Mrs. G.'s Chalk Talk: March 2016

Thursday, March 24, 2016

March 24th

Dear Families,

Here is what is going on in the second grade team!

The second graders did such a great job at their Suessical Musical and during our cabin assembly! All the hard work really showed. Way to go second grade!

What an awesome performance!

Important Upcoming Dates:

March 25th: Good Friday, No School

April 4-8th: Spring Break

April 15th: Student Led conferences-These will be held during our half day. Please refer to Mrs. Bedford's newsletter for more information. We will be sending more information home closer to the date.

April 29th: All School Field Trip. More information will come home after Spring break!

Language Arts: This week we spent time working on prefixes and suffixes. Students learned what a root word is and how the prefix and suffix can change the meaning of the root word. Next week we will continue working on this as well as focus on close reading strategies.

Our Favorite Place to Read

Writing: This week, some students completed their Genius Hour Projects. They are working very hard on making sure they have all of the important facts, pictures with captions and any other nonfiction text features that will help the audience understand and learn about their topic! Next week we will finish up by editing and then begin presenting!

Math: This week we continued our studies of Unit 7. We learned the difference between yard sticks and meter sticks and did a lot of measuring! Below are the Homelinks for Unit 7. Next week we will be wrapping on unit 7, taking our test on Thursday, March 31.

Unit 7 Homelinks.pdf

Science: This week and next week we are finishing up our Science unit, Measuring Matters. Students have learned about measuring distance, area, perimeter, and next week we'll focus on volume, weight and single substances vs. mixtures.

Learning at Home:

*Math Homelinks

*IXL math, Everyday Math and Xtra Math Websites

*Read (15-30 minutes per night)

*Wordly Wise (vocabulary practice)

*Blog (great writing practice)!

Have a great long weekend!!

Thursday, March 17, 2016

March 18

Dear Families,

We have a big week next week! On Tuesday the kids will be performing their Musical Play, Suessical Musical, for the whole school in the morning and then for you in the evening. If your child has a speaking part, please encourage them to practice this line in front of you so they are ready to be center stage!

Also, as a second grade team we are putting on a whole school assembly on Thursday, March, 24th. Our task is to review the Habit we learned in cabin time last week, Think Win-Win. We are going to teach the school a song and would appreciate if your child can practice at home between now and next Thursday. Below is the link with words to the song we will be singing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut9-b1HrdsY

Additionally, since the tune is to take me out to the ball game, we are asking the the kids wear baseball caps and a baseball themed shirt to keep with our theme on Thursday, March 24.

Important Upcoming Dates:

March 21st: RESCHEDULED Milk and Cookies Night 6:00-7:30

March 22nd: Second Grade Spring Concert 7:00-8:00

March 25th: Good Friday, No School

April 4-8th: Spring Break

April 15th: Student Led conferences-These will be held during our half day. Please refer to the Principal's newsletter for more information. We will be sending more information home closer to the date.

Language Arts: This week we continued our non-fiction unit by exploring author's purpose; PIE: Persuade, Inform, Entertain! We also practiced reading paragraphs closely in order to find evidence for our answers.

Writing: This week, students continued to research and write out their paragraphs for their Genius Hour topic. Next week, we will continue to draft and edit our personal expertise papers and begin to publish on our Google Slides!

Math: This week we began our studies of Unit 7. We're learning about adding four or more addends and learning how to explain our thinking carefully, while showing the process of our thinking. We also played a couple of fun games called Basketball Addition and Hit the Target. Below are the Homelinks for Unit 7.

Unit 7 Homelinks.pdf

Science: We are continuing to explore measurement in our STEM activities. This week, students learned about area and perimeter by creating pens for new animals at the zoo. Next week, we'll finish up our measurement studies.

Learning at Home:

*Genius Hour: Work on adding pictures, captions, headings

*Math Homelinks

*IXL math, Everyday Math and Xtra Math Websites

*Read (15-30 minutes per night)

*Wordly Wise (vocabulary practice)

*Blog (great writing practice)!

Have a great weekend!!

