March 31-April 4

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Tomorrow is Biography Day!  Please send your child to school dressed as the famous person they have studied.  Remember, costumes should be simple and should not require any trips to the store!  If you are having trouble thinking of what to wear, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help you with ideas!  I did meet with some members of Team Blowey to help them with some ideas.

Homework packets are due on THURSDAY!  Please remind your child to put them in their backpack on Wednesday evening.  Also, remind your child to check off the ways they are practicing at home each week.  It is a way to communicate all of your efforts at home to me.

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We are working with the variant vowel sound with the spelling patterns /au/ and /aw/.  Here are our focus words:  pause, launch, fault, jaw, draw, fawn, hawk, law, raw, and crawl.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  noble, promised, gleamed, wiggled, beloved, and glanced.  We will define these words and build relationships to them.  Then, we will search for them in the short story called My Home in Alaska.  

Comprehension:  We will be focusing on making inferences again!  When we make inferences we take what we know and what we have read to make a decision about the story.  For example, if I read that a character in the story walked into the room with a raincoat and rain boots, I could INFER that it was raining outside.  We will practice this skill while we read Nutik, the Wolf Pup by Jean Craighead George.

Writing:  After we finish presentation our biography posters, we will shift our writing focus from research reports to poetry!  In honor of poetry month, we will be diving into the wonderful world of poetry, reading it and writing some of our own.  We will be working to create our very own poetry playlist books including an "About the Author" page.  This week's playlist will include a "List Poem" and an "I am" poem.  

Grammar:  We will review contractions!  A contraction is a short form of two words.  We use an apostrophe to replace letters that have been left out.  For example, we can change do not to "don't".  The apsostrophe takes the place of the letter "o".

Math:  Students will continue in their flexible groups for word problems with a focus on adding and subtracting fluently within 100 using strategies.  To find out exactly what every member of Team Blowey is working towards, please refer to last week' blog post.  There you will find a checklist for our power standard as well as our extension standards.  

Speaking and Listening:  This week, we will really get our first chance to show the rest of our teammates one of our speaking and listening standards.  Students will be presenting facts about the famous person they have been studying for the past few weeks.  Team Blowey will be practicing having a speaker's voice (loud enough and clear enough for others to hear), eye contact with the audience, as well as giving clear and true facts about the person they have studied.  

March 24-28

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Conferences start tomorrow!  They will continue Wednesday and Thursday.  Your conference day and time should have gone home with your child on Friday afternoon.  Please come right at your scheduled time.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

BIOGRAPHY DAY IS COMING UP!   On Tuesday, April 1 (one week from tomorrow), Team Blowey will be dressing up as the famous person they have been studying.  Please don’t buy anything for this day!  Dressing up could be as simple as a hat.  These items can also be made, for example, out of construction paper or other similar materials.  If you or you child are stuck and can’t figure out what to wear for Biography Day, please let me know!  I would be happy to help with ideas!  Our day will consist of visiting some first grade classrooms to tell them a little bit about the people we have dressed up as and we will also be presenting our research to Team Blowey.  I will send home a reminder (stating the person your child has been studying) with your child tomorrow.

Mrs. Thibodeau will be coming to our classroom on Thursday!  She will be discussing some disability awareness topics with Team Blowey.

Do you want to participate in the science fair?  Sign up sheets are due by Friday!  The fair itself will be on April 3.

Let your drawings skills be shared with the community!  Remember to design a bookmark for the GNG literacy night!  The winning bookmark will be one of two designs given out to all students who attend literacy night.  Bookmark entries are due by Friday!

We are still missing  A LOT  of flat kids!  If you could please remind your friends and family members that Team Blowey is anxiously awaiting the arrival of all of our flat friends, it would be greatly appreciated!  

This week in...

New and improved Daily 5:  We are really digging into the knitty gritty parts of second grade.  In an effort to spice things up a little bit and challenge Team Blowey, I decided to revisit the Daily 5 and make them better!  Here is what your child can expect:

Read to Self:  This is the independent reading for daily 5.  Students will still be reading just right books from either their book boxes or on RAZ kids.  However, students will now be expected to complete at least one book report in class each month.  They are also required to take the comprehension quizzes on RAZ kids.  Students work on RAZ kids at least once a week in the classroom.

