I hope everyone is getting excited for our big day tomorrow!
We had many special events last week. Room 152 wants to give a great big thank you to Mrs. McCabe for our interesting Art Awareness lesson. The portraits look wonderful in the commons. We also want to say congratulations to all the fourth graders. You gave a fantastic performance!
Reading: Last week we enjoyed reading 'Bad Case of the Stripes'. We played Think Dots for the first time to increase discussion about the story and to review vocabulary in a different form. Think Dots are a series of cards, the kids roll a die, they then find the card that matches that number. Everyone was really engaged and had some good discussions with this new reading game.
So far we have retired 2 more words to our word windows. The students are really working hard to incorporate our vocabulary words into their everyday conversations and writing. Keep it up!
Math: Last week we began Unit 3. We are cruising right along. Students are reviewing and building on place value skills as well as looking at money. Specifically, we worked with equivalent values and money. We even came up with a dance to represent this concept in class. Students also became 'shop owners' and practiced selling fruits and vegetables to customers to work on these money skills.
Social Studies: Intermixed with our Landforms unit, we began learning about the Pledge of Allegiance. We began by reading a picture book that helped us understand what those larger words in the pledge mean. We then put together our own version of the pledge in more 'second grade language'. Currently, the students are illustrating a word they choose from the pledge. We are hoping to create a movie with these illustrations that the kids will help create.
Writing: I am excited to announce that we began our second writing unit. The students are working hard now on Narrative writing. Everyone chose a problem that they have faced and are now learning how to write a beginning, middle, and end around this moment. The three questions that students learned to always ask while writing this piece is: 1. Does my story have a problem? 2. How do I try to solve this problem? 3. Does my problem get solved?
Looking Ahead:
Monday: Halloween in the afternoon
Friday: Spelling Test
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Weekly Review October 17th-21st
What an interesting week! Everyone brought their smiles on Tuesday for picture day and their great listening skills to our fire safety presentation. The class did a wonderful job navigating the fire safety obstacle course. I think we all know how to safely exit our houses in case of a fire.
Monday was such an exciting day! The author party was a fantastic celebration of the kids first completed piece of writing, their Autobiographies. Our toast was fun and a great way to kick off our coffee house style story readings.
We have also added quite a few languages to our 'Celebration Clap'. So far our class can count to 3 in 9 different languages. Wow, that is really amazing!
Looking back at:
Reading- Last week we continued to work on strengthening our vocabulary. As a class we read an adorable and quite humorous story entitled Porkenstein. We were able to retire two words to the word windows- creaky and isolated. Great work second graders! We continue to build our stamina through our Daily Five centers. Our goal now becomes to work the whole time in a focused manner for each center. The students continue to meet with me for guided reading, we are really have some interesting discussions about our books.
We also began Reading Buddies on Wednesday. We have the wonderful opportunity to pair up with Ms. Lee's fourth grade room to read and share stories. For our first meeting the kids got to meet and interview each other. They all wrote down differences and similarities between themselves. This made for such a fun morning!
Math- We have finished Unit Two, Hooray! We learned four subtraction strategies on Friday that will help up become faster subtractors. The kids really did well and seemed to enjoy learning Function Machines this week as well as addition practice with sequencing numbers according to a rule in our Frames and Arrows lessons.
Social Studies- We continue to work on landforms and continents. This past week students built different landforms out of play-dough and were asked to describe their creations to the class. This was just an engaging way to see how much information about each landform has already been absorbed. In the LMC this week, the students also continued their note taking. I am so impressed with the amount of quality notes that are being taken.
Looking Ahead:
Monday: In Math we will be doing an all class review.
Tuesday: Unit Two Math Test!
Wednesday: Miss Rosenthal will be at a meeting at the District Offices all day.
**Thank you for all of the jars that have already been sent in, it is greatly appreciated. We do still need more however, so please keep sending empty jars for one of the Halloween crafts. **
Monday was such an exciting day! The author party was a fantastic celebration of the kids first completed piece of writing, their Autobiographies. Our toast was fun and a great way to kick off our coffee house style story readings.
We have also added quite a few languages to our 'Celebration Clap'. So far our class can count to 3 in 9 different languages. Wow, that is really amazing!
Looking back at:
Reading- Last week we continued to work on strengthening our vocabulary. As a class we read an adorable and quite humorous story entitled Porkenstein. We were able to retire two words to the word windows- creaky and isolated. Great work second graders! We continue to build our stamina through our Daily Five centers. Our goal now becomes to work the whole time in a focused manner for each center. The students continue to meet with me for guided reading, we are really have some interesting discussions about our books.
