Today second graders visited the Bushy Hill Nature Center. Students had the chance to learn about Bushy Hill’s Wetlands program. This program connects to our Soil and Plants Science units. Students were able to take a walk through the Cedar Swamp, learning about the plants and animals that live in that habitat. They also did a pond probe in the upper pond using nets and buckets to catch and observe plant and animal life. Students also used the center’s bioscope to take a look at some of the microscopic organisms found in water samples. Everyone had a fun filled day full of sunshine and interesting facts.
A special thanks to our chaperones: Mr. Minickene ( Nola's Dad), Ms. Brainerd ( Julia Rose's Mom), and Mrs. LaMay! Our class has been studying three types of soil- Humus, Sand, and Clay. We have studied the characteristics of each of these soils individually and even combined. Today we studied our own local soil outside of our classroom. Students performed many of the same tasks that we did with individual soils to see if we could figure out which types of soil were in the local sample. Ask your child about what kind of tasks we tried to help us decide what types of soil were in our sample.
Our current unit of study in reading is series book clubs. In this unit students have been learning how to become experts on their characters.Below is our anchor chart that we have built so far in this unit. Each of the skills represented below are skills that students are applying to their reading as they read multiple books in a book series. Students are sharing their findings from their reading for the day with bookclub members who are also reading the same book series. Students are learning how to have book club conversations that are meaningful. They are learning how to stay on one idea longer during their conversations and to add onto other club members' thoughts.
Second graders have been revisiting a very important component of reading. Our current unit of study focuses on the many strategies of building strong reading fluency skills. Below is a chart we have created that shows important skills of a fluent reader.
Today worked on a new strategy called addition splitting. We added two- two digit numbers by splitting each of the numbers into tens and ones. Then we added the ones together, added the tens together and finally combined the tens and ones to get our answer. The class did a fantastic job with this!
Our class has started to explore the new website called storybird.com. This is a language arts-based website that students can create stories based on selecting photos of their choice. They can also read stories that others have created. Please read the notice that coming home to learn more information on how you can access your child's first project on storybird.com.
Our class has been working on putting dialogue into our stories. We are making sure to tag who the person is that is doing the talking by naming that person and how they have said the dialogue. You can see a very short example from your child on the storybird website when you use the information provided in the notice sent home. Our class has been hard at work within our new unit of study in math! Our current unit is adding and subtracting numbers within 100. Students are learning to add two digit numbers with another two digit number. They are learning to do so with and without regrouping. Below is an example of each. The class has been doing a great job with this tricky concept!
Our class has been working hard in this first unit of study in writing! In this unit students have been creating stories by using a small moment from their life and stretching that moment to to help the reader picture what is happening in their head, almost as though they were watching a movie. While creating these stories we took some time to talk about how to create meaningful leads and ending to their stories. Readers' Workshop It is hard to believe but our first unit of study in reading is nearly done! Today we took a moment in class to reflect on all we have learned in this unit. Not only have we revisited strategies that students have learned in the past to help tackle tricky words, but we also learned new strategies to assist us. This unit helped us to think about how to build our reading stamina, how to stop, think, and jot about our reading, and even the importance of stopping to think about what the author is trying to teach us with their books. Students also looked through the lens of the writer and tried to not only identify their craft moves but they tried to apply these moves to their own writing. Your Fantastic Elastic BrainYesterday our class read the book Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak, Ph.D. In this book we learned about the different parts of the brain and their function. We also learned that our brain is like a muscle that we can stretch and help shape. This book was an introduction to our class learning about The Growth Mindset. The growth mindset is the belief that we can do anything we put our mind to and that we do not just have a fixed set of ability that we are born with, but that our actions and our thoughts can help us to overcome challenging tasks. This is opposed to a fixed mindset in which people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits.Your child will be learning a lot about the growth mindset this year and so will you through newsletters that will start coming home shortly!
Second graders have been working on our first unit of study Readers' Workshop. In this unit we have been working to teach the students to take charge of their reading and to use multiple strategies to tackle tricky words. Below are two of our growing charts that we add onto with each new mini lesson.
Our second graders have been working hard on reviewing some math strategies and learning new math fact strategies for facts to 20. Below are a couple of the strategies we have been working on.
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Welcome To Room 32!This blog will be used to help keep you informed of those things that we are working on in class. To receive notification when this blog is updated, subscribe to the RSS Feed. Archives
November 2017
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