Read to Someone:  This is one area where we really switched things up.  There is now a read to someone menu with several fluency activities for Team Blowey to work on.  During super speedy sight words, teammates will work with a partner to read lists of sight words as a team.  Their goal is to get faster and faster the more they practice.  In reading around the room, students will put out an emotion card (frustrated, ashamed, excited, etc) and read words and phrases around the room with that kind of voice.  In copy cat reading, students will both read from the same book.  One student will read a chunk of the book, then the next student will read the same junk, with as much or more expression.  ln buddy reading, students will now use a rubric to assess their own reading as well as assessing their partner’s reading.  Then, from that assessment, they will pick one area to work on.  When they feel like they are ready, they will check in with each other again to see if their reading has improved.  During alphabet flow, students are reading the letters of the alphabet with various kinds of punctuation thrown into the middle of it.  Students might have to read something like:  abc.  defghi.  jklmnop.  qrs.  tuvwxyz.  They will read the letters with the appropriate voice changes and pauses.  We have also added some more poetry to the classroom, where students can practice a poem over and over again and then perform it for the class.

Word Work:  We will still be working with our phonics and spelling words at school, however, now we are doing more with our weekly vocabulary words.  Instead of just defining them, building connections, and searching for them in stories, students will also have to complete one activity that shows they know what each word means.  Some students will demonstrate their understanding in sentences.  Some students may choose to demonstrate their understanding in pictures.  Both are acceptable.  In addition, all students will be using word collectors to collect new and interesting words from their reading adventures.

Writing:  Now students will be using focused menus to help them meet their common core writing standards.  There are three menus for each type of writing:  personal narrative, explanatory, and opinion.  With each menu, students are given a choice of what to write about as well as two or three writing goals they should be focusing on.  On all of the menus there is a convention checklist for the things students should be using in their writing all of the time like capital letters where they belong and correct ending punctuation.  Team Blowey was also given sheets to help guide themselves through the editing and revising process.  

Listen to Reading:  Students will continue to use RAZ kids as one way to listen to reading, but students are also allowed to use other online resources such as tumblebooks to listen to reading.  When a student finishes listening to a story, they will fill in a check-in sheet to demonstrate that they understood the story.  If the story they listened to was fiction, they will talk about the story elements.  If the story they listened to was nonfiction, they will write what the topic of the story was as well as one interesting fact that they learned.  

We spent all of last week practicing these new challenges so that Team Blowey understands the activities and the expectations.  This week, students will begin to have Daily 5 choice time with these new expectations incorporated.

Phonics:  We will be practicing the /u/ sound with the spelling patterns oo, ui, ew, ue, and oe.  Here are our focus words:  root, boot, suit, fruit, clue, glue, flew, new, shoe, and canoe.  

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  violent, beware, prevent, uprooted, destroy, and grasslands.  We will define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we’ll search for them in the short story Wild Weather Hits Florida by Lisa O’Neil.  

Comprehension:  This week we will revisit the idea of making and confirming predictions.  When we make a prediction, we are using the text, pictures, and what we already know to make a guess about what will happen next.  When we confirming predictions, we read on in the story and use the text to see whether or not our prediction was correct.  We’ll practice this skill while we read Super Storms by Seymour Simon.

Grammar:  We will be working with irregular verbs again.  These words are irregular because they have special forms in the past tense.  For example, the past-tense of come is came and the past-tense form of run is ran. 

Writing:  We will be putting the finishing touches on our biography posters this week!  Team Blowey will have a portrait of the famous person they are studying, when they were born and when/if they died, a sentence about their claim to fame, an interesting fact, and three illustrated important events from their life.  They will use these posters to give a presentation on their famous person next week.