We also began Reading Buddies on Wednesday. We have the wonderful opportunity to pair up with Ms. Lee's fourth grade room to read and share stories. For our first meeting the kids got to meet and interview each other. They all wrote down differences and similarities between themselves. This made for such a fun morning!
Math- We have finished Unit Two, Hooray! We learned four subtraction strategies on Friday that will help up become faster subtractors. The kids really did well and seemed to enjoy learning Function Machines this week as well as addition practice with sequencing numbers according to a rule in our Frames and Arrows lessons.
Social Studies- We continue to work on landforms and continents. This past week students built different landforms out of play-dough and were asked to describe their creations to the class. This was just an engaging way to see how much information about each landform has already been absorbed. In the LMC this week, the students also continued their note taking. I am so impressed with the amount of quality notes that are being taken.
Looking Ahead:
Monday: In Math we will be doing an all class review.
Tuesday: Unit Two Math Test!
Wednesday: Miss Rosenthal will be at a meeting at the District Offices all day.
**Thank you for all of the jars that have already been sent in, it is greatly appreciated. We do still need more however, so please keep sending empty jars for one of the Halloween crafts. **
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Looking Back: October 11th- 14th
What another great week! We had another short week, but it was packed with a lot of learning!
In Reading: We continue to work on our stamina during Daily 5 time. I have been so impressed with how focused the students are working. Even Mrs. Liez, our substitute from Tuesday, was impressed with how well the students knew the routines on their own. The class is clearly gaining strength in their ability to carry out tasks independently.
This week we took a second look at the book Everyone Cooks Rice. While reading this story for the second time, our focus was vocabulary. The students learned the words: boarder, community, diversity, appetizing, grumbling and gulp. I challenged the kids to use these words in conversation. When a word is correctly used we add a tally to our vocabulary chart, when one word receives 10 tally marks the word is then 'retired' to our word window wall. The students used appetizing and grumbling the most last week. Those two words are very close to retirement.
Guided reading continued this week. I really enjoy this small group time with the students because it allows me to see the whole reader. We are using our CAFE Menu strategies like 'checking for understanding' during our guided reading time to increase our comprehension.
In Math: Rocket Math continues to cruise. This week we orbited to Mars and Planet Nicholas. This students are doing a wonderful job creating goals for themselves and self monitoring those goals. We continue to learn and practice addition and subtraction strategies. We also were able to think creatively while learning about Name Collection Boxes and playing Name That Number.
In Social Studies: Second graders continue to learn and complete research about our worlds landforms. On Tuesday, we used World Book Online to collect note-facts. Everyone did a great job logging into the computer and navigating the website. We also reviewed what Mnemonic Devices are used for and began to create our own Mnemonic Devices to help us remember the 7 continents. This is a difficult task, but the students took it on and produced some creative memory tools.
In Writing: We have finished our Autobiographies and I am excited to celebrate this accomplishment with a special toast on Monday! We also had an opportunity to share some of our reflections.
Looking Ahead:
-Spelling is back this week so be sure to log into Spelling City for 3 assignments!
-Monday: We will be learning fire safety in the Fire House Trailer
-Tuesday: Picture day! Say cheese and smile big!
-Thursday: 6:30-7:30pm is Open House! We are excited to show you everything we have been working hard on!
In Reading: We continue to work on our stamina during Daily 5 time. I have been so impressed with how focused the students are working. Even Mrs. Liez, our substitute from Tuesday, was impressed with how well the students knew the routines on their own. The class is clearly gaining strength in their ability to carry out tasks independently.
This week we took a second look at the book Everyone Cooks Rice. While reading this story for the second time, our focus was vocabulary. The students learned the words: boarder, community, diversity, appetizing, grumbling and gulp. I challenged the kids to use these words in conversation. When a word is correctly used we add a tally to our vocabulary chart, when one word receives 10 tally marks the word is then 'retired' to our word window wall. The students used appetizing and grumbling the most last week. Those two words are very close to retirement.
Guided reading continued this week. I really enjoy this small group time with the students because it allows me to see the whole reader. We are using our CAFE Menu strategies like 'checking for understanding' during our guided reading time to increase our comprehension.
In Math: Rocket Math continues to cruise. This week we orbited to Mars and Planet Nicholas. This students are doing a wonderful job creating goals for themselves and self monitoring those goals. We continue to learn and practice addition and subtraction strategies. We also were able to think creatively while learning about Name Collection Boxes and playing Name That Number.
