Happy New Year! Welcome 2014

Hi Friends, I've missed you all and I hope you all had a fabulous holiday break. Due to my pending move I was very happy to have an extra few days off. I will be closing (hopefully) on my old house on Tuesday, January 7. We are temporarily moving to an apartment in Burlington making some decisions of permant residency shortly after that. It was a quite hectic last couple of weeks. We had a huge estate sale, purged, donated, cleaned, dumped and cleaned all 11 rooms. We are down to a few boxes, clothes and a small dumpster load before the closing. It has all been an eye-opening experience. My husband and I have had our moments but we look forward to our new adventure in 2014. May you all find happiness and new adventures too!

So, looking ahead, we have many exciting things in store. First of all I have added a few new websites for math and reading to this blog. I hope everyone spent sometime reading and practicing some math facts over the vacation. Please keep your kiddos reading, writing and working on math daily.

Informative writing continues to be our focus in January. The children will be informing their audience on many topics and reporting on their favorites as well. As soon as we get back, all second graders will be setting goals for themselves for 2014. This will be be their first writing assignment for the new year.

In Fundations, our kiddos will be learning to tap, read and spell words with the r-controlled syllable type (r-controlled vowels, "bossy R". If you have any questions about rules and words to practice this month in Unit 8 or any other unit you can refer to Edine or check out this Fundations link.

The children will continue to ractice the use of BAR MODELS in Math In Focus for the next few weeks. Bard models are similar to part-part total diagrams for the old Everyday math. Children learn the bar model that equilibrates to a number model. When a part of the bar model is missing, the kiddos learn whether to add or subtract to find the missing number. Refer to In Focus Think Central for video help.

We will be finishing up our Social Studies unit on mapping. In the coming weeks we will begin work on Native Americans. It is a very engaging unit with the kiddos getting very excited about the learning and artifacts. To enrich this unit, we will have a visit from an actual native amenrican, David Krips and we will take a field trip to the Peabody Museum. The Peabody Museum at Harvard has a wonderful display of native american artifacts and educators that will lead us in talks about the regions of America. This field trip will be by bus to culminate the unit. More information will follow as the time approaches.

So stay warm and safe! Give the kiddos a hug from me. I look forward to great things in 2014!

Moving and Math Both Challenges

Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the first major snow fall of the season. I hope it didn't spoil any of your holiday activities. I spent the weekend sorting and packing trying to get ready for an Estate Sale on the 28th and moving by January 10. Christmas shopping here and there and minimal decorating have kept my husband and I in the Christmas spirit. It has been a very stressful time. Thankfully my boys came to help move some boxes and my son Kenny and his wife offered to host Christmas Eve. It will be the first time in almost 30 years I will have to give it up. This year will just be different but I will perserver and keep calm. Oh, did I mention, we have to move to an apartment as we haven't found our new home yet. The challenges of a move....UGH!

Grade Two has begun Chapter 4 of the In Focus program. It is titled: Using Bar Models in Addtition and Subtraction. It is similar to the part-part-total that we used to teach in Everyday Math. Students would represent numbers in part-part-total diagram, providing a pictoral representation of parts making a whole. Comparing these numbers, illustrating the known and unknown parts, helps the children see clearly whether to add or subtract to solve problems. Please refer to the In Focus Think Central website for parent support videos.

This week we also begin to work on informative writing. The children will begin with a How To writing teaching a friend "how to" do something. Over the course of the next several weeks we will continue to perfect narratives while moving onto non-fiction writing. This will tie in nicely as will begin to focus on non-fiction in reading as well. Did you know we read non-fiction very differently then fiction? Students will learn all of the charateristics of non-fiction texts such as: break-aways, diagrams, charts, titles, subtitles, glossaries, and captions. Students really enjoy no-fiction, especially when they can read about something they are seriously interested in. You will find some non-fiction on RazKids as well.

Mapping continues to be our focus in Social Studies. Ask your children if they can tell the longest mountain range in the world or the largest range in the US. After the first of the year we will finish up with important rivers of the world.

Griffin is our Star Student of the Week this week. D'Monye did a fine job last week including singing and went home with a beautiful book with positive thoughts about him from classmates. We look forward to great things from Griff this week.

                                                                                                                                                  

Don't forget to send in "Snowball" gifts Monday. We will have our swap on Friday afternoon. Thank you to all who will be contributing goodies for our Holiday Snack which will be Friday morning.

Merry Christmas to all! I wish you all happiness and good health in the New Year!

Conference Final Thoughts

       

         I just wanted to thank you all for taking the time and effort to come in and discuss your child's progress this week. "It takes a village" and I believe we should work together to continue the successful start to this school year. All are working hard and are special kiddos who brighten my day. I love coming to school and being part of their lives. Thank you for sharing them and sending them well prepared to conquer the day.