Math:  Beginning tomorrow, Team Blowey will be moving to other classroom to meet their specific needs for our new math unit.  In this new unit, students will be adding and subtracting numbers within 100 and within 1,000.  They will use this skill to answer one and two step word problems.  Here is an example of our checklist:  

Learning Target:   I can use my knowledge of place value to help me add and subtract numbers.	I can do it!
I can add fluently within 100 using strategies such as drawings, 100 chart, number line, and tens and ones.
I can subtract fluently within 100 using strategies such as drawings, 100 chart, number line, and tens and ones.
I can solve the same addition and subtraction problem using two different strategies.
I can add up to four two-digit numbers using strategies I know.
I  can solve addition word problems within 100 using strategies I know.
I  can solve subtraction word problems within 100 using strategies I know.
I  can solve word problems with unknown change within 100 using strategies I know.

Here is an example of our extension checklist:

Learning Target: I can extend my knowledge of place value to help me add and subtract.	I can do it!
I can add two three-digit numbers using strategies I know.
I can subtract two three-digit numbers using strategies I know.
I can use the relationship between addition and subtraction to show a fact family in four different number sentences.

Each member of Team Blowey will be put into a group with similar needs to help them meet this new learning target.  We will be meeting as these groups three days a week for the next few weeks.    The other two days of the week will be used for review, math facts, time and money.

Scholastic News:  This week, Team Blowey will be reading about clouds!  We will learn how clouds are formed as well as different types of clouds.  Then, we’ll use a chart to answer questions about cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and cumulonimbus clouds.  

Science:  To go along with our comprehension story as well as the Scholastic News issue this week, we are reading Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons.  We are collecting these weather words and talking about what they mean everyday.  Then, these words are added to our weather anchor chart so we can reference them often.  This is the kick-off to our weather unit!  Stay tuned for some more weather fun!

MARCH 17-21

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS

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

There is still snow and plenty of chilly weather during the month of March.  Please remember to send your child to school with the appropriate winter gear.  They will need their jackets, snow pants, boots, hats, and mittens to be able to play in the snow.

Remember to send a healthy snack to school with your child everyday!  We have time for a quick snack in the afternoon to keep us energized!

Conference sign up papers were sent home with Team Blowey last week.   Please sign them and return them with your top three choices for conference times.  Conferences are set up on a first come, first serve basis.  I will do my best to accommodate everyone’s preferred time for conferences.   All conference sign ups are due by Wednesday, March 19th!  If you have any questions, please let me know!   

This week in...

Phonics:  We are studying the /u/ sound with the spelling patterns /oo/ and /ou/.  Here are our focus words:  shook, stood, hook, brook, crook, foot, soot, could, should, would.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  conservation, remains, trouble, extinct, and hardest.  We will define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we will search for them in the short stories called Prairie Problem and Be Careful!  We’re Almost Gone!

Comprehension:  This week, we will be paying attention to descriptions.  A description tells what something is like.  When we are reading, we might see clue words or phrases like to begin with or here is how.  

Grammar:  We will be studying irregular words.  That means we won’t be able to add -ed to the end of the word to make it past tense.  Here are some examples of irregular verbs:  go becomes went, does becomes did, goes becomes went, does become did.

Writing:  This week, Team Blowey will be working on creating the final draft elements that will go on their Biography Report posters!  They will have to use the research they did to make complete sentences with their very best handwriting.  We will be proofreading for spelling mistakes, checking to make sure we have capital letters where they belong, and of course making sure we have the correct punctuation.  

Math:  This week, we will begin working with some of the place value strategies that we will be using to add and subtract numbers fluently within 100.  My goal is to send home a sheet explaining these strategies so that you and your child will be able to reference them as your child does their homework, whether it be the worksheet that is sent home or the problems on IXL.  While using these strategies, students will also  practice showing all of their work.  This is to help them check their work in case they make a mistake and also to communicate their thinking to me or their peers.  

In class, we will be working with a 100 chart, drawings of base ten blocks, number lines, and breaking numbers down into tens and ones.  

