December 15, 2017

I hope you had a fantastic week. It's hard to believe we only have one week left until winter break. Below are some of the things happening in our classroom...


As I prepare my home and celebrate the season with my family, I really enjoyed reading all the wonderful Holiday Tradition stories the children worked on at home with you!! It’s neat to hear how different families celebrate.  During one of our writing blocks this week we had a chance to type the stories into a Word document.  You should have received the original story back, and the typed version is on display in our classroom for all to read!

We are also spending some of our writing time reading various holiday stories and responding in writing.  Some of the books we've shared together are The Night Tree, The Chanukah Guest, Arthur's Christmas Cookies, and The Wild Christmas Reindeer.  After each book we do a follow-up writing activity such as sequencing the events of the story, answering comprehension questions, writing about what we would have done if we were in the story, and using a Venn diagram to compare characters.  This has been a nice way to include some fun, beautiful stories into our reading and writing curriculum.

During our reading blocks, the kids enjoyed reading non-fiction texts. We continued to discuss the non-fiction text features (glossary, index, captions, labels, diagrams, heading, etc.). The kids also had the opportunity to begin thinking about main idea and supporting details. This is a concept that is ongoing for second graders and will be discussed several times throughout the year during reading groups with both fiction and non-fiction texts.


In math we worked with place value and expanded form to compare 3-digit numbers. The children also had the opportunity to do another practice Open Response where they had to make sense of a 3-digit number represented by base-10 blocks by making trades or counting. Then as a class we analyzed explanations and drawing, and children revised their work.  We began discussing measurement as well.  We discovered the importance of standard measures by reading a fun story titled "How Big is a Foot?".  We also had lots of practice measuring in class using feet, inches, and centimeters.

Our Science unit "Materials and their Uses" is going very well! The kids are really starting to ask scientific questions and conduct investigations to "solve" their questions. One lesson explored liquids.  Groups were given various containers and they were asked to predict and then test which container could hold the most water. They did a great job working together to determine how much each could hold. We had some really rich conversations of how to be sure we were measuring accurately and the importance of repeating tasks to ensure accuracy.  Our next lesson focused on the Materials and their Purposes.  The children are in the process of designing bridges that are both strong and waterproof using various materials. The children did a "strength" test and a "waterproof" test and then they will create their bridges based upon what they learned during the testing lessons. Some bridges are still in process, but all groups will have an opportunity to share their designs next week in front of the class.

I am looking forward to our winter party, which will be on Thursday afternoon at 2:15.  The room parents have sent out an email with names of volunteers and who has offered to bring in food/paper product donations for the party.  Thanks again for your willingness to help out with these special events- it means a lot to me and to the children.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Upcoming Dates:

December 15th- Report Cards Available for Viewing at 4:00pm
December 21st- Winter Holiday Party
December 25-January 2nd:  Winter Break

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are gearing up for the holidays! It was a pleasure to meet with each of you last week at Parent Teacher Conferences. It's always nice to discuss the progress your child is making. I am proud of each and every student and amazed at the gains they have each made in such a short time. Progress reports will be available on the parent portal on December 15th at 4:00 pm.

In terms of academics and what has been happening in the classroom over the past couple of weeks, we have been busy as usual. We have begun Unit 4 for math which focuses on place value and measurement. The first few lessons were on telling time. This tends to be a difficult concept for many second grade students. The standard for second grade is that the children are able to read to the nearest 5 minute interval. The more you can support us at home with this concept the better. I know many homes have digital clocks, but anytime you are out and about or if you have an analog clock at home, it's helpful to practice reading the clock as much as possible. We also discussed the difference between am and pm and students identified activities that they participate in during each part of the day. 

As part of our work with Personal Narrative writing, this week we discussed the need to starting your sentences in different ways and varying your sentence lengths in order to make your writing sound more interesting. The students enjoyed editing a pre-written paragraph to practice this important skill. We will be doing some more skill practice next week.  Hopefully we will see some carry-over to their next personal narrative story.

During our Guided Reading blocks, we have spent time reading non-fiction. The children are really invested in this genre and have enjoyed reading to learn! We reviewed nonfiction text features and the children looked for these features as they were reading books at their individual levels during reading groups. The features we have discussed are: headings, table of contents, diagrams, labels, photographs, captions, index and glossary. We will continue with nonfiction next week as well.

In science we ended our Plant and Animal Survival unit by doing a library research project. The children had the opportunity to research one of the habitats that we discussed during our unit and then share what they learned with a small group. The students also took their assessment and we have begun our next science unit which is called "Materials and their Uses." In the first lesson the children learned about the various materials that objects are made of - wood, glass, plastic, etc... We also talked about properties of these materials. Some of the properties we discovered were: hard, soft, smooth, sticky, thick, bends, clear, long, etc... Finally, the children sorted some objects depending upon the properties that the object had.

We had a wonderful time at the Turkey Trot! It was a beautiful day and so nice to see all of the children excited and getting some good exercise! Thank you to all of the families who made donations to Robinson! We appreciate your support!

Upcoming Dates

December 1st- Grades Close for Term 1

December 5th- School Store for Grade 2

December 7th- Early Release for Professional Development

December 15th- Progress Reports available on Parent Portal