         I want to take this time to wish you a wonderful Holiday Season. May you all find happiness and joy in the New Year ahead. May 2014 be year of great prosper, peace and pleasant family adventures. 

          Warm Regards,
           Deb

Please check out this link to see your child's finished Community Media project.

End of First Term Success Stories

 

        The first quarter came to an end last Friday. It's hard to believe that our little learning community has been together for three full months. It's been a wonderful three months of growing, learning and working together as readers, writers, mathematicians and community participants. Everyone has been working together putting their best foot forward, showing great effort and perserverance! I am looking forward to meeting with families to discuss our standards based report card. Please remember these are standards based and you can refer to the rubrics on EDLINE. Most students at this time of the year are progressing towards the standards in all areas of the curriculum. Children should be trying their best, putting forth great effort and being a good friend and classmate. I would consider this a successful term. I willbe sending home reminders on Monday about conference dates and times. If you feel at this time that you are not in need of a conference, please let me know.

       The class is very excitied about STAR STUDENT OF THE WEEK. I was the first to model for the class. Everyone was so excited for D'Monye who will our STAR STUDENT next week. We will only choose a new studnet when there is a full week. Please encourage your child to share a special talent with the class and if a family member wants to read to the class please contact me to schedule a time that works for you and the class.

       These last weeks, the children have been enthusiastically writing about small moments in writing. The kids are starting to add many more details to their writing. We've also learned about adding descriptive adjectives including color, size words, and other juicy words. We talk about "hooking" in your audience. Last week I read the story Miss Nelson is Missing. It's a story about a class that comes to school one day and their teacher, Miss Nelson is missing. I then asked the kiddos to write a story (narrative) about what they would do if they were teacher for a day. They are in the process of editing and revising. These could be published and compiled into a class book in a couple of weeks.

        Grade Two has begun our next social studies unit which is MAPPING. The children are learning about continents, oceans, major rivers, and mountain ranges. Ask your child what is the difference between globe and a map or a continent and a country. They are very enthusiastice about their discoveries.

       Mathematically, second graders have been subtracting with and without regrouping. More challenging than addition, students need to perservere. The real stumbling block is not having their easy subtraction facts memorized. This is still so important. A favorite poem of mine to help with the process is:

When the numbers are the same,

zero's the game.

When there's more on the top,

no need to stop.

When there's more on the floor

go next door and get ten more (regrouping).

       I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Chanukah. I hope enjoyed the weekend with family and friends. I told the kiddos I was busy cooking Thanksgiving dinner, doing report cards, planning lessons for next week, cutting down my Christmas Tree and trying to sell my house this weekend. It has been a wild and crazy few days with which I must persevere.

Please enjoy the few Compound Word Day Ladies! There will be an assembly on Wednesday on the kids should wear their Pillars colors or Killam shirts. Stay tuned for information on our Holiday Celebration and Snow Ball Exchange at the end of the month.

Have a great week and stay warm!!

 

November Happenings

November finds second grade involved in new learning and holiday anticipation. I feel like we just celebrated Halloween (see pics below). This weekend was Veteran's Day (thank you to all our Veterans past and present), next we are on to Thanksgiving and Chanukah and before you know it's Christmas. Amazing..."stop the world I want to get off"..."round and round and round we go" are just a couple of phrases that come to mind. Amidst all the hustle and bustle, there is much learning to be done. Away we go!!!

Second Graders are learning about compound words. We are all looking forward to COMPOUND WORD DAY on Wednesday, November 13. It is so exciting. I will post pictures next week. They will also learn about adjectives and verbs in their reading and writing. These describing words and interesting verbs will add to embelishing their writing to "hook-in" their audience. Right now their audience is me and their classmates. Soon it will be parents and others beyond the classroom.

In math, we are assessing addition with regrouping and begin subtraction with and without regrouping. The kiddos seem to be doing a pretting good job with the new math language of the
In Focus program. Olease make sure they continue to practice thier easy math facts. It will help with accuracy in the bigger problems.

We will begin Unit 6 in Fundations. Remember to practice all trick words through SPELLCITY and flash cards. Please practice FUNdations words from worksheets and newsletters found EDLINE.

Lastly, in social studies, we are finishing up with communities this week. Kiddos will finalize their media projects and in class they are working on a "helper" craft which are coming out so cute.

Stay warm and enjoy the beautiful fall colors that abound.

 

Late October Happenings

What a fabulous trip down town on Thursday. I hope the kiddos told you all about it. The firefighters, police officers, town workers and friends at the cable studio were all so wonderful and happy to share their knowledge with the kids. Sitting in the ambulance or ladder truck, trying on handcuffs, being seen on TV or seeing our school on a large map were just a few highlights from the days events.

