It was Another Happy Friday!

This week may have been short, but we packed it FULL of great learning!

Here's What We Have Been Learning About! 

Math

This week in we started talking about three different strategies to help us solve addition problems.  One strategy was double facts, which is a number plus the same number (example: 2+2=4).  We also talked about combination of 10 (2 numbers that add together to make 10).  Today, we learned about making 10.  In the making 10 strategy, the two numbers add up to more than 10 but are grouped together in away to make 10.  An example of this is 9+4, you can break apart the 4 into 1 and 3.  Then you can add the 1 to the 9 (which makes 10), then add 10+3, and you find out that 9+4=13.  Next week, we will continue to work on addition strategies.

There are a variety of Everyday Math (EM) resources that can be found online.  One of these resources is the student reference book.  You or your child can access this resource the same way that you access the EM online games. One of these resources is the My Reference Book and the Homelinks.

What is My Reference Book?

My Reference Book is a resource that if FULL of information about what your child will learn in second grade.  This is perfect spot to go if you or child has a question about a math concept that has been taught.

You can click on the blue My Reference Book.

 

This is page from the My Reference Book.  There is speaker at the top - so the child can actually listen to this page being read. What are Home Links? Home Links are the sheets that we send home at the beginning and the end of the unit.  At the beginning of the unit, you receive a letter home about what we will be teaching in that unit.  At the end of the unit, we send home some extra resources that your child can practice on what we did during the unit before the test.  These sheets are COMPLETELY optional, but would be a good support and reminder for what will be on the test.

Click on the EM at Home button and then you can look at Today's Home Link.  This is a worksheet to reinforce what was taught today.

If you would like to see or review all the Home Links you can click on the Menu at the top, and then select EM at Home on the drop down menu.  You can then view all the Home Links that correspond to the lessons that we have taught.

Writing

We have worked extremely hard on working of the beginning of our personal narrative.  On Wednesday, we learned that a lead hooks the reader and is the first sentence in a piece of writing.  The students tried out three different types of leads (sound, question and action).  After they wrote these leads, each child chose their favorite lead to start their beginning.  The other components of the beginning include introducing the setting and the characters.  We talked about the importance of showing (describing) and not telling.  Next week, we will revise and edit our personal narrative.

Reading

This week the reading skills that we focused on was predicting, asking questions, and trying to answer the questions that were asked in a nonfiction book.  We read two books about the arctic called Arctic Animals and Arctic Life (which tied into our social studies geography unit).    Next week, we will be starting to talk about story elements (characters, setting, problem/solution).

Social Studies

We have been talking about geography and culture of the arctic and the hot desert.  We have talked about the adaptations that animals and plants have done to be able to survive in these extreme conditions.  Then we compared arctic and desert life to life in Missouri.  The students were able to chose whether they wanted to move to the arctic or the desert and what they would need to bring and do to be able to survive.  All of their hard work is hung in the hallway - so the next time you are school make sure you check it out!  Next week, we will be learning about rural, urban and suburban.

Word Study

This week, we have practiced spelling question words to help us as we write questions about reading.  Next week, our spelling words are: think, about, went, both, sure & have.

Bird Day Field Trip

Our first field trip of the year will be October 11.  We will be loading the bus about 8:30 and returning to RBE around 12:30.  Please make sure that your child is wearing appropriate clothes for the weather and tennis shoes because we will be outside.  Also, your child will need to bring a sack lunch (everything disposable) - if you would prefer to buy a sack lunch from the cafeteria that is an option.  An informational sheet came home earlier this week about the field trip - if you have not returned this sheet, please do so by Monday.

Next week, we will start to learn about different bird adaptations.  We will explore these adaptations to help us be prepared for our Bird Day Field Trip.  We will learn about how these adaptations help each type of bird survive.  We will have "Beak Lab" on Friday where the kiddos actually get to pretend to be birds and try out different beaks and how they pick up their food!

Veteran's Day Assembly

Below is a letter from Mrs. Sharp, RBE's music teacher, about the Veteran's Day Assembly.

 

Special Reader - Mrs. Neale!!

Today we had a special reader!  Mrs. Neale (our assistant principal) came and shared two of her favorite Bob Marley songs "One Love" and "Three Little Birds" (or you might be more familiar with"Everything's Gonna Be Alright").  After each song she shared, she read a book by Bob Marley's daughter Cedelia Marley.  The students LOVED singing along with Mrs. Neale!! :)  You must check out the videos!

