Newsletter: Sunday, February 24, 2019

In Our Classroom...

There has been lots of talk about sickness at school lately and we've definitely felt the impact in our classroom this past week.  With that said, I think our class is on the mend and hopefully we will return to a full crew this week.  No worries though, we will continue to wipe down and disinfect the room daily. 

Our work in social studies lately gets to the heart of what we perceive to be "normal."  I challenged the kids to brainstorm in groups about their concept of the "Normal Second Grader."  Each group then planned and designed this example of a second grader in life-size poster format.  The groups have begun presenting these to the class, explaining the decision making process behind each of their choices.  We are analyzing these reasons to hopefully gain a greater understanding of the fact that there really is no normal.  This process is driving us toward our future study of different countries and ultimately our next independent expert project.

In reading, we have been reviewing texts that coordinate with our Normalcy study and independently working on strategies to find a stick-to-it book rather than shuffling between a few.  We have begun publishing our current fiction stories and hope to complete these this week.  As mathematicians we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes and their respective characteristics.  This week we will revisit larger addition with regrouping in a more traditional model to extend from all of our work with base ten blocks previously and we will also work on building strategies to solve subtraction problems.

                                                            Important Dates

March 7    SIC/PTP Meeting

March 8    Sandhills Library (Shealy/ Hass 11:30)

March 11  Spring Pictures 

March 14  Curriculum Night #4 

March 15  Student Holiday 

March 22  Parents Night Out**

Last week, the kids designed their version of a "normal second grader."

They were challenged to create their own quilt patterns given their choice of one shape and two colors.

We have begun presenting the group designs with the class.

We are still in the process of completing student led conferences.  Here are a few of the celebrations.

Newsletter, Sunday, February 10, 2019

Investigation, Reflection and Collaboration

This past week we spent a great deal of time looking through our work and accomplishments from this year.  We reflected on our work as readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, and social scientists and began setting goals for ourselves to work towards during the remainder of this year.  We are very excited to share all this information with you during our upcoming conferences this week.

We launched a new inquiry into geometry.  The kids are very excited about this unit.  They often feel like they're not, "doing math" during geometry and don't realize the level of thinking and determination required during our engagements.  We will continue this inquiry over the next couple of weeks as we learn mathematical names, attributes, and eventually explore them in terms of fractions, perimeter and area.

Our weather groups worked diligently this week to complete their information posters and artwork.  Each group planned their own poster, artistic portion, and speaking parts.  We began with presentations on Friday and will complete the remaining groups tomorrow.

I hope you are enjoying our literature study, Prince of the Pond, as much as the kids and I are.  I know many of you are reading along with your children and I want to thank you for sharing in these discussions.  The conversations you are having at home have helped them as readers to make logical predictions and ask questions that strengthen their comprehension. We have grown so fond of the characters and the hilarious dialogue.  Each day as we are lining up or walking to activities, I hear the kids quoting lines form the story.  As writers, they are trying to find ways to incorporate humor into their own craft as well.

This Coming Week

We will wrap up the weather presentations and dive back into social studies.  Our Prince of the Pond reading log will be similar to last week's with assignments only on Monday, Wednesday, and the weekend.  We will continue our  investigations in geometry and complete our prep work for student led conferences.  Please remember to check the schedule to review the time for your conference.  We can't wait to celebrate our learning with you.

Important Dates

February 14   Student led Conferences
                       Friendship Day
February 15   11:30 Dismissal/Student Led Conferences
February 18   School Holiday
February 20    Author Visit: Elizabeth Hardwick

Thoughtful collaboration and planning about how to share our learning in this weather unit...

Here we are investigating how to create shapes and replicate patterns.

Creating the final products for our weather projects...

We began presenting our projects on Friday.

Newsletter: Sunday, February 3, 2019

The Fruits of Our Labor

This past week we continued collecting weather data and looking at changes and trends in the weather through graphs.  We also conducted another experiment to examine the affects of different types of wind on an object using large and small straws.  I never realized how thirsty blowing through straws would make the kids!  Ask them about the results.

Each of the weather groups (tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, tsunamis, and blizzards) collected facts on their topics this week.  They concentrated on five categories that the class brainstormed together: 1. What is it? 2. What causes it? 3. Where does it usually happen? 4. Safety 5. Fun Facts.  The groups are now planning how they want to share their learning.

We have spent a solid amount of time learning how to build larger numbers and trying out strategies to add them.  We continued with some of our games from last week and increased the level of challenge by using playing cards this week instead of dice.  For most students, being able to physically regroup these numbers helps them to understand the change in place value. 

Our new literature study, The Prince of the Pond, had the class belly laughing.  We are looking carefully at how the author's simple word choices and powerful dialogue truly pulled us in as readers.  I truly hope you take the time to read a little of this with them this week.

Near the end of the week, we finally got the chance to meet Ms. Audrey.  When she arrived at the playground, she received a celebrity welcome.  We spent time talking about her life and experience with Wanna Buddy. Mr. O'Keefe joined us for a song and some donation sorting.  We are truly grateful to have her as a friend and network to help the homeless and hungry.  She is amazing.  Our class will continue collecting donations throughout the year.

This Week

We will spend some time reflecting this week in all of our curricular areas in order to prepare for student led conferences.  It is amazing to watch these seven and eight-years-olds look back over their work this year and realize how much they have grown.  They really can't comprehend it until they look back at some of their work from the beginning of this year.  In math, we will begin a new unit on geometry.  We will continue analyzing the pieces by Jaqueline Woodson to build upon our own writer's craft.  Our weather research groups will begin making decisions about how they want to present their learning in terms of format and the art component.  They are allowed to bring items from home if they want to use it in the project.

We will continue with our literature study, The Prince of the Pond.  Notice the reading log is different this week.  We only have three days of reading and responses.  I hope that you will read along with your child as this book is likely going to be one of their favorite studies.  Please feel free to take turns reading with them if they need a little support.  You will enjoy!

Friendship Day

In preparation for Friendship Day, our homework this week includes a sheet on which to record one compliment for each friend in our class.  I will compile these for our celebration.  Please have your child do some each day.  We will only have a reading log on Monday, Wednesday and the weekend so I hope that will make it easier. If they would prefer to type them, that is fine.  Please share the document with me by Friday (2/8) or turn in the written compliments on Friday.  On Thursday, 2/14, the kids will have a chance to exchange cards if they bring them.  Just make sure if you send cards or treats, please include everyone.  We will share these at the end of the day so the sweets may be approved by you before eating.  The list of names will be attached to the reading log tomorrow.

Important Dates

February 4     Pre-orders for books for author visit due
February 7     SIC/PTP Meeting
February 14   Student led Conferences
                       Friendship Day
February 15   11:30 Dismissal/Student Led Conferences
February 18   School Holiday
February 20    Author Visit: Elizabeth Hardwick

Memories from our week:

In our place value game,  the objective is to use the results from each roll to build the biggest numbers.

We finally met Ms. Audrey!!

Mr. O'Keefe helped us share some of our last gathering presentation with her.

Ms. Audrey and Mr. O'Keefe helped us sort and fold the donations we have gathered for Wanna Buddy.

Our tables were spilling over with generosity!