Read Across America Week

Next week is Read Across America Week!!  We are doing some things at school to celebrate our love for reading and also to honor Dr. Seuss since his birthday is March 2.  These are some of the things we are doing:

**Each grade level was asked to choose a poem and one representative to read a part of poem.  These poems were recorded and were sent to the radio station.   I am not sure when they are being played.  When I find out I will let you know. 

**Your child was asked to bring in his/her favorite book.  The art teachers have been working with them on a book jacket project.  Students were asked to make 2 posters: the first was the front cover of their book and the back is a favorite character or part of the book.  Using string, the 2 posters were tied together.  Next week they will wear their favorite book during the day!

**Friday of next week your child will be reading with another class.  We will have munchie reading!!  We will be paired up with an older class and the two students will sit and read together.  Of course, since it is munchie reading they will have a snack and a drink.  A note will come home next week asking you to send a snack and drink to school with your child.  Please don't send anything until the note comes home.

**Finally, if you would like to come in and read a story to the class this would be the perfect time for you to do that!!!  If you are interested please send a note to school or e-mail me and we can finalize times.  You and your child can pick a favorite book for you to read.  Here are some times that would work in our schedule:

Tuesday, February 28: 9:30 - 11:20 or 3:00 - 3:20
Wednesday, February 29: 9:00 - 10:40
Thursday, March 1: 9:00 - 11:20

Since we started a new unit in literacy there are new comprehension strategies on the side of the blog.  Please take a look at those and reinforce them with your child when you are reading at home.

I hope everyone has a super weekend!!

Conferences and testing

I would like to thank everyone for coming to conferences this week!!!  It was great to chat with you and to show you your child's work.  Please don't ever hesitate to e-mail or call me at school.  Continue to read with your child nightly and help them with homework when needed.  I am trying my best to get them ready for 3rd grade next year.  In order to do this, we both need to teach them responsibility!!!

The last few days at school we spent wrapping up our literacy and math units.  We took our math test today over the subtraction algorithm, multiplication/arrays, and division.  I will get them checked this weekend and I plan to send them home with your child next week.  We will start a new unit on Tuesday: Patterns and Rules.  Please continue to review telling time, money, and the addition and subtraction algorithms with your child.

In Literacy your child worked REALLY hard on their group project.   They each had a city to research and their goal is to convince people that their city is the best.  They had to research the jobs, buildings, attractions, services, and natural resources in their city.  They took notes and then wrote 2 statements for each topic.  We will practice and present these next week.  I will tape them so that when you come for our spring open house you can see your child's presentation.  They worked really hard on these and put in a lot of effort.  I am so proud of them!!!!

Finally, with the end of February and Spring getting closer we will begin to have warmer and then colder temperatures.  Please make sure that your child is dressing appropriately each morning.  We still require boots, snowpants, winter coats, hats and mittens.  Warmer temperatures means a SLOPPY playground.  So, even if it's warmer outside your child will still need to wear boots and snowpants so they don't get wet.  You may also want to pack extra pants, socks, and mittens with your child in case they get wet at recess.  I will let you know when the extra clothes aren't needed.

I hope everyone has a super weekend.  I plan to stay home and relax.  I will see my 2A kiddos back here on Tuesday. 

Acrostics, Subtraction, and Inquiry

Wow...what a busy week we've had!  I am so proud of my 2A kiddos - they have been working so hard for me this week! 

Literacy: We took a break from our Lead 21 mini-lessons and reading groups this week.  The students were put into groups and they started their inquiry projects.  We have been discussing communities this unit in Lead 21 and our theme question is "What makes a good community?".  So...in their groups students had to look at a list of cities in the United States and decide which one they wanted to learn more about.  They had to think about the resources, services, and goods that the community provides.  Once they had a city picked they had to look at pictures of the city and determine 3-5 interesting features the city has.  Finally, they used the pictures and make a mural of the city.  As you can tell they really had to use cooperation for this project.  After 4 days of work the murals are almost complete.  They look awesome!!

Math: At the beginning of the week the kiddos took a math test.  I am in the process of getting those checked.  They will come home when I get them done.  It probably won't be for a week or so since I will be gone next week.  Our next math unit is going to teach students subtraction strategies.  Next week they will learn the subtraction algorithm.  Look for the homelinks to come home!

