Snow Day Today . . Another Writing Celebration Tomorrow!

Just a quick post to let you all know that we will hold our morning Celebration of Personal Narrative Writing tomorrow, Wednesday, December 18th at 8:45.  I hope you'll be able to join us!  Enjoy your Snow Day!

Celebrating Writers -- Day One

Many thanks to all our visitors who joined us for our Second Grade Celebration of Personal Narrative today!  The second graders were so pleased to share their accomplishments; each child has dedicated quite a bit of time and effort to bring a piece of writing through many phases from tiny idea to publication.  Today each student read his or her Personal Narrative story to at least 3 visitors. Some even read their stories five or six times!  The students also shared their About the Writer pages and their Mentor Texts with our visitors.  Stay tuned for more photos from Day Two . . .

Tyler is reading his piece, Playing with Jeff, to Evan.

Sarafina is reading her piece, Rainbow Bracelets!, to Aleks' mom.

Hunter is reading his piece, The Blizzard, to Ms. Girardi.

Aleks and Wyatt are sharing their work with Kaisac's parents.

Samara and Julia are showing Julia's dad one of our Mentor Texts, Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen.

Manguito!!

What a blast we all had at the musical performance by Manguito last week!  In addition to clapping, singing and dancing, we had the opportunity to learn about a wide variety of percussion instruments including the Conga and Bongo drums, the Shekere, the Campana, the Timbale, the Clave, the Maracas and the Tamborra.  The musicians taught us about the role of multiple rhythms in their music and about the combination of European, African and Native American traditions within their compositions.  This was a very special treat brought to us by our generous PTO. Thanks very much, SES PTO!

More Story Maps

During Reading Workshop, second graders are continuing to use Story Maps to organize their thinking about stories and to increase their overall comprehension.  Last week, the children worked with their Reading Partners to create Story Maps for an Old Favorite Story. Some of the Old Favorites they read included Froggy Gets Dressed, Miss Nelson is Missing, Chicken Little, The Mitten, Corduroy and The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. This week, they are working independently to build Story Maps for appropriately leveled texts.  You'll see a completed Story Map in your child's folder at the end of the week. Until then, check out these photos of Reading Workshop:

Here is the Story Map we created based on a
Read Aloud of Click, Clack, Moo by Doreen Cronin.

This is the Story Map we created last week after reading a
non-fiction passage titled
Safer Roads for Animals (www.readingatoz.com).

Front Page News!! Read all about it!!

When you receive your child's report card this Friday, I predict that your child will want you to take a careful look at the front page.  The first thing you'll see on the report card is a section titled Skills That Support Learning.  I've explained to second graders that this section is comparable to the Front Page News of a newspaper -- it's the biggest story of the day! These essential skills are critical to each child's success in elementary school, middle school, high school and beyond. In order to involve the children in the process of assessment and to encourage them to reflect on their role in their own learning, we spent some time taking a careful look at these skills that support learning.  In second grade language, these include

• following classroom rules
• showing respect to teachers
• showing respect to classmates
• working together with classmates on group projects
• solving problems
• showing kindness
• staying organized
• using classroom tools appropriately.

After a thoughtful whole group discussion, each child worked independently to self-assess using a kid-friendly rubric.  Each child assessed himself or herself on these skills using the following scale: never, rarely, sometimes, most times, and always. Each child worked carefully on this important work and it will be included in his or her report card envelope on Friday. Please take some time to review this self-assessment of Skills That Support Learning as well as my assessment (the report card) with your child.   Check out these photos of second graders at work:

The I CAN statement that accompanied this work was I CAN think about how my behaviors help my learning. 

Story Maps

In Reading Workshop, we have been working on creating Story Maps to increase reading comprehension. These maps are linked to the following I CAN statement: 

I CAN tell who, where, when and what after reading.

The children have also been working on Story Maps as part of their weekly homework packets.  Please be sure to take a look at the Story Map in your child's packet and ask him or her to explain its importance.  We have 2 Story Maps formats and today, after a lesson on how to use the second format, the children read an "Old Favorite" with their reading partners and then began to complete a story map. 

Check out these hardworking readers:

 

Fun Friday!

Friday, December 6 was a very busy day in second grade. We got off to a great start with a Performance Assessment during Math Time  in which second graders demonstrated their knowledge of U.S. Coins.  Whenever we work on this type of assessment, I explain to the children that this independent work is a chance for them to "show what they know" and to help me "figure out what I need to teach".  The information from these assessments, along with our grade level curriculum standards, will help me to plan upcoming lessons. 

We will be learning about money until the start of the December vacation.  Please check your child's folder for a note about bringing some coins to school. Thank you!

We finished up Math Time on Friday with some great math games including Close to 20 and Order Up. 

Close to 20

Order Up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of our day on Friday was meeting our new Spanish teacher, Profe Clarita (Claire Huttlinger).  We had a great time learning some key Spanish phrases and a fun song.  You can check out our lesson on Profe Clarita's website.  Click on the link below:

http://translationspot.net/escuela-primaria/

Here is a photo of Profe Clarita.  

