Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Early Dismissal Reminder

Hello Families!
Just a reminder that today is an early release day and students will be dismissed at 12:50! I will be at the SAU this morning in a meeting, so please reach me by email if you need to reach me!

We Need Headphones!
We are also using the Iready program in math, along with iPads and other electronics. If possible, please send in a set of headphones for your child in a ziplock bag. We will use these throughout the year and keep them in our classroom. 

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Our First Few Weeks

Hello Everyone!
I hope you had an awesome weekend! September has been flying by. It seems like we have been in school for a while now and we are starting to get comfortable and settled into our learning. As we continue to establish and build our community, we have been diving into the second grade curriculum   with such excitement! We are making sure to take time to settle into routines and truly practice how each subject in our schedule is run. A differentiated classroom requires navigating choices, practicing independence, and practicing time management strategies. We are still getting used to all of the different parts of our schedule, but it has been fun creating team names, working in small groups and learning the fun games that go a long with our curriculum. 
Family Meetings
As the year goes on, we will have many family meetings where we talk about supporting the people around us and keeping our environment a good place for learning and everyone's happiness. One of our recent meetings was about the impact of our words on others. We each had an index card with our name on it, we crumpled it up and thought of the times where we felt hurt by the words of others. As we tried and tried to smooth out our index cards we realized that they could never truly become completely smooth again. There was always evidence of where we crumpled it up. This represented how people's words never really go away in our hearts. We can always forgive others but the words can never be taken back. We agreed that we would focus on the words that come out of our mouths and that they will be kind. 
Growth Mindset
Our classroom focuses on positivity and growing through our mistakes. There will be plenty of learning mistakes this in our class but we say "Bring them on!" This week we talked about how mistakes are great for growth and learning lessons. We each chose a mistake that we remember learning from. This could something from school or home. We talked about what we learned from this and shared it with others. After writing our mistake down on a sticky note, we decided to turn this once negative experience into a positive. We had a mistake parade with music and some dancing and then we through our mistake into the garbage! The students loved this and it was a great way to practice having a growth mindset. 
Math
We have been focusing on our numbers to twenty! We have worked on doubles facts, number grid practice, and solving strategies. Most recently, we have focused on number stories. These are word problems, where we have to find the key words to determine what the problem is asking us. We focused on phrases and certain words that mean adding or subtracting. For example if the person in the word problem is buying or selling something, those words give you a hint as to what math function you will be using. We used these problems for both adding and subtraction and we took our time to read carefully, circle key words, and use strategies to solve.
Word Work
We have successfully worked through our first week of differentiated word work! The students chose team names and they are pretty funny! We will begin with new words next week, be on the lookout of these sorts in your child's homework folder! Students will have a homework menu to practice their words at home. As we move through words weekly in 2D, it is important that you child is studying the rule of the week for their words at home as well in school.  Homework folders should stay in your child's backpack for easy access in the upcoming weeks. Homework policies were discussed at open house, if you were not able to make it, I have information coming home to you tomorrow! 
Reading
What haven't we done in reading?! We have met our reading stamina goal, we started being great reading buddies, we have worked on decoding strategies, and looked for how books want to be read. Our reading time is so magical. Students make their own reading goals all while learning about what great readers do! 
Writing
We have started writing personal narratives. We started by picking out one day from our summer vacation. We then chose a small moment from this day and focused on pulling out details about what happened during that time and how we felt. We are really working on describing the setting and making our audience feel like they are there. We started by talking through our small moment with a partner then we planned it out with a graphic organizer. We also learned how authors start their writing with an engaging hook. We are still working on these narratives and the students have loved being authors so far!
Science
We are starting our science explorations off through inquiry. We have talked about what a good scientist is and does. We have solved what was inside a mystery package using our senses and we will be diving into our exploration with magnets this coming week! We have also conducted science talks, where we gather evidence through each other and talk through our explorations and discoveries.
Dragonfly News
This Tuesday we will be having Johnny Appleseed Day. The second graders will rotate throughout all of the second grade classrooms to do various activities in our subject areas, all about apples! Students should bring in one apple, any color or size by Tuesday morning. Wednesday is an early release and students will be dismissed at 12:50.