We are starting our study of weather. Here are a couple websites that might
be fun to check out!
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/
http://www.theweatherchannelkids.com/weather-games/
March 6th
Just a reminder.. we will be having our Living Museum on March 12th at 6:30
pm. Bring the family, and enjoy being entertained by our talented second
graders.
February 24
Welcome back to school! I hope that everyone had a terrific winter break. I
just wanted to update you on some of the new things we have in the classroom,
as well as an up and coming project.
Over the break I made 12 new language arts centers. They are aligned with the
second grade common core standards, and cover such things as ABC order,
prefixes, suffixes, antonyms, synonyms, compound words, etc... These will be
available to the children for word work and when they are finished with their
assignments. On top of that, I made 12 new math stations, which I’ll be
introducing at the end of this week. The kids really take advantage of the
math stations throughout the day, and at math workshop. They do a fantastic
job of self selecting the activities, working through them, and cleaning up
too!
On a sad note, Kennedy C. has transferred to a private school and will be
greatly missed in our classroom. We wish her well, and hope that she keeps in
touch with us. Her mom has asked that I pass along her email address, in the
event anyone would like to set up a play date. kimclary@gmail.com.
Let’s talk academics! Before break it was a whirl wind of celebrations. We
celebrated National Pancake Day/Mardi Gras, Hundreds Day, Chinese New Year,
Presidents Day, and Valentine’s Day. It was a very fun week, and I hope the
kids learned some new things along the way.
Over the month of February we have been studying biographies in reading. We
will continue this genre, and be wrapping it up with a super fun activity
a “living museum”. I am going to be sending home a packet of information on
the biography project tomorrow. But, I also wanted to explain it via an
email, just in case the information doesn’t make it home (gasp!)
The children will be reading about a famous person in class (you can also do
it at home as part of their nightly reading). They will be making a biography
book project called a Bio-Buddy. The Bio-Buddy will be made to look like the
famous person. (I have templates) The children will need to fill out
important information about their famous person such as: name, job, symbol,
and years of life. On the inside of the project, they will write a poem about
the person and a timeline containing the six most important events from his
or her life. In addition, they will write a report on the back of the Bio-
Buddy, so that they can use it for their presentation to others. We will be
doing all of the reading, writing, and creating in class. The only thing I
need from home is for each child to come up with an outfit that looks like
their famous person, to be worn on the night of the living museum.
On Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 6:30 pm we will be holding a “Living Museum”.
Your child will dress up like the famous person they are presenting. On the
night of the living museum, they will pose, like a statue of the famous
person; family member can walk around and press a red button on the statues
that interest them. The statue will come to life and teach the visitor about
his/her life.
Since this is a rather big project, I am looking for some parent volunteers
to come into the classroom the first week of March to help out with various
things that the kids may need extra help with. If you think you could help
out please let me know.
January 6th
There will be a PTO meeting this Wednesday at 7:00pm, everyone is welcome.
January 6th
Happy New Year! It was so wonderful to come back to school last week, I
really missed the kids. It sounds like everyone had a great vacation.
Here is what is up and coming in our room-
Reading- We will be focusing on non-fiction as a genre during the month of
January.
Writing- In conjunction with our reading unit, the students will be focusing
on writing non-fiction pieces.
Spelling- This week we will be focusing on bossy r's (-r controlled)
Math- We will begin learing how to subtract with regrouping.
Social studies- This week we will be wrapping up our study of map skills.
Science- We will begin our unit on the three states of matter.
December 31st
I have just posted some links to sites that relate to our up and coming
science unit- Changes. Changes relate to the three states of matter, solid,
liquid, and gas. I hope you enjoy them.
December 18th
Merry Christmas everyone! Time always passes so quickly in our second grade
classroom. As you know we have been learning about other countries around the
world. We have traveled to France, Germany, Greenland, the Netherlands,
Mexico, Japan, and Anartica. The children have eaten things native to the
countries, made snow, gingerbread houses, and did the Mexican hat dance
today.
December 9
Thank you to Mrs. Hubert and Mrs. Wilson for coming in and decorating
gingerbread houses with our class. It was a very fun activity and the
students worked very well together.
This week we will continue to travel around the world, learning about people,
places and their customs. The children will be presenting how their family
celebrates the holidays, and teach us interesting facts about the country
that they drew. We will be gathering all of our reports for a class book.
In reading, we have dived into the world of Fairy Tales, and Fables. Now, we
will be looking at Folk Tales. The children have been working on an original
fairy tale in writing. They also, have been collecting information from non-
fiction books on various countries.
As part of our math workshop curriculum, I have made around 28 new learning
stations for the studnets to explore and challenge themselves. All of the new
work stations are related to the new common core.
Club RAD was a big success! I will leave last week's questions up for one
additional week, and will also post questions for this up-coming week.
Remember, Club RAD is just for fun and is not part of the children's required
curriculum.
December 2
I just added an extra challenge called Club RAD for those students who like
to learn new things. This is not a required activity. Please take a minute to
read about Club RAD and take a peek at the questions. Look for the icon on
the homepage. I will explain the challenge to the students tomorrow. They
will be able to answer the questions in class when they have extra time, or
they can complete it at home.
December 2
I would like to start off by thanking Jack and Deigo's moms for wrapping our
Christmas Around the World boxes. That was a huge undertaking, and they look
wonderful.
