Newsletter 3/15/17

Hello Families! 

I hope you enjoyed your snow day and didn't end up losing power! Don't forget, we have an early release day tomorrow, students will be dismissed at 12:50. We also have no school on Friday due to a teacher inservice day. 

Reading

We have entered our Fairytale unit and the students are taking such ownership over their chosen character and understanding specific story elements that make a story a fairytale. We have discovered that fairytales teach us a lesson and it is our job to look deep and find it. We are looking at the specific character types that are found in these stories. We have started to plan our murals and prepare for our upcoming Wax Museum on April 7th. Students must have a plan for their costume before we begin creating their mural- so please chat with your dragonfly at home about their costume and fill in their homework planning sheet if you have not already. Please continue to have conversations with your dragonfly about their character. As we prepare what the students will be reciting on the day of the wax museum, it will be sent home to practice as well. Our read aloud during our fairytale unit is called "The Land of Stories", it is a chapter book that relates directly with our unit, while giving great examples of special language and creative writing, which is where we are heading next! 

Writing

We have entered our poetry unit for writing and the students couldn't be more excited. This unit is so fun because we have our own poetry notebooks and we are creating two very impressive poetry books on animals and one on our fairytale character. Our current exploring with poetry has a lot to do with artwork and really starting to identify their own individual "poet's eye." Students have been working hard to not look at pictures as second graders but as a poet would and then write about it using special language. The students first began researching a specific animal and using their poet's eye to help them take notes. The students then used their notes and their book to help them create detailed paintings of their animal. Once they have created their artwork, that is what really drives their poetry. The students have done so well with this!

 Math

We are working hard at becoming shape experts here in 2D. This current geometry unit is VERY vocabulary intensive and the students have been doing a wonderful job of using their resources around their room, in their math journals and in their own vocabulary journals to help them through this unit. We have covered everything from polygon rules to the different characteristics of shapes. Students have looked closely at vertices, angles, right angles, parallelograms, parallel lines, equal sides and so much more. We have created shapes on dot paper, using geoboards, popsicle sticks and our bodies! We will be exploring 3D shapes next and working on shape puzzles. We have switched up our structure for our math block and the students now have an independent choice board once they are done working with the teacher. This choice board is full of jobs and learning activities that practice the skill of the day and review recent skills. The students end with our new math games and continue strengthening their math facts. 

Science

To go a long with our fairytale unit the second graders are continuing their rotating science blocks partaking in experiments that are STEM based and related directly to fairytales. For example, the students did their first visit today in Ms. Riley's room where they engineered a 6 ft zipline for Little Red Riding Hood to get through the forest without the wolf reaching her. In our classroom we will be building rafts that can hold three pink erasers for the Three Billie Goats Gruff to get across the bridge. These STEM building activities are so much and include so much more than just engineering and teamwork.