Journeys

This week we are analyzing fictional texts;

Students are introduced to two texts that help deepen discussions with vocabulary words, grammar, skills and strategies within reading and writing.

Diary of a Spider

Genre: Humorous Fiction

This text is similar to Diary of a Worm, with the same author. 

It provides hidden humor in the text, the illustrations, and the captions.

Learning Objectives:

While examining the text we will be using words and illustrations to determine cause and effect and introduce figurative language. 

A Swallow and a Spider

Genre: Fable

Knowing the elements of these traditional tales and being able to determine the moral will help them to appreciate texts and ideas from different cultures. 

Learning Objectives:

Use fluency skills to read a text aloud and find the moral of the story.

Homework

The students first homework packet is coming home! 

Each Monday they will receive a homework packet that also contains a schedule to help follow each day of the week. This week is a little light, with only a word ladder, math page and 25 minutes of reading each night. I will had a couple more activities as the weeks go on. 

I know with extra activities after school, and especially family time each evening, homework is not able to get done every day. This will help the students to be responsible and find time for their school work in addition to other scheduled events.

All homework is due by the latest of Friday.

Please help your child to remember to take their time. Homework is not due until the end of the week, so they have time to do the different activities in separate chunks throughout the week.
Please know that ALL homework is review from the classroom. Nothing sent home will ever be new content. Students should be able to do this independently, however, they might need a slight push or a helpful hint here and there.
I do expect and hope reading is done each night, but will not be monitoring home reading. Reading can be done with a partner where they are reading or the partner is reading to them. They came up with great examples of where to read, read to their pets, or even have books in the bathroom :) 

Please let me know if you have any further questions. Thank you for your help and support on this!

Classroom Volunteers

I am organizing a new way to get volunteers signed up for helping in the classroom. We're using SignUp.com. This is an online coordination tool, to help us organize the classroom volunteer schedule. 

You will see only the month of October for now. I have sign ups for 
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 10:50-11:20
Thursdays 12:00-12:30
This is our read to self/book choice time. Then I will go from there to see where modifications need to be made for November and so on. 

What I would love our volunteers to help me with is our classroom book clubs. Each child is in a book club with other students of the classroom. Your involvement here would be to help with a variety of activities/books the students have been assigned within their book clubs. You would be reading selected books with the clubs while also engaging in conversation connecting to the text. In addition, there will be other activities to do as well some days pertaining to reading.

Please click the link below if you are interested in being a classroom helper.

Here's how it works in 3 easy steps: 

1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on SignUp.com: 
http://signup.com/go/mhTLeiA

2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on SignUp.com) 

3. Sign up! Choose your spots - SignUp.com will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy! 

Note: SignUp.com does not share your email address with anyone. If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. 

Thank you in advance for your help!

Morning Rainbow!

Awesome way to start a Friday!
Have a great weekend!

Peace Kids

Our classroom is participating in weekly class meeting with Westwoods school social worker, Mrs. Sulecki! We are becoming Peace Makers! This past Tuesday was our first group meeting and the students not only did awesome, but they loved it! Conversation involved what peace means and how to act peaceful in our community. The students were also able to talk about what choices they make in order to make peace. By the end of our visit Mrs. Sulecki let the students choose a team name. We are now the Peace Kids.

We will do this each Tuesday afternoon with Mrs. Sulecki. The students are already looking forward to our next class meeting! Ask your child about our Peace Makers meetings and see what more they can tell you!

Move A Thon

Friday, October 13th

Move A Thon

Coming home today with your child is

An information page about the Move A Thon

Deposit Tickets

Pledge Donation Form

Journeys

This week we are continuing to build understanding on information texts. We have two focus read alouds:

Dogs

Helping Paws

These informational text describe a familiar subject with all students - dogs! Students will regularly encounter those kind of text in textbooks, through research, and for independent reading. The text contains some how-to elements. Through our reading students will also encounter some informational text features:

captions

bulleted lists

headings

feature boxes

Our key learning objectives are to 

Read to understand the author's purpose

Compare and contrast information

Learn about dogs that help people with disabilities

Understand how captions tell about pictures

Below is our focus wall for the week that shows all students what to expect for the week and what will be continuously returning throughout each days instruction and activities.

REMINDER

Tuesday, September 26

Second Grade: 11:40-12:00

All are welcome!!

Louie's Hot Dog or Soy Peanut and Butter Sandwich

Adult Price $3.85

Student Price $2.70

Send in money if you like or pay when you come!

Hope to see you at the grill out!

Writing

Our second grade authors have been writing narratives, true stories about an event in their life. We have not only brainstormed topics of what to write about, but also talked about what all authors need to think about when elaborating on their writing and going through the steps of a beginning, middle and end. 

(Ask your child to tell you what elaboration means)

Students followed the Writer's Checklist

In addition to checking off the structure as we go, we also talked about what a good story needs to make it flow and keep the reader interested. Transition words!

After our first draft was completed, we were ready to revise and edit our writing. We edited our own papers, found a peer to edit, and Mrs. McNitt took a look to help smooth out the bumps. 

 

 

 

After the third look, they were ready to turn their sloppy copy into a final, published paper!

Math Review

Each afternoon students are involved in a math activity called Math Review. This is a short period of time where the students complete four different math concepts. Some, or all, concepts are different each week, depending on their level of understanding as a whole by Friday.

Students practice selected concepts Monday through Thursday, then test on Friday. This is their time to apply what they know, use the necessary resources of our classroom, ask their group members at their tables, and find the necessary tools to help further their knowledge towards each concept. After 10-15 minutes, all work is gone over as a whole group where students explain how to solve problems in different ways, correct errors, and possibly form small math discussions from any questions or connecting comments.
In the end, students star all work that is done correctly, and add up their total. From there they set a goal to achieve for the next day. This way they are able to set realistic goals for themselves, see their growth and also track their results. 

Ask your child about math review and see if they can explain the process to you!