Newsletter 1/13/17

I can't believe another week has come and gone! We got through so much this week and had a lot of fun doing it. With Martin Luther King Jr. Day this Monday, we took time to really focus on equality and peace. The students had so many kind thoughts and ideas about these topics so we got them down in writing. The students loved learning about Ruby Bridges and we even talked about her like we do our reading characters- identifying her character traits and how we can exhibit them in our day to day life. 

Reading

This week was  all about putting what we have learned about our characters to work. We used what we know to predict what we think the character will do next. We worked on stopping ourselves in our reading (which is very hard) when we see our character facing a problem. We then predicted how our character would handle the problem on sticky notes and then read on to find out if we were right! The students loved this work because they wanted to be right every time. We had teachers visit from another school to observe our Reader's Workshop and they were full of compliments for the students. They couldn't believe this was only 2nd grade! The students love to show off their focus and reading stamina to visitors!

Writing

This week we took time to write what "peace" means to us. This writing was beautiful and I got to see the students' loving personalities shine through. Each dragonfly has such a deep understanding of kindness and the sense of community. The writing and beautiful water color craft look beautiful hanging in our hallway. We also came up with our setting, main character traits and problem for our newest fictional stories. 

Math

This week finished our Mid-Year Assessment and the students displayed all that they have learned this year in second grade. I am always blown away by their focus and hard work during math time. We continued to work on coin recognition and combinations this week. We also kept tackling coin puzzles and then moved into problems that involved making change from a dollar or more. The students went "shopping" and had to give change to each other and also played a vending machine game where they could pay in exact change when "exact change light" was on and only with dollars when the "exact change light" was off. The students have worked so hard at this and we are making great progress! This concept is very tricky, as it entails counting in tens, fives, ones and then also subtracting or counting up all in the same problem! Please take time to review coins and giving back change with your child. The more the students practice this, the more confident in the skill they will become!

Science

We continue to investigate the states of matter. This week we talked about how atoms make up all matter. We talked about how atoms are too tiny to see but they make up everything around us each day. To visually represent this we used cheerios to to show how atoms work in the different stages of matter. The students showed that the atoms are close together in solids, spread apart in liquids, and few and spread out for gasses. We also did a sorting activity to demonstrate that we know the difference between solids, liquids and gasses that are around us. The students are ready to experiment and understand states of matter even more! 

Life Skills

Mrs. Griffith will be coming into our classroom on Thursdays to talk about social skills and join us in our work with growth mindset. We will talk about social situations at school and feelings that we all have when we are faced with them. This week we did a "magic mirror" activity where we wrote down things we love about our self and what we are good at.

Don't Forget!
There is no school on Monday January, 16th because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Enjoy your three day weekend!

Back At It!!

Hello 2D Families! 

I hope you had a wonderful week back from the holiday break. We were so busy during this four day week. The students came to school excited to learn and dive into new units. In this week's photos you will see our fun from the week before break and hear all about our newest adventures. 

Reading

We are in a new unit where we are character detectives. We are looking at how we know what a character is like, without the author explicitly telling us. We are looking at how they react to problems and at their physical and personality traits. The students have taken notes and searched for inspiration for their own stories they will be writing in our fictional story writing unit. The students  are using so many skills from our growth mindset work to think about how complex characters can be- just like people. 

Writing

This week we have been brainstorming for our new fictional stories and starting with the planning of our main characters. We are keeping these stories simple but with more complex problems. We are thinking of how our characters would react and what that means for their behavior in the rest of the story.  We have talked about the importance of planning our stories and taking the time to think about these details. Before break we had a hip hop artist come in and help us write a rap for our community day music video to show to the other second grades. He taught us so many writing techniques such as rhyming and using synonyms.He also stressed the importance of brainstorming and planning before writing. The students wrote a rap about the police in the community and what they do for others. They were so great at expressing themselves and brainstorming all that they had learned about police work. 

Math

We are reviewing the math concepts we have covered for the first half of the year- such as, even numbers, number models, additional strategies, number lines, word problems, telling time, greater-less than- equal to, "in and out" machines, number patterns, place value and expanded forms. We have also been working on coins, money and figuring out coin puzzles. The students have done such a nice job with coin puzzles, as they are quite complicated! The students utilize subtraction strategies, counting up to solve these puzzles. Ask your Dragonfly to solve this puzzle:

Peyton has 27 cents and 6 coins. What coins does she have?

Science

We have started talking about the states of matter. We have talked about how matter is all around us in the form of solids, liquids and gasses. We will talk about their properties and begin experimenting in the following week! 

Social Studies

Our Community day was a hit and the students left with so many fun experiences, such as mailing letters throughout the school, creating licenses, going to school in the 1800's, chatting with Mr. Scammon from Scammon Farm and adopting pretend animals from the SPCA. We have been talking about civil rights and the important people in history who have helped make them equal for all people. We started learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks this week. and what their roles were in this movement. Some of our vocabulary has been segregation, peaceful protest, boycott, Civil Rights, inspire, and peaceful. The students were so curious if any children helped with this movement, so next week we will begin with research on Ruby Bridges. 

Dragonfly News

We are nearing our last container of disinfecting wipes.. DUN DUN DUN... Please send in wipes if you have a chance or would like to donate. We have kept sickness to a minimum in 2D amidst the rising flu season and we want to keep that up! We are super cleaners in 2D! 

Please make sure students are coming to school with labeled boots, hats, gloves, snow pants and jackets. It is very cold at recess and the students should be dressed warmly!
As concepts in math get trickier in the second half of the school year, occasional homework assignments may be sent home for extra practice. Please make sure your child completes these and gets the extra practice. We are cruising along until the end of the year now! 

Report cards will be coming home at the beginning of February.