Tomorrow we will be kicking off our travels to the exciting country of
Germany. Last week, we made passports, and began our social studies unit on
maps. We will be working on learning our address (street address, city, and
state), where Michigan is in relation to the U.S.A., and on from there. I
will keep you posted, on our travels. Please note that each child will be
given a country tomorrow to research at home. If you need computer access for
research, feel free to stop by school early with your child or after school.
As many of you know we will be taking a science assessment on magnets on
Tuesday. Study sheets did go home last week, and you can go onto our webpage
and find a practice magnet test there.
For the month of December we will be learning about the genre of Fairy Tales,
Fables, and Folktales. This is a great tie in, as we talk about various
countries. In addition we will be spending time reading non-fiction books and
materials that relate to the countries that we are focusing on for Christmas
Around the World.
In writing this month, we will be writing our own fairy tales, fables, and
folk stories. The children will also be learning how to write a main idea,
with supporting details and a concluding sentence as we write about our
countries.
Math this month focuses on the topic that so many children love- MONEY. Most
of the chldren can identify all of the coins front and back, and know their
value. This week, we will be branching out into addition of multiple coins,
learning about decimals, and hopefully some will start making change.
In addition to our study of money, we will continue to work on time. All
second graders should know how to tell time to the five minute, and I would
really like my class to know it to the minute. (Yes, I was an over achiever
as a child)
As you can see we have a lot going on this month, and hopefully the kids will
learn a lot and have a great time along the way. Remember, if you have any
questions please call or email me. And if you want to come on in and help
this month, extra hands are always welcome.
Peace- Kellie
November 25
I have added a mini quiz section on magnets to the bottom of our web page. It
may be a great way to help your son or daughter study for their assessment on
December 4th.
November 25
The children were wonderful as they sang and recited poetry for the
Thanksgiving performance. The performance was planned for our kindergarten
reading buddies, and did you notice that they weren't even there!! I should
have reminded Miss Madaleno. Our class may have to do another performance for
them on Monday. LOL
As many of you have noticed I sent out an email requesting a few items for
our Christmas around the World theme. If you could send in a large cereal box
by the 3rd, that would be wonderful. I am also in need of toilet paper tubes
and egg cartons.
November 5th
I am not sure if it was Halloween last week or Day Light Savings time this
weekend, but some evil force has hijacked my perfect group of second graders.
Please don't think that this has effected everyone, just the majority. If you
have a moment to chat with your son or daughter about the importance of
waiting their turn, not interrupting, and following directions I would be so
grateful. I am hoping that tomorrow's day off will help stabilize thing.
Do to the high level of energy, and three of our students being absent, we
decided to wait until Wednesday to do our presidential vote for Cat vs. Dog.
All of the students received their two states and saw how many electoral
votes each had. We will cast our votes on Wednesday.
November 4th- The wonderful thing for some people today is that they get to
sleep in, for me... I get an extra hour of work time on Sunday morning. The
peace and quiet of a sleeping house, just rocks my world.
As we approach elesction day on Tuesday, I am trying to install upon the
children the concept of democracy. That our government is ran by the people,
and that we vote for laws and represenatives that we feel are the most
important.At no time do we talk about any of the current individuals that are
running, or the proposals. We are however, going to have a mini election for
president tomorrow, and are two canidates are Dog and Cat.
Each child will draw for two states (25 kids, 50 states). This is a great
kick off to our study of maps for social studies, and hopefully, the children
will come home knowing the names of two states and where they are located in
the U.S.
We have briefly talked about the electoral college and how states with larger
population get more votes. Based on this we will use are calculators to add
up the votes cast, and see which of the canidates recieves 270 or more votes.
The children will also be writing small persuasive pieces on why they would
make a great president.
All and all, Monday should be an exciting day of learning new things before
election day on Tuesday.
November 2nd- Please check out our new spelling words in the spelling section
of the website.
A kind parent reminded me that I have not kept up on my communications home
today. I find myself so obsorbed with your children that I often forget to
keep you in the loop as well.
So many exciting things are happening in second grade. Here are some of the
highlights-
Reading: We are working on using a variety of strategies to construct meaning
while reading. This week we looking at visualizing, and how good readers have
a mental image of the text that they are reading.
Through out our day we not only look at narrative text, but informational
text as well. Over the past two weeks we have been focusing on spiders and
bats. What a wonderful way to work our creepy creaters into the month of
October.
In addition to our comprehension work, we continue to work on reading fluency
and accuracy.
Word Work: We have many different components of our word work time. One
activity that we have been working on over the month, is putting groups of
words into categories; looking at how things are similar and different. Today
we continued, by learning how to define words by their attributes and
characteristics.
As part of our week, the children have opportunities to use a variety of
materials to parctice and work with their spelling words. As you will see on
the second grade report card. Spelling is graded on how your son or daughter
use conventional spelling in their everyday writing. I have the students
record their scores on their weekly spelling test, however I do not use these
assessments as a grade.
This weeks spelling words are a continuation of last weeks list.
backpack
cannot
catnap
goblin
insect
picnic
pigpen
rabbit
traffic
upset
Math: We are learning how to do addition with regrouping.
Science: We will beginning our new unit on magnets this week.
Social studies: We will be taking our assessment on communities tomorrow.
This test only has six questions, so I am sure it will be a snap.