 We will have Spanish class each Friday. . . be sure to ask your child about these lessons!

Getting ready to feast!

On Tuesday, 2B and 2W will get together for a small Thanksgiving feast.  In preparation, we talked at Morning Meeting about all the different things at school for which we are thankful.  You'll be impressed by the thoughtful list the children generated. Check this out:

Our list included:

• Read Aloud
• Math
• Library
• All the teachers
• Wonderful friends
• 100,00 books to read
• Art
• Writing Workshop
• P.E.
• Our whole school
• The right to learn
• Our friends in 2W
• The learning in our school
• Nurse Jeannie
• Kindness and cooperation
• All my friends

Later in the day, 2W joined us to watch a short video about an important local crop -- Cranberries! We learned that 27% of the cranberries harvested in the U.S are grown in Massachusetts.

Click here for the video we watched today.


We have also learned that this local crop was cultivated back in the Colonial days.  It joins our list of local foods that the Pilgrims and Wampnoags enjoyed that we are still eating today.  (Beans, corn, squash, cranberries. . . . Can you add to this list?) After watching the video, we made our own cranberry sauce in the CrockPot.  We decided that the Pilgrims would not have had the luxury of using electricity to prepare their foods, but we knew that building a big cookfire in our classroom would not be allowed! Check out these fun photos: 

Order Up!

In this week's homework packet, you'll find a great math game called Order Up.  Your child should play at least 3 rounds of this game with an adult or an older sibling as part of his or her homework.  The materials and rules are included in the homework packet, but I thought you might like to see some photos of second graders playing this game in the classroom.  This game offers a good opportunity for your children to work on the following I CAN statements:

• I can understand and use hundreds, tens and ones.
• I can compare 3 digit numbers. 

Can you talk like a Pilgrim? Can you cook like a Wampanoag?

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we have been studying the daily lives of the Pilgrims and Wampanoags of the 1600s.  Second graders have learned some new Pilgrim vocabulary and have discovered some delicious Wampanoag and Pilgrim dishes. 

You can try out these new terms with your second grader:

How now?
Good morrow!
Fare thee well!

Huzzah!
Oh, marry!

Mouser
Arsy varsy

And perhaps you'd like to try some tasty dishes such as Nasaump or Curd Fritters for breakfast or Turkey Sobehag for dinner. 

Check out these links to the Plimoth Planatation website so that you can learn to talk like a Pilgrim or cook like a Wampanoag: 

http://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/talk-pilgrim

http://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/recipes

Get the Picture?

During Reading Workshop this week, we've been working on a new strategy to boost comprehension. The fancy way to describe this strategy is "Visualizing to Understand", but the kid-friendly version is "Get the Picture."  As the children delve into books that focus on settings, characters or problems that are unfamiliar to them, they can create a mental image of a particular scene in order to increase their understanding of the story. In creating this mental image, they will rely on the descriptive language in the book as well as on their own background knowledge.  As a whole class, we worked on "Getting the Picture" after reading a few chapters of Tonight on the Titanic.  Next, the children used their Independent Reading time to put the strategy to use as they read appropriately leveled books. As they read, they marked a particular scene with a Post-It Note and later sketched a picture on their strategy sheet to boost their understanding of that part of the book.  These photos show an enlarged version of the "Get the Picture" strategy sheets that the children have been using.  

Guess My Number

Today during Math Time, we learned a new math game that incorporates much of what we've learned about place value.  The game is called Guess My Number and it requires the use of key math vocabulary such as:

• ones, tens, hundreds
• greater than
• less than
• odd 
• even
• columns (on the 100 Chart)
• rows (one the 100 Chart)
• digits

In order to play this game, each player has a 100 Chart. Player #1 thinks of a secret number while Player #2 must ask "Yes or No" questions to determine the secret number. To keep track of the guesses and to organize their thinking, the players track the answers to the questions on the 100 Chart. For example, if my secret number is 22 and my partner asks, "Is your number greater than 15?", my answer would be, "Yes." I would then cross out all the numbers less than 15 on the 100 Chart to help my partner determine my secret number.  This is a great game to play at home!  I will send the directions and materials in next week's homework packet.  Check out our "Guess My Number" chart and some photos of second graders playing the game.

Scenes from Morning Meeting

We returned from the holiday weekend FULL of energy and we put that energy into action during Morning Meeting!  We learned an active and fun greeting called the Lumberjack Greeting. Ask your child to demonstrate . . . it's fun!  

Julia was Morning Message reader today and she led a great discussion about the questions in our message. These were connected to our Writing Workshop Share on Friday and the children's use of Powerful Leads, Craft Moves and Strong Endings.  

Aleks was the Poem Reader today and he led us in a poem titled, Thanksgiving.  You'll see this poem in this week's homework packet.  Ask your child to tell you about a fancy new word: stanza. 

Happy Birthday to Evan!

In addition to observing Veterans Day, we also celebrated Evan's birthday today.  Happy Birthday, Evan!