       

Junior Achievement

This week, Mrs. Dent taught us about taxes and government jobs.  The kiddos were SO excited about getting "paid" from all their hard work at Sweet 'O Doughnut shop last week!  

After they were paid, Mrs. Dent taught us about a variety of different government jobs that are paid through our taxes.  Then, the students had to pay their taxes...they were not so happy after having to give $2 of their $5 back to for taxes.

Headphones/Ear Buds

We use laptops and other technology in the classroom as well as in Media.  Please make sure your student has a pair of headphones or ear buds at school.

Twitter

Don't forget to follow our classroom on Twitter.  It's @MossRBE, we try to post once a day and today we posted a video of the students singing with Mrs. Neale.  It's really cute.  Check it out!

Historical Fiction

We also started a historical fiction study today.  Today we read Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride.  After we read the book, the student's responded to the book by writing at least two sentences about what they learned, thought or questions that they still had.  They worked so hard on this!

As a reminder, please send me a copy of your child's sports, dance, gymnastic, or other extra-curricular activities.  I would love to come to whatever I can!  I hope that you have a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

We had a wonderful week!  We have been working hard and have learned so much!  As a reminder, Monday is a teacher collaboration day, and school will not be session.

Curriculum Chat

We had a wonderful turn out for Curriculum Chat.  Thank you to everyone who was able to come.  I understand that it can be difficult to get off work.  If you were unable to make it, your child should have brought home his/her Day in the Life of a 2nd Grader book.  During Curriculum Chat we talked through our day and the students shared their book and different materials that they use throughout the day.  Here are all the pictures that I took on Tuesday.

Maker Space

This week in Maker Space the students built with Keva Planks.  I was so impressed on what the kiddos came up with! :)

Counselor

Mr. Smith came in to do his bi-monthly counselor lesson this week.  His focus this week was on mean moments versus bullying.  A mean moment is a time when a person (or group) is being mean to another.  When a person is being bullied s/he is the target of mean acts that are happening over several occasions throughout several days.  Below is the slide that Mr. Smith talk over with the kids today.

Junior Achievement

Mrs. Dent came for our second Junior Achievement lesson.  The students pretended to be employees at a doughnut shop and "made" doughnuts.  We talked about what was successful in the production of the product and what they would change next time.  At the end they each group counted how many doughnuts were successfully made and how many defective doughnuts were made. To celebrate all of our hard work, Mrs. Dent brought in a doughnut hole for each of the kids - they sure were yummy! :)

What's Been Happening in 2nd Grade?

Math

• This week in math we finished up Unit 1.  On Monday (pictures below) the students designed a house out of place value blocks and then had to figure out how much their house was worth by adding up all the place value blocks.  The students took their Unit 1 assessment on Wednesday & Thursday.  Today we started Unit 2 - addition fact strategies.  Today we counted $1, $10 & $100 bills.  We discussed how many $1 bills are in $10 and in $100.  Also, how many $10 bills are in $100.  We learned a fun new Money Exchange game.  The students will have this game coming home in their homework folder.  If you would like to play this game at home you can print the money (click here to print the money), you could also use Monopoly money, or the student can make their own money.

• Next week, we will be focusing on fact strategies and solving word problems.  Some of the strategies will be be looking at are double facts and making combinations of 10.

Writing

• This week in writing we finished the rough draft of our middle in our first personal narrative.  Each student stretched their middle across three paragraphs!  They picked out 3 BIG events that happened in their story and added details about each of these events.  We talked about adding sensory details so that the reader can make a picture in their mind of what happened in the story.
• Next week, we will writing the beginning of our personal narrative and editing/revising our stories. 

Reading

• This week our reading comprehension skill was asking questions.  As readers, we ask questions before we read, while we reading and after we read to help us make sure that we are thinking about the words  that we are reading.  It is important as readers to come back and answer the questions we ask (if we can).  Sometimes the author might not answer all of our questions and leaves us still wondering.
• Next week, we will continue to talk about asking questions, but this time in nonfiction books.

Social Studies

• This week we started our geography and culture unit.  We learned that geography is the study of different places on Earth and what happens there.  We talked about the arctic and the desert and the adaptations that animals and plants have to survive in those environments.  We also discussed, as humans, how living in those environments are different than in Missouri.  Today, we started a fun writing prompt about pretending that we moved to either the arctic or the desert.  In the writing the students wrote about what they would need if they moved there and explained why.  
• Next week, we be finishing up our arctic and desert writing.  Also, we will be talking about rural versus urban.

