Community: We've spent time over the last two weeks building our community by getting to know each other and setting up routines and expectations. *Children began creating learning portfolios and filing work to begin the process of documenting their learning throughout the year. * As a class, we spent time creating a classroom volume chart to determine what volume would be appropriate at different times during our school day. Voice: Silent, Whisper, Quiet *Worked together to create classroom rules. The goal - to support each other in creating a classroom environment in which we all can do our very best. *Played activities such as "Just Like Me" and "Would You Rather" *Hopes and Dreams - Children took time to think about goals and hopes for their second grade year. Hopes and Dreams are posted on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. *Talked about our second grade community. *Discussed Random Acts of Kindness and how kindness is passed on. *Opened areas of the classroom while reviewing proper care and use of materials. This included our classroom library, math area, as well as art supplies. *Discussed and reviewed the FA Bees. Each child illustrated one FA Bee *Full 2nd Grade Reflection after our first full week together. Math * Ordering numbers from least to greatest *Place value - understanding what 534 means in relation to how many ones, tens, and hundreds *Practiced with base ten blocks *Dominoes and addition *Exploring other math materials such as Geoboards, Cards, and Place value mats *Students learned about and practiced with writing numbers in Standard Form: 245 Written Form: two hundred forty-five Expanded Form: 200 + 40 + 5 Language Arts:
*Independent reading - introduced reading log *Author's Choice - A part of our day in which children can take advantage of several writing opportunities such as poems, recipes, comics, stories, KWL charts, writing letters or fiction stories. *Writers' Notebook - Children started by listing 3 summer memories to brainstorm a writing prompt Topics discussed: Editing, punctuation, starting with capitals, spacing in writing, adding detail: Answering the why, what, when, how, why, and who. Children wrote about a summer memory. *Heart Map - a list of topics and things one enjoys. This will serve as a getting to know you tool as well as prompts for writing. *Spelling: short vowel sounds *Learning Circles - Children spent some time reflecting on themselves as learners. We used learning circles to list strengths and goals. Strengths are listed in the center and goals or "growing edges" are listed along the edge of the circle. Ask your child to share what he/she came up with.
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What a great week we had...a wonderful field trip, Spring Concert, and much more. Children had a wonderful field trip lead by the Buzzard's Bay Coalition. This year, children went to the Floral Pierce Nature Trails located in New Bedford. The trails are open to the public so feel free to explore as a family. The children learned about moss, fiddlehead (ferns), different creatures that live in a vernal pool, searched for tadpole and salamander eggs, and even found some hatched salamanders that were under tree logs. At the vernal pool, the children netted to see what they could discover. Take a look at these pictures to see some of their catches. *Other things we've been up to.... * Working on independent studies. Children are finishing up their research and KWL charts and beginning to plan for and create a way to present what they learned to others. Most children chose to create a poster. *Ms. Lord's Middle School Advocacy Group visited with 2nd grade to continue our conversations about Global Citizenship *Math - Multiplication by 3 and 4 - And using dot paper to help with multiplication *Rehearsals for the Spring Concert - The children did such a wonderful job. We are so proud of them. Thank you to Mrs. Pelletier, Hilario's mom, for coming in to teach us about Honduras. It was such a fact-filled and informative presentation. Mrs. Pelletier shared a slideshow with topics including currency, maps, landmarks, special places, soccer, Myan Ruins, foods, weather, and a very exciting phenomenon of raining fish in Yoro Honduras. Ask your child what they learned about Honduras. *Practice with Geography reviewing Continents * Children wrote a thank you letter to Mrs. Pelletier sharing with her a couple of things that they learned. *Writer's notebook - writing weekend memories *Inquiry research project: Children choose a topic to research. This week, they filled in the K and W and began gathering books and information. *Children illustrated their poems to share with Grandfriends next Friday. Enjoy some photos of our Honduras presentation. Thank you, Mrs. Pelletier! *Children looked through their learning portfolio to see growth and reflect on their learning. They followed that with filling in an April Questionnaire about their learning, goals, and challenges.
