M&Ms and Reading Activities

To wrap up our unit on fractions, parent volunteer Jen Ramos led the class in an M&M fraction activity.  Students were to estimate totals, find fractions of a group, compare fractions, sort and regroup to find new fractions, and eat M&Ms (that was the challenging part!).  Thank you, Mrs. Ramos for the delicious math lesson!

Mrs. Ramos and baby Isabella.

Although reading is woven throughout our day through a variety of areas, our Reading Block is a time when students are found in small groups doing a variety of activities.  Here are some pictures to show some of what we are up to:

Buddy Reading

Literature Circle Discussion

Independent Reading

Written response to reading.  Gavin and Isabelle are applying
their learning about generalizations and supporting details,
while following directions on a reading activity card.

Also at that time, small groups of readers meet with me for guided reading instruction, students participate in various word work activities (including learning spelling rules, dictionary work, ABC order, etc.), and students continue to add to their poetry books.  There is such a variety of ways for students in second grade to become engaged in literacy activities!

Fraction Fun and Other News...

We have spent the last few weeks exploring fractions.  Students are learning to identify halves, thirds, and quarters of an area or object, as well as halves, thirds, and quarters of a set.  Students have also learned the terms for a fraction (such as "one half" or "one third") and the notation for the fraction (like 1/2 and 1/3 - except we have been writing them with the numbers stacked and the fraction bar horizontal, not diagonal).  We are using vocabulary such as "numerator" (the number on top of the fraction) and "denominator" (the number on the bottom of the fraction); and understand that fractions are equal parts of an object or group.  Students have also been exploring equivalent fractions (fractions that are equal, such as 1/2 = 2/4), fractions that show more than one part (3/4, 2/3), and mixed numbers (1 1/2, 2 3/4). 
Perhaps the most meaningful activity we did to work with fractions was working with Hershey bars!  Thank you to Mr. Dale for providing the class with edible fractions!

One Whole Hershey Bar

One Half

Another Way to Show One Half



Split Into Quarters, or Fourths

A Different Way to Split Into Quarters - each section is still equal!

More Quarters

One of these pieces is 1/6 of the Hershey bar.

Finding multiple ways to create quarters and thirds of the same area.

Fraction Flags

More Fraction Flags

Science and Social Studies are being integrated throughout our days.  We are finishing up research on weather; and are using our Biography unit to jump into learning about our government - focusing on some important contributions of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, as well as our U.S. Constitution and the voting process. 

Although we have covered the needs of "Living Things" in various parts of the school year, we will also spend more time Fourth Quarter focusing on vertebrates, interdependency of plants and animals, similarities and differences. 

In Writing Workshop, we have been working hard on our Biographies.  Thank you to all those who supported us with our interviews!  These biographies will go through the editing process and end up as published pieces on display. 

Some dates to Remember:

April Book Orders will go home on Friday, April 5.  They will be due Thursday, April 11.  Please be sure to send a check or money order only - not cash.  Last month I ended up writing a check for almost $50 to cover all of the cash orders.  Ordering online is another option (go to scholastic.com; the activation code is FZY46).

NWEA testing for Spring will begin right after vacation.  Our class will test on Mondays, so our test dates are: Monday, April 22, April 29, and May 6.  Please make sure your child is well rested and has had a good breakfast and lunch for the day.

Learning on a Sea of Talk

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

On Friday, March 1 we honored timeless writer Dr. Seuss by inviting a couple of eighth graders in to read to us.  A great big "Thank You" to Jenna Jameson and Kasidy Schaefer!

What we are Learning...

In Reading, we are continuing our theme of "Amazing Animals" - reading about fictional animal characters, as well as learning about the amazing characteristics of real animals.  Students continue to not only develop decoding and other reading strategies, but students are also developing their thinking about reading.  Being a good thinker while reading is what makes a person a good reader.  While reading with your child, include a conversation about connections your child can make between the text (the story being read) and himself, another text, or the world.  Also ask questions that cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no"; and may or may not be answered in the story itself.  For example: "How do you think (the character) felt when (something happened)?" or "What would you do if...?"  Another way to encourage thinking about the reading is to ask your child what they think the author meant by (a certain phrase, or figure of speech).  Often times young readers just graze right past odd wording in a story, without giving it much thought.  Challenge your child to be a thinker!

