Below are some snapshots from recent moments in our day from our Portfolio Showcase to our Blue and Gray Day. Enjoy the photos and scroll down for more updates and classroom information. Dear Parents,
It is hard to believe that the school year has ended so quickly. This has been a productive and successful year. Your children have grown so much since September. You should be proud of them! Thank you for sharing them with us for nine months; they have brought so much joy and laughter and we have a special place in our hearts for each one of them. Second graders will bringing their learning portfolios home on Monday, June 4th. The Learning Portfolio is a collection of your child’s work over the course of the year. We hope that you enjoy reading and looking through all of your child’s work. We will be spending time on Monday packing up the classroom. You may want to consider sending your child to school with reusable shopping bags to transport the variety of items that will come home on this day. Below are a few suggestions to ensure your child has a smooth transition into third grade.
Warmly, Angela and Brigid Dear Families,
Another full week in second grade. The children prepared for the spring concert with rehearsals and did a wonderful job on Thursday. They made me proud. In Language Arts: *Spelling unit 26 focused on singular and plural possessives as well as reviewing previous concepts *Inquiry Learning - children continued the process for researching a global topic *Publishing - carrying out the writing process in order to publish a story *Language Arts Menu *Children filled out reflections about their learning in regards to reading and writing. They explained which areas they feel they showed the most growth. For example, in reading, children chose between decoding, comprehension, fluency, and stamina. *We are working hard towards capitalizing proper nouns in our writing and our reflections about books, countries, organizations, and presenters has provided much practice with this. Global Learning: This week we were grateful to have Ms. Randenberg speak to us about Africa and the Heifer Project. Please ask your child to share something that they learned. Perhaps they can explain how goats and cows are loaned to families and how they repay that loan. Read the book One Hen - How One Small Loan Made Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway One Hen tells the story of Kojo, a boy from Ghana who turns a small loan into a thriving farm. *Children completed reflections about each of these global learning opportunities Math: In math we began working with fractions: Vocabulary included: equal, unequal, whole, fraction, one-half, one-third, one-forth, unit fraction, (same, less than, and greater than applied to fractions) Understanding Fractions: *identify whether a shape is divided into equal fractions *read, write, and identify unit fractions for halves, thirds, and forths *show fractions and a whole using model drawings. Comparing Fractions *compare two or more unit fractions using models using the greater than and less than signs *order two or more fractions with or without models Children can read: 1/2 > 1/3 as one half is greater than one third Dear Families,
We had a wonderful Grandfriends' Day! Grandfriends got a tour of the classroom, took part in a morning meeting, listened to a poetry share, and completed activities from our Grandfriends' Day Choice Menu (activities were all connected to our curriculum). I enjoyed watching children share their work, do readers' theater, and play games with their grandfriends. Wednesday, May 16th is the Student Portfolio Showcase. This will begin in the Commons with an All-School Meeting. Parents are then invited into the classroom to look through their child's portfolio. Similar to Grandfriends' Day, parents will have an opportunity to partake in a choice menu, which includes activities connected to our curriculum. At 10:00 parents are invited to enjoy refreshments on the Beech Tree Terrace. Have a wonderful weekend! Warmly, Angela Portfolio Showcase 2018: You’re Invited to Celebrate a Year of Growth!
