Mrs. G.'s Chalk Talk: May 2016

Monday, May 30, 2016

May 30th

Dear Families,

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend! The chicks spent the weekend with me and we had a great time! They'll be going to the farm this week!

Here is an update on what is happening in our team:

Important Upcoming Dates:

June 7-2nd Grade Field Trip to Greenfield Village
June 15 Field Day/June 16th rain day for Field Day
June 17th half day of school-Last day of school

Language Arts: Last week we read our Book Club Books and did a thinking routine with a book called, Those Shoes. Students worked on the routine, "Color, Symbol, Image." They did some wonderful thinking by assigning this book a color, creating a symbol to represent the book and drawing an image of a part of the book that best represented the theme. The students had to explain their thinking as well as tell why they thought this. Deep thinking in action!

This week the students will have fun learning about reading fluently. We'll work on phrasing, punctuation, expression, accuracy and rate. We'll practice by reading Reader's Theaters. We'll also read a book and try another thinking routine!

Writing: Throughout the week, we worked on drafting, revising and editing our history editorials and Google Slides. This week, we'll finish them up and work on blogging and our Plant and Praying Mantis Slides.

Math: This week, we worked on lessons 9.4-9.7. The students reviewed place value, and reviewed regrouping. Next week, we'll continue to work on Unit 9.

Social Studies/Science: Last week, we worked on our community history and our science unit about plants. Next, we'll begin to plan our courtyard renovation! Check out the video of our praying mantises hatching from their ootheca! Of course they started hatching on Friday! I was the only one there to see it!

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)!

*Don't forget about IXL Language Arts!

Have a great week!

Monday, May 23, 2016

May 23rd

Our Chicks are hatching!

So far, we have five chicks! Their names are: Chicky Mo Mo, Sponge Bob, Cinnamon, Fluffy Puff Marshmallow, and Peepster. We're still waiting on Chickerita, and Cotton Candy!

Friday, May 20, 2016

May 20th

Dear Families,

Here is an update on what is happening in our team:

Chicks due date: Next week!!! Tuesday, May 24th!!! Whoop! Whoop! Be sure to stay tuned for pictures of our chicks. We'll be tweeting out the news as well as putting pictures on our blogs and this blog!

Important Upcoming Dates:

May: NWEA testing this month. We will have our next test on Monday, May 23rd
for math.
May 27 and May 30: Memorial Day, No School
May 26: Bike to school day
June 7- 2nd Grade Field Trip to Greenfield Village- Thanks for returning all slips!
June 15 Field Day/June 16th rain day for Field Day
June 17th half day of school-Last day of school

Language Arts: This week we worked on researching the answers to our questions about our new class pets to-be, praying mantis Oothecas. Ask your child all about it! We read articles on line and in books about these interesting creatures. We also have started a google slide show on both praying mantises and Venus Flytraps. Some students are writing about the praying mantis nymphs, while others are working on general information about them.

We'll share our information when we're finished!

Writing: We ordered and received a new class plant called a Venus Fly Trap. We're researching how to care for it, because our teacher tends to kill plants very quickly. We've begun our writing and organizing of our informational piece. Some students are writing about the specific plant while others are writing about general plant information. There are some interesting websites on our class Symbaloo page.

A model of a Venus Fly Trap

Math: This week, we started our final unit for the year, Unit 9, which focuses on Equal shares and Whole Number Operations. We finished lessons 9.1-9.4, which discussed naming equal parts, number lines, and fractional units of length. Next week, we will be working on lessons 9.5-9.8.

WIN/Social Studies: Our Driving Question: How can we, as citizens of our community, explore the past and share our learning with others?

We worked on writing an editorial on the past about our city. We invited in an "expert" on our city. She grew up here in the 1900's. She came in on Thursday afternoon and talked to us about the past. We learned lots of information about what our city used to be like. Did you know that our city had lots of farms and orchards? We are writing informational articles about our city's past and hopefully will share these articles with our community.

We also planted seeds and have a little green house and light for our seeds. Next week, we'll begin studying plants and their needs.

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)!

*Don't forget about IXL Language Arts!

