11/27/2017 0 Comments Weekly Update...11/27/17Greeting families,
I hope that you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving Break! Now that we are back at school, it is time to hit the ground running. Beginning on Thursday of this week our class will begin MAP testing at 8:30a. Due to MAP testing, students will not have assigned homework this week and Monday of next week. However, your child should still read each evening and possibly login to Compass Learning (remember these are the skills that MAP suggest your child is ready to develop). Please make sure your child gets proper rest the night before and a healthy breakfast the morning of to maximize their ability to focus and think during testing and throughout the day. Also remind your child of the importance in taking their time and using the tools provided to them when taking their test each day. We are continuing to become experts on the stars, moon, and sun. Students are working in expert groups to draft and create a website to teach other children about these three entities. Second grade will be ready to share all that they've learned with you during our Celebration of Learning on Wednesday, December 20th @ 8:30a. You will need to obtain a visitor's pass from the front office before heading to the auditorium. We will begin the COL in the auditorium and then disperse to our classrooms (more information to come). This week in reading we are focusing on author's purpose and in math we are beginning to subtract within 100 with and without regrouping. We will also have a Winter Celebration (Date/Time-TBD, but leaning towards Thursday, Dec. 21st). More information to come from our room parents :) Have a great week!
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11/13/2017 0 Comments Weekly Update...11/13/17Good morning families,
A huge thank you to the families who have volunteered their time to mystery read to our crew, run math centers during Pumpkin Math, and/or donated clay for our models of sun layers. You're appreciated greatly :) This week we will focus on developing independent SMART goals. The crew and I came up with the following learning target to guide our learning objective for goal setting: I can establish (make, create, and set) a habit of scholarship goal (collaboration, craftsmanship, and perseverance) and academic (reading and math) goals for myself as a second grader to show progress. This week talk with your child about what their goals for themselves might be and how they might obtain those goals. Each student will choose one habit of scholarship to work on for the rest of the school year. Goals for reading and math will be set with me using STAR (reading level), DIBELS (wpm), MAP, and addition and subtraction data. WE's book fair will begin the week that we return from Thanksgiving Break. Students are encouraged to dress up as their favorite book character on Friday, Dec. 1st. Below you will find what we will be working on in reading, math, science, and math this week: Reading: Main idea and supporting details Math: Addition within 100 with regrouping (using the place value strategies from last week's posts. Please refrain from allowing your child to use the traditional algorithm. We will get to it, but for now we need to make sure they have deeper understanding of place value). Science: Expedition case study about the sun (shadows, seasons, layers of the sun) Writing: Informational Writing (choosing a topic, gathering information, creating a table of contents, and drafting chapters for our website about the sun, moon, and stars) A few weeks ago we became book buddies with Mrs. Querubin's 1st graders. The students have been amazing with reading to their book buddy and listening to their book buddy read to them. Have a great week and relaxing Thanksgiving Break next week :) 11/6/2017 0 Comments Weekly Update...11/6/17Hello all!
This week's weekly update is full of important information, so please make sure to read it throughly. In reading we are continuing to learn strategies that help us to read and understand tricky words that we bump into within informational text. This week we are learning about prefixes and how they change a root word's meaning and how to use a dictionary. During math we are learning how to add within 100 without regrouping using a variety of strategies related to place value. We will not be using the traditional algorithm. Please refrain from teaching your child this method for now. In science we are wrapping up our case study about the moon and beginning our case study about the sun. An astrochemist from Emory University will visit us on Wednesday. Ericka VanHousser (dance instructor) will begin teaching us movements related to the sun, moon, and stars. In writing we are publishing (typing) our small moment narratives and beginning our informational writing unit. On Friday, your child may bring in an informational text (article or book) about a topic he/she would like to use during their pre-test (On Demand) for informational writing. Report cards will be sent home in your child's blue communication folder this Thursday. Because report cards are standards based you only see the over arching standards and not all of the elements the standard entails. Therefore, many children will receive 2s on their report cards as every element within each standard has not been taught and is scheduled to be assessed during a later term. I say all of this so that you are not alarmed if you see 2s on your child's report card. Some standards have been taught in their entirety and you may notice 2s, 3s, or 4s in these areas. Please read the report card comments as they entail your child's strengths and areas for growth (in addition to what we've discussed during fall conferences). Friendly reminder: Weekly homework should be completed and turned in on Friday of each week. An adult should sign for each day homework is assigned and completed. A few students continue to turn in homework that is not completed for the whole week or not signed by an adult without any explanation. Going forward, please ensure that these two things are done weekly. Incomplete homework or homework not being completed fully on Friday without an written explanation from an adult will result in your child not being able to participate in lunch and a movie with the teacher that week. Thank you for your support in helping your children become responsible citizens of the classroom. Math may become a little tricky for us adults who were taught the traditional algorithm for adding and subtracting. Below I have included videos from Khanacademy.org that I hope you find helpful in understanding the different strategies being taught. Base Ten Model Addition Open Number Line Break Apart Lastly, students have no school on Tuesday, November 7th. 10/30/2017 0 Comments Weekly Update...10/30/17Greetings families,
I hope that you enjoyed your weekend. This week in reading we are continuing to learn strategies to help us when we bump into tricky words that we can't read or don't understand within informational texts. This week we will focus on replacing tricky words wth synonyms and using context clues to determine word meaning. In science we will continue becoming moon experts. In math we will continue learning strategies that help us to add within 20 with fluency. In writing we are continuing to edit, revise, and publish our small moment narratives. On October 31st, our math will look a little different as we will participate in Pumpkin Math. Pumpkin math includes estimation, measuring, and graphing centers related to pumpkins :) If are going Trick-or-Treating tomorrow, please be safe! Enjoy your week, Mrs. Burns 10/23/2017 0 Comments Weekly Update...10/23/17Greetings families,
