February 2-6

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  No homework = no free choice Friday!

Next Friday is our Valentine's day party.  If you wish to send in valentines, please send in one for everyone in the class.  If you would like to donate any items to help us with our party or our valentine card holders, please send them in by Thursday!  Also, we would love to have parents in to help us with our minute to win it games.  Please let me know if you would like to volunteer.

Please remember to send your child to school with all of their outdoor gear on Mondays for our outdoor science lessons!  We are continuing to explore the world of matter using the awesome snow we have right on our playground.  Snow pants, coats, boots, mittens, and hats are a must!

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We will work with /scr/, /str/, and /spr/ spelling patterns.  Our focus words are:  screen, scream, scrape, stripe, struck, strict, sprain, spring, spruce, and strap.

Spelling:  We will now begin our February spelling words.  This month, we will only focus on units 17, 18, and 19 since we will have one week off for February vacation.  This week, we will practice unit 17.  The words are:  right, look, think, also, and around.  Our monthly spelling test will be on Thursday, February 26th.

Vocabulary:  We have introduced a new and awesome resource to help us dig even deeper with our vocabulary words.  From now until the end of the year, we will be creating our very own dictionaries with the words we learn each week.  Team Howard is responsible for writing down the word, its meaning, and showing how well they know the word by using it correctly in a sentence or drawing a picture to represent it.  This week, we will focus on the words:  sincerely, impatient, demand, emergency, and snoop.  We'll define these words and then listen for them in the short story called "Iggy Pig Saves the Day" by Kevin Tormino.

Comprehension:  We will focus on cause and effect.  Cause is why something happened.  Effect is what actually happened.  We'll practice this skill while we read Click, Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin.  Team Howard will also have practice identifying the story elements of this story.

Grammar:  We will work on combining short, choppy sentences with the word "and" to help the flow better.  For example, we could take: "Mom picked the apples.  Mom baked a pie." and change it to, "Mom picked the apples and baked a pie."

Writing:  We will continue practicing writing fluency with quick writes.We will also be introducing a new way for Team Howard to show how they have met their writing goals.  To help them practice, they will be writing three different writing pieces to me to show where they are right now with their writing goals.  Using these writing pieces, I will give the students feedback on where they are now and where they need to go next.  Together, we'll come up with a plan for how we can meet these writing goals.

Read Aloud:  We are still in our mystery genre while we finish up the story of The Missing Mummy.  We are loving the adventure with Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose.

Mystery Buddies:  Team Howard continues to work with their small groups to read their mystery book and keep notes on the mystery, clues, and suspects.

Math:   Second is continuing our work with flexible groups in our place value unit.  Please refer to previous blog posts to find the goals your child is working towards in this unit.  On days that we don't switch for math, we will continue to work on our math facts goals, time, and money.  An emphasis will be placed on using money symbols correctly this week.  We'll do this with a fun, hands-on, investigative activity!  This week, we will also begin to explore the world of odd and even numbers.  As second graders, we are asked to not only identify a number as even or odd but also to prove why.  Even numbers have equal teams and can be shown as a doubles number sentence.  Odd numbers have unequal teams and can be represented with a near doubles number sentence.  This week, we'll practice this skill with the number of letters in our names.

Science:  When Mrs. Letiecq and Mr. Vallaincourt come to visit us, we'll be working with snow to build one fort and then change it into something else.  This activity will help us understand this standard in our matter unit:  

Make observations to construct an evidence-based account of how an object made of a small set of pieces can be disassembled and made into a new object.

Scholastic News: This week's issue is called "Chilly, Silly Seal." We'll learn all about the southern elephant seal and how it survives in the freezing temperatures of Antarctica. Then, we'll use a chart showing the length of a king penguin, female weddell seal, and a male elephant seal to answer questions.

January 26-30

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

TOMORROW IS A SNOW DAY!  Be safe and enjoy the extra time with your children.

Homework packets are due on Thursday.  No homework = no free choice Friday!

The January spelling test will be on Thursday.  It will cover units 13-16.  Remember to help your child practice how to spell the word and how to use it in context!

On Thursday, I will be sending home an AWESOME resource to help you and your child practice their math facts at home.  Now, students will not only be held accountable for practicing their math facts, they will be held accountable for memorizing them.  In the resource, you will receive:

-an introduction letter that tells you where your child will be starting

-a math facts book showing you all of the fact families your child needs to practice.

