November 28th-December 2nd!

Welcome back Team Blowey Parents!

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing, and fun-filled vacation!  I was thankful to be able to spend some time with my family for Thanksgiving and eat lots of delicious food!  It was a great time for creating more happy memories together.  Of course, we had the normal family bickering but what would Thanksgiving be without that!

I did, however, re-injure my knee at school on the Friday before break.  It was rather upsetting after I was feeling so great!  Luckily (I guess)  I already had a doctors appointment set up for after school.  I did the same thing again.  I dislocated my kneecap but not as severe as the first time.  I will have to continue wearing a knee brace for the next month and do some physical therapy.  Hopefully it heals completely after that!  If not, surgery might be needed.  Yikes!  Fingers and toes crossed that a brace, physical therapy, and some rest will make it heal!

This week in:

Literacy:  

Our cafe time menu choices got a slight makeover over vacation so that students had a few more really specific choices to help them meet their goals for comprehension, accuracy, and fluency.  Our trial run today seemed to go pretty smoothly!  I'm hoping these new menu choices will help engage students but also give them a more specific focus during cafe time.  Our major categories now spell the word "FACE" and help us to build our reading skills.  They are:  fluency, accuracy, comprehension, and expanding vocabulary.  Throughout the week, we will have mini lessons to help model some of our new menu choices and hopefully help students become more comfortable with them.  

Our phonics lessons will revolve around introducing the long /i/ sound with i, igh, ie, and y. 

Our comprehension lessons will be centered on a story called Farfallina and Marcel by Holly Keller.  It is a fantasy story about a goose and a caterpillar.  While we are reading we'll not only be focusing on comprehension but we will also focus on building inferences  and generating questions.  We'll be talking about how generating questions about a story can really help us understand the story better and also how making inferences by using the clues in the story helps us answer those questions.

Our new vocabulary words this week are:  giggled, fluttered, peered, recognized, vanished, and snuggled.  We'll be talking with our elbow buddies about what the words mean and also how to use them in a sentence.  Then, we'll read a story called Leo Grows Up and listen for our new vocabulary words. 

In grammar we will be possessive nouns and how to use apostrophes when we write. 

In writing, we are still working on publishing our pieces on how to blow a bubble.  Some students, have chosen to take a different route with their "how-to" stories and have picked a different topic.  Soon, their writing pieces will be on display with an art project to go along with it!  I'm so excited to see how they turn out!  Team Blowey has been putting a lot of time and effort into these pieces and practicing so many writing skills, especially those transition words!

Math:  

We are still working extremely hard primarily on our math facts and on place value.  

Team Blowey is really spread out in our place value goals and our menu time is an excellent time for students to focus on specific parts of place value.  Right now, students are working on knowing how to read and write three digit numbers in words, with numbers, and in expanded form.  They also need to know what number is in the hundreds, tens, and ones place.  Additionally students are working on knowing how many bundles of 100s, 10s, and 1s can be found within a 3 digit number.  Finally, students need to know how to compare two three digit numbers using < = and >.  (Later, we'll be adding the topic of skip counting.)

Every morning, students have the chance to work on their own specific goals.  Many choose to focus on their math facts which is great!  I encourage you to work with your child even more at home to help them learn their facts in a snap!  Remember, in a snap means to know the fact in less than 3 seconds. By now, many students have great strategies to figure out addition and subtraction facts.  However, our goal in second grade is to know the facts fluently.

This week, we also bumped our practice with analog and digital clocks by finding out what time we do specific things in our schedule like lunch for example.  Students have been practicing how to right the digital and analog time for any activity we participate in.  

We've also been continuing our work with Team Blowey's piggy bank.  At every morning meeting, we have the chance to add up money to find out how much money we have added to our "piggy bank".

Science:

Soon we will be planting our very own plants and watching them as they go through their life cycles.  We'll be observing and recording what we see and what we find.  

Before break, students did a great job recording what they found when they conducted their experiment with food coloring, celery, and water.  There was a lot of descriptive writing and a lot of beautiful drawings!

Homework:

Homework packets will look the same as they did last week.  Students came to school today, earned points for the practice they have put in so far, and then chose the activities that they wanted to help them meet their goals.  If you have any questions, please let me know!

Our Parent Night is still TBD.  More information will come your way as soon as things have been set!