This week in reading we will learn a variety of strategies to help us decode and understand tricky words that we bump into when reading an informational text. Students will learn how to use the pronunciation guide, break words into chunks, use the glossary, picture cues, and synonyms to decode and understand tricky words. In math students will show what they know about place value by completing the place value post assessment and begin learning strategies to help with adding within 20 with fluency. Some strategies include plus zero, counting up, turn around, doubles, and doubles plus one. In science we will begin our case study about the moon. Students will focus on what is happening in space that makes the moon's appearance seem to change. The Chattahoochee Nature Center will be visiting us on Wednesday to teach us even more about the stars and moon. In writing we will edit and revise our small moments before publishing. Sincerely, Mrs. Burns 10/19/2017 0 Comments Weekly Update...10/16/17Greetings families,
I hope this post finds you well and I apologize that it did not post earlier this week. This week we are doing the following in class: 1) In reading we are learning how to identify and utilize a variety of text features to locate information efficiently within informational texts. Next week will learn strategies for decoding tricky words within informational texts and asking and answering questions before, during, and after reading an informational text. 2) During science we are continuing our case study about stars (specifically constellations). 3) In math we are learning to skip count by 5s, 10s, 100s from any number within 1,000 (this is one of the most difficult standards for students to grasp. Rest assured if your child is struggling, he/she will have practice with skip counting for weeks to come during crew meeting. For now, if time permits have them to practice skip counting within 1,000 and pay attention to the patterns within the numbers for each skip). Next week we will begin learning strategies to help us become fluent with our addition math facts within 20. 4) In writing we are continuing to write our small moments. This week we have added dialogue and transitional words to our pieces. Next week we will begin editing and revising before publishing. 10/9/2017 0 Comments Weekly Update...10/9/17Hello families! Hope everyone is staying dry in this rainy weather.
Tomorrow we will be away from the school all day visiting the Tellus Museum to learn about the stars from experts. This week in reading we will begin identifying and using text-features within informational texts. In math we will compare 3-digit numbers using the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols. In science we will continue learning about star color, brightness, and size. In writing we will continue with out personal narrative unit. FYI...We will host Community Circle on October 27th. Hope to see you there :) 10/2/2017 0 Comments Weekly Update...10/2/17Happy Monday Everyone! This weekly update will be pretty short and straight forward, but I had to let each of you know how grateful I am for each of you and your continued support in and outside of our classroom. A huge thank you again to all the families who donated flexible seating options. I also want to thank the parents who will be chaperoning our field study next week at the Tellus Muesum. Lastly, thank you to WE's PTA for funding our field study! This week in reading we are beginning our non-fiction unit! We are learning what non-fiction is, how to prepare to read non-fiction texts, and how to correct misconceptions about topics after we've read about it. In science we have officially kicked off our expedition titled W.E. Goes Above and Beyond. This expedition will focus on the sun, moon, and stars. Our first case study is about the stars. This week we will learn how to define what stars are and what their brightness, size, and color tell us. In math we will learn how to write numbers in model, standard, written, and expanded form. During writing we are continuing our narrative unit. There is no homework this week due to the Read-a-Thon. Please make sure your child is reading or being read to each evening :) 🤔This weekly update was not short at all. If there are any typos please forgive me as I am posted from my phone. Have a great week, Mrs. Burns These are pictures of our mystery gallery walk during the kick-off of our fall expedition. Students rotated through all 3 second grade classrooms and jotted down what they noticed, liked, and wondered about pictures they were shown, sounds they heard, and what they touched all related to our expedition. 📸 Mr. Cordy
9/25/2017 0 Comments Weekly Update...9/25/17And we're back........I hope that each of you had an awesome fall break! I definitely enjoyed hearing about your family vacations today during our "y'all know what about the fall break. ?" Before fall break we got to enjoy a day of learning at the high school. Upon return to WE the next day we finally built our marble tracks using many of the empty paper towel and tissue rolls you all sent in. Thanks again for supporting our crew! This week we are catching up on lots of the material we missed during the bad weather the week before fall break. In reading we are focusing greatly on reading with fluency. During science we are learning about the the difference between weather and temperature. In math we are learning about place value and determining the number of ones, tens, and hundreds within a 3-digit number. In writing we are continuing with our narrative unit. Now that the first six weeks of school are officially behind us we are beginning word study. This week we will also begin homework. Your child should have brought his/her green homework folder home today within their backpack. Homework is not due in it's entirety until Friday. Please check the policy and procedures section of our crew's website to review our crew's homework policy. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. I hope that everyone has a safe and restful Labor Day weekend! My family and I will spend a little time trying to get some more use of our Six Flag's season passes by taking the kiddos to White Water one last time.
This past week we were able to complete one science experiment. Students observed a balloon being blown up using a mixture of baking soda and vinegar inside of a water bottle. The purpose of this experiement was for students to observe gas taking the shape of it's container. Many students also noticed that the gas from the balloon eventually turned back into a liquid when the balloon began to deflate. We didn't get around to making elephant toothpaste due to the whether 😞. Just maybe we can make some next week. However, we were able to make our 3D bar graphs!!! Yay!!! They turned out great! This upcoming week in reading we will focus on using strategies to determine the meaning of words we can read, but don't understand. In writing we will finally start our narrative writing unit. In math we will begin determining whether a group of objects is even or odd. Lastly, in science we will identify pushes and pulls and design a ramp to change the speed and direction of an object. BTW...Please send in any paper towel and/or tissue rolls by Thursday, September 7th. We will use these to make our ramps. If you happen to have marbles to spare those would be greatly appreciated too! Thank you in advance! |