Writing: We are in the middle of our poetry unit.  This week the kids worked really hard and wrote 3 different kinds of acrostic poems.  They wrote one about themselves, one about Martin Luther King, Jr., and one about a friend.  They did great with this and were really using good word choice towards the end of the week.   Some were even looking in the dictionary for help!!  Way to go writers!

As you can see your children have been working really hard.  Please continue to read with them at home - their reading skills are really improving!  I want to let you know that I will be gone next Tuesday through Friday.  Nick has a business trip/awards ceremony and this year it's in Florida!  I will be here Monday.  They all know that I will be gone but please chat with them about this and remind them to show the same respect towards the sub. 

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Geometry, Poetry, and Communities

I hope everyone is staying warm!!  This weather is slightly ridiculous...if you ask me.  I'm really not a fan of cold weather.  And, the way it sounds, snow is probably coming our way tomorrow.  Please make sure that you listen to the radio/TV for any weather related announcements.  Also, make sure your child is dressed warmly in case they are able to go outside.

We have really been pushing forward in literacy.  Our theme is communities and we are learning what makes a good community.  Students are learning about goods, services, and resources -  how do they effect communities.  The two comprehension strategies that we have discussed this week are cause and effect and asking questions.  You may have noticed that I listed all of our comprehension strategies on the right side of the blog page.  I will highlight our focus strategies in red. 

**Asking questions - readers can ask themselves questions to better understand a text.  They may be able to find the answer to those questions in the text, by thinking on their own, or by consulting an outside text.

**Cause and Effect - readers can identify cause and effect to understand how events go together.  They learned that a cause is the reason something happens.  What happened is the effect.

I modeled both of these strategies with stories during mini-lessons these last two weeks.  Please discuss these with your child and encourage them to continue to monitor their comprehension. 

Math: We are wrapping up our unit on geometry.  Yesterday we learned about symmetry.  We learned that the imaginary dividing line is the line of symmetry.  Some objects can have one or more lines of symmetry.  They may not have a line of symmetry at all.  At the end of class we played a symmetry game online - which most of them loved.  I have posted the link on the left side of the blog page.  We will either start the test tomorrow or Monday. 

Writing: Last week we learned that writers can fancy up their words by using a thesaurus.  Students were given a boring word and they had to use a thesaurus book or the one online to make a list of better choice words.  During literacy we learned that words that mean the same thing are called synonyms.  I introduced acrostic poems to them yesterday.  I hope that they will make good word choices when writing their poems.  We will continue with the poetry unit for the next couple of weeks.  By the end of the unit they will know how to write three different kids of poems.

I hope that everyone has a super weekend!!  Stay warm and enjoy the snow! 

Is this January??

Wow!!  Can you believe this weather??  I had a student yesterday ask me if they had to wear a coat since it was so warm!!  That's crazy!  It sounds like it's going to be getting colder next week so please make sure your child is still bringing appropriate winter clothes.  The playground is muddy so boots are a must.  It's also cold in the morning so please make sure your child is bringing snowpants.

Our snack closet is empty so if you're shopping this weekend snacks would be appreciated.  Your student and their stomach will appreciate it!

We did a review of the Daily 5 this week during literacy.  I was impressed...the had 20 minutes of stamina for Read to Self and Read to Someone.  Way to go 2A!  We struggled a little with Work on Writing.  It was hard for them to write the whole time.  We will continue to work on building this stamina back up to 20 minutes.  During work on writing time students are able to write several forms of writing: personal narrative, fiction story, Fairy Tales, letters, lists, non-fiction.

When we reviewed Cadet Pride they did a super job in the hallway!!  They are so quiet I have to look to see if they are behind me :)  Unfortunately, they have been quite chatty in the classroom.  I would like them to work on this. 

We started a new unit in Social Studies.  We will be exploring Earth and learning about states, our country, and the continents and oceans. 

I hope everyone has a super weekend and you enjoy the nice weather.

Help Wanted

We have our Mega Party on Tuesday, December 13th from 12:30-1:50. We have the party with the other 2nd grade sections and all of the 1st grade sections.