Word Study 

• This week we had another 6 trick words that we were practicing on spelling.
• Next week, we will be focusing on question words since we will be asking (and writing) questions during reading.  Next week's words are: who, what, when, why, where, how.

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy these summer like temperatures!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Dot Day!

Happy Dot Day!

We have had a wonderful day celebrating Dot Day!  Check out all our pictures here.

We decorated cookies this morning for the surprise visitors, which were firefighters , who brought the truck over and allowed the students to tour the truck and learn about everything on the truck.  We gave them cookies and a Happy Dot Day poster.

We also used the iPads and the Quiver app with special papers to make our pictures look 3-D.  The app is free and so is the paper if your students want to try it at home also.  The kids also enjoyed eating the Dot Day trail mix and cookies.

Thank you to everyone who donated items for Dot Day.

Hurricane Relief
We have collected 158 items in our room so far for Wedgewood Elementary.  Monday is the last day to donate supplies.  Rhonda sent out an email today with information about supplies still needed if you would like to donate.

Curriculum Chat
Curriculum Chat is Tuesday, September 19 from 7:45 a.m.-8:15 a.m.  The students have been working on a book to share with you to tell you all about "A Day in the Life of a Second Grader."  We will also have pictures of the kids working and share some information about what to expect in 2nd grade.  We hope to see everyone here.

Homework
The students did a nice job with homework this week.  Thank you for your support at home and signing each night.  The math section has changed slightly.  Each night students can decide between facts or games.  They aren't required to do one or the other on any night, but are still expected to do math, reading and spelling words each night.

Here is what we worked on this week and will be working on next week.

Word Study
We continued to work on no excuse words this week.  The words from this week are now words we expect the students to spell correctly in their writing.

Next week, we will continue adding words to our list of words we expect students to spell correctly.  The words for next week are because, come, friend, have, good, again.  Students are expected to practice these words for at least 5 minutes each night.

Reading
This week, we continued working on predictions.  We made predictions on The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Violet the Pilot and The Gruffalo.  Then we read the books to see if our predictions were correct.  The predictions are displayed in the hallway.  Make sure to check them out when you come to Curriculum Chat.

Next week, we will work on asking questions while reading.  We will be asking who, what, when, where, why and how questions.  We will be asking questions about the book as well as asking questions about why authors made certain choices within the book.

Writing
This week in writing, we wrote our The Day in the Life of a 2nd Grader book for curriculum chat.  We worked on writing complete sentences with capital letters and correct punctuation.

Next week, we will pick back up with our personal narrative.  We have written our first event, next week we will write our second and third event and then go back and write the beginning.  We have learned that students are more successful writing their middle and then going back to write their beginning so they don't tell their entire story in the beginning.

Math
This week, we worked on quarters, odd and even numbers, both identifying them and noticing patterns, then we ended the week by working on comparing numbers.  We also learned a new game.  It is called Number Top It and will be coming home next week as another homework game option.  The goal is to make the largest number possible, but also works on comparing numbers to identify the winner.

Next week, we will be wrapping up unit 1.  We will be exploring with base 10 blocks, dominoes and pattern blocks.  This will be working on adding groups of tens and using squares, triangles and circles to fill in rectangles.  We will be taking an assessment next week.  In Everyday Math, the assessment is taken over 2 days.  It includes a self-assessment, a written portion and an open response portion.  We will be doing the assessments on Wednesday and Thursday.  In your student's Friday folder is a letter about Unit 1 as well as some sheets you can do (completely optional) if you would like to review.  There is also an introduction letter for Unit 2 which we will begin on Friday.

Social Studies
We started Junior Achievement this week.  This is a 5 week program (they come once a week) that teaches students about their community and the different types of jobs in the community.  Junior Achievement is taught by local business people.  Our community member is Ellen Dent from Callaway Bank.

We will also start our Geography and Culture Unit.  We will talk about how a community's physical environment affects the ways its members live and how the values, beliefs and experiences are shared by people in a community.

Science
We observed our caterpillars this week and sadly 2 of them didn't make it.  We were fortunate to get a chrysalis that was about to turn into a butterfly on Thursday (my step-mom had one that she let the class have to see the whole process).  This morning after recess, the butterfly came out of the chrysalis, the kids were very excited and enjoyed watching it spread its wings and have them dry out throughout the day.  I released the butterfly into our butterfly garden this afternoon.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Ross