Starfish Gazette- January 11, 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

How nice it was to be back together as a class. It sounds like everyone had a great holiday vacation week. Although last week was a short week, everyone did a great job transitioning back into the demands of the classroom.

Here's an update of our learning in the Starfish Classroom:

Reading: 

At this point in the year, second graders are reading books that are longer.  The books the Starfish are reading are becoming longer and more complex.  We have started the New Year with some new work to do.  In many series books that your child is familiar reading at the end of 1st and beginning of second include Frog and Toad and Henry and Mudge.  In book series similar to these, chapters are episodic, comprising of self-contained mini-chapters.  Your child didn't necessarily have to keep as many characters, events, and places in mind throughout the whole story as they do now.

During our mini-lessons, I am teaching the kids strategies to keep track of these longer texts.  One of the strategies that we have been working towards over the last few weeks is learning the benefit of talking to others reading the same book.   We have been calling this Same Book Partners.  We had fun on our first few days back turning our library upside down finding all the "twin copies" of books in our library.  I was actually shocked with how many books I had multiple copies of.  We now have a section in our library called the "twin section" where all the books are banded together with multiple copies.  My hope is that the kids will see benefit to sharing conversations with others and will carry this work of reading a book with another person for the rest of the school year.  We are using sticky-notes  to plan conversations with the partners.  It also helps us to do a quick stop-and-jot to help keep track of the story.

Tip for home: You could do similar work with your child.  You could choose a chapter book where you each read the chapter book on your own and plan a few times to meet throughout the book to share deeper conversation.  The kids are typically really great at retelling the events of the story but we continue to support them to think deeper and answer what we call 'beyond the text' questions where the kids begin to infer and put pieces of the story together on their own. 

Setting Learning Resolutions for 2019:
We thought about being our best selves and had a lot of great discussions about our resolutions. Each Starfish was challenged to select one learning resolution they have for the new year, and a way in which they were going to work towards their goal. Check out some examples below and be sure to ask your child the learning resolution they made. 

 As many of the Starfish started their New Year with a toast, we also decided to make our own "New Year's Toasts". Thinking of others, each student needed to choose one person and one wish for them. 

 Math:

Our first few days back after vacation, we spent reviewing addition, subtraction, and money concepts through activities and games. We also took time to review comparing numbers and money amounts using the greater than, less than, and equal symbols. We were so proud to gather our word problems from the first half of the year and send them home on Friday. We are looking forward to taking on new challenges with our word problem solving in the New Year.

This week we will take our mid-year assessments and begin working our way through Unit #4: Foundations of Multiplication & Division.  We will learn about arrays, repeated addition, and spreading objects into equal groupings this week and next!

I hope you received the packet of some of our current favorite games that have been on our choice section of the menu over the last few weeks. In addition to games, practicing addition and subtraction facts within 20 for accuracy and fluency can be a helpful component at home as well.

  

Here's one of our Starfish practicing putting objects into equal groups.  Understanding the concept of equal groups is the foundation of division.  

On our first day learning about arrays and early concepts of multiplication the kids played an Array concentration game.  Arrays are a visual way to thinking about group of objects (multiplication)

Here is one of our friends fully focused and ready to take her mid-year I-Ready assessment.  The kids have some handy tools such as 100 charts and white boards to solve problems on the side.  Our work of solving daily word problems and extensive practice with addition and subtraction of two and three digit numbers has made them confident to answer many of the questions so far.  We are hoping to finish the assessment next week. 

Cause and Effect: 

This week we started a big overarching unit of "cause and effect" that will connect in all subject areas and cover competencies to expand understanding of this concept.

We spent Monday and Tuesday understanding the concepts of Cause and Effect.  

Here are some of the activities we accomplished:

• Brainstormed and illustrated possible Cause and Effects in our everyday life
• Worked in teams to create paper chains of possible effects to one cause.  For example: It is hot outside is the cause.  Possible effects could be: I need a glass of water, I need extra sunscreen, I put my sunglasses on, I was sweating, etc. 
• Watched video clips of natural causes and effects with the Grand Canyon, animals at Yellowstone Park, and fascinating phenomena around the globe!

People of Change and Influence:

As part of our Cause and Effect Unit, we have been learning that people are agents of change.  The Starfish are reading and listening to a collection of biographies to learn how people in history have influenced changes in our world.  So far, we have read about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson, Amelia Earhart, Elizabeth Coleman, and George Washington.  During reader's workshop the kids are looking at collections of biographies and listening to biographies on the EPIC app on the classroom IPads. 

 Questions to promote "School Talk":

-What new Chapter Read Aloud is Mrs. Murphy reading to the class?
-Can you tell me about your new table spot?  What is your table's team name?
-Can you tell me how Same Book Partners Work?  Who is your partner?  What book are you having conversations about?
-What were the new games on your math menu over the last few weeks?  Can you tell me how to play aMAZING 100.  

-What is an array?  Can you show me what an array is?
-Who did you make a New Year's "toast" for?
-Can you give me an example of a Cause and Effect?


Thinking ahead to The Second Grade Wax Museum: People of Change

Our Second Grade Wax Museum will be held this year on Friday, February 15.  This will be a celebration of our "cause and effect" unit. This is a change from previous years, where students studied fairy tales. We will be studying some "world changers" through biographies and students will come to life as the person of their choice for the wax museum. There will be more information to come home next week about this exciting event!


Important Dates to Remember:

1. January 21st- No School- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
2. February 1- Quarter 2 progress notes go home