Highlights of the Week 1-29-16

Greetings great families!

We had a spectacular week together. In science we continued discussing various landforms and bodies of water. This week I introduced two new vocabulary words: canyon and valley. We read a Scholastic News article about the Grand Canyon. It told us the true story about how this canyon was forms over time by the Colorado River. It also told is the folk tale about how Paul Bunyan formed it accidentally with an ax! We used this article to talk about fact vs. opinion or fact vs. fable. We also had a fabulous 4 Winds with Honi and Abby about snowflakes. There are so many types of snowflake crystals! After learning about them we made snowflakes with our bodies and out of coffee filters. Here are a few snapshots from our 4 Winds this week.

         

Smiling Snowflake Creators

Silly Snowflake Creators

Creating a snow storm in our classroom.

It's snowing!!!

In writing we continue to learn about opinion writing. This week we continued focusing on a good introduction. We also looked at how opinion writing is different from narrative writing. Instead of telling a story, in opinion writing you are telling your thoughts or ideas and backing up your ideas with examples or facts. This week we wrote about which is the best pet for us: a cat or a dog.

Second grade mathematicians finished up our unit on telling time by creating amazing books demonstrating all the skills they’ve gleaned in the past few weeks. They are posted outside our 1-2 classrooms so please take a look! We also began some work on measuring in inches and centimeters.

On Thursday I loved seeing so many of you at the Choral Concert. I am so proud of this class of performers! It can be really nerve wracking to sing in front of so many people but they did great! All their hard work, as well as our outstanding music teacher Ms. K’s, really shows!

Lastly, it seems that Valentine's Day really isn't that far away. In case your home life is as busy as mine and you need a few weekends to get things prepared and finished I figured I'd send out this info now. We will be having a small, classroom Valentine's Day celebration on the morning of Monday February 15th. Coming home today is a list of the students in our class. Please note that if your child would like to hand out valentines at our celebration they must give one to each student (not just a few). This is important so feelings are not hurt. 


Classroom Needs
There are a few items our classroom is in need of. If you are able to send any in please do! 

• Paper sandwich bags for our Valentine Mailboxes.
• Shoe box size boxes (for upcoming science diorama display projects).
• Sanitizing wipes for cleaning our tables each Friday.
• Medium or large size binder clips.

Dates to Remember:
Tuesday February 2nd -- The 100th Day of School!
Friday February 5th -- Teacher Inservice -- NO SCHOOL for students
Thursday February 11th -- All School Meeting 2:30 p.m.
Monday February 15th -- Classroom Valentine's Day Celebration 11 - 11:30 a.m.
Monday Feb. 22nd - Tues. March 1st -- Winter Vacation - NO SCHOOL 
Wednesday March 2nd -- School resumes
Wednesday March 2nd -- Circus Smirkus Residency begins!

Highlights of the Week 1-22-16

Happy Friday Everyone!

This has been quite an exciting week. I spent 1.5 days this week finishing up individual reading assessments with everyone in the class. During our shared reading mini-lessons we read two different sets of Scholastic News articles--one about Martin Luther King Jr. (in celebration of the holiday this week) and one about fantastic ice displays. It was fun to review our matter concepts and see how much we remembered from this past science unit.

Our coat hooks just outside the door were put back up and into use this week as well as our wet mitten/glove rack. We still do have a few new things for the room that are being custom built and have not yet been installed. We're gaining another row of hooks inside our classroom so we can spread out a little bit. Having so many people in one area and with so much Vermont winter gear is challenging! We all look forward to getting this last set of hooks. We'll also have another row and two additional cubbies to attach to our built-in cubbies so there will finally be enough for all of us! Just in time, too, since we'll be welcoming another second grade boy to our class on February 1st.

This week in Writer's Workshop we did some fine tuning and editing of an opinion paper about what we like to do on a snowy day. We also practiced writing introductory sentences by turning a question around into a sentence starter using many of the same words! (i.e. Q: What are your favorite things to do on a snowy day? ... becomes... A: My favorite things to do on a snowy day are snowshoeing and building with snow.)

