books”. We are finding that as we grow as readers, so does the length of the books we are reading! As a class we just finished the book, “Dragons in a Bag” by Zetta Elliott. This chapter book has a long and at times complex story and plot, which we were able to refer to often when brainstorming strategies for keeping track of our reading with longer books. We created the chart pictured below with four steps for retaining info when reading longer texts. I encourage you to use these strategies with your child at home too as you read longer books. Stop and ask them: What is happening so far? What is this mostly about? How has the character changed? Are there any lessons to be learned? And if they are unable to answer these questions, use the strategy we practice of re-reading for information. Oftentimes the kids are so caught up on figuring out words that they are not even following the events of the story!

We also took time the last two weeks to work on our iReady Reading Diagnostic! I have seen such growth in so many of our hard working readers! I will reach out soon with information if your child has qualified for an IRIP and will also send the scores home as soon as we get everyone done with reading (some are moving very carefully and very slowly) as well as the math scores completed too!

Writers’ Workshop

In Writers’ Workshop we celebrated our Informational Unit TODAY!! We took time to share our non-fiction expert books in small group rotations and then with anyone else we wanted to share with! Kids were eager to show off their different styles of writing and knowledge about a given topic. It was fun to circulate around and hear all that our kids know about and all that they wanted to teach each other in their books. Our kids are SUCH experts on so many topics!! We have decided to keep a basket of these books in our classroom library for another week or so, so that everyone has a chance to see/read them all! We toasted our hard work with mini-cupcakes and a round of applause for all  of our great work!

Math Workshop

Money, money, money… MONEY!! We have money on our minds in Math right now! We are doing all sorts of work with coins. It is important that you review coin values at home and even let your own Weckie try paying for things with coins when you go places! We are learning to count coins to find total value, we are learning to pay for things by making the exact amount in coins and we are learning to make change from small amounts of money, like from a quarter or from a dollar. This is a tricky but important concept for our young mathematicians to tackle and learn! Unit 4 Math Assessments went home at the end of last week/beginning of this week. Lots of great growth on those tests. The unit test tends to be a higher score for most than the cumulative test, but the cumulative test is most important as it shows all your child has retained this year. Concepts like filling in blank boxes on hundreds grids and solving for odds and evens were concepts that were still tricky for many.

Social Studies

We are in the midst of our geography unit in social studies! We have explored all sorts of local and Michigan maps, noticing features, our neighborhoods and even our school! We have created classroom maps including important map characteristics like: a title, a compass rose, a key and symbols! We have now moved onto a look into different types of landforms that we have here and around the world!

IMPORTANT Reminders/Dates:

Friday, February 10th - Hundreds Day - Please make sure to send your child to school on this day, in their senior citizen form! They’ll want to come dressed in their best hundred year old outfit ready for an exciting day! We will be playing BINGO and are counting on each child to donate one small prize to our BINGO game! This should be a new, unopened toy (think dollar store) that would be enjoyed by all. 

Monday, February 13th - Send in Valentines/Valentines Holders - You can begin to send in all cards/boxes on this date. A note has already come home with a class list and details on the box. Please do not send these in before the 13th!

Tuesday, February 14th - Valentines Party - We will be having an ice cream sundae/movie party and appreciate ALL of your help filling the Sign-Up Genius! Please wait to send in food items until the day of the event. Anything else can come in on the 13th. I am looking for 2 parents to help with this party! We will need help from 2:30-3:30pm on the 14th! Thank you!! Please email me ASAP!!

A few scenes from Global Play Day on February 1st...

Friday, January 6th - And we are BACK!

 Hello Weckie Fams and a big HAPPY NEW YEAR from me!

It has been a great week back here, even if it has only been three days! We have gotten right back in the saddle and are off doing great things.  I wanted to extend a huge thank you to all who sent in donations for our winter party, our parents who helped work the party: Monica Anglin, Cassandra Vasquez, Cathy Ivan, Kayla Tiller, Bridget Young and Kelly Jacek AND our two awesome party planners, Monica Anglin and Renee Gamble! We had a blast!! 

