Weekly Update 1/30

Hello everyone! The past two weeks have been a whirlwind! We’ve been trying to stick with routine despite the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the professional development day, and the unexpected snow day. Here is a look at what we’ve been doing in Room 7…

Our Around the World Unit is going very well. We spent a few days over the past two weeks reviewing mapping skills and learning about North America. As we travel the world it’s important that we become familiar with the names of the continents we’ll be visiting. Here is a link to a song that is helping us do this:

https://safeshare.tv/x/ss588563c9ba68a


We also studied a little bit about Mexico and what it’s like to live there. As we visit each continent, the children will be making a scrapbook page to show some important information they learned about that part of that world. We started the the North America scrapbook page on Friday. This page shows some animals that are found on this continent and features a written portion that compares the United States to Mexico. We will be compiling the scrapbook pages into a large book that will be shared with families in the spring.


Our next destination…Asia!!!


The math lessons the past 2 weeks touched upon Open Number Lines and Change-To Number Stories (starting with a number, then changing that number by adding on to get a new number). We discussed this concept by looking at fish that increase their weight by eating other fish. The students also spent two math periods working on their math mid-year assessment.


On Monday the kids were given an opportunity to try out a new adaptive math program. We’ve been using both the Symphony Math Program, as well as a program called Dreambox (for those who worked on Symphony last year). On Monday the kids switched programs so they could experience something new. Both programs follow the Common Core Curriculum and allow students to move at a pace that allows them to learn and grow at their own individual pace. While they’ll be able to log on to their “new” program 2 days a week, they will still be required to do their “regular” program so they don’t lose momentum.

Our restaurant reviews are coming out awesome in writing! I’ve been so impressed by how convincing second graders can be! Many kids finished them up this week and began the editing process. Look for an email from me in the coming days, as the children are working on a fun way to share their reviews with you!!



We took a break from spelling last week and focused on Complete Sentences. We did several lessons and practice activities around sentences. I am beginning to see the transfer of this knowledge in our writing journals- so exciting!!

Coming Up:

- Look for class Valentine lists coming soon. We will celebrate with our last class party on Tuesday, February 14th.


February 8th- Early Release at 12:20 for Professional Development
February 14th- 2nd Grade School Store
February 14th- Valentine Party 2:00

February 17th- February Break begins at 3:05

Weekly Update 1/16

It’s been great to be back in school after the holiday break, and the kids had a very busy yet fun two weeks!

We began this past week with a whole class introduction to the reading strategy of "making inferences." The kids learned that sometimes an author doesn't come straight out and tell you things and that you have to "read between the lines" to interpret what they are saying. The students learned that in order to make an inference you use both the text clues and your background knowledge. Throughout the week, the students had the opportunity to practice this skill in their reading groups. We will do some more follow-up work in our groups this coming week.

In math the children made pretend purchases to work on their money skills. We practiced paying exact amounts as well as paying more and finding the change. We also spent some time doing our Unit 5 Exploration activities, which focused on making arrays, matching clock faces to digital notation, and constructing shapes on geoboards. Finally, the kids learned to use open number lines as a tool for solving number stories.

In the content areas we completed our last 2 science lessons of the unit. The kids conducted experiments to explore mixing various materials. The best part of the experiment was trying to get the materials to separate back out! Some of the mixtures included oil and marbles, and flour and pepper- messy, but fun!! The other lesson looked at heating and cooling materials (eggs, bananas, water, lettuce, popcorn kernels) and again discussing whether the change could be reversed.

We are looking forward to starting our Social Studies unit on mapping this week. On Thursday we took a pretend airplane trip to our first country of study, which is Mexico! We will first spend some time learning about the continent that we live on-North America! Then, we will move onto Mexico and will learn about the culture of the country and compare and contrast it with the culture of the United States.


The students are off to a great start with our Opinion Writing unit. They learned how to write an opening sentence, filled out a graphic organizer about a restaurant of their choice, and began to write their first review. Next week we will focus on specialized language and discuss that a review should not sound like a "story" but should use persuasive language.


Finally, we finished off the week learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and the amazing impact he had on our lives today.


Friendly reminder that there is NO SCHOOL Monday and Tuesday next week.
Monday- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Tuesday- Professional Development


*** One final reminder that the students should be answering the reading comprehension questions on the back of the Reading Log each week. These questions are to be answered in at least 2 complete sentences. Many of the kids are doing a great job with this. Please take the time to review the comments with your child and make changes if necessary. We appreciate your support with this important component of their homework.


Here's what the kids had to say about the past two weeks…

“My favorite part of the past 2 weeks was when we mixed materials because we wanted to know what materials could not be changed back and if they could be changed back.”
- Sarah


“My favorite part of the past 2 weeks was when we played Beat the Calculator because it’s a new game for me.”
- Dylan

“My favorite part of the past 2 weeks was when we had school store because I donated to the kitty foundation.”
- Allison


“My favorite part of the past 2 weeks was the trip to Mexico because all the second graders got together.”
- Alison


“My favorite part of the past 2 weeks was learning about Eve Bunting because I like learning about famous authors.”
- Vineeth

Happy New Year

Happy 2017!! I am feeling rested and revived after our long winter break. I look forward to seeing all the children on Tuesday morning and hearing about their exciting week off.

We are kicking off a new year, a new math unit, a new writing unit, and a new social studies unit over the next two weeks!!

The children have completed the first half of the Everyday Math program, so this week they will begin working in a new math journal. We will start Unit 5, which reviews addition fact power (automaticity of math facts), as well as money and making change. Please note that the concept of making change can be a difficult one, and we don’t expect mastery at this time.

Our term 2 writing time will be spent working on reviews/opinion writing. This week we’ll discuss what people might review and what a good review should include. We’ll start off by reviewing the Robinson School Cafeteria- a place we’re all familiar with!!

In Social Studies we’ll begin a mapping unit. The students will get a chance to review different kinds of maps and cardinal directions. We’ll also look at map keys. These mapping skills will be a stepping stone into our very large unit of study- “Around the World”

You will notice that the Reading Log will look a little different starting this week- it’s now double-sided! Now that we are almost halfway through 2nd grade we would like the children to deepen their reading skills by answering 2 comprehension questions each week about the books they are reading for their reading log. You will notice that the questions will be different each week based on what skills we’ve been working on in our reading groups. We ask that they answer the questions in at least 2 complete sentences. It is expected that they will need some support with this new routine for a few weeks, but we hope that over time the children will get more comfortable answering in thoughtful, complete sentences more independently. We appreciate your support as we begin this new routine, as reflecting on your reading and writing complete sentences are two very important foundational skills.

Have a great week this week! I hope you’re finding my BLOG updates useful. As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns.

One final note…

Thanks to all who donated and/or volunteered at our Winter party before vacation. These parties wouldn’t be successful without your support.


Upcoming Dates:
January 3rd- school resumes
January 10th- 2nd grade school store
January 16th- No school for MLK Day
January 17th- No school for Professional Development