This week we began our next science unit learning about different types of bodies of water and landforms. In the coming weeks we'll be making models of these in class. If anyone has any spare shoeboxes or shoebox sized boxes that we could use for dioramas please send them in!

Second grade mathematicians have been finishing up fluency work with the last set of subtraction facts as well as work on telling time in 5 minute increments. We began work on a final project in our time telling unit. We also did some pre-assessments on measurement skills as we prepare for a short unit practicing measuring in inches and centimeters.

On Thursday I sent home a large Scholastic book order packet. It's been a while so I thought I'd send along many book options. As usual, you do not need to place an order but if you'd like to purchase any new books please order online or send in your order form and check to my by February 10th--I know it seems like a ways away but time is flying here at school!

Have a happy, lovely weekend!
~Theresa

Dates to Remember
Tuesday January 26th -- 4 Winds 2:45-3:20 (Contact Honi if you'd still like to help out!)
Thursday January 28th - New Construction Open House 6pm; Winter Choral Concert 6:30pm
Friday February 5th -- Teacher Inservice -- NO SCHOOL for students

Highlights of the Week 1-15-16

Salutations!

This week we continued to look at ourselves as learners and think about how we can help ourselves in this process of learning. We made a growth mindset booklet highlighting times we had to overcome failures/mistakes, accept feedback, and persevere to get better at a skill or reach a goal. We also did some "self talk" modeling about what we can say to ourselves when we do come up against challenges. Here is one more online article about fostering growth mindset with your child: http://www.upworthy.com/one-little-change-in-how-you-talk-to-your-kids-can-help-them-be-more-successful?c=ufb1 .

We read so many books this week! We read about real people who exhibited growth mindsets (Helen Keller and Louis Pasteur). We also began our final book in the growth mindset theme, Lassie Come Home by Rosemary Wells. We'll be reading this beautifully written book all next week as well.

We also read A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats as an anchor text for our new opinion writing topic. Students planned and wrote about their favorite things to do on a snowy day. We talked more about how to write a good introduction and have a title that gives the reader a clue for what they will be reading. We also looked at student samples from the past and scored them using the grade expectations for writing in this opinion topic. (If you're interested in what the grade level expectations are, check out the link on my writing curriculum page in the right sidebar of this blog.) By scoring an example of my writing, as well as real kid writing, it helped students get ready to evaluate their own writing to see what they are doing well and what they can still work on as we progress in this writing unit.

Second grade mathematicians have been excited to practice the last set of addition and subtraction fact strategies. They have also been working on telling time to 5 minute increments on digital and analog clocks. I introduced the complexity of time language as well (a quarter past 10 = 10:15, a quarter til 10 = 9:45) and we have been practicing this skill though mastery of time language is not expected during second grade. On Wednesday we also did "computer math" -- an online math screener WCSU uses for students in all grades K-6 each fall and winter. Afterwards students played "Giraffe Race" -- a telling time game from the math curriculum page of the blog. Have you seen my extensive list of online resources for second grade mathematicians?

First grade mathematicians worked in stations throughout the week with Ben, Mrs. Danyew and Mr. Hedler. They worked on Make 10, +10, or +9 strategies, subitizing, and number patterns using the 100 grid. First grade parents, check out info for Ben's first grade math curriculum on his math page if you haven't done so before! The link is in the righthand sidebar of this blog.

This Friday morning we are all eager for our special Fitness Friday event this afternoon! We are also excited to have our friend Sarah back again as a guest teacher at skating while I do another round of reading assessments with some of the class this morning. By the end of next week I'll have finished all of the mid-year reading assessments! I really love having this one-on-one reading time with students. It helps get a clearer picture of each student as a reader. These assessments demonstrate what strategies they have to decode unknown words, how well they comprehend what they are reading, and how fluently they read aloud--all integral parts of reading!!!

Have a wonderful 3 day weekend. Remember Monday is an in-service day for teachers, there is no school for students!

~Theresa

Important Dates:
Monday January 18 -- No School for Students -- Teacher Inservice Day
Thursday January 21 -- All School Meeting 2:30pm
Thursday January 28 -- New Construction Open House 6pm & Winter Choral Concert 6:30pm

News from 1/2 Fox!