Readers' Workshop

In Readers' Workshop we have moved onto a unit called: Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power. Our first bend in the unit helps us to practice making our reading more fluent. Mini lessons have included: rereading aloud and in our head to practice sounding fluent and scooping up words into larger phrases, so we read like we sing, smooth! We have been using Arnold Lobel's "Frog and Toad All Year" as our mentor text to practice reading with fluency. Guided Reading groups have resumed work as well with just-right books in the classroom.

Phonics

In Phonics we are continuing our work from before break with homophones. Homophones are words that sound the same, tend to be spelled different and mean different things. Examples include: meet/meat, pair/pear, board/bored. We spent a couple of days playing with silly homophones in rhymes and jokes before moving on to trouble maker homophones like: to, too and two. Next week we will tackle: there, their and they're plus your and you're. 

Writers' Workshop

In Writers' Workshop we are working on expert books! Each child was asked to think of a topic that they consider themselves an expert on and then create their own non-fiction book! We have books about: dogs, video game consoles, tigers, polar bears, bunnies and LEGO just to name a few that have already been placed in our non-fiction book basket! We have spent time this week talking about our audience and making sure our writing is easy to read as well as exciting and engaging for our readers.

Math Workshop

In Math we are doing a lot of work right now with place value and using base-ten blocks. We have been reviewing place value in terms of: ones, tens, hundreds and thousands. We have used base-ten blocks to represent numbers with actual blocks and base-ten shorthand (written form). We have even started talking about trades when we can exchange 10 cubes for a long (equals 10) or how we can break down a long into 10 cubes to borrow. You can see where we are heading with this in terms of double digit addition and subtraction. We learned a new game called "Target" this week where we targeted the number 50 and 100 in making them with base-ten blocks. Last we ended the week beginning to look at measurement using the foot! You can see pics below from the math game and our measurement with a real (foot long) foot!

(Top four: Target game.... Bottom three Measuring with a foot)

Upcoming Important Dates

No school - January 16 and January 17**

Scholastic Book Order Due: January 18th

Dublin PTA Bingo Night - January 20th at Dublin @ 6:30pm - Info sheet coming home today!

100th Day in 2nd Grade - TENTATIVE: Friday, February 10th  (You'll want to start thinking about this day soon as we ask you to transform your 2nd grader into an adorable, 100 year old senior citizen. More info will come home in the coming weeks, but a head's up on this special day can also be super helpful in the planning purposes!)

Friday, November 18, 2022

 Hello Weckie Families!!

Today is going to be a short News Blog as things are SUPER busy on this end but I hated to miss a Friday post!! We are in full blown Turkey-Mode over here as we prepare for Thanksgiving! Look for some fun projects to come home with your Weckies next week and enjoy sharing them with your family over the holiday week! We have had some awesome discussions about allllllllll of the people, places and things we are thankful for this "thankful" time of year. We have created a class book the kids will be bringing home next week and a few turkeys projects along the way too!

Big things coming...

Conferences - Please check Skyward on Monday morning to sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences! All conferences are going to be held remote on Zoom. Skyward says they are "in person" but they are in fact, on Zoom. You can sign up for conferences beginning on Monday, November 21st in the morning (I hear about 7am) on Skyward. 

Tuesday, November 29th is our Field Trip to the Outdoor Center - Wahoo!! If you have not yet turned in your field trip permission slip and $15 cash, please do so ASAP. We want to have all money turned in before Thanksgiving break so that the Monday we return, we can sort our payments for the buses and the Outdoor Center! For this field trip, your child will need to dress in FULL winter gear. Think: snow-pants, boots, good socks, winter coat, hat and gloves. Please make sure that everything is labeled. We spend a lot of time outside on the trip and we'll want to make sure everyone is bundled up. I am also looking for TWO volunteers to help with a surprise treat for our return! In the past we have had very HUNGRY kids returning to school and I thought it would be a fun surprise to have a snack waiting for us. I am looking for one parent to drop off 24 cookies and one parent to drop off 24 cold juice boxes that afternoon, just prior to our return. We are estimated to be back about 1:45 but our class will then go right to Music and PE. I know that a snack about 2:45pm would be just perfect!! Please let me know if you are able to help and I'll let you know which two parents I hear from first. Thank you, thank you!!