* Readers' Theater: children practiced, gathered props, and will present their story to their classmates. *In Math we began working with fractions. Children are enjoying the fraction unit. We have discussed... *Identifying whether or not parts are divided equally *Read, write, and identify unit fractions for thirds, fourths, and half *Showing fractions and wholes using model drawings *Comparing fractions. Identifying greater denominator means less. *Applying > and < signs to fractions This week... Going Global - *Jack's Vavoa came to class to read a Winnie the Pooh book in Portuguese. She also taught the children a little bit about Portugal - the landscape, life as she remembers it, the farming, etc. Mrs. Furtado also explained her experience coming to America at 13 years old and being in a class in which only English was spoken. She explained that she only understood Portuguese and it was very difficult. She told the children that through hard work and perseverance she was able to learn the language and learn in school. * Children began thinking about a global topics that they would like to research. Each child will choose a topic and begin filling out a KWL chart for the topic. *We read some great stories: Emmanuel's Dream by Laurie Thompson; I Pledge Allegiance by Pat Mora & Libby Martinez; If You Lived Here Houses of the World by Giles Laroche. * We continue to practice with and identify the continents and oceans. * On Monday, Mrs. Pelletier, Hilario's mom, will come to share some knowledge about Honduras. We've also... *Mrs. Barker came to continue reading Henry Whiskers. We are approaching the end of the book and are looking forward to a visit from the author. *Children have continued working on current stories following the writing process: prewriting, rough draft, prewriting, editing, revising, and publishing. *Journal writing, using graphic organizers to help with organized written work that flows and is connected. We have also been talking about transition words in writing. *Each reading group practiced fluency, expression, following quietly, and comprehension with reader's theater. The children also enjoyed a reader's theater reading in Ms. Conlon's room. *In reading, children began looking for spicy words which are exciting words. As they are reading they keep their eyes open for "spicy" interesting words. They then site which page and sentence it was used in. We first practiced this as a class during a read aloud. Then children practiced during independent reading. *Letter writing: Children wrote a thank you letter to Mrs. Furtado. They included in it one thing that they learned about Portugal. In Math,
* We finished up our chapter on Money. Please continue to practice using money with your child. Counting money, comparing prices, adding prices, and practicing giving back change are great activities to ensure your child is comfortable working with money. * Math Games Here's what we've been up to...
* Children completed their poetry for their weavings. The poems will be hung for Arts and Poetry night next Thursday. *Spelling - Review words and putting words in alphabetical order *Journal writing - Children wrote about weekend news *Continuing in the writing process for works in progress - children continued the process for fiction stories or personal experience stories. We will continue on this process throughout next few months. As children complete a story they begin the process again prewriting and planning their next story. Children are using graphic organizers to plan and organize ideas with a goal of keeping their story and ideas connected with a beginning, middle, and end. MATH: In math we have been working with Money. The children have been working with bills and coins. We will finish this chapter next week. Please continue to practice these money skills at home. This week we also played math games focused on money. *Recognizing $1, $5, $10, $20, and $100 bills *Writing money amounts using $ and cents ( the symbol) *Write cents as dollars and dollars as cents. 385 cents is $3.85 and $7.56 is 756 cents ( written with the cents symbol) *Comparing amounts of money *Real-world Problems: Money Again, using these skills at home with money is a great way to practice. Global Citizenship: *We continue to look at and learn about different places on the map and invite anyone that has a connection or information to share with a country to come in and share. We read THE WATCHER Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps by Jeanette Winter. *This week children worked with a partner(s) to learn about a particular country. They completed a KWLH chart - What they already Know, What they Want to Know, What they Learned, and How they learned the information. Children then worked with their partner(s) to choose one fact to put on our second grade bulletin board. *Next week children will choose another global topic to research independently using the same model. We have continued the discussion of the global community by creating 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 unfortunately not everyone does. Having this awareness allows children to think about ways that they can help others not just locally but globally. We will be spending time over the next few weeks inviting guests to come in and talk about the different ways to be a global citizen. We will also be reading about individuals that are actively making a difference in the world. We are in the process of creating a bulletin board of all our global connections and information that we are learning to share with others. The board is a work in progress and will be added to the more we learn. To strengthen our understanding of the global community, I 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 bring in a favorite dish, 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. Children enjoyed the following videos: on youtube - "Tour of the States" and "Tour of the World" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZFF8EuaGjM&authuser=0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E2CNZIlVIg&authuser=0 MATH: In math we have been working with Money. The children have been working with bills and coins. *Recognizing $1, $5, $10, $20, and $100 bills *Writing money amounts using $ and cents ( the symbol) *Write cents as dollars and dollars as cents. 