Hello all,

Tomorrow is our first Fitness Friday so I thought I'd send along our news today in case you had any questions. Here is the plan: on Fitness Fridays we will not have recess. Instead we will eat lunch in our classroom at 11:30, then do community cleaning and sharing before packing up. Buses for swimming (at First in Fitness), skating (K-4 skates at the Waterbury rink), and cross-country skiing/snowshoeing (at Morse Farm) will be loaded at 12:30 and leaving Rumney by 12:45. Students will bring just the equipment they need and leave backpacks at school. Buses will leave at 2:45 to return to Rumney for  dismissal. Since our lunch time is 30 minutes earlier than usual you may want to pack an extra snack for your child to eat upon returning to Rumney (before dismissal).
*If you plan on picking your child up from the Fitness Friday venue you need to email the office to let them know by Friday at 10:00 a.m. You will need to be at the venue by 2:40 for pick-up. Buses will leave the Fitness Friday location at 2:45. If you plan on picking your child up and are not there by 2:45 the bus will leave with your child on it and you will need to pick up at Rumney instead. Please plan accordingly!


Winter is here in full swing! Please make sure your child comes to school each day with winter boots, coat, snowpants, hat, and gloves/mittens. Please also send in indoor shoes each day--this is important for comfort and school cleanliness! These can either stay in our classroom or go back-and-forth between school and home.


In other news, our first week back has been amazing! Everyone seems well rested, happy, and ready for action. This week we reviewed our classroom rules and talked a lot about growth mindset. We talked about how it's important to challenge ourselves, accept feedback, try our best, and believe in ourselves. Learning doesn't just happen--you have to care about it and make it happen! I shared an experience I had in my life when I had a fixed mindset and shared how I changed my actions and ideas to have a growth mindset and improved! We also read a few books that demonstrated the concept and examples of growth mindset. We read: The Little Engine that Could and Ordinary People Change the World: I am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer.

It's the time of year when we reorganize our literacy time and many new literacy groups began this week. Some groups are building up their sight word banks and learning word chunks or varied vowel sounds to help them be more accurate readers. Other groups are diving deeper into comprehension in their Book Buddy groups and doing more discussion and writing about what they are reading. This is so exciting!

We also began a new writing genre, opinion writing. The purpose of opinion writing is to learn about one another and share our ideas. We know that people often have different opinions and this is good! This week each of us wrote about our favorite season and gave reasons why it is the best season for each of us.

So far 2016 has been amazing. I can't wait to see what the rest of this year will bring for this group of incredible community members and learners!


Dates to Remember
Monday January 18 -- No School for Students -- Teacher Inservice Day
Thursday January 21 -- All School Meeting 2:30pm
Thursday January 28 -- New Construction Open House 6pm & Winter Choral Concert 6:30pm

Winter Solstice

Hello families,

We spent the past week learning about how the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun at this time of year which makes longer nights and shorter days. With the beginning of Winter we will await the return of the sun as more and more sunlight is added to our days until the Summer Solstice. We also learned about Winter Solstice traditions all over the globe from thousands of years ago til today.

Winter Solstice is usually around December 21st so we were pretty close with our wonderful Winter Solstice celebration today. We sang our Winter Solstice song, lit candles to remind us that the sun and light will return, and made wishes to honor the tradition of hoping for good and happy things to come our way.

I was amazed that everyone kept their Secret Snowflake really secret until we exchanged gifts! It was amazing. We also enjoyed delicious Solstice Snacks. Thanks to everyone for contributing to make this a special celebration. Here are a few photos taken during our Solstice song & candle lighting ceremony.

    

    
      

 

I wish you all a happy, healthy, and safe holiday break. See you Tuesday January 5th when school resumes in the new year!

Best Wishes,
Theresa

Highlights on 12-18-15

December 18, 2015

Hello families!


What a wonderful week we spent together. It amazes me how hardworking these students are, even with the excitement of the holidays looming and enveloping us all.

