October 28, 2016

Dear Families,

We've had a fun and busy week! Here is an update on what is going on in the Second Grade Team.

Important dates:

*October 31^st: Halloween Parade and parties.  Parade 9:20, Party 10:20-11:20

*November 1st: Sign up Genius is being sent home to sign up for conferences! 

*November 4^th:  End of first marking period

*November 8th:  Election Day- no school

*November 15th:  Half day of school/ Parent-Teacher Conferences in the afternoon and evening

Language Arts:

Reading: This past week we continued with our Comprehension Beanie Baby Strategies. We learned about “Iggy Iguana” as we practiced making inferences.  Inferring is "reading between the lines." We looked for clues to help us notice feelings  as we read a story called Chrysanthemum. We also played s charades game, as we made inferences about how students were feeling based on their actions. 

Writing:  This week we learned about adding a different author’s craft, “show not tell”.  This is where the writer "shows", but does not "tell" what a character is feeling in the story.  We read "Chrysanthemum" as our mentor text, which demonstrates for students how good writers use the craft and inferred the character's feelings. 

Math: In math, we completed all the lessons in unit 2.  We focused heavily on patterns with adding odd/odd, even/even, and odd/even numbers.  We also learned about name collection boxes and frames and arrows.  We will be having an in-class review on Tuesday, and then our test will be on Wednesday.  The at-home review was sent home at the beginning of the unit so you were able to prepare. Please continue to go over this in preparation for our test.  You can also have your child practice the IXL skills we sent home, or work on the homelinks (also sent home via email).

Social Studies: This week we shifted our focus to WIN (what I need) and STEM. As a reminder, WIN is a time where students  work individually or in small groups with the teacher.  Students who are not working with the teacher, might be working on “what they need”.  This would include catching up in his/her math book, writing their stories, or responding to text in their Language Notebook.  We also did two STEM/STEAM activities this past week.  The students had a great time working in small groups on our “Candy Towers."  Thank you so much to everyone who helped donate the candy pumpkins for this fun activity!

Halloween:  Our party is on MONDAY! A huge THANK YOU to our party planners who have done a wonderful job creating, purchasing, and making all the centers for the children.  This is a huge amount of work, and the students and teachers greatly appreciate you! We will be having a Halloween parade in the parking lot outside Deerfield at 9:20.  Our party will be from 10:20- 11:20 in the West Wing.  Please remember, you must have completed the background check in order to volunteer at the Halloween party.  Your child needs to wear his/her costume TO SCHOOL on Monday so we are ready for the parade at 9:20.  Please be sure your child wears a "school appropriate" costume as our principal requested in her weekly update.  This means no masks, weapons, or overly scary type costumes.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation! Also, please have your child wear clothes underneath his/her costume so they can easily change after our party.  You might even want to send an extra bag so your child can put his/her costume in it safely after the party. Finally, please label all costume pieces in case they are lost/misplaced.

Character Trait of the Month: RESPECT.  I'll attach the homework paper to an email so you are able to help your child to complete these important activities at home this month.  We take great pride in adding these character traits to your child's curriculum.  We feel it greatly helps your child to grow into a well-rounded, kind and caring human being.  We LOVE this quote recently found on "Facebook" which focuses on the social aspects of a child's education, rather than just the academics: 

Coats:  The cold weather has arrived!!! As a reminder, students need to remember to bring appropriate recess gear DAILY.  The school rule is that "If it is 60 or below, STUDENTS MUST WEAR THE COAT THEIR PARENTS SENT WITH THEM TO SCHOOL".  Often times, we will have the students say, "My Mom/Dad said I didn't have to wear a coat today".  Believe it or not, we have even had a few students who have been hiding their coats in backpacks, when they are asked to put their coats on.  Please talk to your child about this important school rule.   We appreciate your support and truly want the children to stay warm/healthy during this Fall/Winter season. Also, please be sure to  mark everything with your child's name.  This makes it easier to get a lost item back to its owner. 

Have a wonderful weekend! We look forward to our SUPER FUN, Halloween festivities on Monday!

The Second Grade Teachers

October 21, 2016

Dear Families,

Here is an update on what is going on in the second grade team.

Important dates:

*October 31st: Halloween Parade and parties.  Parade 9:20, Party 10:20-11:20

*November 1st: Sign up Genius is being sent home to sign up for conferences!