In Social Studies: Second graders continue to learn and complete research about our worlds landforms. On Tuesday, we used World Book Online to collect note-facts. Everyone did a great job logging into the computer and navigating the website. We also reviewed what Mnemonic Devices are used for and began to create our own Mnemonic Devices to help us remember the 7 continents. This is a difficult task, but the students took it on and produced some creative memory tools.
In Writing: We have finished our Autobiographies and I am excited to celebrate this accomplishment with a special toast on Monday! We also had an opportunity to share some of our reflections.
Looking Ahead:
-Spelling is back this week so be sure to log into Spelling City for 3 assignments!
-Monday: We will be learning fire safety in the Fire House Trailer
-Tuesday: Picture day! Say cheese and smile big!
-Thursday: 6:30-7:30pm is Open House! We are excited to show you everything we have been working hard on!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Looking Back: October 3rd-6th
Our short week was packed with a lot of learning. The class is really working hard on the goals we set together. Our transitions between lessons are greatly improving. Keep up the great work! We also began our week with new seats. I think the students are really enjoying the change.
As a quick reminder, a note was sent home Thursday regarding our spelling test. Normally, our weeks will end with a spelling test on Friday, but this week I felt it necessary that Thursday remain a sorting/practice day and move our test to Tuesday.
What we accomplished:
In Reading- We read The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down. The kids really enjoyed the humor in the story. They did a wonderful job picking out the events and character traits that made this book a fantasy. We continue to talk about and locate spicy words as we read. In The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down the students learned words like: sternly, ignored, contrary and glide. They were able to define, act out and use the words in their own contexts by the end of the week. Vocabulary will continue to be a focus as we read for the rest of the year.
In Math- We continue to work through Unit 2. The class learned two different strategies for helping them solve certain addition problems. The first strategy we discussed was the 'Doubles + 1' strategy (ie. 5+4, double 4 then add 1=9). We also learned the 'Doubles +2' strategy (ie. 5+7, double 5 then add 2=12). Next week will move into subtraction strategies.
In Writing- Please take a look at some pictures that were posted from one of our writing times. I am proud to see some of the autobiographies that are being produced by your second graders. We took some time one afternoon to share with each other all of this great work. The kids loved being able to use blow up microphones and visors to read their school moments writing piece.
In Social Studies- Our class continues to learn about the continents, oceans and now landforms. Everyone has had an opportunity to create their own world map in the way that they chose.
Looking Ahead:
-The second grade teachers decided together that with another short week coming, we will not have spelling city or sorting work. We will still have vocabulary lessons and spelling as we started it last week, will continue on the 17th.
-Tuesday is a switch day. This means that we follow a Monday schedule.
-I will be in a meeting in the building until lunch time on Tuesday. I will be checking my email if there is anything that comes up that I need to be aware of and I will be back in the classroom after lunch.
As a quick reminder, a note was sent home Thursday regarding our spelling test. Normally, our weeks will end with a spelling test on Friday, but this week I felt it necessary that Thursday remain a sorting/practice day and move our test to Tuesday.
What we accomplished:
In Reading- We read The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down. The kids really enjoyed the humor in the story. They did a wonderful job picking out the events and character traits that made this book a fantasy. We continue to talk about and locate spicy words as we read. In The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down the students learned words like: sternly, ignored, contrary and glide. They were able to define, act out and use the words in their own contexts by the end of the week. Vocabulary will continue to be a focus as we read for the rest of the year.
In Math- We continue to work through Unit 2. The class learned two different strategies for helping them solve certain addition problems. The first strategy we discussed was the 'Doubles + 1' strategy (ie. 5+4, double 4 then add 1=9). We also learned the 'Doubles +2' strategy (ie. 5+7, double 5 then add 2=12). Next week will move into subtraction strategies.
In Writing- Please take a look at some pictures that were posted from one of our writing times. I am proud to see some of the autobiographies that are being produced by your second graders. We took some time one afternoon to share with each other all of this great work. The kids loved being able to use blow up microphones and visors to read their school moments writing piece.
In Social Studies- Our class continues to learn about the continents, oceans and now landforms. Everyone has had an opportunity to create their own world map in the way that they chose.
Looking Ahead:
-The second grade teachers decided together that with another short week coming, we will not have spelling city or sorting work. We will still have vocabulary lessons and spelling as we started it last week, will continue on the 17th.
-Tuesday is a switch day. This means that we follow a Monday schedule.
