Week of August 31
in room 15, we strive to be
focused and relaxed
Weekly Update
for the Week Ending
Friday, August 31
Dear Room
15 Families,
The first complete
five-day week was productive, busy and full.
I’m guessing you noticed an exceptionally tired second grader at home. Hopefully, much of this three-day weekend is
spent resting, relaxing and recharging.
I am
looking forward to getting the chance to see you all in room 15 on Back to
School Night on Thursday, September 13. If
you won’t be able to make it, please let me know as soon as you can.
Every
weekend throughout the school year, you will receive a brief weekly update from
me. In these weekly updates, I plan to
share with you just a few of (what I consider) the highlights of our week. This is also the place to look for important
notices, reminders, requests and a bit of what’s ahead for us. You can expect this to land in your email
inbox over the weekend. I will also have
all Weekly Updates “archived” in our class website (we will discuss this at Back
the School Night.) Please that here: http://focusedandrelaxed.blogspot.com
Important
Information:
•The coveted
position of Library Volunteer(s) is still
available for our class. If you should
be interested in this, please let me know.
This could shared with one other person.
Our library time is on Thursdays from 2:15 – 3:00. We will be dismissed directly from the
library on Thursdays.
What We Did:
Reading
|
•We
started Readers’ Workshop. This year, we will be spending time with
books that are at our Just Right level.
Students can expect to work hard at the reading we do together and
they can expect to grow and continue to develop as readers. Students will continue to have 20 minutes
of nightly reading as their normal homework.
Each reader has a reading log that should be completed each night at
home. One Mondays, please plan to talk
to your child about identifying A REALISTIC reading goal for the week. On Thursdays, please help your child write
a little reflection about his/her reading goal.
•We went to the library. It was
great to see Ms. Monge again. As
usual, our library time was a very valuable part of our week.
•In
addition to enjoying many books, we started our first read-aloud
book of the year, Poppy by Avi.
|
Writing
|
•We completed
initial assessments in spelling.
•We ended
our Second Day of Second Grade books.
|
Math
|
•We completed
initial assessments in math.
•We
learned math routines/strategies that we will use throughout
the year. These include Quick Tens,
using Ten Frames, counting the “say ten way” and using a Rekenrek.
|
Science/Social
Studies
|
•We used
our Science Notebooks
for the first time and created a labeled drawing of our idea of what “a
scientist doing science” looks like.
|
Other
stuff
|
•We developed
our use of our Morning Routine.
•We moved
forward on our quest to get a class pet. First, students generated a long list of
animals that we thought make a good class pet. Next, volunteers articulated
two or three specific reasons why their choice would make the best pet. Finally, we all voted on our own first
choice. We were left with three
candidates for class pet. So, I’m excited
to announce that it looks like we will be hosting a guinea pig, a lizard or a
rat. I will keep you posted.
|
What’s Coming Up:
•We will begin
a Home Reading Log this week. Students have been recording the reading they
have done in class on a very similar At-School Reading Log. It is important to note that an
adult at home should CAREFULLY review and sign the At Home Reading Log for the
first several weeks. We have
practicing how to carefully copy the title from the book cover. Also, we learned that each word of the title
begins with a capital letter and the whole title is underlined. Please help encourage care and attention on
the part of your second grade reader.
•We will
spend this week learning about the three candidates for class pets. In groups, we will be working to identify
basic facts and habits about the animals, find out what each animal needs in
terms of food/water/care and estimate the cost of having this animal as a pet.
•We will
enjoy both our first garden class.
•We will
start Morning Math.
This is a time where justification of mathematical thinking is key. We will be spending time learning how to talk
about math, how to critically analyze the efficiency of various strategies to a
given problem, and how to disagree politely with each other. The work we do during this time of our day is
focused on computation.
in room 15, we strive to be
focused and relaxed
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