Students have been busily publishing their holiday painted essays and working on their best handwriting—focusing on size and formation of lowercase letters. We finished reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm with Sarah before she left. We also read a few stories about Kwanzaa and Christmas traditions this week.


Tuesday was Sarah’s last official day of student teaching with us. We had a special closing circle to share our wishes for Sarah and her future in teaching wherever she goes. We also had great news—she’ll be with us for a few of our Winter Wellness Fridays in January! Sarah surprised the class with copies of her favorite childhood audiobook, Newberry: The Life and Times of a Maine Clam.


Second grade mathematicians worked more with open number line strategies for subtraction. They also got the basics of telling time on the hour and half hour on digital and analog clocks. We’ll continue this work this month and next with the goal of reading clocks with 5 minute increments this school year.


We’ve begun talking more about Winter Solstice and the science behind it this week. Next week we’ll study the history and legends of Winter Solstice in social studies. We’ll have our Solstice Celebration on Wednesday. Please note I did change the start time to 12:30 to make sure we have time for everything before our Guidance class at the end of the day. It’s a really special celebration and I would hate to rush things and miss out on this important classroom community event. Please remember to send your child’s gift exchange gift in next week labeled with your child’s name (i.e. From: Theresa). It stays a secret until the moment the gift is exchanged!


That's the news for now. Thanks for checking the blog--I really appreciate when you read our weekly news and announcements!

Dates to Remember:

Wednesday December 23 – School Spirit Day: Comfy clothes/PJs and bring a small stuffie to school day!

Wednesday December 23 - Winter Solstice Celebration 12:30 - 2:15 pm

Thursday Dec. 24 - Monday Jan. 4 -- Holiday Break, NO SCHOOL

Tuesday January 5, 2016 -- 1st school day in the new year!

HOW 12-11-15

Happy Friday!

This week we continued with our integrated social studies and writing unit on families and family traditions at home and around the world. Each of the children worked on writing the ‘Parts Of’ a holiday they know well, thinking about all of the traditions associated with this holiday. We also continued working on our ‘Painted Essay’ from the survey of family holidays and traditions that went home. We discussed how to write an introduction with a focus statement, how to organize the main points of our paper, and how to write a conclusion. Below are some photos from some of our lessons together about this writing process. They are now entering the editing process and will be able to start working on their final draft sometime next week!

    

In 2nd grade math we have moved into practicing subtraction with our doubles, near doubles, and two apart double the middle fact families. We will keep practicing with these same fact families with subtraction more next week. We have also been working on learning how to use a number line to help us with subtraction, finding the difference between two numbers. We will have more opportunities to work with this strategy next week. We will also start to work on telling time with analog clocks.

During read aloud this week we continued reading in Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm, discussing the character traits and making predictions. We also had some opportunities to read stories about some different holidays and traditions from different cultures. You should see an article come home that focused on the different parts of holidays using examples from many different holidays. We had a chance to read this article yesterday and the children really enjoyed it.

Here are a few pictures from our 4 Winds lesson with Honi and Abby about conifers and cones!

We are all looking forward to our Winter Solstice party and secret snowflake! Thank you to everyone who sent in forms about secret snowflake. We are still waiting to hear back from a few of you so please check to see if you have those at home. If you could send them in some time early next week that would be great!


One quick reminder to please send your children with appropriate gear for recess. We are approaching winter, though it doesn’t feel much like it today, so please start sending hats, gloves, warm coats, boots, etc. Boots are especially important right now because with this warmer weather there is also a lot of mud outside. Consequently, clean indoor shoes are equally important! Please send indoor shoes with your child each day or if you have an extra pair of shoes they can stay at school all week!


Thank you again for having such amazing children, we had another wonderful week together!


Important Dates to Remember:
Thursday December 17 - All School Meeting 2:30-3:15 pm
Wednesday December 23 - Winter Solstice Celebration 1 - 2:20 pm
Thursday Dec. 24 - Monday Jan. 4 -- Holiday Break, NO SCHOOL
Tuesday January 5, 2016 -- 1st school day in the  new year!

Have a great weekend
~Sarah and Theresa