Wednesday, May 14th We are so proud of the tremendous growth of our students, and as the year draws to a close we would like to share with you a glimpse of their progress. Please join us for a morning celebration! Beginning at 8:15 with All-School Meeting, we’ll come together as a school to kick-start this year-in-review. Then parents will join students back in their classrooms or advisories in order to experience carefully selected reflections on what their challenges and successes were. The Showcase will end at approximately 10:00, but feel free to join us for coffee on the Beech Tree Terrace for a bit afterward! We hope you’ll be able to share in this special day! Language Arts
Math
Making Global Connections: We have had a few presenters over the last couple of weeks. Thank you, presenters, for your contributions and helping us with our global studies. Mrs Hottel came to share about the culture of Brazil and the martial art based dance called Capoeira. Mrs. FitzGerald and Mrs. McKinley shared about Ireland and covered topics such as language, the flag, landscape, music, and shared some potato stamping as well as traditional soda bread. Mrs. Reimer shared about her trip and some information about Haiti. We have also read the following books: *The Red Bicycle: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Bicycle by Jude Isabella * Wangari’s Trees of Peace - A True Story from Africa By Jeanette Winter We are expecting more presentations next week. Children will continue to reflect on their learning, make connections using our 2nd grade world map, and consider global topics for inquiry learning. Ticks: Please see the link below from Mrs. Reimer Here is a resource from the CDC regarding ticks. https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/index.html Dear Families,
I hope all of you have had an opportunity to walk through the halls, which have turned into a beautiful art gallery for Arts and Poetry Night. The second grade poems can be found in the main hallway and were written during our visit with Lyn Hoopes. During her visit, students wrote poems about their weavings and the photos that inspired the weavings, which were created in art class. These poems are free verse, which have no structure. We will continue to honor Poetry Month next week by writing a few different styles of poems, such as cinquains and acrostics. We have started adding to our Global Connections bulletin board outside of the classroom. Students are adding facts they have learned from inquiry, writing about family members that have special connection to another country, or sharing a fact learned during a classroom discussion. This bulletin board will continue to grow as we learn more information strengthening our knowledge of the global world. If you or someone in your family has a special connection to a country, please consider coming into the classroom and sharing with the second grade. The more exposure the students have to different cultures from around the world, the more the they will understand how interconnected we are in this world. Curriculum Highlights: Math Practiced the following concepts:
Language Arts
Upcoming Events: Friday, May 4th is Grandfriends’ Day. Details regarding this event can be found on the FA website. Another event around the corner is the Spring Concert on Thursday, May 10th. Please remember that this is a dress event. Dress pants and shirts with collars for boys (no coat and tie required), and dresses, skirts and blouses, or comparable dress attire for girls. This Week…
Language Arts: Spelling: *This week focused on the long i sound spelled: i-consonant-e; igh; and y * When spelling long i in the middle of a word, it may be spelled as igh or i-e * When spelling long i at the end of a word it is probably spelled y. Poetry: *We continued practicing with poetry. Children finished up the poems they began with Lyn Hoopes last week. These poems will be displayed with children’s art work next Thursday, April 19th for Arts and Poetry Night. *Children have also been exploring their poet’s ear through the opportunity to write poetry during language arts time. Writing poetry is another option children have when working with their Language Arts Choice Menu. One type of poetry we explored this week, is a Cinquain poem which consists of a specific arrangement of words and lines. We began this lesson with a review parts of speech: noun, adjective, and verb. Cinquain Poem Line 1: noun Line 2: 2 describing (adjectives) Line 3: 3 verbs (action or doing words) ending in ing Line 4: 4 words describing how you feel about the noun in line 1 Line 5: another word for the noun in line 1 Example: Tree Tall, Strong Standing, swaying, growing Beautiful art in nature Maple Inquiry Learning: When students are not in book club or immersed in writing workshop, they are doing a Language Arts Choice Menu. This balanced literacyapproach allows for children to strengthen both their reading and writing skills during our language arts block. One option on theLanguage Arts Choice Menu is Inquiry. Inquiry allows the children to choose topics that they would like to learn more about and independently research the topics. Students document this process in a KWLH chart (What I Know, What I Want to Know? What I HaveLearned, and How I Have Learned). Students then decide a way to showcase what they have learned to informally share with their classmates. Finally, students will complete a reflection on the entire process. This is an ongoing project therefore there is no due date. I have discussed with the class that it is better to complete one KWLH to the best of their ability than to complete many that reflect little or no effort. As a class, we discussed the goals and expectations of inquiry-based learning:
In Math:
Poetry:
Lyn Hoopes visited our classroom to share some of her poetry and guide children in creating their own poems. These poems were inspired by a landscape photograph that children also represented through a weaving in art class. These pieces of art work will be displayed in the hall for Arts and Poetry Night on April 19th. Children continue to listen to their poet's ear in class as they finish up their landscape poems and write additional poems. What we've been up to... In social studies, we began the week by looking at the world map and identifying the continents and oceans. The goal is for students to understand the difference between a town/city, state, country, and continent. We spent time looking at the world map in order to learn where the continents and oceans are located. This spring, we will continue discussing the topic of community and good citizenship with our focus on global citizens. The goal is for second graders to understand that the world is connected and there is only one planet. Through our discussions, readings, and visitors, students will understand that our actions can have a direct or indirect impact on other people around the world. The class created a list of “wants” and “needs” of an individual. The list of “wants” was quite extensive while the list of “needs” only had four items on it (food, water, shelter, clothes). We discussed how food, water, shelter, and clothing are basic human rights that everyone should have access to, but everyone does not. Having this awareness allows the children to think about ways that they can help others on a global level. To help us understand the global world, we will be reading about individuals that are actively making a difference in the world. We are in the process of creating a bulletin board of any global connections and information that we learn about over the next few weeks. The board is a work in progress and will be added to the more we learn. To strengthen our understanding of the global community, we would love the student to be exposed to as many different countries and cultures as possible. Since we cannot travel the world, we would like like the world to come to us! If you or a family member would be interested in discussing a country of importance, please email me and we can set up a time for you to visit the class. Another way to get involved would be to share photos or read a story related to the country and culture that is meaningful to you. The more exposure the students have to different cultures, the better they will understand how the world is connected. Other Curriculum Highlights: Language Arts Second graders are now using reader’s theater scripts during Book Club. We discussed as a class how readers theater will help strengthen our second grade reading goals: decoding, comprehension, fluency (and expression), and stamina. Math
It is always exciting when we reunite after break. We enjoyed sharing stories, experiences, and catching up. Language Arts: *Reflection: Children reflected on their vacation focusing on things they did regularly such as reading to accomplishments and exciting moments they may have experienced. The goals were for children to reflect as well as brainstorm some experiences that they could write about. *Spelling Unit 20 Focus : /oo/ sound as in zoo. Spelled: oo, u - consonant -e, and ew We discussed where we see each of these spellings such as beginning, middle, and end of words. We also practiced the ui for suit. We continue to practice other rules and skills such as breaking words into syllables in order to spell it correctly as well as looking to the base word for accurate spellings. *Reader's Theater: We began Readers theater as a whole class and will continue to practice fluency, decoding, expression, and comprehension through the use of reader's theater in reading groups. *Looking Ahead: Poet/Author, Lynn Hoopes, will visit our classroom next week to work on poetry with the children. Community/Social * We discussed personal goals which we will focus on throughout the remainder of the year. We began with a discussion and brainstorming. Children then chose 2 or more goals to focus on. They wrote these goals out on an index card and decorated it in order to make it a visual reminder which they keep on their desk. Math:
*Continued to practice mental math techniques and strategies This week we discussed the following strategies- * STRATEGY: Add tens to three digit number mentally using the 'add 100 then subtract the extra tens' strategy Example: 345 + 80 is the same as 345 + 100 = 445 - 20 = 425 We used number bonds for 100 to discover that 100 = 80 + 20. This allowed children to see the difference of 20 that needs to be subtracted after the 100 is added in the example above. *STRATEGY: Add hundreds to a 3 - digit number mentally using the 'add the hundreds' strategy Example: Add 172 + 300 by separating the (hundreds from the tens and ones) 72 from the 100 to allow you to add the 100 + 300 = 400 Then adding the (tens and ones) 72 back in 400 = 72 = 472 *Meaning of difference . Community Hero Project: The Community Heroes Meet and Greet is just around the corner. This past week the students continued to work on writing reports using the information that was learned during the interview. Each report includes a topic sentence, a body, and a closing sentence. Also this week, students were busily designing and creating their projects. Although each child has teacher guidance, projects are completed independently. As teachers, we are here to help with the process, which could include being a sounding board while brainstorming or organizing ideas, help with creating “to-do” lists, or strategies to manage time. Each child is in charge of crafting their own project, allowing them to feel a sense of ownership and pride with the final product. Other things we've been up to... Math: *Meaning of SUM - relate the term to the addition operation when working with word problems *Continued practice with bar modeling and word problems *Mental addition - add 3 digit numbers mentally with and without regrouping using a variety of strategies - add the ones strategy: 253 + 6= ? Add the 3 and 6 (ones) separately and then add that sum to the tens and hundreds = 3+6=9, so 250 +9 =259 -add ten then subtract the extra ones strategy: 128 + 4 = ? The idea is that it is easier to add ten. Know that 4 + 6 = 10 Add 10 to 128 - 128 + 10 = 138, subtract the extra 6 - 138 - 6 = 132 So, 128 + 4 = 132 We will continue to explore additional mental math strategies next week. Language Arts: *Children continued working with Unit 19 words - focusing on endings of words- ed, ing, s, es, *Language Arts Menu - opportunities for independent writing and reading *Journal writing - Weekend News *Finishing final drafts of hero reports, designing book covers for reports, writing facts and information to help others learn through HERO projects NBSO: Presentation by the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra: The NBSO provided a wonderful presentation connecting the balance in nature (ecosystems) to the balance in music. The children learned about the layers in the ecosystem that we don't notice at a glance. They discussed how those microorganisms impact the well being of other living organisms much like the way a melody in a musical piece is easy to notice but depends on the support of the other instruments and components of music. They experimented with different arrangements to hear how the" layers" in music affect the whole piece. REMINDER: Please check out the Reminders Page for important dates and notes. Have a wonderful weekend! |