-suggestions for how to practice math facts at home

-strategies for math facts

-tens frames (a resource that we use here at school)

-math fact cafe help

-IXL help

-a way to help you and your child keep track of their progress at home

Keep your eyes out for that resource!  Please let me know if you have any questions after you receive it.

This week in...

Phonics:  We are working with digraphs again.  Here are the digraphs we are working with:  /sh/, /ch/, and /th/.  Our focus words are:  watch, matching, teaching, each, which, wishbone, fishing, dish, path, and teeth.

Spelling:  We will focus on unit 16.  Here are the words:  any, many, too, same, and day.  

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  students, effort, perform, mood, remember, and proud.  This week, I will introduce a new tool.  We will begin creating our own vocabulary books.  Each week, Team Howard will be responsible for writing down the new words we practice, their meaning, and also showing the meaning of the word.  They can show the meaning of the word in one of two ways.  They can either draw a picture or use the word correctly in a sentence.  I’m excited to see how this new tool works out!

Comprehension:  We will review the skill of summarizing.  When we summarize, we retell on the most important parts of the story.  While we read, we’ll pay attention to the main idea of each section of the story.  We’ll use those ideas to retell the story.   We’ll practice this skill while we read The Alvin Ailey Kids:  Dancing as a Team by Sharon Dennis Wyeth.

Grammar:  We’ll be working with the verb have.  The verb has two forms in the present tense:  have and has.  We use has when the subject is singular and have with the subject is plural, you, or I.  For example:

Nick and Ted have big parts in the play.

Ted has the role of the giant.

I have a puppy.

Writing:  I will be introducing quick writes with the team this week.  I recently learned about quick writes at one of our professional development days and I’m excited to put them to practice in my classroom.  The idea of quick writes are to help build writing fluency.  There will be three rules during quick writes.  Here are the rules:

1. Never stop writing.
2. Be quiet.
3. There is no right answer.

Each time we do a quick write, students will be prompted with something to help spark an idea.  For example, I might show them a picture, have them smell something, touch something, or even just look at a color.  Then, they will have three minutes to write all of their thoughts on their paper.  As we progress, we’ll extend the time.  Even if a student can’t think of what to write, they should be writing, “I’m thinking... I’m thinking...” until their thoughts come to them.  Their pencils should never stop moving during the entire three minutes we practice.  I’m so excited to see how this can improve our writing fluency!

Mystery Buddies:  Team Howard continues to work in small groups reading mystery novels.  While they read, they are using their detective notebooks to keep track of the mystery, clues, and suspects.  When they finish reading their novel, they will record how the mystery was solved.

Math:  This week, second grade will begin our flexible grouping for place value.  Team Howard will be traveling to the classroom that will help them with their specific learning goals for place value.  It’s so exciting to mix things up a little bit and it gives us a chance to work with other students from other classrooms.  No matter where Team Howard is working, they are working to:

1.  Be able to read and write three-digit numbers in number form, word form, and expanded form.

2.  Skip count by fives, tens, and hundreds within 1,000.

3.  Understand that the three digits of a three-digit number represent the amount of hundreds, tens, and ones.  

4.  Understand that numbers are made up of bundles.  For example, 100 can be thought of as ten bundles of ten.

5. Compare two three-digit numbers using the symbols <, >, and =.

6.  Be able to add or subtract 10 or 100 to any number within 1,000.

We will also practice our math facts.  This week, we are starting on whatever math fact family we need the most practice with.  We’ll practice these math fact families with worksheets, timed check-ins, flashcards, games, IXL, and math fact cafe.  

There will also be a chance for us to review how to tell time to the nearest five minutes and money.  This week, we will work on adding coins and dollars up to $2.00.  We’ll also practice how to use the dollar sign, cents sign, and decimal point appropriately.

Read Aloud:  We are on another mysterious adventure!  This time, it’s with the kids from A-Z mysteries.  We are reading The Missing Mummy and loving every second of it.

Social Studies:  We will finish up our “Me on the Map” project.  This project shows our special place in the world.  We talked about the planet, continent, country, state, town, and street that we live on.  This place is unique to us!  We’ll use these skills when our flat kids begin to arrive back at Russell School.

