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Thursday, September 25, 2014

ECO, Movement Lessons, and Hike Day!

We had a great variety of lessons this week!  On Wednesday morning, we went outside for our first ECO lesson of the year.  Throughout the year, our lessons will focus on comparing habitats.  This time, we played games, chose our animal names for the year, shared nature stories, and had some warm cider.  Ask your child whether it was easier to play hide and seek in the woods or the field.  Thank you to Alex Rob, our ECO teacher (and Williams' dad)!  Thank you also to our volunteers, Julia Haynes (Christin's mom) and Mary Colleen (ECO volunteer) for joining us for this lesson!

Earlier in the week, we worked in small groups to figure out movements for the rest of our summary of the book, Chrysanthemum.  Then, we put our dance/movement phrases together and it was exciting to see how it looked as one longer piece.  Afterwards, students reflected on the movements people had chosen and on how well teams had worked together.

In math class, we practiced telling time to the nearest hour with our partners using small clocks.  We also discussed how many hours are in a day and what we are usually doing during each hour of our day.  We filled out a September calendar and talked about the number of days in a week, why months don't always start on the same day, and what months come before and after September.  The most fun part was adding in students' birthdays and other important events, such as ECO and our hike day.

Important Dates:

The EMES All School Hike will take place tomorrow Friday, September 26th.  Students should wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the hike.  Please remind them to bring lunch (unless you already ordered one from the cafeteria), a water bottle, and snacks for the day.  Also, students should not bring lots of extra items in their backpacks to help keep their bags light enough to carry.

The EMES Open House and Ribbon Cutting will be on Thursday, October 2nd from 5:00 to 7:30 pm.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Our second grade homework packets are due next Friday, October 3rd.  Please help your child find time to read for at least 20 minutes every other day and to complete the math work.

Please note that there will not be school on Friday October 10th (Teacher In-Service Day) and
Monday October 13th  (Columbus Day).

Enjoy the warm weather this weekend!










Friday, September 19, 2014

Classroom News

 It is always amazing to look back on the week and think about everything that students accomplished in just five days!  This week, students continued to put great effort towards their work in all areas.

During our literacy workshop, we listened to the stories, Chrysanthemum and Sheila Rae, the Brave.  We continued to work more independently on identifying the story elements (character, setting, problem, and solution) in these stories.  Then, we worked as a whole group to create a summary of Chyrsanthemum.  On Friday, we started to use the sentences of our summary to create movement phrases that we put together into a group dance.  We will continue this movement project next week. Check out some of the photos that show parts of our dance.  Throughout the year, we will use movement and drama to help us explore a variety of texts.  It is fun to see the wonderful collaboration and creativity of your children!

Our writing workshop is going full speed ahead!  Students have been working on creating introductions for their "small moments" narratives that will grab their readers attention.  We also are working on stretching out our stories to add details and descriptions that will keep our readers interested.  Our class brainstormed ideas to help us plan out our writing, such as talking it out with a partner, sketching, jotting down ideas, making a list, and making a picture in our heads about what happened.

Today, we had a special classroom event to celebrate a classmate who is moving.  She will be greatly missed!  Best wishes to her and her family!

Reminders and Upcoming Events

Our first ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) lesson will take place on the morning of Wednesday, September 24th.  Please help your child dress appropriately for an extended time outside.

The EMES All School Hike will take place next Friday, September 26th.  Students should wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the hike.  Please remind them to bring lunch, a water bottle, and snacks for the day.  Also, students should not bring lots of extra items in their backpacks that day to help keep their bags light enough to carry.

The EMES Open House and Ribbon Cutting will be on Thursday, October 2nd from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Our second grade homework packets were sent home this week in a purple homework folder.  The completed packet is due on Friday, October 3rd.  











Friday, September 12, 2014

Classroom News

We had another busy and productive week!  It has been wonderful to begin the "sharing" part of our Morning Meeting this week.  It is a great time to learn about each other. 

During math class, we closely examined pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to help us better identify them and tell them apart.  We learned several new math games this week:  Plus 1 or 2 Bingo, Build a Number (with place value dice), and Collect 25 Cents.  We made great progress with learning the values of each coin, trading coins, and counting groups of coins this week!

During our literacy block, students completed writing and illustrations on several story maps for various Frog and Toad stories.  In writing, we finished our writing prompts and launched our "small moments" narrative unit.  We read the beginnings to two beautiful stories, Owl Moon and The Leaving Morning.  We looked at ways that published authors write strong introductions to their stories.  On Thursday, we started writing our own introductions, describing when and where our stories take place and trying to grab our readers' interest.

Starting next week, I will just print the newsletter/blog for families who requested a paper copy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend! 

Important News and Dates:

Our second grade homework packets will be sent home early next week in a purple homework folder.  I will send home a homework letter, too.

Our first ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) lesson will take place on the morning of Wednesday, September 24th.  Please help your child dress appropriately for an extended time outside.

The EMES All School Hike will take place on Friday, September 26th.

The EMES Open House and Ribbon Cutting will be on Thursday, October 2nd from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Friday, September 5, 2014

Classroom News

This week, we have been busy getting to know many classroom routines in second grade!  We start each day with a morning meeting, which allows us to greet each other, talk about the calendar and our daily schedule, listen to sharing, and participate in fun team-building activities. 

During our literacy times, we have been learning about basic story elements:  characters, setting, problem and solution.  As a whole group, we have listened to several Frog and Toad stories and have worked together or in pairs to fill in a story map telling about the story elements.   We also participated in a movement activity in which students had to choose ways to move like Frog or Toad during the Lost Button Story.  One favorite part was moving like Toad when he was very upset that the world is full of buttons, but he cannot find his button!

Students have been doing an amazing job during our "Read to Self" times each day.  They already have stamina to read independently and are making great choices when picking "just right" books for themselves.  The "Helper of the Day" can use this time to use the listening center with a classmate.

During our writing workshop, each student has been writing a personal narrative in response to a writing prompt as part of a pre-assessment.  Next week, we will start this exciting writing unit that allows students the opportunity to focus in on these special moments and stretch out their writing to include great details and descriptions. 

In math, we discussed place value as we played a "build a number" game using base 10 blocks and white boards.  We have also been learning our "turn around" facts, such as 5 + 4 = 9 and 4 + 5 = 9 using Cuisenaire rods.  We talked about how we can switch the order of numbers when adding and it does not give us a different answer, since the value of the numbers stays the same.  We also practiced all of the ways to make numbers, such as 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4.

During "discovery" time this year, students will learn about many science and social studies skills and concepts.  Our first social studies unit focuses on world geography.  We have started this unit by learning about the difference between maps and globes and about the various types of information we can find on them.  We colored in a world map and learned a fun "continents chant" to help us learn the names and locations of the continents and oceans.

Thank you to everyone who has returned the many beginning of the year forms that we have sent home!  Please return them early next week if you still have any at home.

Important reminders:

This Tuesday, September 9th is Picture Day!  Please remember to send in your picture orders and payment.

Sharing starts next week during our morning meeting.  Please help your child remember his or her sharing day.  

Please return the ECO forms as soon as possible.  We are hoping to start ECO lessons very soon!  I will keep you posted about dates.

Hike forms are coming home today.  Please return them by the due dates next week.

Homework Packets will be coming home next week.  I will send a letter in the homework folder that explains how our monthly packets work.

Have a great weekend!