Announcements:

Team Blowey is VERY close to earning two very special rewards!  

If we earn a BINGO we will be getting a class fish!  If you and your family would like to donate any supplies for a beta fish, just send a little note my way so I know what to expect.

We are also close to filling the marble jar!  If we fill the jar, we will be making our very own team jerseys!  Once we are little closer, I'll send home some more detailed information for you.

Reminder:  The Winter Concert is coming up soon!  It will be on December 5th, at 6:30 and the Middle School.  I can feel the excitement building already!

As always, if you have any questions, observations, or feedback please let me know!

I hope you all have a joyous week!

Thanksgiving Break!

First of all, I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing break! 

Second of all, you'll notice that homework is still in the boomerang folders.  Students kept their homework packets so that they may circle any activities that they happen to practice over break.  They can earn more points for their homework charts.  Remember:  50 points earns a prize from the prize box!

Also, here a link to a website with some fun Thanksgiving activities!  Give them a try!

http://www.ourclassweb.com/holiday_thanksgiving.htm

Special Announcements!

As promised, once the students got close to getting a bingo or filling the marble jar, I told Team Blowey that we would talk about what their rewards would be.  Here is what we decided:

Reward for Bingo:  Class fish!  Some of the students mentioned that they would like to donate supplies.  If that is something your family would like to do, please send a note my way first so I know what to expect.  Most likely, we will be getting a beta fish.

Reward for filling the marble jar:  Team jerseys!  We'll need lots of help for this!  When the time comes, I'll send out a paper asking for volunteers to help with the jerseys.  If you would like to donate any white t-shirts or fabric paint send them on in!  When students fully fill the marble jar, I will set a date for t-shirt decorating and send out all of the important information.

The team decided that the shirts would say "Team Blowey" on the front with some kind of team symbol yet to be decided and on the back students would have their last names and their class number.

Send any questions my way!

November 14th-November 18th

 

 Good afternoon Team Blowey Parents!

Today, students had a "Healthy Teeth" presentation from Mrs. Maine!  Ask your child what they learned about keeping their teeth strong and healthy.

This week in...

Spelling:

Team Blowey is making the transition to spelling at your own pace!  Today, we talked about what it means to be a responsible test giver and how to know when you are ready to take a spelling test (more detailed information in the newsletter that was sent home today).  Students were also introduced to their spelling game board.  The game board will be used as a way for students to track their progress.  The rest of this week we will be modeling and practicing this new system.

Reading:

We just started a new read aloud book called Mr. Popper's Penguins.  The book came highly recommended by a good friend of mine and so far we are loving it!  

Our new vocabulary words are:  serious, broken, personal, informs, and heal.  We'll be talking with our elbow buddies about what these words might mean and how to use them in a sentence.  When we finish our discussion, we'll listen to a story that uses all of these words.  When we hear a vocabulary word, we'll put a finger on our nose.

We will also be focusing on our ability to summarize stories and remember the sequence of events.  We'll be reading a story called A Trip to the Emergency Room and applying these skills.  

Our small reading groups will also be meeting this week to read some "good-fit" books together.  While we read together, we'll be practicing our decoding and thinking strategies that we got last week. 

Students continue their work during literacy cafe time as well.  They work on building their stamina, word work, writing, fluency, and comprehension.  This is a great time for students to work towards meeting their personal goals.

Writing:

Our new writing project is a "how-to" story.  Last week, Miss Blowey was taken over by an alien who needed to know how to make a soy nut butter and jelly sandwich.  The students tried to give directions but found that they needed to be more specific and give more details so that the alien (or reader) will be able to know exactly how to do something.  Right now, students are working on a fun writing piece called "How to Blow a Bubble".  When students finish their writing, they'll be able to work on a fun art project to go along with it.

As for grammar, we will be discussing a strategy called C.O.P.S.  This stands for Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling.  This is an editing strategy that we will be utilizing to help make our writing better.

Math:

Students are continuing to practice their fact fluency skills and working hard to meet their goals!  

We are also working on place value.   Our goals are to:

-Read and write 3 digit numbers

-Know what number is in the hundreds, tens, and ones place

-Know how many bundles of 100s, 10s, and 1s are in a 3 digit number

-Read and write 3 digit number names

-Read and write numbers in expanded form

-Compare two 3 digit numbers using < = and >

We're making great progress!  We've been practicing our goals with whiteboards, games, practice worksheets, buddy work, fun computer games, and soon we'll have some board games set up to help us practice as well!