-I will be in a meeting in the building until lunch time on Tuesday. I will be checking my email if there is anything that comes up that I need to be aware of and I will be back in the classroom after lunch.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Weekly Review September 26th-30th
We had an interesting week in room 152. We welcomed a new student on Thursday to our team. Marisol comes to Ivy Hill from Buffalo Grove. We are all excited to have a new friend.
While we said hello to one student, we said goodbye to another. Anna has been such a great addition to our class. She really taught us a lot and has grown so much since the beginning of the year. We wish her the best in her new school.
What we worked on:
Reading- We continued practicing how to make mental images while reading. The students were even able to use this strategy during our read aloud, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Everyone is doing a nice job with choosing their Daily 5 routine. We are working towards starting our work more quickly so as to use our time the best way we can. We will continue to discuss mental images and how one image can change as we read more in a story.
With the addition of spelling next week, we will add our fourth Daily 5 station, Word Word. This choice, to start, will be where students explore and meet with me to practice phonic patterns that are specific to their own spelling needs.
Spelling- We will begin our spelling program this week. We are using Words Their Way which is a phonics based curriculum.The kids took a pre-test about a week ago. This pre-test was used to decide what sort your child will start on. Each sort has a particular skill that is the focus. This coming Monday we will begin to sort and practice the spelling pattern of their given words. Learning phonics patterns will help with decoding more difficult words. Overall, it seems that our two practice weeks of Spelling City have gone well. The routine will remain the same, with about three homework activities a week and a test on Friday, however now their lists will be based off of the phonic pattern they are learning through Words Their Way.
Math- This week we began Unit 2. The focus of this unit is on addition and subtraction facts. We talked about number stories, and the kids did a wonderful job creating their own and sharing them with the class. We then moved into learning patterns and short-cuts that can help while adding. One of the tools we focused on was a fact table.
Everyone is doing a great job with Rocket Math! Our routine is set up and even when I was at district trainings Tuesday and Wednesday, the substitute said how impressed she was with how the students carried through the routine with little redirection. Keep making and reaching those goals!
Math tests will go home by Tuesday!
Social Studies- We will continue to learn about the continents, oceans, and other map skills ask your child about the mnemonic device they created last week to remember the Cardinal Directions. We also began to create our own versions of world maps last week. In LMC this week our class will begin to talk and research different landforms.
Looking Ahead:
-Thursday we have our Everybody Counts presentation so we can learn to appreciate everyone's differences.
-There is no school Friday
-There will be no school Monday: Columbus Day!
While we said hello to one student, we said goodbye to another. Anna has been such a great addition to our class. She really taught us a lot and has grown so much since the beginning of the year. We wish her the best in her new school.
What we worked on:
Reading- We continued practicing how to make mental images while reading. The students were even able to use this strategy during our read aloud, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Everyone is doing a nice job with choosing their Daily 5 routine. We are working towards starting our work more quickly so as to use our time the best way we can. We will continue to discuss mental images and how one image can change as we read more in a story.
With the addition of spelling next week, we will add our fourth Daily 5 station, Word Word. This choice, to start, will be where students explore and meet with me to practice phonic patterns that are specific to their own spelling needs.
Spelling- We will begin our spelling program this week. We are using Words Their Way which is a phonics based curriculum.The kids took a pre-test about a week ago. This pre-test was used to decide what sort your child will start on. Each sort has a particular skill that is the focus. This coming Monday we will begin to sort and practice the spelling pattern of their given words. Learning phonics patterns will help with decoding more difficult words. Overall, it seems that our two practice weeks of Spelling City have gone well. The routine will remain the same, with about three homework activities a week and a test on Friday, however now their lists will be based off of the phonic pattern they are learning through Words Their Way.
Math- This week we began Unit 2. The focus of this unit is on addition and subtraction facts. We talked about number stories, and the kids did a wonderful job creating their own and sharing them with the class. We then moved into learning patterns and short-cuts that can help while adding. One of the tools we focused on was a fact table.
Everyone is doing a great job with Rocket Math! Our routine is set up and even when I was at district trainings Tuesday and Wednesday, the substitute said how impressed she was with how the students carried through the routine with little redirection. Keep making and reaching those goals!
Math tests will go home by Tuesday!
Social Studies- We will continue to learn about the continents, oceans, and other map skills ask your child about the mnemonic device they created last week to remember the Cardinal Directions. We also began to create our own versions of world maps last week. In LMC this week our class will begin to talk and research different landforms.
Looking Ahead:
-Thursday we have our Everybody Counts presentation so we can learn to appreciate everyone's differences.
-There is no school Friday
-There will be no school Monday: Columbus Day!
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