Weekly Wrap-Up: September 30, 2011

Reading: We’re building strategies to use while we are reading! Last week we reviewed some strategies we may have used in first grade– look for chunks we know, look at the pictures for clues, say and use the first letter to figure out a word, and read the sentence and try again. It’s been fun to watch the kids use these strategies while they’re reading in reading groups!

Math: We finished up our big addition and subtraction strategy unit on Friday. We took a test and most of the class did an awesome job! Monday we start a mini-unit on measuring. It should be fun! We are also starting fact quizzes. Each child has two minutes to solve as many problems out of 26 as they can. The cool thing is, we’ll do it several times so they get to try to beat their own score each time!

Spelling: We spent our last week on short vowels and the CVC spelling pattern by studying the short u. I’m amazed– one of my reading groups carried what they learned about the CVC pattern into reading group! Good job! Next week we will be doing the post-test for List 4 of the high frequency words. We’ve been working on these words all quarter.

Science: We took a break from pushes and pulls and studied a fall fruit last week… the apple! We learned its life cycle, how to make applesauce (did you know that’s a science experiment!?), and we carried it over into our writing time as well.

Writing: “A noun is a person place or thing. A noun is a person place or thing. A noun is a person. A noun is a place. A noun is a person place or thing.” If you sing those words to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” you get a peek into my brain last week. The kids learned this song on Tuesday & I’ve woke up singing it every day! As you can guess, we learned about nouns in writing, as well as adjectives. We created an apple project using adjectives & we wrote a poem!

Field Trip: If you volunteered to go on the field trip with us, you’re in! I’ll be sending home more detailed information as the trip gets closer.

Healthy Snacks: Our first round of healthy snacks is over. Our favorites were pineapple, kiwi, cucumbers, and watermelon. Our least favorites were cauliflower and grapefruit.

Photos: I have created a photo account so you can get peeks into our weeks. To gain access, visit our blog above. The link can be found underneath the applesauce photos.

Please don’t forget that Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming up! If you have not turned in a conference time request form, do so soon! I’ll be finalizing the schedule next week. Thanks to those of you have already turned your form in. The confirmations with the time on it will come home in next week’s Monday folders.

APPLESAUCE!!!!

I'm sure you've heard all about it, but we made applesauce on Wednesday! Here are some our pictures. We're going to put captions under our pictures and hang them in the hallway so you'll have to check them out in person when you come for Parent-Teacher conferences!

You can check out our

{click---> class photo album <---click}

for more pictures!

Writing Wednesday

school
by gisel
i have school on monday and tusday and wednesday and thursday and friday day. the people that go to my class is emma
angel amy brian and more people.

Monday Math- September 26, 2011

Solve the following word problem. Be sure to show how you got your answer and include a label.

Mother made 18 peanut butter sandwiches and 12 egg sandwiches for the picnic. Nine peanut butter sandwiches were eaten.

How many peanut butter sandwiches were left?

Write your solution down on a piece of paper. Bring it to me tomorrow. Correct answers will get a prize! :) Have fun!

Weekly Wrap-Up: September 23rd

I totally didn't realize I forgot to wrap up last week until it was practically too late. So I will do two weeks in one this time around.

Reading: We have been working on figuring out the problem and solution in our stories. We've told it to our partners, written about it, and charted it in class. Most of us have got it down pat! We've also continued working on read to someone and read to self. Our reading groups have been going two weeks strong now! Your child should be bringing a book home to practice each day.

Math: We are continuing to find and use new addition and subtraction strategies. This week we focused on finding ten and then figuring out how many more we needed to get to the total. Whatever strategy works with your child is fine by me... our goal is to be able to solve addition and subtraction problems up to 20. So I don't care how they get there, just as long as they can! :) We also did our first mClass math tests of the year. This consists of five 2-minute tests on computation, number facts, quantity discrimination, missing number, and concepts.

Spelling: Last week and this week we are working on reviewing short vowels, specifically the CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) word pattern. We have done much better this week remembering the spelling procedures... it's becoming a routine for us! Yay!

Science: We continue our study on pushes and pulls. Last week we got to do our first experiment. (Don't forget to check out our pictures from it!) This week we continue to learn vocabulary and discover the many times we use forces just throughout our day!

Writing: We are working on the goal, "I can write a story using actions, thoughts, and feelings." Last week we worked on thoughts & feelings. This week we're working on actions. We learned the word verb and are getting pretty good at picking verbs out of stories we read!

Other: We were able to try bell peppers, kiwi, cucumber, mango, and cauliflower for our healthy snacks the past two weeks. Can you guess which were our favorites?

Field trip: The information about our first field trip was sent home on Thursday. We are going to OxBow park for a little fall fun on October 19th! If you are interested in going as a chaperone, please turn in the paper stating you'd like to come and make sure you have a background check form filled out and turned in by Monday. These take three weeks to process so if your background check has not been turned in by Monday we cannot allow you to come on this field trip. The cost of the field trip is $2/person. Email me or call if you have any questions.

About me all me

by Isabelle
My fave coler is hot pink.
My fave food is pisa.
I like my hair in cruls.
My fave pet is a dog.
My fave shoes are higy heels.
My fave thing to do is swim.
I like to cheer and dace.
I like to read.

Monday Math: September 19, 2011

Create two math mountains using the numbers 14, 9, and 5. Then, write four equations using the same numbers. (Hint: two are addition equations and two are subtraction equations.)

Bring me your paper tomorrow & I'll grade it and give you a prize! :)

Friday Photos!

Just a peek into our week... I didn't take too many photos, but we did our first science experiment on Thursday & I took quite a few pictures then! We also did a whole group picture since we were all dapper for school pictures. Enjoy!

Monday Math

It's our very first Monday Math!!

