Quick Note 2-10-16

Hello All!

This is just a reminder that all valentines should be in by tomorrow Thursday, February 11th. This is just to make sure that everything goes smoothly on Friday and we can make sure everyone is all set for valentines! :) Thank you to those of you who have already sent in supplies for our celebration and as always, thanks to everyone for being so generous. I hope you are having a happy Wednesday.

* We celebrated the 100th day of school today. Your child is now 100 days wiser and has a fun little surprise piece of writing to show you tonight! *

Quick Note 2/9/16

Hello 2D Families! This is just a reminder that report cards were sent home in communication folders today. Please sign the brown envelope and send it back into school. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions! 

Tomorrow, February 10th is an early release day. Students will be dismissed at 12:50! 

The Father/Daughter Dance is this Friday, February 12th! 

Newsletter 2/5/16

Hello 2D families! I hope you have enjoyed your TWO snow days! I must say, I can't wait to be back in the classroom and continuing our learning! Here is a wrap up of last week and some reminders for the week to come! 

Friday folders will be going home tomorrow and have class lists inside for valentines. They also have information for logging into Spelling City! Our Valentine's Day celebration will be on Friday, please have your child bring their valentines on Thursday, February 11th. There is an early release on Wednesday, February 10th.

Reading

In reading this week we worked on taking notes about our reading so we can talk about what we read and what we wonder with a partner. Students will be reading the same books with a small reading group and talking about their reading and making predictions together. The students are so excited for this and it is going to be so neat watching them work in book clubs.  In order for this to be successful we are practicing how to talk and share about books.

Writing

The students have been so proud to share their finished fictional stories. We have spent time looking at the story "The Day The Crayons Quit" and noticing all of the things the author has done to make that such a great fictional story. We will look closely at "The Day The Crayons Came Home" and analyze the author's craft in that story as well. We will work together to create our own "The Day the 2D Crayons _____" fictional story for our classroom. We are going to use the skills we have been working on in writing to help us with this story. This project will be so neat because we are working together for a finished product. Although each student is only responsible for one page of the story they will show their craft of writing and voice in this one page. They will work on making their writing concise, all while adding humor. The students can't wait for this!

Math

This week in math we did a lot of work with open number lines and word problems. This was a challenging task for the students and it allowed us to focus on how important it is to read and determine what it is the problem is asking. We talked about figuring out when a word problem is asking for addition or subtraction. Then we talked about, that when word problems use larger numbers it may be easier to count by 10s or 20s, rather than ones. The students had freedom with how they wanted to count and solve these problems on a number line. It was great to see them problem solving. We will continue to practice open number lines as a center in math. 

Word Work

We launched Spelling City and the students LOVED it! What a great resource! If you are looking for another way for your child to study their weekly word sort words, Spelling City is fun and full of neat games. The students learned how to log in and access their word sorts. I will be uploading their new sorts each week to this program and we will be using the ipads in our classroom as a center during our word work. This is a great resource for homework and an informational sheet with your child's login information will be sent home in their Friday folder tomorrow. 

Newsletter 1/29/16

Hello 2D families! What a great week of learning we had. We had a guest teacher on Friday while I was working in the building on literacy. Due to this- Friday folders were not sent home! If you have any questions about the week or would like a little update (like my Friday folder comment) feel free to contact me!

Reading

One of the main things we talked about this week in reading is realizing when authors make comparisons. We thought about how two things are alike when they are being compared in text. When there is special language involved it takes rereading and deep thinking to realize these connections. Some examples of this are "He was sizzling like a baked potato next to the campfire!" or "When Sophie gets angry she is like a volcano, ready to explode!"

Writing

We have started wrapping up our gripping fictional stories that we have been working so hard on. We have started having conversations about them and sharing them with our peers. As we do this, we are editing and realizing new ideas we could add or that would help the reader understand our story. We are also making sure that our stories teach a lesson. Our next adventure with writing gripping fictional stories is to share and celebrate the wonderful stories we have written but also to publish them. We will also be writing a fictional story as a class.

Math

As you know, from our homework we have been working hard to make change with money. We will continue to work with money as it is tricky when dealing with subtracting and making sure you get back the correct change. This week we also focused on subtraction of larger numbers and different strategies to work through this. We will continue to work on subtraction strategies for larger numbers next week as well. We talked a lot about reading the directions fully on tests, work journal problems and worksheets. We practiced reading directions and doing exactly what is asked! This is an important test taking skill and it is important to pay close attention to directions, especially as we approach third grade!

Word Work

We have been working so hard to learn new word rules each week in our classroom. We will be switching up our word teams this coming week. Say goodbye to the Awesome Unicorns, The Superheros, The Super Sorters and The Kings! Say hello to the next batch of creative team names. Please encourage your child to sort their words at home. We will be launching Spelling City this week so your child is used to the program before accessing it at home!

Dragonfly News

We will be having our Valentine's Day celebration on Friday February 12th. Students can exchange valentines and families can provide a snack! We were so lucky to have two more mystery readers this week! Thank you so much for taking the time to read in our classroom, it is so exciting.