Mrs. G.'s Chalk Talk: 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!