January 27-31

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please remind your child to put their homework packet in their backpacks on Wednesday evening.  Remember, no homework = no free choice Friday!

On Monday, January 27, Team Blowey will be participating in Healthy Choice Week during P.E. class.  Ms. Croteau and Mrs. Thibodeau along with other volunteers will be leading students through different stations and teaching them about some healthy choices they can make for their lives.  Be sure to ask your child what they learned about when you see them!

SNACK REMINDER!   Please remember all strawberry, pineapple, and peanut snacks need to be kept as an at-home snack.  Please be sure to check the labels of any snack items you send in for you child.  Snacks should be healthy to keep us energized!  Also, in the classroom, only water is allowed as a drink.  Please keep all juice for lunch or home.  Students are more than welcome to keep a water bottle on their desk to help them stay hydrated throughout the day.  

All winter clothes should be sent to school everyday!  They will need their snow pants, jackets, hats, boots, and mittens for recess.  Extra mittens can be helpful as they tend to get wet and don't really have enough time to dry between recesses.  

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  This week we are working with consonant digraphs.  We will work with the spelling patterns th, sh, wh, and ch.  Here are our focus words:  chest, chill, chase, shape, sheep, thing, think, white, while, and wheat.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  ancient, hopeful, unable, confirm, and valid.  We will define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we'll search for them in A Very Old Fish and  Boy Finds Fossils!

Comprehension:  This week, we will practice summarizing.  When we summarize, we retell the story using only the most important details.  A summary is usually a short statement.  We'll practice this skill while we read Meet the Super Croc.  

Grammar:  This week, we will talk about past-tense verbs.  A past-tense verb is an action that took place in the past.  For the most part, we add -ed to the end of a verb to make it past-tense.  For example, cook becomes cooked or paint becomes painted.

Writing:  This week, Team Blowey will finish their final draft of their persuasive letters.  We will also open up our Team Blowey mailing system where students will be able to write letters to each other and to other students and teachers in Russell School.  

Scholastic News:  This week, we'll read an article called Lion School where we will learn all about Chinese New Year!  We'll focus on finding how reasons support specific points the author makes in a text.  Then, we'll talk about how to ask and answer questions such as who, what, when, where, why, and how to show our understanding of key points in the text.

Science:  We are still continuing to observe our brassica plants through their life cycle.  Many of us have plants that have sprouted and soon we will be seeing buds!  We are still working on how to write like scientists, writing about only what we see and not using any opinion words.  We'll also begin some pre-teaching for our upcoming weather unit by talking about weather words.  We'll brainstorm words we already know that connect to weather and then read some various weather books to find some more!

Math:  We are still continuing our flexible groups for place value.  Please refer to last week's post to see exactly what your child will be learning to do in order to meet the standard.  When we are not switching for place value, we will be working on our year-long goals for time, money, and math facts.  We will also have some time to go back and review previous standards that we've worked on.  This week, we will go back and review our graphing standard.

January 21-23

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please remind your child to put it in their backpack on Wednesday evening.  Remember, no homework packet = no free choice Friday!

There is no school on Friday as it is Records Day for teachers.

Mrs. Thibodeau will be visiting our class this week and talking to us about healthy choices!  Talk to your child at home about some healthy choices they already make and maybe some goals on how to incorporate some more healthy choices into their daily lives.

THIS WEEK IN...

Language Arts:  With such a short week, we will be taking our language arts time this week to focus on our persuasive letters.  So far, Team Blowey has come up with an idea and an audience that they would like to write to.  We’ve also brainstormed some ideas for why our audience might tell us, “I don’t think so!”  This will help us streamline our reasons and make our letters more convincing.  This week, students will work on coming up with specific and convincing reasons why their audience should agree with their opinion.  Then, they will use these reasons to write a rough draft of a letter.  With a teacher and independently, Team Blowey will both revise and edit their rough drafts in order to create a fabulous final draft!

Math:  We are continuing to switch between some of our second grade classrooms to help provide our second graders with more targeted instruction around what they need for place value.  Here are some examples of what your child will be working on during our place value goal time:

1. I can read and write three digit numbers using numerals, number names, and expanded form.
2. I understand where the ones place, tens place, and hundreds place are in a number.  I also know the value of each digit.
3. I understand that a three digit number is made up of bundles of 1, 10, and 100.  I know that 100 can be thought of as 10 bundles of 10.
4. I can skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s within 1,000.
5. I can compare two three-digit numbers using the symbols <, >, and =.

In room 10, we’ll also continue to review our money and telling time skills.  During our money review, we will identify specific coins and their values.  We will also practice adding coins together up to $1.00.  During our telling time review, we will talk about telling time to the nearest hour, half hour, and quarter hour. Math facts will also continue to be a focus.  Our goal is not only to be able to solve the equations correctly, but also quickly.  We should be able to recall the sums and differences from memory in three seconds or less.

