Highlights of the Week 11-20-15

Hello families,

This past month Sarah has been increasing her presence in our classroom. She has developed great relationships with our students and helps tremendously in our day to day learning opportunities, routines, and curriculum development. She has been incrementally taking over some whole group and small group instruction in reading, word work, writing, and math. After Thanksgiving break she will begin her two leadership weeks. During this time Sarah will be in the primary teaching role for whole group instruction while I will be in the support role co-teaching with her. (Small group reading and word work instruction will remain the same.)

This week we wrapped up our matter unit. These were the highlights students shared about their learning:

• Matter is everything, even a tick.
• Liquid, solid, gas are states of matter.
• Matter is made of elements.
• Plasma is a fourth state of matter.
• Without matter the world wouldn’t exist!
• Solid changes to liquid
• Liquid changes to gas
• Gas changes to liquid
• Liquid changes to solid
• Our bodies are made up of solids, liquids, and gases
• Sometimes matter can change and change again
• Sometimes matter changes and can’t change back.
• The water cycle shows how water changes through the 3 states of matter.

Next week we'll begin an integrated social studies and writing unit on families and family traditions at home and around the world. We will be writing a short report about one holiday and the traditions we have to celebrate it with our families. There is a letter and survey about that hopefully you received yesterday. Please help your child fill out the survey and send it back by Monday November 30th! We'll use these as the planning work for our report writing during the month of December.

I am excited to say that the 2nd grade math curriculum blog page that I've been working on since September is finally up and running! If you have a second grader please check it out for information about the math curriculum and student achievement standards used here. There are also A TON of links for online games and activities you could do with your child at home to support our math learning here at school. The link to my 2nd grade math page (as well as Ben's 1st grade math page) are in the righthand sidebar of this blog. For those of you who have first graders please also note that Ben Weiss will begin his paternity leave next Monday and will be back after the holiday break in January. Long-time Rumney veteran Scottie Brower will be his long-term sub until that time. Welcome back, Scottie!

We began to look at some Thanksgiving books and poems this week and read Scholastic News articles about the lives of pilgrims and natives during the first Thanksgiving. We also practiced these fluency reading strategies: back up and re-read & read smoothly!

First and second graders published their next small moment story this week, illustrated them, and shared them by reading to their peers. We had an All School Meeting on Thursday. Since our Thanksgiving songs were such a hit at Primary Sing we got the news before math that day that we would also perform our Thanksgiving song again for the whole school at the ASM! We played math games with our buddies on Friday.

This will be the last post this month even though we still have school on Monday and Tuesday next week! In advance we'd like to wish you a happy and safe holiday.

-Theresa & Sarah

Thanksgiving Song

Our class has been working on composing a song about Thanksgiving with Ms. K during music class. We performed it for Ben's class during primary sing. Check out the video of our performance - I recommend watching it in Full Screen!

Here are the lyrics to our song:

Thanksgiving Song

Written by Mrs. Fox’s 1/2 Class

Oh Thanksgiving, I’m glad you’re almost here.

I love to eat my dinner

With all my family here!

Turkey, stuffing, cranberries,

Pies, potatoes and gravy.

Oh Thanksgiving, I’m glad you’re almost here.

I love to eat my dinner

With all my family here!

Caramel apples, games and fun,

Yummy food for everyone!

Oh Thanksgiving, I’m glad you’re almost here.

I love to eat my dinner

With all my family here!

Oh Thanksgiving, I’m glad you’re almost here.

Oh Thanksgiving, I love you every year!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Highlights of the Week 11-13-15

Hello families,

What an incredible class we have! Even with a crazy week with me being out so much students were engaged in their learning and showed great Rumney CARES to Sarah and Mrs. Joslyn who held down the fort.

Students looked closely at the writing process and finished the steps in order to publish their next small moment story (personal narrative). On Friday our 6th grade buddies typed our stories.
These are our steps:
1) Planning
2)Writing/Drafting
3) Peer Review
4) Editing
5) Publishing

We practiced a few comprehension strategies with our Scholastic News, "Veteran Mom", as well as with our Read Aloud, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm by Betty MacDonald. This week we practiced: Ask Questions, Check for Understanding, and Infer (think about what you know; fill in; connect).

We did one last experiment seeing what happens to solid butter when heat is added. We also had a fun 4 Winds lesson with Honi and Abby about leaves. If you can help with our next 4 Winds lesson in December please let either Honi or me know! Here are a few pictures from this science adventure!

 

Second grade mathematicians continue gaining accuracy and/or fluency with their subtraction facts from the N+10 and N+9 families. They use number ladders, fact wheels, fact family triangle cards, and cuisenaire rods to build up their fact knowledge banks.They learned a few strategies for adding a string of addends (i.e. 7 + 9 + 5 + 11 = ___) and explaining their thinking verbally as well as on paper. They continue to work on place value, writing numbers in expanded form, and writing numbers in words. First grade mathematicians continued their work with the number line and worked in stations to practice addition facts, number writing, and combinations of 10.

