As usual, we have been very busy in Room 13!  Keep reading to find out more!

Reading
Yesterday, students were introduced to the reading anthology for the first time and today we read the first story, David's New Friends.  Ask your child to tell you about the story and the surprising new friend that David made at the end! 

We have also been working hard to identify characters and settings within the books/stories we read.  Students should now understand that the characters in a story are the people and/or animals that the story is about and the setting is the "where and when" the story takes place.  They have been using T-charts to list characters and settings as they read - encourage this at home, as well!

Math
Yesterday, we talked about how it is sometimes hard to "find the math" in a word problem (AKA number story).  As a class, we worked our way through a few problems following these steps:

1. Read the problem carefully.
2. Circle the question.
3. Underline important/key words and information.
4. Cross out distracting information.
5. Make a plan/Choose a strategy (ex. act it out, draw a picture, make a chart, etc.)
6. Show your work.
7. Write your answer - including the unit.
8. Look/Check your answer - does it make sense?

Students have these steps printed out for them in the Word Problem folders, but they might be helpful to have at home too!

On Tuesday, we had our first Math Lab!  Students traveled among three stations including:  


1. Terrific Temperature: Mrs. McCarron introduced students to thermometers and temperature by guiding them through several activities.

2. Domino Addition: At this station, Mrs. Potenzone helped students sort dominoes according to their sum. Students then picked a sum and listed/drew the dominoes that equaled that sum.

 

3. Base-10 Block Building: With Mrs. Chambers and Mrs. Markey to guide them, students used Base-10 blocks to build a structure and then determine the “total value” of the structure by adding up all of its “parts.”

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH to our parent volunteers for helping out today!! :)

Hello Parents!

As some of you may know, I was out this past week with a pretty serious knee injury. According to Mrs. Glazier, students did a great job following the rules and routines in Room 13 and had a very productive week. I am hoping for a smooth transition back to school this week and I just want you to know that business will continue as usual!

A few things to note: 
* This week's spelling list will look a little different in that most students will have 15 words, rather than 10.  This will be the case from now on.  Please check in with your child to make sure s/he does a spelling activity every week!!  (We had a few children forget last week!)

* I am looking for volunteers for our first Math Lab on Tuesday from 12:30-1:30.  I will send out an email as well - let me know if you are interested!

* Our fabulous Room Parent are putting the finishing touches on our volunteer schedules.  Those will come out this week! 

* I am putting together the final details for our Classroom Directory and I will get that information out to you as soon as possible.

That's all for now!  I'm looking forward to a great week! :)

We had a very busy week!  Besides being our first full week of school, we also had Curriculum Night, Book Fair, and our first Mystery Reader!

Curriculum Night and Other "Parent Stuff"
I really enjoyed meeting you all at Curriculum Night!  I hope my presentation was informative and my expectations clear.  If you have any questions or concerns about any of our routines or any of the information, please let me know!   

I put together a distribution list for email and sent my first email out on Thursday.  If you did NOT receive this email, please contact me with your information so I can add you to our list. If you would like to add or delete any additional email addresses, let me know and I will make the appropriate changes.  I am asking all parents to email me back as a confirmation that you received the email.  I appreciate your help with this!

With Thursday's email, I attached our Classroom Directory, Conference Schedule, Mystery Reader Schedule, Emergency Snack Schedule, and Volunteer Sign-Up.  Please check the information in these documents carefully and contact me if I need to make changes.  The Mystery Reader schedule is a work in progress - I will send a final version within the next week or so. 

Our Room Parents this year are Tammy Gilbery and Jocelyn Edwards.  (Yay!)  I will be in touch with them early next week to start organizing schedules for our Computer Lab volunteers, Spelling Helpers, and Copiers.  I hope to get that information out to you all ASAP.  We had so many parents sign up to help this year - it's amazing!  I'm really looking forward to working with you all!  Thank you!!

Classroom/"Kid Stuff"
Students were very busy this week.  They are starting to settle into the routines and, as a result, are becoming more and more productive!!