Science:  Our plant life cycle study continues.  This week, students will observe their plants twice, drawing exactly what they see and describing exactly what they see.  Already, we have some sprouts!

Read Aloud:  This week, we will be finishing up our mini-unit on mystery books.  We’ll finish reading Cam Jansen and the Snowy Day mystery as well as finishing up our case files.  We’ll use the clues we have found to solve the mystery of the three missing computers!

We'll also invite another mystery reader into our classroom tomorrow.  If you would like to sign up to be a mystery reader, please let me know!  We have plenty of spaces left from now until the end of the year!

January 13-17

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please remind your child to put their homework in their backpack on Wednesday night!  Remember no homework packet = no free choice Friday!

Remember to send your child to school with all of their outdoor gear.  They will need boots, snow pants, jackets, hats, and gloves to go outside for morning, lunch, and afternoon recess!

This Wednesday is an early release day!  Please plan accordingly!

Next week, there will be no school on Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) or Friday (Teacher Records Day).  Please plan accordingly!

Please send in a delicious and nutritious snack for your child everyday!  Do not send any snacks or juices that contain strawberries, pineapples, or peanuts!  Thank you for keeping our kids safe!

Just as a quick reminder, each week students should be practicing their spelling words and their math facts.  For spelling, students should be able to spell the word correctly and use it correctly in a sentence.  For math facts, students should be memorizing their math fact families so that they can recall the correct answer from memory in three seconds or less.  Flashcards, flashcards, flashcards!!

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We are working on the long /u/ sound with the spelling patterns u and u__e.  Here are our focus words:  mule, bugle, fuse, use, flute, June, music, duke, tune, and dune.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  tips, obeys, attention, accident, enormous, and buddy.  We’ll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we’ll search for them in the short story called Safety at School by Brian Sullivan.

Comprehension:  This week, we’ll focus on using pictures in a story to help us understand the story better.  We’ll do this while we read the silly story Officer Buckle and Gloria.  

Grammar:  We are working with present-tense verbs.  These are verbs that tell about actions that happen now.  We add -s or -es to a present-tense verb that tells what one person or thing is doing.  Here are some examples:

The girls stand  at the corner.
He runs around the bases.

Writing:  We will continue our focus on persuasive letters.  This week, students will be brainstorming reasons why they think someone would say, “No!” to their request and then brainstorming reasons to argue against that.  For example, if a student was writing to ask for a dog, someone might say that a dog is too expensive.  The student might come up with an idea like, “I’ll do extra chores around the house and our neighborhood to earn the extra money and help pay for the dog.”

Scholastic News:  With Martin Luther King Jr. Day coming soon, we will be reading an article about Dr. King’s Wise Words.  While reading, students will be challenged to compare and contrast life before and after Dr. King and his influence on society.  They’ll also be challenged to use images to help clarify and contribute to the text that they are reading.

Math:  This week, some of the second grade teachers will be doing some flexible grouping for place value.  Basically, we will be sending students to a second grade classroom that best fits their need to help them meet the place value standard.  Some of Team Blowey will be staying in my room, some of Team Blowey will be traveling to another second grade classroom.  We will be doing these flexible groups on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  In these groups, teachers will be teaching highly targeted lessons with activities that will help students practice their goals so that they become proficient in our place value standard.  In order to be proficient, students will  need to:

1. Read and write three digit numbers in numerals, number names, and in expanded form.  For example:

385
Three hundred eighty five
300 + 80+ 5

2.  Understand that numbers can be thought of as bundles.  For example, their are ten bundles of ten in 100.  Example:

137 can be broken into:
1 bundle of 100
13 bundles of 10
137 bundles of 1

3.  Understand the ones, tens, and hundreds place in a number.

456:  4 hundreds place, 5 tens place, 6 ones place.

4.  Skip count by fives, tens, and hundreds between 0 and 1,000.

5.  Compare two three digit numbers using the sybols <, >, and =

137 < 456                 768 > 394                   345 = 345

Science:  This week, we will be learning about the life cycle of a plant.  First, the seed is planted in the soil.  Second, a tiny shoot appears from a crack in the seed.  Third, roots form and hold the plant in place in the soil.  Fourth, the stem grows taller and stronger, supporting the leaves and the flowers.  Last, the plant’s flower forms seeds and the life cycle starts all over again.

After learning about the life cycle of a plant, we’ll be planting our very own brassica seeds!  They are a fast growing plant and we will observe them through their lifecycle.  Just like scientists, we will make observations and document them as notes as well as drawing pictures to represent what we see throughout the brassica seed’s life cycle.  

I hope everyone has a fabulous week!

January 7-10

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Welcome back to school!  I hope everyone is settling back into school routines nicely.  What a crazy way to start 2014... with three snow days in a row!  I hope everyone was able to stay warm and safe. I know I, for one, was excited to get back to school and start trekking through the second half of the year! 