Science:  This week, we’ll review matter.  Matter is anything that takes up space.  Unfortunately the weather prevented us from having our outdoor science lesson with Mr. Vallaincourt and Mrs. Letiecq.  We’ll resume outdoor science next Monday.  Instead, we’ll do a science experiment that shows that gases take up the space of the container that they are in.  We’ll have to put our scientist thinking caps on to make a hypothesis and write down our observations and conclusions.  So much science lingo!  I love it!

Scholastic News:  To appropriately go with this huge storm that’s on it’s way, we’ll be reading an article called “Frozen in Ice.”  We’ll be talking about all kinds of wild winter weather.  Blizzards, sleet, freezing rain, and polar vortexes!  Then, we’ll use a map to answer questions about the wild weather across the country.

Have a fantastic week!

January 20-22

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due on Thursday!

On Thursday, we’ll have a very special assembly introducing our new buddy bench.  The buddy bench is a dream that has come true thanks to the help of our wonderful community!  Parents donated box tops, teachers supported the initiative, a high school senior built the bench, and IB students at the high school designed and painted the benches.  The buddy bench is a place where students can go if they are feeling like they need a buddy.  Then, other students can meet with them at the bench.  Be sure to ask your child about it after school on Thursday!

Remember, there is no school for students on Friday as it is records day for teachers.

This week in...

Spelling:  We are working with unit 15.  The words are good, new, write, our, and me.

ELA:  With a short week, we’ll be using our ELA block to work on homophones.  These are words that sound the same but have different meanings.  We’ve practiced many of them as spelling words.  This week we’ll focus on:  their, there, they’re, to, too, two, your, you’re, which, witch, its, it’s, right, and write.

Beginning tomorrow, students will be put into small groups of detectives.  Together, they will read a mystery book and keep track of the mystery, clues, and suspects.  It will help us practice teamwork, fluency, comprehension, and problem solving skills.  We are so excited to get our new mysteries!

Math:  This week, we’ll continue to introduce some place value skills.  Here are the skills that second graders will need to show proficiency in by the end of the year:

I can read and write three digit numbers in standard form (number form), words, and expanded form.

I can skip count by fives, tens, and hundreds within 1,000.

I can identify the digits in the ones, tens, and hundreds place.

I understand that 100 can be thought of as a bundle of 10 groups of 10 just as a bundle of 10 can be though of as 10 groups of 1.

I can compare two three-digit numbers using <, >, and =.

I can add or subtract 10 or 100 to any number within 1,000.

We’ll also spend some time practicing our math facts.  Our goal is to be able to add and subtract numbers up to 20 fluently using mental strategies.  Basically, that means we need to be able to answer the question in a snap!  We’ll practice this by using math fact cafe, IXL, worksheets, and flashcards.  I’m still working on assessing all students to see which math fact family they will need to focus on now that they have practiced all of the strategies.

I’m also going to use this week as a chance for review.  We’ll review graphing, geometry, and fractions.  We’ll practice reading bar graphs and pictographs and answering questions about the data they represent.  We’ll practice identifying shapes by their names and also identifying their attributes (angles, sides, faces).  Finally, we’ll review fractions.  We’ll practice working with halves, thirds, and fourths.  

Social Studies:  To go along with our Flat Stanley unit, we’ll continue working with geography.  Last week, we learned all about maps and globes.  This week, we’ll learn more about our special place in the world.  We’ll work on creating a poster that shows ourselves, our street, our town, our state, our country, our continent and our planet.  Here is a link to a book that we used to introduce the project:

I hope everyone has a lovely week!

January 12-16

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Today was our first hands-on science lesson with Mrs. Letiecq and Mr. Vallaincourt.  We had a blast!  Ask your child about some of the games we played today (acting out different kinds of matter, red/light green light with matter, etc.).  

Some of the team got a little chilly during our science lesson today.  Please remember to send your child to school with the appropriate outdoor gear EVERY MONDAY!  If you do not have something for your child, please let me know and I will make sure they have what they need when they get to school.

Students should bring:

HAT

GLOVES

SNOW PANTS

COATS

This Wednesday is an early release day.  Please plan accordingly.

All homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please help your child put their packet back into their backpacks on Wednesday evenings.  Remember:  no homework = no free choice Friday!