Friday, March 11, 2016

March 11

Dear Families,

Here is what is happening in the Second Grade Team:

Important Upcoming Dates:

March 14th: Science Fair 6:00-8:00

March 21st: RESCHEDULED Milk and Cookies Night 6:00-7:30

March 22nd: Second Grade Spring Concert 7:00-8:00

March 25th: Good Friday, No School

April 4-8th: Spring Break

Language Arts: This week we continued our non-fiction unit by exploring different text structures. Students will continue to learn about descriptive, cause and effect, problem and solution, sequential, and compare/contrast text structures. Understanding these text structures will help students in their comprehension of the text. Next week, we will learn about author's purpose.

Writing: This week, students had time to research their Genius Hour topic. They picked headings for their project and read over their research looking for information in those areas. Next week, we will begin drafting our personal expertise papers and creating our Google Slides. Please refer to the "How To" sheet and the login and password sheets that were sent home for a quick tutorial on how to do Google Slides. We will be working on the writing portion in class. If your child would like to get familiar with it this weekend, and get a little head start, that would be great. It's exciting for them knowing they can work on this at home and access it at school!

Math: This week, we reviewed Unit 6 skills and worked a little on elapsed time using open number lines. Unit six cover sheets for the test skills was sent home. Students also took a Unit 5 and 6 Quarterly assessment. Finally, they took their Unit 7 Pretest. We will begin Unit 7 lessons next week starting with lessons 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3. Below are the Homelinks for Unit 7.

Unit 7 Homelinks.pdf

Science: We are continuing to explore measurement in our STEM activities. This week, students learned about area and perimeter by creating a yard big enough for a dog, dog house, bowl and bone. Next week, we will continue to learn about area and perimeter.

Learning at Home:

*Math Homelinks

*IXL math, Everyday Math and Xtra Math Websites

*Read (15-30 minutes per night)

*Wordly Wise (vocabulary practice)

*Blog (great writing practice)!

Have a great weekend!!

Saturday, March 5, 2016

March 5, 2016

Here is what is happening in the Second Grade Team:

Important Upcoming Dates:

March 14th: Science Fair 6:00-8:00

March 21st: RESCHEDULED Milk and Cookies Night 6:00-7:30

March 22nd: Second Grade Spring Concert 7:00-8:00

March 25th: Good Friday, No School

April 4-8th: Spring Break

April 15th: tentative Student Led conferences- more info to follow

Language Arts: This week we continued our non-fiction unit. Students reviewed how to find keywords and paraphrase what they have read. This will come in handy when we are reading informational texts for our Genius Hour projects.

Writing: We are so excited to have started Genius Hour! The students were asked to choose a topic that they are interested in learning more about. They've written questions about their wonders and learned the difference between robot questions and deeper, inventor/detective questions. They are now ready to start researching! We would appreciate if you could please help your child print and bring articles on their topic, to school by Monday. Sample topics the children chose to research on were soccer, dolphins, lungs, eyes etc.. Any topic that they are passionate about will work as long as your child can find research on the topic. They could also bring in books from the library! Over the next couple of weeks, we will be doing some research at school, but it will be easier for your child to complete their writing if they have multiple forms of information.

Math: This week we completed the unit 6 review and test. Next week, we will begin unit 7. This unit largely focuses on measurement and adding three or more numbers. A review will be sent home early next week. Please keep this review for the test handy and in a safe place for our next unit 7 test. Thanks for your help at home!

A note about future math tests: We will not be sending math tests home starting with this unit 6 test. As you know from curriculum night, we have the new Everyday Math program this year. As a result, staff members are now rewriting the math tests to 1) better meet the need of the district/common core and 2) to protect the validity of the test. We will be sending home the cover sheet for you to look at which tells how your child did on each particular skill. The test problems resemble EXACTLY what the at-home review problems are if you are confused about how your child did on a skill. If you feel the need to look at your child's test personally, you can set up an appointment to look over the test here at school. The unit 6 cover sheet will be coming home next week. Thanks for understanding!

Science: The kids had a great time working together to answer their STEM driving question this week. Students were asked how they could build a ramp that would make their “sled” go the farthest. Our goal was to learn how to measure with centimeters. So many great designs were built and tested! Students were also reminded to use accountable talk when working in a group. Next week we will be doing another fun STEM activity that is sure to get the kids excited about science and math!