Homework:

As you know, homework looks a little different this week.  This morning, students and I worked together to write down their personal goals and to pick which activities they would like to help them practice and meet their goals.

For more detailed information about how the new homework system will work, please read the newsletter that was sent home today.  If you have any questions or observations, please write them down on the homework or send them in the boomerang folders.

This is a trial run for homework.  A parent night will be hosted after Thanksgiving break.  More details will come soon.

I hope you all have a fun-filled week!

November 7th-November 10th

Hello Team Blowey Parents!

Team Blowey is off to great places! 

One of my goals is to make this blog a little more detailed for you so that you may get a clear view of what it looks like to be in room 10 with Team Blowey.  Here is my first attempt!

Reading: 

Our Literacy Cafe time continues as students practice comprehension, stamina, word work, writing, and fluency daily in the classroom.  Students are eager to improve and are constantly trying to meet and pass their goals!  In our Treasures curriculum, we continue to build on our comprehension skills by finding the main idea of a story and supporting it with details.  We are also working on our summarizing skills after our literacy lesson and our read aloud book in the afternoon.  Another skill that is constantly practiced is making predictions. 

Today, students received  a strategy sheet to keep in their goals folder to help them find strategies to figure out the tricky words in books and also strategies to help them think about what they are reading.  We'll use these daily.

Decoding Strategies:

-look at the pictures

-Slide through the whole word

-skip hard words and then go back and reread

-Get your mouth ready to make the first sound

-Reread (Does it look right?  Does it sound right?  Does it make sense?)

-Spell the word out loud

-Try a different vowel sound

-Think of a rhyming word you do know

-"Chunk It"  Look for smaller words hiding inside

Thinking Strategies:

-I wonder...

-Predict

-Infer (think of the meaning of a word by using the words around it)

-Make a text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connection (SCHEMA!)

-Think of the characters feelings

-Create a mental picture

All of the strategies above are what are on the strategy sheets given to the students.  Of course, they are much more colorful and have better visual cues!

We also continue our work with our weekly vocabulary. We talk to our elbow buddies about what a vocabulary word means and how we can use it in a sentence.  We then listen to a story with our vocabulary words in it.  When we hear a vocabulary word, we touch our noses.

Spelling:

Students are working on consonant blends this week.  Meanwhile, I am working with another teacher to set up a system where students will work through the spelling words at their own pace.  I will keep you updated through this process.

Writing:

Students are currently working on finishing their third piece of writing for me.  They were asked to show me what they knew about writing by creating three separate pieces of writing.  This will allow me to help create really specific goals to focus on for each individual student.  Once the goals are set, students will be practicing their goals during literacy cafe time.  Once they feel that they are ready to meet their goal and move on, they will show me three pieces of writing that demonstrate there goal being met, and then put their work in the check-me bucket.  Once they meet a goal, they will be given a new one to work on.

We are also working on grammar.  This week's focus will be on plural nouns.

Math: 

Team Blowey is plunging into place value!  Students took a pre-test to show me what they knew about place value.  From there, students will be given a specific goal to practice during math time to help them pass the place value standard.  Last week, we did some place value activities using base ten blocks, a place value mat, and white boards.  This week, I will be modeling some place value games for students.  They will also have various activities out for them to help them reach their goal.

We are also continuing our work with fact fluency!  Many of our teammates have passed their goals and are cruising on to new ones!

Science:

Last week, Team Blowey and Ms. Thornhill's class got together to talk about the parts of a plant.  After, students had the chance to create a plant of their own using crayons or watercolors and then labeling the different parts.  We had some very talented artists!  Soon, we'll be planting our very own plants and watching them grow!

Homework:

  

Thank you so much for all of your feedback on the parking lots!  A compiled parking lot with my responses will go home in the boomerang folders this week.  Your responses were used to tweak homework and homework guidelines.  The parking lot will give you more information about this.  If you have any questions or comments, send them my way!

Homework this week is outlined in the homework cafe packets.  Goals are listed at the top of each menu. 

I hope you all have an adventurous week!

Love, 

Miss Blowey