In math, students are still working with tens and ones; and deciding exactly what a story problem is asking and the best way to go about solving it.  We have been focusing a lot on ways to get to 100; such as "If you have 54 marbles, how many more will you need to get to 100?"  Students have been sharing some fabulous strategies around solving problems!

... and the Sea of Talk

I cannot say it enough -- one of the biggest messages that I want all students and parents to know is that it is much more important to go through a process of working through a problem, explaining your thinking, trying it a new way, supporting your thinking ... than to just get a right answer (or to just have a finished product completed).  I can tell that a student is learning by using several methods, such as (but not limited to) observations of independent-  partner-  or small group-  work, working one-on-one with a student, student responses in class discussions, practice worksheets, and of course end of unit and other assessments.  So, for example, when playing a math game is one of the choices on the Math Menu for homework - don't get wrapped up in trying to make things exactly how you think I want you to play.  If you need to (or want to) adapt the game - go right ahead!  Or, while completing the Reading Log, you found that parent and child shared in the reading because the text was particularly challenging - that's perfectly fine!  My message is simple:  I just want our students to be sharing a math experience with another person at home; or experiencing reading in some way.  No strings attached.  This way of thinking holds true in other areas of second grade learning, as well.  The more your child engages with others in discussions around their learning, the more your child will learn!  

One of my favorite quotes comes from educationist James Britton: 

"All learning floats on a sea of talk."

Happy learning, and happy talking!

February Update

February is quite the busy month in school!  As I stated in the newsletter that was sent home, we had the 100th Day of School and a visit from the Maine Jump.  Students were challenged to think about the number 100 as they found out how far 100 steps will take them, listed ways to make 100, filled out a 100s chart, and thought about what they would like 100 of, what $100 could buy them, etc.  The Maine Jump was a huge success!  We were allowed thirty minutes of jump time in the gym.  It wore us out so much, I'm trying to figure out a way to make those jump houses a permanent fixture! 

February also brings us Valentine's Day.  We will celebrate the day of friendship on Thursday, February 14.  Information already went home about that.  A parent has already volunteered to provide paper goods and juice boxes -- THANK YOU!

President's Day is also an important part of February.  We will only get a glimpse of Washington and Lincoln's lives before the holiday.  After vacation (and after we wrap up our current science unit on the sun, moon, Earth, weather and water cycle) we will do a more in depth study of Washington, Lincoln, the US Constitution, and other ideas related to government.  We will also use that time to explore (and create) biographies.

Currently in math we have completed our unit in number patterns and ratios, and are now back to addition and subtraction story problems.  Students are looking at numbers in terms of ones, tens, and sometimes hundreds in order to break apart - and put back together - numbers for the purpose of addition or subtraction.  This is also a good strategy for mental math, as it is difficult to regroup ("borrow" or "carry") in your head.  Here are some examples of breaking numbers in tens and ones:

56 + 32=

 

50 + 6 + 30 + 2

50 + 30 = 80

6 + 2 = 8

80 + 8 = 88

 

SO....   56 + 32 = 88

 

 

47 + 25 =

 

40 + 7 +20 + 5

40 + 20 = 60

7 + 5 = 12 (which is 10 + 2)

60 + 10 + 2 = 72

 

SO...47 + 25 = 72

(This one would require regrouping - or "carrying" - when doing the algorithm.)

 

74 - 31

70 - 30 = 40

4 - 1 = 3

40 + 3 = 43

 

SO... 74 - 31 = 43

 

 

52 - 38 =

This one needs to be thought of in a different way, because you cannot take 8 away from 2 for this problem.  When students do not have a firm understanding of the number system, they will try to take 2 away from 8.

Here is one strategy that most second grade students find helpful (it is also how I would solve this in my head):

 

38 is 2 away from 40, so I will think "52-40," which is like going AWAY from 52 two more spaces on a number line.