What you do: Try to figure out the rule in the function table below (Parents: How do we get from the number in the first column to the number in the second column?). Write your answer on a piece of paper. Bring it in the next day & get a prize!

You have until Friday to bring me the answer!

What's my rule?

5 -- 10
3 -- 8
14 -- 19
7 -- 12
15 -- 20

My rule is (add/subtract) _____.

Weekly Wrap-Up: September 9, 2011

Well, I'm a weekend late in getting this to you. I apologize!

Math: We worked a lot on math facts and patterns. We learned how to use a function table and find the rule to keep the pattern going. We also continued working on story problems throughout the week.

Reading: Our focus last week was beginning, middle and ending of the story. We were assessed toward the end of the week & most of us did really well! If your child's paper came home with a "3" at the top, that means they got it! (More info below on the scoring scale.) We also continue to read to someone and to self. Reading testing is coming along. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with testing. Then reading groups can officially begin!

Phonics: We continued practicing our spelling routine last week using four of our high frequency words. I think we have the hang of it and will up our list to eight words this week!

Science: We started our new science curriculum last week! It's going to be a lot of fun! Last week we got our science notebooks and watched a launch video on our new unit, "Pushes and Pulls." We'll be diving deeper into the material this week.

Writing: Last week we tried to focus our writing on using feeling to make our stories more exciting. We created a list of feelings on a large chart paper and tried to incorporate those into our writing. It's pretty fun hearing all of these exciting stories!

Scoring Scale: You will notice that some of your child's papers coming home with numbers at the top. You will learn in-depth about the scoring scale & report cards on Thursday (15th) at the report card meeting, but I wanted to fill you in on what I tell the kids so they understand. Our scale is a 4, 3, 2, 1 scale. Our goal is a 3. So if your child's paper has a 3 on it, they've got the concept and are doing fine. On (very) rare occasion your child may come home with a 4. The only time I give a four is if they have shown that they not only understand and have mastered the skill, but they are able to take it to the next level. A lot of the time I haven't checked the next level yet. All that to say, "A three is where you want to be!" If your child has a 2 at the top, it means they are starting to understand the concept but still could use work in it because it's not mastered. If they received a 1 it's because they did not understand the concept at all and needs more help both at home and at school. This same scale will be used on report cards each quarter.

Don't forget there is a meeting to cover the new scoring scale as well as report cards on Thursday, September 15th from 6-7 here at Model.

Also, don't forget Picture Day is that same day (15th). If you are wanting to order pictures, please send in the order form with payment inside by that day. If you need a new order form, let me know asap and I'll make sure one gets home to you.

Weekly Wrap-Up: September 2, 2011

I am amazed at how quickly the weeks fly by this year! Our new schedule keeps us really busy during the day, so I guess that's why the time goes so fast.

I'm going to try to do a little wrap-up each week as my schedule allows. Just so you can peek into what we did in the classroom all week.

Math- We worked really hard all week on break-aparts, partners, and totals. These are probably foreign terms to you- they were to me until we started this new math curriculum! A break-apart is really just the two numbers that equal another number. So if I give the kids the number 9, they tell me that 4 & 5 is a break-apart. Or 6 & 3. We also interchange the name "partners" to those numbers. Either way, that's what we're talking about. Today's "Dear Family" letter that came home today will explain a little more in detail about what this is about. We also studied the U.S. coins closely. Did you know that the back of the nickel is a picture of Monticello, which is the house the Thomas Jefferson designed, built, and lived in?

Spelling- We have been learning & practicing our routine using high frequency words. We have several different activities we do to help us learn to write and read our high frequency words- Build Mix Fix (building with letters), Look Say Cover Write Check (writing them without looking), Rainbow Words (writing them using five different colors), and Spider Spelling ("racing" the words against each other to see which one is written most after rolling a dice). We'll be adding more activities to our list but for now four is enough! Next week we will learn how to choose our own words to use during these spelling games.

Reading- We have pretty much mastered Read to Self time. This week we've moved on to Read to Someone. During Read to Someone we sit in EEKK (elbow to elbow, knee to knee) position with our partner. We take turns reading one of the just right books from our browsing bags. We've done pretty good with Read to Someone time... the one thing we're working on is listening to our partner when they are reading. It's SO easy to get distracted! :)

Content- Content is either science or social studies. We're kind of easing into this area a little slower than reading, math & writing. This is the first year second grade has had any kind of curriculum for science. I'm very excited but I want to make sure I'm doing it right! We'll start science next week. Instead, this week we've been talking about how to be a good friend & using manners.

Writing- As you may have seen from our pictures earlier in the week, we spent one of our writing blocks outside writing! That was very exciting for us! We have been working on using correct capitalization and punctuation this week, as well. Mrs. Moberg came and taught a lesson on Thursday to reinforce using capitals and end marks. Friday we wrote a birthday book for Jeremiah whose birthday is on Monday. Happy birthday, Jeremiah!

A couple of other exciting things happened this week. We had book buddies for the first time! We are book buddies with Mrs. Yoder's 4th Graders. We were all very excited to interview and introduce each other on Thursday. We look forward to meeting with them every two weeks. We also used the laptops for the first time on Friday! Oh my goodness, you would have thought it was Christmas morning in Room 527! They were very excited and listened to procedures pretty good considering. We played a math fact game called Tux Math. We'll soon learn how to get online and play games on some fun kids' sites.

I hope you have a wonderful LONG weekend! Don't forget there is no school on Monday and Tuesday is a late arrival (8:35 doors open) morning. See you then!

Eeeeeeee! The laptops!!!!

I wish you could have seen the kids' eyes light up when I told them we were pulling the laptops out today! Here's a little glimpse of the highlight of our day today.