Scholastic News:  We’ll be able to take a visit to Ireland in this week’s issue!  Team Blowey will be reading about Mia, a little girl from Ireland.  We’ll learn about the country of Ireland, some of Mia’s favorite things, and about St. Patrick’s day.  Then, we’ll use a map to answer some questions about Ireland.

Read Aloud:  We are getting ever so close to finishing the BFG!  The tale is keeping us on the edge of our seats.  Soon, we will find out what Sophie, the BFG, and the Queen of England come up with to stop the other giants!  

St. Patrick’s Day Fun:  Today, we read a story called Clever Tom and the Leprechaun.  In the story, Tom is desperate to find the leprechaun’s gold!  He soon finds out that the leprechaun played a trick on him making it almost impossible for him to find.  After reading the story today, Team Blowey had a chance to think about something more valuable than gold... their loved ones!  We wrote a little bit about a person is is worth more than gold to us.  Then, we shared why they were so important to us.


I hope everyone has a LUCKY week!

March 10-14

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Team Blowey has finished filling up my heart!  Tomorrow, they may bring in one special stuffed animal from home as a buddy for the day.  If you have any questions,  please let me know!

Spring conferences are coming right up!  I will be sending home a sign-up sheet in totes on Thursday. Conferences will take place Tuesday, March 25 through Thursday, March 27.  Please send your conference sign-up sheet back to me by Wednesday, March 19th!  Once I have scheduled your conference, you will receive a confirmation note and/or email from me.  

Wednesday is an early release day!  Please plan accordingly!

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

This Thursday, we will be taking our spring pictures!  

On Friday,  we will have an assembly with Dr. Harvey!  More information to come.

We still have more spaces for mystery readers!  If you or someone you know would like to sign up, please let me know!

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We are working with r-controlled vowels with the spelling patterns /er/, /ir/, and /ur/.  Here are our focus words:  churn, hurt, burst, turn, skirt, stir, sir, clerk, term, and herd.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  wider, saddest, balance, deserted, freezes, and imagine.  We'll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we'll search for them in the short story called Bill Helps Geese Survive by Anthony Estes.  

Comprehension:  We will focus on cause and effect.  The effect is what happened in the story and the cause is why something happened in the story.  For example. the main character used an umbrella (effect) because it was raining (cause).  We'll practice this skill while we read Goose's Story by Cari Best.  

Grammar:  This week, we'll work with helping verbs.  Has and have are helping verbs.  These are words that help to show an action.  We use has when the subject is singular.  We use have when the subject is plural, I, or you.  For example:

My sister has learned a lot about camels.

Camels have lived in the desert for a long time.

Writing:  Team Blowey has already decided who they will be studying for our biography projects!  This week will be focused on gathering information from multiple stories.  We are searching for when our famous person is born, when they died (if applicable), what they are famous for, three important facts from their life, and one really interesting book. 

Math:  Beginning at the end of last week, we started a very cool project that ties in reading, social studies, and place value.  As a group, we read the story called Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortensen.  Some of you might be familiar with the adult version of the story, Three Cups of Tea.  In the story, Dr. Greg tries to climb the mountains of Pakistan, but ends up getting very sick.  He wanders into the village of Korphe, were the people there help to take care of him.  In return, Dr. Greg promises to help them build a school.  It was this promise that started the Pennies for Peace Organization.  This organization gathers pennies to help build schools in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Team Blowey was very interested to read about and see how our school compared to the schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  We had some differences, but we also had a lot of similarities.  To check out more about this organization, head to their website!   Here is the address:  www.penniesforpeace.org.  

Our project takes what we learned from the book, the Pennies for Peace Organization, our money unit, and our place value unit and puts it all together.  We are creating a book that will tell about Dr. Greg and the village of Korphe, but also a book that helps to teach key place value concepts.  Team Blowey is using the number of pennies collected by another school to teach these concepts.  Using the number 527, we will show that we know how to write the number in standard form, expanded form, and in words.  Team Blowey will also show that we understand the hundreds, tens, and ones place as well as skip counting by fives, tens, and hundreds.  When the book is complete, we'll be able to use it to teach others about Korphe, money, and place value!