There is one more week to submit a Scholastic book order. There is a link to our ordering webpage on the right-hand sidebar of this blog! If you want any books as gifts for the holiday please be sure to make an order online or send in a check with your order form by this upcoming Thursday! One last highlight is how much fun Sra. Donovan has made learning body parts in Spanish. On Friday they even made this amazing live diagram!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Dates to Remember
Thursday Nov. 19 -- Scholastic Book Orders Due!
Thursday Nov. 19 -- All School Meeting 2:30-3:15
Wed-Fri Nov. 25 - 27 -- Thanksgiving Break (no school)

Highlights of Our Week 11-5-15

Dear Families,

This week we became chemists! We've been doing experiments to see how and why matter changes. This week we continued to watch our cup of water evaporate. We also added heat to some types of matter (ice cubes, water, a rock) to see what changed or what stayed the same. We also decreased the temperature of some matter (water, orange juice, a pencil, a shoe) by putting them in the freezer to see what changes would happen.

We read many science related read alouds this week:Clouds by Anne Rockwell, Cloud Dance by Thomas Locker, What is a Solid? by Jennifer Boothroyd, and The Falling Raindrop by Neil Johnson and Joel Chin.

In literacy we discussed how we can use strategies both to help our comprehension or understanding of the books while also using the same strategy to work on our accuracy or reading the words correctly. We began our CAFE strategy wall together; CAFE stands for: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary. We discussed how readers of all ages and abilities use strategies to work on these 4 parts of reading for their whole lives!

Writers added many details to their small moment stories this week. They conferenced with peers to ask questions and add even more details. By the end of the week most students were editing their stories to get ready to publish!

Wednesday I was able to meet with some families for conferences. Most other families I will meet with tomorrow, Friday. Remember there is no school for students on Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Highlights of the Week 10-30-15

Greetings families!

We've had a wonderful week together. On Monday I read the class 3 versions of my small moment story, "Logan's Loose Tooth." We discussed how the same story can be written differently by adding more details, transitional words, and juicy or strong words. By editing and adding these story elements our stories get more interesting and create a better picture/movie in our head as we read. This week everyone began writing another small moment story trying to add more detail to this story than their first stories. They read their stories (so far) to a partner and helped brainstorm details to add by asking questions to one another. They also helped Sarah elaborate her small moment birthday story by asking clarifying questions. Our writers are on a roll!

We've continued reading aloud books about matter and the water cycle. We've discussed and experimented a lot with water this week because it's so easy to see how matter changes states by observing water. We read Water Dance by Thomas Locker, The Falling Raindrop by Neil Johnson and Joel Chin, and excerpts from I Wonder Why: Soap Makes Bubbles and Other Questions About Science by Barbara Taylor.

Throughout the week we did experiments with water: creating a cold cup surface with solid water (ice) to see condensation form (attracting water vapor from the air to the cold surface and change into water droplets); we watched solid water (ice) melt and turn back into a liquid; we made a "mini water cycle" in a cup by the window to see if we had enough sunlight to recreate the cycle; we left a cup of water out uncovered to see how much would evaporate; and we combined a solid (baking powder) with liquid water to see if we could create a gas (fizzy air bubbles). We also continued brainstorming examples of the 3 states of matter that we can find here at Rumney. We were also overjoyed to have a double rainbow over Hunger Mountain right outside our window on Thursday!

During literacy time many of our students continue to favor free writing. I love to hear the imaginative stories they are coming up with! We still can't use our Listen to Read station since we'd have to share headphones. Until we get the "all clear" message about lice from Ms. Israel we will unfortunately not have access to our audiobooks. Instead students continue practicing reading to themselves and reading fluently and expressively aloud to a partner. In teacher led book buddy groups we continue to practice word decoding strategies, word and vowel patterns, fluent re-reading, and comprehension strategies to monitor our understanding.

Second grade mathematicians continue to practice subtraction fact fluency using the fact families from our N+1, Make 10, N+10 and N+9 addition families. We are also composing and decomposing 3 digit numbers by place value, and practicing reading and writing numbers to 1,000.

On Friday we made some Halloween decorations for our room (and to take home), read a funny Halloween book, T-Rex Trick-or-Treats by Lois G. Grambling, and did Halloween word searches and drawings with our buddies.