*November 4th:  End of first marking period

*November 8th:  Election Day- no school

*November 15th:  Half day of school/ Parent-Teacher Conferences!

*FYI  Please remember to send back the FYI forms. We're going to put them in our Leadership Notebooks. 

* Leadership in Action:  This month Kindergarten is working on a community service project to help the students in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who had flood waters ruin their school (a note came home about it earlier this week).  They are asking for donations and second grade is in charge of donating index cards, red and black ink pens, glitter, or a cash donation for a gift card.  Any and all donations are appreciated and will be accepted until Wednesday, October 26th. 

Language Arts:

Reading: Over the next several weeks we will be focusing on Comprehension Beanie Baby Strategies. This week we learned about how Rocky Raccoon Visualizes to comprehend text.  Students were read mentor texts, "Fletcher and the Falling Leaves" and "A Night in the Country".  They listened and made movies in their heads as they visualized.  Ask your child what pictures they drew from their favorite moments visualizing in the stories!

Writing:  This week we learned about creating snapshots in our stories using our five senses.  We did a "Snapshot Nature Walk" to look, hear, smell and touch nature to get our writing juice flowing!  Students practiced writing a snapshot as a lead to their stories to grab the readers attention and pull them in!  We then wrote stories about our favorite fall activity.  Ask your child what their story is about and have them write a snapshot for you!

Math: In math, we are continuing to learn about addition strategies. This learned how near doubles/helper facts, and the turn around rule can help us when adding.  Please make sure your child is practicing their basic facts to gain fact power at home! Ask your child about these strategies and see if they can draw a model of a Double Ten Frame and explain in writing the near double/helper fact addition strategy. In second grade the common core asks for students not only to be able to get an answer, but to be able to explain in words/examples how and why they got the answer.  We practice this a lot at school, but practicing this at home would be very beneficial as well.  We ended the week on 2.8 if you are following along with Home Links at home.

Social Studies: This week we continued our PBL unit with kids creating a class booklet to give to new families moving to Novi.  We brainstormed all the places in Novi that make our community special.  Each student chose a different place, drew a picture of it and wrote about why it is special.  We will put all of these together to make a booklet.

STEAM: We are doing some of our October STEAM challenges next week and need  more small candy pumpkins and boxes of toothpicks!  Thank you in advance if you are able to help out!

Character Trait of the Month: Self Control. Please remember to have your child work on his/her self control map/calendar.  Our hope is for these Character traits to become natural for the kids both at home and at school!

Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the beautiful colors!

The Second Grade Teachers

October 14, 2016

Dear Families,

Important dates:

* October 14: Fun Run, Thank you to all who participated!

*October 31st: Halloween Parade and parties, Parade 9:20, Party 10:20-11:20

*November 1st , sign up Genius for conferences

*November 4th: end of first marking period

*November 8, Election Day- no school

* November 15th, half day, morning only for students, PM conferences

We had a great time at our Fun Run! Thanks to all who participated!

If you're interested in seeing the Mastodon Dig this weekend, it is going to be open to the public again. Please see the pictures on the previous post  on this blog and the article below.

                                                             Mastodon Information

I went last weekend and it was really interesting. The University of Michigan Museum is there with a small booth to teach about mastodons and the information that they have about the one that they are digging. It's a chance of a lifetime, so I dragged my husband and daughters and it was really interesting! There was an area that they had mapped out where they think they may have a skull! Last weekend they were unearthing the pelvis. Email me if you plan on going. I just may have to make a run out there again this weekend. The drive is about an hour and a half. 

This week, we had our second School Buddy Get Together. Our classes met with our buddies and learned about the tragic flooding in Louisiana. We wrote letters to students at a school that lost everything in the flood.  Our buddies, the kindergartners, were able to explain a lot of information about the floods to the second graders!

Language Arts:

This week we focused on Decoding Beanie Baby Strategies. We learned about or reviewed Chunky Monkey, Lips the Fish and Skippy the Frog.  We’re trying to get in the habit of using them when we come to a word we don’t know. Ask your child to explain what these Beanies help us to remember to do!

In Writing, we worked on Neighborhood maps to help us tell  personal narrative stories from our neighborhood adventures. We worked on the writing process, revising, editing, and trying to create interesting leads and endings. We used the mentor text, “Shortcut,” by Donald Crews in order to see some of the craft that he uses in his books.