Here is a reminder of our specials schedule in case anyone needs it!

Monday:  P.E.
Tuesday:  Music
Wednesday:  Art
Thursday:  Spanish
Friday:  Library

Please remember to send your child to school with gear for outdoor recess!  They should have their snow pants, jackets, hats, gloves, and boots everyday!

Please send in a healthy snack everyday!  This helps us stay focused and energized in the afternoon!  Remember... please keep all peanut, strawberry, and pineapple snacks for home!  Thanks for helping us keep our students healthy and safe!

Students are invited to keep water bottles on their desk to stay hydrated throughout the day.  Water only in the water bottles please!  Juices can make quite a sticky mess in the classroom so please keep all juice as a lunch drink or an at-home drink.

We will be inviting Mrs. Thibodeau into our classroom this week.  She'll be talking to Team Blowey about making healthy choices at school and at home.

This Friday, Lynn Ploude (Maine children's book author) will be coming to Russell School! 

Holiday Homework Packets are due on Thursday!  New homework packets will also go home on that day.

This week in...

Phonics:  We will be working with the long e sound with the spelling patterns e, ee, ea, ey, and y.  Here are the words we will be working with:  eat, leaf, mean, queen, need, seek, baby, pony, he, and we.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are attached, breathe, delicious, frantically, gasped, and swung.  We will define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we'll search for them in the short story called The Story of the Giant Carrot by Rosa Manuel.

Comprehension:  We will begin talking about cause and effect.  The effect is what happened and the cause is why something happened.  For example, the cause might be that it rained.  The effect would be that you used an umbrella.  Really, when thinking about cause and effect we should flip them and say effect and cause.  Then, we would be able think about it like ___________ happened because ______________.  We'll talk about this complex skill while reading Head, Body, Legs by Won-Ldy Paye and Margaret H. Lippert.

Grammar:  We will be working with action verbs.  An action verb is a word that tells what someone or something is doing.  Some action verbs tell about actions that are hard to see.

Writing:  This week, we will begin our new focus on persuasive writing.  Students will be writing to persuade someone to think how they think, feel what they feel, and want what they want.  We'll set the purpose for writing and then we'll have some time to think about some of the reasons why someone might tell us no so that we can address them with specific details in our writing.  Our writing will follow this basic format:  opinion, three reasons, and opinion restated.  Students will be challenged to also edit their own writing for capitalization and punctuation.  

Math:  This week, we will be focusing on three year-long standards:  money, time, and math facts.  Students will be reviewing the topics we have already learned and then practicing these standards to make them stick.  Our focus for money this week is to review all of the coins and their values.  We'll also review adding coins together.  Our focus for time will be reviewing the hands of the clock and reading time to the nearest hour and half hour.  As for math facts, students will continue to work on math facts at their own pace.  However, now that we are almost halfway through the year, students will be encouraged to check in on their math fact families more often.  When you are practicing at home, remember they are not just working to get the answer correct, but they are also working to get the answer from memory... and quickly!  Practice, practice, practice!  Personally, I think flashcards are the best way to review math facts.

Social Studies:  This week, we are really focused on re-energizing our classroom vision and our SOPs.  We want to make sure they are staying alive and are truly working for us.  This morning,  Team Blowey worked to revamp our SOPs so that they are meaningful and helpful for us.  We also sang our classroom vision and talked about our four power words:  teamwork, respect, fun, and creative.  We make these things come true when we follow our code of cooperation.  Our code of cooperation spells out the word, "BEST".  So we say that we are being our BEST selves.  Today, Team Blowey created a book illustrating how they will be their BEST self at school.  They wrote about these four things:  be in control of my body and my words, everyone has to do their part, stay focused and never give up, and treat others the way you want to be treated.  

Going along with the new year, Team Blowey also made some New Year's Resolutions!  We made a flap book to show the year 2014 and wrote four resolutions for ourselves, two about school and two about home.  Some resolutions were things like, "I will memorize all of my math facts by the end of the year" or "I will get better at reading and start reading chapter books!".

Scholastic News:  Team Blowey will now be encouraged to work through the Scholastic News issue independently each week.  This week, students will be reading about penguins!  The common core skill that we will be focusing on is being able to use details from the text to answer the 5 W's and an H questions.  They will also practice using an image (in this case a map) to gather more information about the text.  

Read Aloud:  We are beginning our Mystery Genre unit!  Today students brainstormed word that are associated with the mystery genre such as clues, detective, suspect, and crime.  Tomorrow, we'll do some thinking about what detectives are, what detectives can do, and what detectives need.  Then, we'll begin our mystery case files while we read The Snowy Day Mystery by David Adler.  We'll use our case files to make predictions, gather evidence (clues!) about the crime and the suspects, and write down our thoughts on how the mystery was solved.