Mrs. Thibodeau will be visiting us again on Friday.  She’ll bring her friends George and Kelso to talk more about healthy choices.

Next week is a three-day week.  There will be no school on Monday as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  There will be no school for students on Friday since it is records day for teachers.

This week in...

Spelling:  We are working with unit 14.  The words are:  get, through, back, much, and go.

Phonics:  We are working with the following digraphs:  /th/, /sh/, /ch/, and /wh/.  Here are our focus words:  chest, chase, chill, shape, sheep, thing, think, white, while, and wheat.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are ancient, hopeful, unable, confirm, and valid.  We’ll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we’ll read two short stories called “A Very Old Fish” and “Boy Finds Fossils” and search for our new vocabulary words.

Comprehension:  We will practicing summarizing a text.  When we summarize, we retell only the most important facts.  When we read, we’ll pay special attention to what each part of the selection is about.  Then, we can use these main ideas to create a summary for the entire selection.  We’ll practice this skill while we read Meet the Supercroc.

Grammar:  This week will focus on past-tense verbs.  Past-tense verbs describe an action that takes place in the past.  We had -ed to most verbs to tell about a past action.  For example, we’ll change cook to cooked to show that it already happened.

Writing:  This week, we’ll practice descriptive writing with a fun project.  The title of the project is “Oh, no!  What’s in my cocoa!”  The students will visualize something silly has fallen into their cup of hot cocoa.  They will have to write three descriptive sentences so the rest of the class can guess what it is.  Here is an example:

1. It has a lot of feathers.
2. It is a nocturnal animal.
3. It can turn its head almost all the way around.

Can you guess what it is?  It’s an owl!

Social Studies:  This week, we’ll finish up our maps and globes books.  We’ll also watch a few videos that highlight the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  After discussing the videos, we’ll write about dreams of our own and how we plan to make them come true.  Here are the links to some of the videos we’ll be watching:

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJTQubbS7VY

Scholastic News:  To go along with our mini study on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we’ll read an issue titled “How Can Walking Change the World?”  The article will tell us more about Martin as a child and how his dream came to be.  We’ll use what we know from the article to answer questions about the text.

Math:  This week, we’ll be doing a little bit about a lot of topics!  We’ll review money.  We’ll practice identifying coins and their values as well as adding sums up to $1.00.  We’ll also review how to tell time to the nearest five minutes.  Then, we’ll continue our practice with math facts.  This week, I’ll be assessing all students to find which math fact families they will need the most help memorizing.  We’ll play games and do different activities to help us with the math fact family that we need the most help with.  Finally, we’ll have some more practice with our place value standards.  This week, we’ll build our names using tens and ones blocks.  Then, we’ll find the value of our names.  We’ll also practice writing numbers in five different ways:  standard form, word form, expanded form, picture form, and in a place value chart.  We’ll practice building numbers and identifying the hundreds, tens, and ones place by playing a fun new game called bull’s eye.

Read Aloud:  We have started our new mystery book, Cam Jansen and the Snowy Day Mystery.  Team Howard detective’s are keeping track of the mystery, clues, and suspects in their detective notebooks while they read.  We’ll use our notebooks to help us solve the mystery of the three missing computers.

Have a great week!

January 5-9

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

This week is Healthy Choices Week!  All week long, Russell School will be learning more about making healthy choices in our day-to-day lives.  During our P.E. time, Team Howard visited three different stations:  exercise, healthy food choices, and cleanliness.  When Mrs. Thibodeau comes to visit us again, we will focus on healthy choices as well.  

To go along with healthy choices, Team Howard will be doing a healthy snack tally.  For each healthy snack our team eats during snack time, we’ll add a tally to the chart.  If we earn 50 tallies by the end of the week, we’ll earn an extra recess!

Want more information about healthy choices?  Here a few links just for you from the 5210 initiative website.  Visit letsgo.org for more information.