 

52 - 40 =

50 - 40 = 10

2 - 0 = 2

10 + 2 = 12

 

BUT... 12 is not the final answer!  Remember, I ADDED 2 in the beginning, so now I need to ADD that 2 back into my difference:

 

12 + 2 = 14

 

SO... 52 - 38 = 14

 

 

Now, I know that this written explanation looks and sounds a little confusing.  Even I questioned myself as I wrote it, and I do this all the time!  The important thing to remember is that if your child has a strategy that works for him/her, and they understand it and can explain it, then it's good.  Some students still use pictures, some students use pictures that look like tens and ones (5 tens rectangles, and 2 single squares to represent 52), and some are able to easily manipulate the numbers in terms of tens and ones without pictures.  Having this understanding of how numbers combine, shift, and break apart will support their understanding of algorithm use in later years. 

 

Students in my class also hear over and over the importance of the PROCESS and the THINKING over just getting an answer.  My calculator can give me an answer - I am much more interested in how a second grade student is thinking about a problem, and WHY their strategy worked!

 

ALSO --  I have some pages to copy and send home that can better illustrate the strategies that we are working on.  It is so much easier to explain with other lines and drawings - functions that I have yet to master in this blog format!

 

 

In other news:  Students have been working on writing Friendly Letters in Writing Workshop.  The parts of a Friendly Letter include: the date, greeting, body with an interesting topic and details, closing, and signature.  Students have used a checklist to self-evaluate their ability to write a Friendly Letter.  Once these letters are checked by me, and fixed up by them, students will be able to bring them home.  Some students will want your help to actually mail their final letter!

 

 

 

                                                                    

 

                                                                      



Germs, Germs, and a Do Over!

Wow!  Although there is still a small handful of students out today, we are just going to pretend that last week never happened - and have a total "Do Over"!  A very special "Thank you" to Mrs. Bay, who subbed for me all of last week.  It is very difficult to be out and create quality sub plans; and Mrs. Bay did a great job keeping things going.  Not only has our classroom been sanitized (repeatedly), but students have had frequent reminders and lessons on covering coughs and sneezes, hand washing, and sanitizing often.  Hopefully we are through the worst of it, and we can move forward from here.

**  Donations of tissues and disinfecting wipes are welcome!!!  **

Book Orders went home today.  They are due this Friday, January 18. For those of you who are still out sick (or on vacation), you can still place an order online.

In math we are finishing up a unit on data collection, representation, and analysis.  Students have participated in, and created their own, surveys.  Students have learned how to make various representations of their data - a picture, graph, or other way of organizing and making sense of the data.  Students also have been learning about analyzing the data - seeing what can be learned by looking at the data.  We also used made up alien-like creatures called "Yektiis" (YEK-tees) to learn about attributes and sort items using more than one "rule".  Venn Diagrams came in handy when an object fit two rules at the same time.  We will spend a little more time on data collection, learning about line plots and more about analyzing data, before we move on to our next unit where we will look at number patterns, ratios, and learn to represent and predict change.

Mrs. Bay introduced the class to a mini-unit on Martin Luther King, Jr.  School is closed on Monday, January 21 in honor of Dr. King.  It is important that students have a little background on the civil rights issues and peaceful ways of dealing with conflict that Dr. King was passionate about. 

We are starting a unit in science on the physical science topics of the moon, sun, earth, and weather.  We will also take a look at the water cycle in this unit.  Students will perform some experiments in order to grasp the ideas of the size of the moon compared to the earth and sun, the way that the earth orbits around the sun -  and the moon around the earth, understand moonlight and craters.  We will then move on to learn more about the sun and weather, weather's affect on the earth's surface, and the water cycle.  We probably will not finish this unit before the end of the quarter.

In Writing Workshop this month, students are learning more about conferencing and the benefits of teacher- and peer-conferences.  We are using mentor texts to explore ways in which we can make our writing flow (as opposed to sounding choppy).  As always, we work with using a variety of strategies for planning our writing, adding detail to our stories, and thinking about the "mechanics" of writing such as spelling, upper case letters, and punctuation.  Some students are even ready to consistently use quotation marks in their work, when using dialogue.