Reading
In reading, we have identified different kinds of genres.  Students should now understand that books can generally be divided into fiction and nonfiction.  Within those categories, however, there are subcategories including:

FICTION
Fantasy Fiction
Realistic Fiction
Traditional Fiction
Science Fiction
Historical Fiction

NONFICTION
Informational Nonfiction
Biographies

There are more, of course, but they ARE only 7-8 years old!

Math
In math, students learned and played several new games this week - all of which reinforced important math concepts. 

Addition Top It
This game is like "war" except students flip over two cards each, find the sums, and the person with the highest sum takes all the cards.  (This can be played with a regular deck of cards - play at home!)

Money Exchange Game
This game is played with paper bills - $1, $10, $100.  Students roll a dice and start collecting $1 bills.  When they reach 10, they trade their 10 $1's for a $10 bill.  The first person to trade for $100 wins!

Penny Plate
To play this game, partners need 20 pennies and a plastic bowl or plate.  One child closes his/her eyes while the other places some pennies under the plate.  The remaining pennies are placed on top of the plate.  The child whose eyes were closed now counts the pennies on top of the plate and tries to figure out how many pennies are underneath (by counting up or counting down). 

Mystery Reader
Our first Mystery Reader of the year was Mr. Markey - Julia's dad.  He read The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens and Susan Steves Crummel and Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis.  Here are a few pictures from his visit! :)

It's our first full week - and we are off to a great start! 
Students have been busy practicing important reading routines and learning new ones including:

a) how to choose a "just right" book
    Every child has different interests and different reading abilities.  It is important that
    each student is able to choose a book that is "just right" for them.  If a book is "just
    right," your child should:
         * find it interesting
         * be able to read almost all the words independently
             ~ Ask your child to explain the 5-Finger rule to you! 
         * be able to read the book aloud with few or no "bumps"
              (it should be smooth/fluent)
         * understand the story
         * be able to explain/retell the story to someone else

b) how to read independently
    Students in our classroom created "rules" for Silent Reading and they are as follows:
        * be quiet/no talking
        * no walking around
        * READ! (don't be distracted)

    Each student in our classroom has chosen a "book nook" and will go to that spot when
    reading independently. (Ask your child where his/her nook is!)
    As a class, we are working to build up our reading endurance.  In the beginning of the
    year, students were able to read for 6 minutes and 42 seconds before someone spoke,
    stopped reading, or needed to get up/move around.  Last week, we were able to read
    for 7 minutes and 13 seconds.  Today, we read for 8 minutes and 34 seconds.  I am so
    proud of the progress we are making!!

c) the importance of "thinking about your thinking" as you read
    Good readers think while they are reading and it is important that students learn how
    to think when they are reading.  We have been talking about some of the different    
    kinds of thinking that students should do as they read - and I hope that you also
    encourage your child to:
          * Make Predictions
              Predictions are guesses about what is going to happen next.  When students
              make predictions, it shows that they are thinking about the story.  After making
              a prediction, students should read to find out if they were correct!
          * Ask Questions
               Asking questions about what is happening in the story is an important reading
               strategy.  Helpful starters include:
                       " I wonder why..."
                       " How come..."
                       " Why/how did..."
          * Make Connections
               Making connections is usually an easy and fun strategy for second graders. 
               They enjoy comparing their own experiences to what they read, telling how
               they are the same and how they are different.  Two types of connections
               students might make are:  
                    * text-to-self connections:  students make a connection between what they
                      read and something in their own life (e.g. a similar situaton, event,
                      experience, etc.)
                   * text-to-text connections: students make a connection between what they
                     are reading now and something they have read or heard before
          * Notice the Author's Language
              This is one of the trickiest reading strategies for students.  You can help your
              child notice the author's language by asking them to look for patterns (repeating
              lines/phrases, rhyming, etc.) or asking them if certain phrases help them get a
              picture in their mind (visualizing). 

Please encourage and support your child as he/she reads at home!  I can already tell that we have some great readers in our class!  Keep up the good work! :)

Math Lab

Today was our first Math Lab and it was math-tastic!
Students rotated among three stations:

1. Coin Craziness with Mrs. Marzilli
At this station, students reviewed the names and values of the coins. They then practiced counting coins in their Math Journals.