We wish you all a wonderful holiday weekend!
-Theresa & Sarah

Dates to Remember:
Wednesday November 4 -- Parent/Teacher Conferences after school
Friday November 6 -- NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS; Parent/Teacher Conferences all day
Tuesday November 10 -- 4 Winds 2:30-3:20 p.m.
Wed-Fri Nov. 25 - 27 -- Thanksgiving Break

HOW 10-22-15

Hello families,

This week we discovered how shape has a lot to do with the properties of the three states of matter. Students remembered that solids keep their shape, liquids move and change shape, and gases flow and have no shape. I'm hoping to do some experiments about how matter interacts and changes in the next 3 weeks. Can anyone send in: 1 box of stove-top jello, or 5 antacid tablets?  We also began reading books about matter and examples of solids, liquids, and gases. This week we read: Matter is Everything by Becky Gold, Wind by Honor Head, and A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick.

During literacy block many students are finding the joy of partner writing. They are planning stories together, writing, and monitoring each other to make sure what they wrote makes sense. Another favorite literacy time activity is playing Oh no! or Yikes! -- these are games that practice sight word reading and spelling. Our literacy block groups are running smoothly too. Everyone in the class reads in a group with me. Some groups meet more frequently than others depending on the skills each child is developing. Some groups also began meeting with Sarah (our student teacher).

In writing students assessed their own writing using the Calkins guidelines for narrative writing. Then they took their typed stories and began to put them into their published books. Children were responsible for cutting and gluing their page chunks in the correct order to build their book. Then the job of illustrating began! Many careful illustrations were made this week to match the words they had already written.

Second grade mathematicians worked more with fractions this week as well as with fact families. We are still looking at the connection of fact families in addition and subtraction. First grade mathematicians are making 5 and making 10 as well as looking at how numbers are put composed (tens and ones).

We had 2 birthdays, our first popcorn day, and an All School Meeting this week--it was quite exciting! Next week I'm sure we'll have lots of excitement about Halloween which is rapidly approaching. We will not be having a Halloween activity at school though, so please have your children save their costumes for home and trick or treating next weekend.

Don't forget to sign up for a parent/teacher conference at this link if you haven't done so yet. Or, if you don't have internet at home send me a note giving a time range when you'd like to come in Friday November 6th. As of this morning there are conferences still available between 9:20 and 2:40.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Highlights of the Week 10-16-15

Hello families,

We had a wonderfully productive short week together. I am so happy to be healthy and back again. With the seasonal weather changing many people are getting colds or flu-like viruses. Make sure to keep sending a water bottle in with your child so we can all stay hydrated and healthy! Please also make sure to send your child with appropriate outerwear and footwear each day. We go outside for recess unless it's pouring rain or below 0 degrees.

This week we looked at our finished drafts of our small. We edited them to make sure our sentences made sense, to have capitals at the beginnings of all sentences and punctuation at the ends. We also did a little bit of work fixing spelling of commonly used words (from our word wall) and also tried out a few puzzling words. When we write spelling is not our main focus--the point of writing is to communicate our thoughts, ideas, and stories. If we don't spell everything right, that's okay! First and second graders are not expected to use "dictionary spelling" for all of their words; rather they write the sounds they hear and the word chunks they know. On Friday our buddies helped to type our stories so we can begin the publication process next week!

Second grade mathematicians have been working on fractions of a whole (halves, thirds, fourths/quarters). They are also practicing addition strategies and using those fact families to gain fluency in addition and subtraction facts to 20. Currently we're reviewing and practicing Number+1, Make 10, Number+10, and Number+9 fact families. First grade mathematicians are also working on addition strategies to gain fluency for addition facts. They are learning about place value in numbers to 100.

On Thursday we got to help our school again by scrubbing and chopping the potatoes we harvested from the garden. Our class did all this work with guidance from staff and garden parent, Talitha. The kids were so excited to use special crinkle cut knives that are designed to help children (ages 2+) practice knife skills (they are from Montessori School Tools). These crinkle cutters can't cut skin but were perfect for potatoes. Our class loved using them and they were so proud of how much they were able to do. On Friday Deb cooked them up in the kitchen for a school-wide garden snack!

 

 


On Friday we welcomed another new family to Rumney and gained another first grader in our wonderful classroom community. This week we also welcomed a new student teacher from UVM to our class. Her name is Sarah MacDonald. See the following blog post for a brief message from Sarah.

Reading Scholastic News articles with Sarah.

Parent/Teacher conferences are coming up, Wednesday afternoon Nov.4 and school hours Friday Nov. 6. Remember, there is no school for students on Friday Nov. 6! Please follow this link to sign up for your 20 minute conference slot. Please record when your conference is. Conferences are back to back so prompt beginning and ending times are crucial!

Enjoy this autumn weekend!


Dates to Remember
Thursday October 22: All School Meeting 2:00-2:45
Wednesday November 4: Parent/Teacher Conferences scheduled 3:15-5:00
Friday November 6: Parent/Teacher Conferences scheduled 8:15-3:20