Suggestions for healthy snacks:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D03-Suggestions-for-Nutritious-Snacks.pdf

Get your portions in proportion!  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D07-Get-Your-Portions-in-Proportion.pdf

Making sense of portion sizes:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D08-Making-Sense-of-Portion-Sizes-DOUBLE-SIDED.pdf

Building a healthy plate:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D09-Lets-Eat-A-Choose-MyPlate-Brochure-COLOR-DOUBLE-SIDED.pdf

Go, slow, and whoa foods:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D27-Go-Foods-Slow-Foods-Whoa-Foods-COLOR-DOUBLE-SIDED.pdf

Healthy shopping on a budget:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D30-Healthy-Shopping-On-A-Budget-COLOR.pdf

On Thursday, Paula Letiecq and Calvin Vallaincourt will visit the second graders!  Paula and Calvin are the district’s outdoor education gurus and we are so excited to work with them!  The second grade teachers had a phenomenal time planning our science units with them.  Paula and Calvin provided us with a ton of activities that were not only fun but got us moving as well!  Each month, Paula and Calvin will visit the second graders and lead an energetic and fun science activity.  The month of January will focus on matter.

Apologies go out to all of the friends and family members that said they would participate in our Flat Stanley project.  I thought I had sent out all of our flat kids when I sent out my personal holiday cards to friends and family a few weeks ago, but sadly I was mistaken.  With such a big stack in my hand, I didn’t even check my pile before dropping them off at the post office.  In fact, our flat kids had been sitting quite cozily at my parents’ house in New Hampshire for the past couple of weeks.  I must have left them there when I was getting all of my mail organized!  They are in the mail now and should arrive shortly to everyone.  Please be sure to thank your friends and family again for their patience and participation.

This week in...

Phonics:  We will work with the long /u/ sound with the spelling patterns “u” and “u_e”.  Here are our focus words:  mule, bugle, fuse, use, flute, June, music, duke, tune, and dune.  
Spelling:  The month of January will focus on units 13-16.  This week, we will focus on unit 13.  Here are the words:  called, just, where, most, and know.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  tips, obeys, attention, accident, enormous, and buddy.  We’ll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we’ll search for them in the short story called “Safety and School” by Brian Sullivan.

Comprehension:  We will practice using the illustrations.  Using the illustrations can give us clues to better understand the story.  We’ll practice this skill while we read Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann.

Grammar:  We’ll work with present-tense verbs.  Present-tense verbs tell about actions that happen now.  Adding an -s or -es to a present-tense verb will tell us what one person or thing is doing.  Here are some examples that we will work with:  stop, stand, wait, say, blink, cross, or play.  If we wanted to change these verbs so they make sense for one person, we would add an -s or -es.  For example, instead of:    “The girls stand in line.”  We might say, “The girl stands in line” instead.

Writing:  This week, we’ll practice our persuasive skills again.  Here is the prompt Team Howard will be getting:

Winter has come, snow is falling, and after waking up, you see that snow is covering the roads.  Should school be closed due to inclement weather or not?  Write a letter to our principal or school board stating your opinion.

In their writing, Team Howard will be asked to:

-state their opinion
-give reasons to support their opinion
-use linking words like “because” or “also”
-provide a concluding statement
-put capitals and lowercase letters where they belong
-use correct ending punctuation
-use neat handwriting

Math:  We’ll use this week to review some of the place value games we introduced before vacation.  These games help us practice valuable skills that we will need in our next unit on place value.  In our games, we’ll practice using the hundreds chart and a number line.  We’ll review the ones, tens, and hundreds place.  We’ll also practicing adding number strings using tools like a calculator or a number line but also in our heads.  

We’ll also continue practice with money and time.  During our money goal time, students will practice identifying coins by name and value.  They will also practice adding coins up to $1.00.  During our time goal time, students will practice reading and writing time to the nearest five minutes.  We’ll also review a.m. and p.m.

Social Studies:  Since we have been out of school for an extended amount of time, we’ll review or classroom vision and our code of cooperation.  We’ll ask ourselves, “does this still fit our team?”  If it does, we’ll review and role play.  If not, we’ll work together to create a new vision and code of cooperation that fits our team now.

Soon, we’ll be receiving our flat kids back in the mail!  That means we need to practice our map skills.  This week, we’ll practice several skills.  We’ll introduce what globes and maps are.  We’ll also practice with a compass rose.  We’ll learn what a compass rose is and also the directions it represents.  We’ll learn about latitude and longitude lines.  Finally, we’ll learn about continents and oceans.

Here is a song we’ll use to help us remember the seven continents.  Check it out!