 

 

Charlotte B even had her birth certificate pulled from the files of thousands of certificates in just seconds.

Thank you to all the chaperones who came along for the fun. We had an absolutely beautiful day. The children were very excited and enthusiastic everywhere we went. All were well prepared and asked some very interesting questions. On Wednesday night, homework will be to write a thank you note to one of the services workers who patiently shared their time and expertise with us. The children have also been working on a research project on one service worker with a partner. This week they will use their research to put together a short power point on their service worker. A final piece will be to create a service worker craft project to culminate the unit. It has been a very productive unit on communities. Our next topic will be mapping which will further develop their knowledge of these social studies skills.

 

On Thursday, our class is looking forward to our Halloween Celebration. The children will be involved in creating some haunting craft projects in the afternoon. It is always a fun day but the week is always very exciting too. There will be lots of reading of wonderful literature,  poetry and song. It is always hard for second graders to focus this week anticipating the haunting events but there is still lots of business to accomplish as well. Please have your child wear Halloween colors, Halloween shirts and possibly some limited make-up. Thank you to all who offered to send in materials and snacks for the day.

In Math, all second graders are working on Chapter 2 of the In Focus Math Program. This chapter is Addition of Three Digit Numbers With and Without Regrouping. Kiddos still need to practice their easy facts in order to make these three digit problems easier.

In FUNdations, we are beginning Unit 5; the study of multisyllabic words, compound words, and homophones. Students will be taught that at the end of  two closed syllables you use _ic as in the words; traffic, public, and comic. Please continue to practice trick words possibly putting them on index cards and keeping a set in the car.

Finally, in grammar, we continue to focus on capitalizing proper nouns. The children know the rule but often forget and do not carrythe rule over to their everyday writing. In writing, we are still writing small moments and narrarives trying to "stretch" and "super size" sentences.

Happy Haunting friends and GO RED SOX!

Looking For Changes

Each Leaf Is Beautiful

     Looking at this beautiful tree and thinking about the changes taking place around us, reminds me of the changes taking place in classrooms around the world. Just as each beautiful leaf on a tree grows and changes every fall so do our children every fall season. All crisp and fresh for a new school year, children float into our schools ready to grow and change with another year of learning.

I am beginning to see the changes already happening like beautiful colored leaves in the tree of life.

     Mathematically, all second graders are working on place value (ones, tens, hundreds), writing numbers in standard form (342), word form (three hundred forty two), and expanded form (300+40+2). They are also comparing the value of numbers as greater than, less than and equal to,  (>,<,=). Next they need to order these numbers from greatest to least (432, 231, 129). Finally students should be able to use these skills in real life situations (word problems) using critical thinking skills to solve problems such as:

        Mel has 523 stamps. Jan has 374 stamps. Who has more stamps? How many more?

     Grade 2 students have all been writing narratives daily in their classes. Students are learning to take a "small moment" and write about it using details that can help a reader visualize what happened. They think, talk, sketch and write about these "small moments" that happen to all of us each and everyday. Next, they will pick one piece and edit it for capitals, end marks, spelling and add an appropriate opening and closing to thier piece. Soon children will be able to revise their piece and "stretch" their thoughts and ideas. Stretching thoughts and ideas helps to create more interest in their piece therefor captivating their audience. For example:

        I saw a big bird in the trees. Revise it to: I was surprised when I gazed at the big red Cardinal sitting quietly in the tall maple tree in my backyard.

      Grammar will also tie into these writing pieces. Second graders have been learning the difference between simple and compond sentences. This week students will learn that a noun names a person, place or thing in a sentence. Next week our goal will be verbs (action).

      During reading time, students have been reviewing reading strategies to improve Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary. The DailyCAFE works in partnership with guided reading at an individual students reading level. Students work with teachers in groups and individual conferences to determine a strategy goal that needs to be practiced through the reading of "JUST RIGHT BOOKS" or guided reading. Students need to take responsiblity for practicing these strategies (back-up reread or cross-check do the pictures and words match) often.

       Fianlly, OCTOBER 24 has been set for our Field trip into the Reading Community. Anyone willing to chaperone is welcomed as long as a CORI has been filled out prior to the trip. Information will be coming home to all second graders this week. Also, please be supportive when our Room Parents call for volunteering, snacks or supplies for our Halloween Celebration on Thursday, OCTOBER 31. Thank you advance for your help.

     Overall, everyone is doing well. At times some students need subtle reminders to follow rules and routines. Hopefully all will run smoothly in the very near future. All in all, they are a great bunch of leaves!

Have a great week!
Deb