What a wonderful field trip we had Friday!  We are still gathering photos of our day out, but there are already some on the photo page and we will continue to add more.  It was an amazing learning experience and our 'Investigative Observers' did a fabulous of seeing details and being 'Curious Questioners'.  You will start to hear a lot more about I.O. (Investigative Observer) and C.Q. (Curious Questioner) as they are characters used in both of our classrooms.  They help us teach thinking strategies and new and exciting ways of gathering information.
This week we are working on being able to explain our thinking and reflect on what we are observing.  We are also focusing on being able to retell stories.  It is important to remember characters and main events during our reading so we have been working on strategies during reading and writing to help us.
In science we are focusing on being able to describe properties of rocks through our senses of sight, feeling, hearing and smelling.  We have been learning new vocabulary words such as texture and luster so that we can be very specific with our observations.
For math, we are working on frame-and-arrow boxes and function machines.  We will be finishing up our unit and taking our assessment so that we can get new Math groups for next week. 

This week we have our Field Trip to the Botanic Gardens!  We really want this experience to be meaningful to our students, so we are working on observing and reflection during literacy and science.  We have become 'Investigative Observers' making sure that we are looking at details in our writing .  We are also monitoring our reading for meaning and observing how our thoughts change as we read.  As we take our field trip students will be writing down questions they have as they explore the plant life. After we will be reflecting on the experience and explaining what their observations are.

In Science,  we will be using our senses this week to describe properties of rocks as we are beginning our Earth Materials unit.  The connection for our field trip is that we will be describing properties of plants and being careful observers so that we can begin thinking about how our Earth helps support plant life. 

For Math, we will be practicing our measurement skills through pan-balances and scales.  We will also be working on frame and arrow boxes and reviewing name collection boxes.  This week your child will also get their Everyday Mathematics username and password so that they can play those games online.

Dear Families,
Mrs. Umberger and I spoke about the best way to approach the topic of 9/11 with the children.  It happened before they were born... and it is such a deep trauma... we decided that we would respond if the children asked about it. Conflicted about wanting to provide an understanding about the history and values of our country and wanted to protect their innocence a bit longer, please let us know if you have any thoughts either way.  There are a few children's books that are appropriate that I could read gently with the kids.
     On a happier note, in writing, we are beginning a lovely unit on personal narratives, "A SLICE of LIFE".  It will include the concepts of introduction, beginning, middle, end, satisfying conclusion and developing an idea with details.  I will use a T-Chart to wake up memories in a "Then and Now" format.  This will allow us to use temporal  words in our narratives.  Some of our mentor texts will be, Wilifred Gordon McDonald Partridge and Family Pictures.
     In all the 2nd grade classes, our read aloud of Gooney Bird Greene is almost complete and we will plan a day when we will get to come to school dressed up!
     Reading routines continue to develop.  Independent reading is a joyful time for all of us.  The students have begun to track the books they are reading in their readers response notebooks.  This week, I will support the students in purposeful partner reading.  From the book, The Daily 5, "Reading to someone allows for more time to practice strategies, helpying you work on fluency and expression, check for understanding, hear your own voice, and share in the learning community."
     The Thinking Strategies that are building upon one another are Activating Schema (bringing forth prior/background knowledge and making connections) and now Monitoring for Meaning (Check for Understanding and Fix-Up Strategies).
     For Math we have been working really hard to take charge of our learning.  We now have Math Groups running and are working on what is next in each students learning.  While some kids are mastering addition facts or the number grid others are working on telling time or word problems.  They are also creating Math games in which the topic is something that they have been struggling in.  The reason for this is that in order for them to create the game, they must master the topic and practice and check the work on their game.  These games will be kept in class for a few weeks to allow other students to play each others, and then we will take some home so that students can use them to practice concepts at home with their families. 
     This week we will also be beginning our Science Unit about Earth Materials.  If you have ideas or additions you think the students would benefit from please e-mail me and I will try to fit in as many experiences as I can!  We focus on igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and their formation.  Along with clay, loam and sand.  We also go into the water cycle throughout this unit so extensions in any of those areas would be wonderful!
      Thanks for all of your support and have a wonderful week!

Thank you for attending Back to School Night.  It was fun to share our passion for 2nd grade with you!  Your kindness supports our efforts and strengthens our learning environment.  :)

Have a great rest over the long Labor Day weekend.  Everyone deserves it after an incredible beginning to our school year.

In writing, we are learning the writing process and discovering where ideas come from.  Our personal stories about our favorite places have been descriptive and vivid.  We also learned editing marks to correct capitalization.

In reading, we are clarifying our understanding of "just right" books.  When do we read easy books, challenging books and just right books that strengthen our reading skills? 

In Math we will be beginning Unit 2, so please download the Family Letter from the Math tab!  We will be working on name collection boxes and frame and arrow boxes.  Please make sure your child practices their Mad Minutes as well!

In Social Studies we will be continuing our discussion about Authority.  We will also be doing a science experiment to get the kids excited about our upcoming science units!

Finally, some new pictures have been added so don't forget to check them out!

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