Math: In math, we began learning about addition strategies. We learned about  doubles and  Make a ten. Knowing your doubles can help  you with fact power, as well as knowing how to make a ten. Ask your child about them and see if they can draw a model of a Double Ten Frame and explain in writing the process of making a ten. We also practiced writing our own addition story problems.

Social Studies: This week we worked on our Community Maps with our PBL Groups. The Groups did some brainstorming with the thinking routine “Chalk talk” and listed basic needs and places  in our community that help us to meet our basic needs. The Groups then began to create their own community maps, creating  large maps with all of the important  goods, services, human and natural characteristics of our community.

Character Trait of the Month: Self Control. Please remember to have your child work on his/her self control map/calendar.  We’re seeing some improvement in blurting and interrupting. We hope you’re seeing the same thing at home.

Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the beautiful colors!

The Second Grade Teachers

Mastodon Dig!

 

Mastodon Dig in Mayville, Michigan

                  This is the pelvis of the Mastodon. Teachers from the area and the University of Michigan are participating in the dig. They also found a tibia, femur, rib bones and scapula. It will be open to the public again next weekend.

October 7, 2016

Dear Families, 

 

Important dates:

*October 11th:  Deadline for all Fun Run pledges and shout outs.

*October 14^th: Fun Run! (Second Grade10:40-11:00)

*October 31^st: Halloween parties-more info to follow

                                                        Goodbye Saya! We love you!

 

 We had another wonderful week at school, full of exploration and learning. Here are some highlights from our learning:

We had our first Kindergarten Buddy Get Together! Second Graders interviewed their buddies!

 

 

Character Trait of the Month

Thank you for all of your support with Empathy. We read lots of books and talked about our experiences with empathy.  Our new character trait of the month is: Self Control. Your child’s homework menu came home on Friday. During our LEAD time on Thursday, we practiced self control with our bodies with a freeze dance and read a great book on the topic.

 

​Box Tops​

We love to collect Box tops for our school! Here is another way to help our school you may not know about. All you do is download the app, take a picture of your grocery store receipt and you can earn double points on certain items. It is super simple!  Here's the website http://www.boxtops4education.com or just download the app on your phone. 

 

Holiday Donations for upcoming parties

Please review the letter that came home last week, regarding our upcoming team parties.  We are asking for a $7 donation to cover items such as:  Snacks, Craft Materials, Drinks, Game Materials, Paper Products, and Enrichment Materials.

 

Language Arts

This week in Reading Workshop we learned about using our schema to understand a story better and how to properly retell what happened in a book you’ve read.  Ask your child what information they should include when retelling a story! Next week, we will be working on decoding strategies to use while reading. In writing, we added to the ideas section of our notebooks by creating maps of our neighborhoods. Each map contained areas of importance to them and areas of danger (both great to get the juices flowing when trying to find a story idea). We will continue our personal narrative unit next week.

 

 Math

In math, we continued to review our routines for math workshop. Students learned about finding patterns when counting by 2s, 5s or 10s, and compared numbers using greater than or less than symbols. We completed lessons 1.10 through 1.11, and did a review for our first unit test. Students took the Unit One math test and results will be sent home on Monday. If you notice that your child needs more practice in a certain area, please practice at home. We'll also practice the same concepts at school over and over again until the concept is mastered. 
It is our district policy to not send tests home. If you would like to review the test, you can set up a time during the day to come to school to look at them, or they will be available during conferences. We will begin Unit 2 next week.

                                                 Our Giant Number Grid!

WIN (What I need)

This is a time students are able to work on “what they need”.  Students may be doing reading or writing activities, completing unfinished work, or working with the teacher on a skill they need.  We will be rotating between WIN and Science/Social Studies/PBL/Makerspace during this afternoon time. During STEM this week, students were challenged with building the tallest structure they could, using only 10 mini marshmallows and 10 toothpicks!

 

 

Social Studies

This week we started our first Social Studies unit that is centered around family and community. Students were put into groups, came up with an agreement for their group to abide by during each meeting and created team names. We also participated in a Chalk Talk thinking routine to see what family and community means to each person. Next week, we will be exploring what basic needs we need to survive and start building a map of our community.

  

Have a wonderful weekend! 

The Second Grade Teachers