If anyone is interested in volunteering to help us watch kids during that time please contact me. It's helpful to have other adults work at the stations and to help students so the teachers can walk around the gym taking pictures and watching all of the students. If you are able to volunteer please let me know. Thank you in advance for your help!!!

Word Work and Math

You may have noticed that your child is beginning to add big numbers together!!  Next week I will introduce the addition algorithm to them.  This is going to be different than the way you learned it...fyi!!!  Right now, we are busy practicing different strategies to get the answer mentally.  We do a lot of counting by tens and I'm trying to get them to not use the number grid all the time.  They also learned in a 2-digit number to add the tens together first and then the ones; then they need to add those two numbers together.  Please practice math facts with your child at home.  If they have fact power over the easy facts it will make 2 and 3 digit adding much easier!!

I have made some changes to word work beginning next week.  I have decided that all students will have the same word list - students will not be self-selecting their words any more.  The reason for this is I want to see more application of the rules we study.  For example, next week we have words following the /e/ sound: e, ea, ee, e_e, and ie.  I want students to remember and apply the rule for long e sound.  Our new literacy program (Lead 21) does a lot of phonics practice and students have been practicing the sounds for long e a lot lately.  Since everyone will have the same words I will do a class test on Fridays; students will not buddy test any more.

A list of 10 words is coming home today.  These are your child's word study words that they will practice next week.  We will test them next Friday.  Please keep these words in a safe spot and practice them with your child.  These are the words...just in case the list doesn't 't make it home!!

1.  maybe
2.  green
3.  deep
4. clean
5. team
6. theme
7. niece
8. relief
9. believe
10. cheese

If you have any questions please let me know.  I hope everyone has a super weekend!!

BookFLIX

Friday I showed the kids how to get onto BookFLIX.  They LOVED it!!  This is a great way for kids to listen to or read books online at home.  There are hundreds to choose from.  Each week at school, the kids have a day they are able to go online and get on bookFLIX or on the LEAD 21 site.  Here is the information so your kids can listen at home as well.  I know some have already done this; I sent home information about it conferences night.

Go to the address www.aea1.k12.ia.us
Clink on online resources - then click on BookFLIX

User name: kaea137
Password: kaea01

Brrrrr...it's cold!!!

Well....I guess old man winter decided to pay us an early visit this year!!  I can't believe we have had snow already this year AND a late start!!  Please make sure that you watch the news, listen to the radio, or get a text message when we have winter weather.  That way you're not bringing your child to school earlier than needed.

This week in literacy we have been discussing several comprehension strategies: make inferences, recall and retell, and author's purpose.  

• We learned that author's don't write everything in the story so we need to use what we already to know to figure out what the author means - this is making inferences.  It's a really difficult comprehension strategy to understand so I am pleased that my kiddos are beginning to understand this.  
• Another GREAT strategy is recall and retell - I'm working with my kids to make sure they understand and remember what they read.  When readers recall and retell they need to think about what the page was about and then tell someone about it.  This is a great strategy to practice at home.  
• Finally, we continue to discuss why author's are writing their stories: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. 

In math we are practicing our addition and subtraction strategies and our money skills!!  We went to a "farmer's market" in our math journals and bought fruit and vegetables.  Second graders are expected to recognize and count coins so please help your child with this if you see them struggling.  Next week I am going introduce making change...yikes!!!

This week, students wrote a personal narrative about a time they overcame a problem.  They did a super job with this!  Yesterday we did an activity to practice stretching sentences.  As an class we started with a basic sentence: We had fun.  Students needed to add details to it and turn it into a complex sentence.  Then, they were able to practice this with partners and share them with the class.  I expect my second graders to write good, complex sentences.

I hope everyone has a super weekend.  It sounds like we are supposed to have decent weather so hopefully you are able to enjoy the outdoors.  Please continue to read with your child each night!!

Halloween Party

Last week we had a successful Halloween party.  Thanks to the volunteers that donated pumpkins and helped carve!!!  The kids had a super time and did a great job working together to carve the pumpkins.  Here are a few pictures from the party.

This week at a glance...