385 cents is $3.85 and $7.56 is 756 cents ( written with the cents symbol) *Comparing amounts of money *Real-world Problems: Money Using these skills at home with money is a great way to practice. POETRY: Ms. Hoopes joined us again this week for her second lesson and to continue working on the children's poetry. During this session, Ms. Hoopes encouraged the children to connect their weaving to their poem. The children connected the materials in their weavings to the photographs that inspired them. An example of phrases were "clouds float like feathers" or something like, "gleaming like a shiny pearl." Children also worked on revising their writing. We will do another revision of these poems before they are hung up for Arts and Poetry Night on April 20th. SPELLING/Book Club *Continued meeting in book clubs applying comprehension strategies and strengthening fluency. *Practiced adding endings to single syllable words *Assessment of Week 19 words *Making Meaning - Focusing on the comprehension strategy of WONDERING as you read Children worked in partners and reflected on their wondering together Mrs. Barker joined us to continue in the chapter book titled Henry Whiskers by Gigi Priebe a story written about Queen Mary's doll house in Windsor Castle. Mrs. Barker shared a link with us of the actual doll house. Children have seen these photos and video in class and would probably enjoy viewing it again with their family. Mrs. Barker will be visiting over the next few weeks to finish this book. Enjoy! https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/search#/5/collection/5000050/queen-marys-dolls-house Welcome Back! Children started their Monday back with a little catching up time followed by some journaling about vacation memories. Children then shared their journal entries and vacation memories with each other during our morning meeting. In Math we discussed *Rounding 3 digit numbers to the nearest ten. *Using rounding to estimate reasonable addition answers *Practicing finding the difference between numbers. Ask your child what operation we use when we hear the key words find the difference in a problem. Another math vocabulary word to practice with your child is the word sum. Next week, we will begin working with money. Language Arts: * Children edited written work on the board looking for correct punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and verb tense. *In regards to spelling, we focused on the long o sound spelled oa, ow, and o-e. We discussed that oa usually appears in the middle or beginning of a word where ow is at the end when it makes the long o sound. We practiced words and spelling by reviewing, writing words, and doing aerobic spelling. We also discussed the /shun/ sound spelled tion. *Children worked on their Language Arts Menu: Lexia, Raz Kids, Author's Choice, Independent Reading, Partner Reading, and other activities *Continued working on written work that is in progress - continuing along in the writing process. *Journal writing and sharing written work aloud Guests in the Classroom:
Poetry with Lynn Littlefield Hoopes Ms. Hoopes practiced describing what the eye see and describing it using similes, verbs, and patterns to write poetry about photographs. The photographs of nature that the children used were those used in art to inspire and create weavings. The children will continue working on their poetry next week. The poems and weavings will be displayed for Arts and Poetry Night on Thursday, April 20th from 6:00-7:30. On that note... Mrs. Cogliano is looking for volunteers to help display children's art for Arts and Poetry Night. If you are available at any point during the day on Thursday, April 13th, please consider joining Mrs. Cogliano to prepare for this wonderful night. Thank you for considering. Mrs. Barker has begun a chapter book with the children titled Henry Whiskers by Gigi Priebe. She will be visiting over the next few weeks to finish this book. She also joined us and shared a silly story called The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens. The children did a wonderful job at the Hero Meet and Greet. Thank you for joining us. They also had a chance to play each other's games in class after the event. Enjoy the photos! Some of the other things we've been up to...
*Language Arts Menu *Writing cards and letters for Ms. Conlon *Using a number line and rounding numbers to the nearest 10 *Reflections about the Hero Meet and Greet. In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, the children were able to take part in few activities that were planned by Mrs. Griffin and Ms. Moore. The children were able to draw Dr. Seuss inspired art work, write some of their favorite quotes from Dr. Seuss's books, create a short circuit activity, and enjoy a photo with some fun Seuss Props! The children have been busy working on their Hero Projects. Activities have included finishing up final reports about their hero/job, designing game boards, game cards to teach about their job, practicing their song, and trying out each others' games. They are looking forward to Tuesday. Also this week.... A Book Buzz and some second graders were asked to present their bookworm shape to a first grader at this week's All-School Meeting.
They did a great job! Thank you to our wonderful room parents for coordinating and planning fun Valentine's activities, snacks, and treats. The children made bookmarks for their FA helpers and Heros from their Community Hero Project that they have been working on. They also decorated a delicious cookie, heard a great Valentine's story about love in New England, and used props for a fun photo booth activity. Please take a look at the PHOTOS page for more "snapshots of our day." Children decorated shoeboxes to make Valentine's Mailboxes. They delivered Valentine's with both 2nd Grade Classes on Tuesday morning. In Math we are working with mental math. As a base we practiced 10 facts using number bonds and 2 sided chips. Children are using several different strategies for mental math based on the numbers they are adding together. We will move into subtraction with mental math after some practice with addition. Some strategies we've practiced with are as follows: * "Add 10 then subtract the extra ones" - for example if you are adding 58 and 8...Adding 10 is easier and then just subtract the extra 2. For this strategy it is important for children to see how to make a sum of 10. This is why we practiced number bonds. *Adding ones to a three digit number using "add the ones" strategy. Example: 253 + 6 = ? Separate the 250 from the 3 in the ones and add the 3 and the 6 . So the 3+6=9 and 250 +9 = 259. *Adding 3 digit numbers mentally using "adding 10 then subtract the extra ones" strategy. Example: 128 +8 can be worked out adding 128 + 10 = 138 - 2 = 136. So, 128 + 8 = 136. *"Adding the tens" strategy in a 3 digit number. Example: 213+50= add 210 +50 to get 260 and add the 3 back in. So 213 + 50 = 263 We worked together as a class and used white boards and children practiced independently. We will continue working with mental math into next week. Community Hero Project: * Each child has completed their interview. We have begun the planning for a game that each child will create to teach others about the job that they have learned about. We will begin the process of gathering their information to write a report about their particular job. The children are excited about their work. On Friday, children started planning out their game with a focus of teaching others. We listed materials needed and will continue with the process next week. We look forward to seeing you at the Hero Meet and Greet on Tuesday, March 7th from 8:30-9:30 in the commons. There, children will show you the work they have completed with this project. Great job to our Book Buzzer this week! Thank you to Mrs. Barker for sharing another wonderful story. This one was about Abraham Lincoln.
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