Sunday, September 21, 2014

Off And Running

Hello families! I hope you enjoyed your weekend and the first day of fall. I was up in Maine for the weekend enjoying time with friends as well as some quiet time. Congrats to the Pats for another win today. They really keep us on our toes.

These last couple of weeks the kiddos have become more comfortable with their new surrounding, new friends and the captain of the ship (me). We are well on our way towards a happy and productive year. All areas of the curriculum are up and running. Though at times some areas need to be fine tuned, we are collaborating, sharing and learning from each other. I will post some pictures at the end of this post that show our class engaged in learning partnerships.

This week we will continue in Chapter 1 of our InFocus math program. Our lessons so far have been focused around numbers to 1,000 introducing standard number form, the written number form and the expanded number form. Next the children reviewed greater than and less than (>,<) with Ali Alligator. Finally, the emphasis will be identifying patterns in numbers. In these lessons, the children will learn to use numberlines and number grids to determine if a pattern is counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s or 100s pattern. They will learn strategies to fill in missing numbers to these patterns. A final assessment to this chapter will be a week from Monday (Sept. 29).

We will begin Unit 2 in the Fundation's phonics program. This lesson reviews the glued sounds of: ang, ank, ing, ink, ong, onk, ung, unk and the bonus letters of f, l, s. There will be second grade trick words this week as well. The words will come home on Tuesday. This unit will be assessed a week from Friday (Oct.3). Most units last 2-3 weeks. The children will be bringing home their Unit 1 assessments. Please review this with them and used the attached pyramid to practice the missed trick words from the test.

All children enjoy writing about themselves and what they do. This information is very familiar to them and easy to access. We are focusing on "small moments" in our lives (a seed inside a watermelon analogy). Narrative writing will be developed and refined over the first term.

Clear your calendar and stay tuned for more information to follow about our Community field trip on Thursday, October 23. All second graders will be walking downtown to visit the police station, fire station, town hall and cable studio. Chaperones will be needed so watch for the field trip letter to be coming home later this week. We need lots so please try to join us. This field trip is a culmination of work already begun on communities. Ask your child if he/she knows what a community is? The study of communities involves rural, suburban and urban areas, governement, goods, services, and workers. The childern will be completing a research project on a community worker with a partner and produce a project in the media lab with the assistance of our Media specialist Mrs. Adamo.

Finally, our kiddos are reading up a storm. They have been learning to choose "good-fit" books so important to reading.  As they READ TO SELF they are working to build stamina each day. Last week they began READ TO SOMEONE. Each asked a buddy to read with them sharing a good story together. Read To Self and Read To Someone are part of the DAILY 5/CAFE that I spoke about at open house. If you want more information you can access the website thedailycafe.com. All grade 2 teachers will begin their bench mark assessments this week and RazKids will be updated soon.

Thank you for your continued understanding of the technology issues. Technology is a wonderful thing when all goes well. Please know that any practice you do for spelling, math and reading is very vital to your child's sustained growth and learning. I applaud you for your efforts.

Enjoy the following pics! Have a great week.














Thursday, September 4, 2014

Welcome To Second Grade Another Year of Growing and Learning

     Welcome to Room 14. I am happy to get to know some new families this year but I am so excited to see many familiar faces. We are all off to a great start! YAY! Thank you for sending your kiddos so well prepared. It is very appreciated.

     This is my class blog. I write information here to clarify curriculum, give heads up on projects and post pics of the kiddos doing interesting activities. I would be very pleased if families would read the blog (check every other week). I can see the numbers of views so if it is read I will gladly continue to POST. At times I may post personal items like my number two son, Tony, getting engaged this summer. I have two boys. Tony is 28 and Ken is 32. I have beautiful daughter-in-law Ari and a soon to be just as beautiful Sara. Let's not forget my kitty, Betty and my husband Rick.

      I think that does it for now. I will update next week after OPen House with curriculum updates. Enjoy the last few days of summer!