WOW!!  Can you believe it's already Halloween?  I've been LOVING the warm falls days since I really do not like winter!!!  I enjoyed meeting with everyone last week for conferences.   Thank you for coming in and for continuing to work with your child. 

Today is our Halloween party.  We are carving pumpkins at the end of the day.  Thanks to the parent volunteers for helping and also to those that donated pumpkins.  I really appreciate your help!!!!!

Tomorrow we are heading to UNI to see the play The Frog Prince.  We are leaving promptly at 9:30 so please make sure your child is here on time.  The school is providing a snack and lunch so do not send any food to school with your child.  We are taking Hawkeye Stages busses and we will provide movies.   Please do not send movies or any other electronics to school.  We will eat our lunch at the UNI dome and then head to Gallagher-Bluedorn for the play.  We will return to school right before  dismissal.

In literacy news, we continue to truck along with our new reading series.  These last few weeks the students have learned 2 comprehension strategies: determine important information and determine author's purpose.  These were also introduced to contractions and dictionaries.   We are not doing word study this week due to the short week last week and the field trip this week.  Just a reminder that Book-it is due tomorrow so if your child has read 400 minutes please sign and return the pizza paper with your child.  A new recording sheet will come home tomorrow.

We finished up our 2nd math test last week and this week we began a quick review of place value and money.  We are shopping for fruits and veggies today in math.  It is important that your child can identify and count coins - please practice this at home if needed.  I also hope that all students will achieve fact power this year and won't need to rely completely on fingers or number grids.  Please practice basic facts with your child as well.

We are going to wrap up our butterfly unit in the next week or so.  All of our butterfly friends went from larva to pupae to adults.  This was really exciting for 2A students!!!

I hope everyone has a super week.  Happy Halloween!!!!

Dancing Fever

We have been working soooo hard to earn tickets in 2A!!  In August and September students were earning blue tickets.  All the second graders had to work as a team to earn our reward: a reward recess and dance.  We were having a friendly competition in the school and 2nd grade came in 3rd!!!  During that time we earned 1, 800 tickets.  That's amazing!!!!!!  A lot of kids danced the whole time and I must say we have some excellent dancers in 2A :)  Way to bust a move 2nd graders!

Now, students have to work individually for golden tickets.  I don't give these out quite as often and I give them out for students making excellent Cadet Pride choices.  Each Friday the PBIS team will collect the tickets and draw one winner from the class.  This week Ashley was the winner...congrats!!  I have an extra incentive just for our classroom as well.  Each week I count up the tickets and the top 3 ticket earners are getting a reward from me as well.

I hope 2A students continue to make good Cadet Pride choices!

Helllllooooo Pumpkin Cavers!!

I am searching for volunteers to help out at our Halloween party...I need pumpkin carvers:) The party is on Monday, October 31st from 2:20-3:15. If you are able to help, please send a note with your child and I will get back to you.

Also, in the past I have bought pumpkins for students to carve during our party. However, if you would like to donate a pumpkin to the classroom that would be wonderful!!! Once again, please contact me.

Thanks in advance for your support and help!!

Attention Readers!!!

This post is for families that do not have kids currently bringing home books nightly.

Beginning tonight, your child will bring home a book each night.  They will choose this book from our classroom library.  Please have your child read it and then I would like you to fill out the blue reading log sheet.  Please write the title of the book and decide on the level of the book: too hard, just right, too easy.  Keep this sheet in the plastic bag.

I understand that everyone is busy but please try and have your child read nightly.  This reading time may go towards Book-it.  Once your child has filled up the whole reading log sheet he/she will be able to choose a prize from my classroom prize box.

Thanks for your help and support with this!! 

This week...

We did daily 5.  Jacy
We ran the track.  Emily
We had fun at math.  Brady
We did Lead 21.  Noah
We learned how to stop a sentence with sentence stoppers.  Alyssa
We learned how to weigh things.  Paul
We learned the body parts of an insect.  Landen
We did a buddy test.  Amy
We used sentence stoppers in a sentence.  Hunter
We had a lot of fun in Daily 5.  Travis
We practiced Cadet Pride.  Jasmin
We learned not to burp with our mouth open.  Cole :)
We did lots of learning.  Nathan