Schedule Changes

Hello Second Grade Parents!

Due to the Snow Day, our schedule for the rest of the week will look like this:

Thursday, December 20:  K-2 Polar Express Day  

                                      * Don't forget to wear your pajamas!*

                              ** Parent Volunteers -- if you cannot volunteer on Thursday, we understand.  Please email Mrs. Wright at p.curry-wright@cdsedu.org to let her know.  All others, please meet in Mrs. Wright's classroom first thing Thursday morning.

Friday, December 21:  We will have our Classroom Party (snacks and watching the movie "Polar Express").  Please feel free to donate snacks for the party.  A parent has already offered to donate the juice boxes and paper products.

We have a lot of celebrating to do, in very little time!  We will fit in as much cheer as we can!

Unit Updates

Busy, busy, busy as always!  Here are some highlights of what we have done and what we are doing:
 
Math:  Students continue to work on their thinking skills as they find strategies to attack story problems.  When working on a problem, students need to ask themselves the following questions:

* What is happening in the story?

* What do I already know?

* What do I need to find out?

* What strategy can I use to solve the problem?

 
Students are also focusing on organizing their work and keeping track of their data in a way that makes sense.  When working with your child at home, you can help by prompting them with the above questions.  Let your child find a way that makes sense to them to solve the problem, instead of showing them how.  I would much rather see an attempt at a strategy than see a correct answer with a strategy that they can't explain!

While story problems pop up continuously in our math work, we will also learn more about collecting, plotting, and analyzing data this month.

Reading:  We ended a theme called "Nature Walk", and genre focus on Fables.  Through reading various fables, students learned that a moral is a lesson that is learned in a fable.  Because reading and writing go together, we will end up writing our own fables.  It will be interesting to see what kinds of lessons we can learn from our students!

We will take some time to work on an end of theme skills test that assesses concepts taught during the last five weeks.  Data from the last skills test led Mrs. Lent and I to form an RTI goal around making predictions and making inferences.  Students have successfully become more knowledgeable around these concepts over the last couple of weeks.

(*A quick reminder: RTI stands for Response to Intervention.  Goals in reading or math are set, according to data collected through assessments.  Groups are formed according to need, and re-teaching, extra practice, or enrichment take place.  After two weeks, students who need to are re-assessed.  A positive gain almost always takes place for 100% of those involved.)

In reading, we also are working on comparing, classifying, fact and opinion, consonant clusters (gl, br), double consonants (bubble, across), questioning (questions that cannot be answered in the text), evaluating (How well did the author explain...?), and monitoring (Does it make sense? Maybe I need to read it again.).

Writing:  Students have worked hard applying ways to write with voice!  As a culminating activity, students were asked to choose a strong feeling: love or can't stand, and apply it to a topic.  Look for these papers coming home soon! 

Through the rest of December, we will have mini-lessons on adding detail (a concept revisited later in the year), as well as work on writing fables, as mentioned above.

Science:  We finished our unit on magnets after several engaging experiments.  To begin our unit, we wrote a list of everything that we thought we knew about magnets.  Then, through reading nonfiction and experimenting with materials, we affirmed, revised, or edited our thoughts.  Below are some photos of our fun - I mean, learning:

Look close -- is that book ring floating?

How many paper clips can this magnet hold?

Listing facts from nonfiction texts.

Learning about magnetic fields.

Magnetic, or not?

Social Studies:  We have just begun a unit on Wants/Needs and Goods/Services.  Aside from learning the definitions for those vocabulary words, we will also learn about consumers (those who buy a good or service) and producers (those who provide a good or service).  Through leveled nonfiction texts and role play activities, students will understand how people in a community are connected through the goods and services provided and received.  Students will also understand how an income is earned by providing a good or service, and used as trade for consuming a good or service.

And one more thing to notice...when you come to school for our upcoming Winter Concert, please be sure to check out our bulletin board in the hall.  Our students are offering gifts from the heart  -- to the world!  Things like shelter, friendship, and a clean earth are packaged up for our world to receive!