Scholastic News:  This week's issue will be about a bird called the cassowary.  We'll learn all kinds of facts about this interesting bird.  Then, we'll use a graphic of the cassowary's life cycle to answer questions.

Read Aloud:  We are almost done with our adventure with the Big Friendly Giant!  We took a short break today to read A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon to help us review how to identify story elements.  We talked about the title, characters, setting, plot, problem, solution, and the moral of the story.  We loved this interesting story!  Ask your child about it today!

March 3-7

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS!

Thank you SO much for all of your support!  My heart was bursting with all of the joy I was feeling on Friday and Saturday.  Team Blowey and their parents truly went above and beyond in an effort to show their support for me during the Dancing with the Staff event.  I loved all of the shirts, posters, gifts, cheering, hugs, and sweet notes that you all have sent my way!  Go Team Blowey!  You truly are the BEST TEAM EVER!

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  Be sure to turn them in in order to get free choice Friday!

On Friday, we will be watching a play that will be put on by UNH!  We are so excited to see fluency in action!

We still have openings for mystery readers!  If you are someone you know is interested in being a mystery reader, please get in touch with me!  I'd be happy to set up a day for you to come to our classroom.  Let me know if you have any questions!  

This is a gentle reminder that Team Blowey's spelling tests include being able to spell the words correctly, but also being able to use them correctly in a sentence!  For homework, please help your child practice ways to use their spelling words correctly. If you have any questions about the words on your child's spelling list, please let me know!

This week in...

Phonics:   We are working with r-controlled vowels this week!  We will study the -ar and the -or spelling patterns.  Here are our focus words:  part, sort, start, storm, park, short, farm, for, dark, and horse.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are itches, puddles, preen, beasts, handy, and nibble.  We'll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we listen for them in the short story called Animals Need to Eat by Patty Serrano.

Comprehension:  This week we will be focusing on making comparisons.  When we make comparisons we are identifying how things are alike and how they are different.  We'll do this while we read Splish! Splash!  Animal Baths by April Pulley Sayre.  We'll compare pigs, birds, and big fish.  

Grammar:  Our focus will be on linking verbs.  "Be" is a linking verb and it has many forms.  If the subject is "I" we will use am.  If the subject is singular such as he or she, we will use is.  If the subject is "you", "we", or "they" we will use are.  Examples:

Ostriches are the largest birds of all.
I am at the zoo.
My whole class is here with me.

Writing:  We have begun our highly anticipating biography projects!  This week, Team Blowey will have the chance to explore many books about famous people from history.  On Wednesday, they will decide who they would like to study.  Then, we'll learn some strategies to help us read for information.  We'll read our books and keep track of the important information.  That information will be used for our biography reports.

Math:  This week, we will finish our flexible groups for place value.  I will be unpacking our next learning progression and essential standard.  In our next math unit, students will be learning how to add and subtract fluently within 100 using strategies from place value.  They will then use these skills and strategies to help them solve one and two step word problems.  We will also be introduced to adding and subtracting within 1,000 using strategies!   This unit is HUGE!  It is definitely going to be a fun challenge for us!

Scholastic News:  This week, we will be reading about Dr. Seuss!  In this article, we will learn 5 new things about Dr. Seuss.  Then, we'll practice writing the titles of some of his books in alphabetical order.

Read Across America Day:  This morning, we watched to first graders parade in the hallway in their fabulous Dr. Seuss costumes.  Then, we joined the rest of the school and listened to two of his books!  In our classroom, we used a program called "Switch Zoo" to create some very interesting animals!  This image was used in correlation with Dr. Seuss's book Oh the Thinks You Can Think!  We'll write about our interesting animals and then put them on display in the hallway.

We were also visited by the Cat in the Hat and Thing 2!  (Many of us were convinced that they were Mrs. Noyes and Mrs. Paul!)

In the afternoon, everyone was able to participate in the book swap!  Make sure you ask your child about their new book!

I hope you have a fabulous week!