2. Puzzling Problems with Mrs. Glazier
Using the strategy "Act it Out," students used real coins to solve a tricky word problem. Mrs. Glazier then modeled for students how to show their work and give a written explanation. We will be doing this all year!

3. Super Story with Mrs. Foisy
Mrs. Foisy, our math specialist, read aloud the story Splitting the Herd: A Corral of Odds and Evens by Trudy Harris. After listening to and discussing the story, students worked on a coloring sheet by identifying odd and even numbers.

Homework Information

Hello Parents!  I just wanted to let you know that I added a new page to our blog titled, "Homework and Projects." (Look for the tab at the top of the blog.)  Normally, students are responsible for writing down their homework and putting this information in the back of their red Take-Home folders to refer to at home.  Some assignments, however, may require a little more explanation so I have created a special page for you/students to visit when you need a little extra help.  Tonight's homework is explained in detail on this page - along with photographic examples!  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Say Cheese!

It was another great day in Room 13!  Students remembered most of the classroom routines that we established last week - and learned a few more today! 

Spelling
We started spelling today and your child should have his/her spelling list stapled into his/her spelling notebook (the purplish one).  All spelling-related work and materials (including pre-tests, lists, activities/homework, spelling tests, etc.) will be kept in this notebook and it needs to go home and come back to school every day.  I sent home a yellow paper today, explaining the spelling routines and expectations in detail.   Parents:  Please make sure to read this paper carefully (both sides) and let me know if you have any questions!

Book Borrowing
Students also learned how to borrow books from our classroom library today.  Ask your child to tell you about it!

Hopes and Dreams
Last week, I was "showing off" students' fabulous second grade goals in the teachers' room when Ms. O'Malley asked me if our students might be willing to share their Hopes and Dreams with students in her class.  After discussing it with the children, we decided that it would be an honor!  This afternoon, students from Ms. O'Malley's class visited our room and listened as we shared and explained our goals. It was a great opportunity for students to interact with others - some meeting new friends and some re-connecting with old friends.  I think that students in Ms. O'Malley's class got a few ideas for their own Hopes and Dreams as well!  (We are invited back to hear their goals once they finish!!)   Scroll down to see pictures of students in action!

We Made it Through the Heat Wave!

It's been a really hot week, but children in Room 13 persevered - proving that they are ready and excited for second grade!  I can tell already that we are going to have a really great year!

We spent the majority of this week learning about and practicing some of our important routines and procedures.  Students are quick learners and have been demonstrating an amazing ability to listen carefully and pay attention to details! Ask your child to tell you about one of our Morning Meeting greetings, about his/her job this week, or about the story we are reading during snack (Sideways Stories from Wayside School, by Louis Sachar.) 

As a class, we also spent a lot of time talking about our goals for this school year.  Students reflected on their first grade experience - identifying things that they enjoyed doing, things that were a little tricky for them, and things that they were good at.  They then used these ideas to help formulate their "hopes and dreams" for second grade. Please ask your child to share with you his/her hope and dream! 

These hopes and dreams then helped us develop our classroom rules.  Students thought long and hard about what they would need to achieve their goal.  What would the classroom need to look and sound like?  What would they need from their classmates?  What would they have to put in themselves?  After considering these questions and brainstorming with each other, they decided on the following rules:

1. Respect others' feelings.
2. Keep each other safe.
3. Be quiet when others are talking and working.
4. Take care of our classroom and our school.
5. Try your best and have fun.

I'm hoping that these rules will help guide us all through a safe and fun school year!

In addition to these important accomplishments, students also took a baseline math assessment and a quick spelling inventory this week.  They can expect a (painless) reading baseline assessment next week.  I will use all of this information to help guide my instruction over the next few weeks. 

All in all, I think we had an extremely productive week and I am so excited about this school year!  I hope you are too!

*On a side note, I will be updating our blog at least once a week.  I apologize for not posting earlier this week - it was just too hot!!  Please check regularly to stay up-to-date with all that is happening in Room 13!