Starfish Gazette- September 14, 2018

Hello All,

I hope you are having a great week. We had another great week in second grade. We launched math workshop, reader's workshop, and are learning to become 2nd grade scientists.


Upcoming Important Dates:

-Wednesday, September 26: Johnny Appleseed Day (a special notice came home in your child's folder today)

-Thursday, September 27: Early Release (FYI: Early Release Dates are on Thursdays this year)


Here's a sneak peak into our learning:

-We met our 4th grade buddies (Mr. Harrison's 4th Grade) came down to meet us in our classroom.  We had snack with them and started to get to know our buddies.  Each week, we will see our buddies for morning meeting and some fun activities around 8:40 each Tuesday morning.

Question to promote School Learning: Who is your 4th grade buddy?  Can you tell me something about your buddy?

-During math this week, we introduced mental math warm up at the beginning of math workshop and our lessons and games were around the concept or moving along a number grid.  Understanding the concept of 10 more, 10 less, 1 more, and 1 less. As we continue this year, the number grid becomes a very useful math tool to solve a variety of addition and subtraction number stories and problems.

- Reader's Grow Like Beanstalks- This week we focused on not only what to read but also deciding how the book should be read.  Is the story funny? sad? happy? scary? We paid close attention to our characters emotions to match our reading voice.

-We also established our reading spot and book shopping routines.  The kids each get a new reading spot each week and have an official book shopping day to get new just right books for their book boxes

We also did lots of partnership reading

Question to promote School Learning: 

Who did you enjoy partner reading with this week? 

 How do reading partners sit while reading a book?

 Can you tell me about Elbow Elbow Knee Knee Reading? 

-We began our growth mindset lessons starting with perseverance.  This week's Scholastic Week article was about having the right mindset to try hard things.  We read a great picture book, Flight School and watched some class dojo videos. Next week we will continue focusing on strategies to promote perserverance in the classroom. 

-We had a lot of fun during science in the afternoons.  We focused on the habits of a scientist which included how to look closely, how to observe and record.  We did close observations of our hands and shells.  We also practiced coming up with wonder questions about the objects we were observing.  

This is a great story that introduces the habits of a scientist

 We also drew ourselves as scientists and thought about how we are like scientists 

-Created our first book based off the Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown

-A special morning meeting share: V shared about her trip to Switzerland which included a trip to the Lindt chocolate! She brought us each a piece of chocolate from her trip!

More Starfish Classroom Information...

• Birthdays

As you know, birthday celebrations are very important to young children. In our classroom we celebrate birthdays by having an extra recess! We will also have a day toward the end of the year to celebrate summer birthdays. Due to the number of allergies, please do not send any food items in [per the SMS policy, all food coming in must be store bought, labeled, and sent to the nurse.] We will have an extra recess celebration at the end of each month for all of the birthdays of the month. If you’d like our class to enjoy an additional treat on your child’s birthday, please consider donating a book to the class in your child’s name, coming in to have lunch with your child, handing out special pencils for each member of our class, or something else creative! Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

• Scholastic Book Orders

Scholastic book orders will be sent home throughout the school year. The book orders can be paid by check or, more conveniently, online. Our class code is J6JCV if you wish to order online. This is a great way for our class to earn free books!

• Student Belongings

Please put your child’s name on ALL belongings coming to school. This makes it a lot easier to find owners when it is time to get ready to go home.

• Homework

As part of our school-wide homework policy, students will be responsible completing 20 minutes of homework per night (10min. x 2nd grade). As a second grade team, we see that as time spent reading, practicing math facts, and completing word sorts.

1. It is important that second graders are reading every night. Reading should be a "just right book" for the child--a concept we work hard on at school. A quick way to check if a book is “just right” is to read the first page and if there are five or more words that are very tricky to solve for the child- it is too hard. For reluctant readers, I encourage parents to take turns reading a page during their child's reading. 
2. It is also imperative that students are practicing their math facts. In second grade, many math fact strategies and games are introduced. Directions will be sent home after we have practiced in class.
3. Your child will be given their spelling words every week or sometimes every other week. These words are for them to practice and “sort” throughout the week. My goal is for students to learn and master spelling strategies and patterns and not just be "Friday spellers" (memorizing their words for the test and then quickly erasing them from their brains). This is why we will be using Words Their Way to create our spelling lists. Students will be assessed at the beginning of the year to determine their developmental spelling stage and will be given words accordingly. Every other week, each group of spellers will be given a new pattern to focus on. We will do several activities throughout the week, which students will then be asked to perform at home. At the end of their two week cycle, they will be tested on their use of the spelling pattern as well as on several dictated sentences. More information will be sent home during our first word study unit. Students will also be asked to work on five second grade sight words a week. We will include these on their spelling test. This will not start right away as we are assessing the students at their just right level first.
4. Throughout the year, additional assignments may be sent home to be completed. These typically relate to thematic units and will be due after an extended period of time.

• Toys

I allow students to bring in “recess” toys such as baseball gloves, tennis balls, and jump ropes. Once recess is over, toys need to be put back into backpacks. Any other “toys” are best left at home so they don’t become distracting, or become lost, stolen, or broken in the classroom. See the student handbook for electronic devices that should not be coming to school. Students are invited to bring in objects for share during our morning meeting. Items brought in for show-and-tell must stay in backpacks until it is time to share, and then be put right back in. This is a great time for children to share important things in their lives, such as pictures, post cards, letters, etc. Due to allergies, pets are never allowed. Prohibited items in the school handbook are, of course, never allowed either.