Don't forget:

Community Service Summer Activity Packs Drive at Deerfield: Together, the DCC, Student LightHouse Team and local charity COE1, asks for your help collecting items from May 16th - May 27th to assemble Summer Activity Packs for children living in area shelters. Click here for more information. Have your child put items in the labeled bins in their classroom wings. Each grade level is asked to donate the following items:

Kindergarten: Bubbles, Beach Balls & Play Dough
1st grade: Coloring books, Crayons & Markers
2nd: grade: 25-50 Piece Puzzles & Jump Ropes
3rd grade: Sunglasses & Lip Balm
4th grade: Spray or Stick Sunblock & Kids Card Games (UNO, Spot It, etc.)

Have a great weekend!

Friday, May 13, 2016

May 13th

Dear Families,

Here is an update on what is happening in our team:

Important Upcoming Dates:

May: NWEA testing this month. We will test on May
18th and May 23rd for reading and math
May 17: Art Gallery - 6:00-7:30
May 27 and May 30: No School
May 19 DCC last Parent meeting/DCC volunteer appreciation 6-7 p.m.
May 26 Bike to school day
June 7-2nd Grade Field Trip to Greenfield Village-if you haven't returned the permission slip/money, please do so asap
June 15 Field Day/June 16th rain day for Field Day
June 17th half day of school-Last day of school

Language Arts: This week, we continued to read our Book Club books as well as work on Close reading and finding evidence for our answers. We read a great Scholastic News about Caiman!

Writing: We worked on writing a movie review from the movie The Lorax. The children really enjoyed this activity and are doing a great job writing reviews! We've also been working on our community research with our Google Slides.

Math: This week we completed Unit 8 and took the test. The test scores will be coming home soon. Next week, we will start our final unit for the year, Unit 9, which focuses on Equal shares and Whole Number Operations. Please see the attached homelinks for the next unit, as well.

WIN/Social Studies: This week we learned about how communities change and how we can learn about our community's history. Our goal is to finish up this unit next week!

We're hoping to begin our planting soon and begin to research plants later in the week.

https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/strangeplantsresearch

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)!

*Don't forget about IXL Language Arts!

Have a great weekend!

The 2nd Grade Teachers

Monday, May 9, 2016

We Found a Bird's Nest!

Photo of a robin's nest on top of a light.

Photo by student photographer B.B.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Happy Mother's Day 2016

May 6, 2016

Happy Mother's Day!

Dear Families,

Thank you for a very nice Teacher Appreciation Week. We are very grateful for all of your support! The flowers, treats and kind letters were wonderful and very much appreciated!

Important Upcoming Dates:

May: NWEA testing this month. We will test on May 18th and May 23rd.
May 12: Cabins - Wear your Deerfield Shirts
May 13: Hawaiian Luau Mixer (see Mrs. Bedford's newsletter for more information)
May 17: Art Gallery - 6:00-7:30
May 27 and May 30: No School

Language Arts: This week we read our fiction book club books. One book club finished and the other club will probably finish next week. We're working on book club discussions, while predicting, looking for vocabulary, monitoring and clarifying, and summarizing. We'll also begin nonfiction book clubs.

Writing: This week we worked on publishing our book reviews on our blogs. Please login and write a comment! Next week, we will begin writing a movie review. Please let your child's teacher know if you would not like him/her to watch The Lorax (PG) for this writing piece. If we do not hear from you, we are assuming that you approve and your child will participate in watching The Lorax in order to write a review. We will be watching the movie on Monday, May 9th.

Math: This week we continued to learn about 2D shapes and their attributes. We also began learning about 3D shapes and their attributes as well as how to partition rectangles. Please review by doing the Unit 8 Home Links and using IXL and the Everyday Math Website. Next week, we will wrap up Unit 8 by reviewing equal groups and arrays. We will take the Unit 8 test near the end of next week.

Unit 8 Homelinks.pdf

Social Studies: We began our PBL unit on How Communities Change and our community's history. This week we read a book about schools and how they've changed over time. Next week, we will continue to learn about how communities change and how we can learn about our community's history. Our Driving question is : How can we, as citizens of our community, learn about our community's history and teach others? We wrote questions about our wonderings about our community in the past. Next week, we'll begin our research.

Blast from the Past

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)!

*Don't forget about IXL Language Arts!

Have a great weekend!