And a side note from Mrs. Weckstein:

A special heartfelt thank you to each of you for sharing your kid(s) with me!! I am LOVING this group and they have really come together well as a strong classroom family. We receive compliments from FAPES teachers and are often compared to the other classes as a very strong example of good leaders and behavior. THANK YOU!! I can for certain say I am so thankful for these 23 Weckies this holiday season. I wish you only a safe and healthy Thanksgiving holiday!

Friday, November 4th

 Hello Weckie Families!

Happy Friday! What a week it has been... Halloween followed by a sick kiddo at the Weckstein's has made for a tricky week for sure. A huge thank you to our guest teacher, Mrs. Jackie Valentine, for keeping things running smoothly in my absence Wednesday and Thursday!  A special thank you to everyone who sent in items for our Boo Bash Halloween Breakfast as well as to all who gave of their time to help work our party (Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Anglin and Mrs. Vazquez)! We had a fantastic morning together! 

Readers' Workshop
In Readers' Workshop we wrapped up our "Readers Grow Like Beanstalks" unit! We had a couple ending mini-lessons including:

• I can identify how the author made the whole story click together.
• I can reteach about a story using the phrase: Somebody wanted ________, but_______ so_______. (For example: Adam Rubin's book, Those Darn Squirrels.. Mr. Fookwire wanted to paint illustrations of the birds, but the squirrels kept eating all of the birdseed in his feeders which made the birds fly away, so the squirrels ended up dressing up like birds to make Mr. Fookwire happy). 
• I can determine what the author wanted to teach me from the story.
• I can predict the author's lesson from my sneak preview of the book.

Then we did a culminating activity where we talked about all of the new reading strategies we have learned and talked about which strategies we would most often pick for tricky and challenging words.

This week we moved into our Non-Fiction Reading Unit! We have started by talking how readers of non-fiction grown knowledge. Mini-lessons have included:

• Non-Fiction readers notice and learn from details in their text.
• Non-Fiction readers can put the parts of the text together in their mind.
• Non-Fiction readers can ask questions about the text/topic they are reading.

It was a big shift this week to book shop for non-fiction books to add to our book bins but there was also a lot of excitement about reading books on new topics for our readers!

Writers' Workshop

We continue to work on writing small moment personal narratives in Workshop. Mini-lessons have included topics like:

• I can revisit my ending to make it strong.
• I can check my writing over to make sure SNAP words are spelled correctly.
• As a writer, I can work hard, practice and get stronger each time I write.
• I can use a checklist to set goals for my writing.
• I can revise my story to match my intent and meaning.

Next week we'll dig deeper into mentor texts where we can find author's craft that we can try in our own writing to make it even stronger!

Math Workshop

In Math we wrapped up Unit 2!! We spent time finishing up with addition strategies for the near doubles facts, the turn-around rule for addition (which we proved does not work for subtraction), learned to play new games including: Evens and Odds, Money Exchange Game, Fishing for 10s and a pumpkin dice game. This week we spent time reviewing important concepts like evens and odds as well as using our addition strategies to solve number stories. We also took our Unit 2 Assessment, Unit 2 Cumulative Assessment and worked through the Unit 2 Challenge! Look for all of this to come home later next week! At the front of their packet, look for their Self-Assessment page. The check marks done in pencil were filled in at the beginning of the unit and the check marks done in color were done at the completion of the unit. It's interesting to see what they think they have improved in with the different skills and their comfort level with each!

Science

You may have heard the exciting news... we are botanists!!! Our science kit has arrived and we have done our first planting of brassica seeds. Each child is growing their own plant as we observe and learn about plant parts. More to come on this...

Important Upcoming Dates:

November 8, 2022  - NO SCHOOL - ELECTION DAY

November 17, 2022 - Half Day of School (dismissal around 12:10pm)

November 24-25, 2022 - NO SCHOOL - THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

November 29, 2022 - Field Trip - WL Outdoor Education Center (YAY!)

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 ;-))