Highlights of our week:
- We viewed President Obama’s speech to the children of the United States, welcoming them back to school and encouraging them to work hard this year.
- Mrs. Patel came in to talk to the children about Ramadan and the Eid holiday and share a story. We identified similarities and differences between Eid and other holidays that are celebrated.
- The children took both their reading and math MAP tests in the LMC this week! Results will be shared at our November conference.
- We celebrated Constitution Day! We read a mini-book about the Constitution, and heard a fun song about it through School House Rock.
But that’s not all!
Reading: The children learned how to participate in the Listening Center Station! As one of their reading group rotations, the children now know how to view electronic books through the Tumblebooks link at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library on our classroom computers. (see the side bar to the right, there is a link to Tumblebooks on our blog!) We know that this station is not only fun, but it will help us learn new words as we follow the story carefully, and it will model good reading fluency for us. Feel free to view this link at home, too! This week we were able to begin reading groups, and my goal is to get all groups in beginning next week. View the photo slide show to see the children as they continue to build their stamina during the Read to self station!
The children and I read a fictional whole-group story this week, called "Mr. Putter and Tabby Make the Tea." We practiced the comprehension strategy of breaking down the plot, as we identified the beginning, middle, and end of the story. New vocabulary words the children focused on were: share, company, thinning, delighted, enjoyed, and wonderful.
Math: We increased our comfort level with the hundreds chart by identifying how it works and using it as a tool during math! The children counted left and right by ones, and up and down by tens. To have fun with this concept, we completed some number grid puzzles! (these are blank boxes of varying shapes with just one or two numbers written inside. The children complete them based on the way the hundreds chart works!) We went on to learn that numbers have many different names. Ex: 10: ten, 9+1, 8+2, 89+11, 70+30, 50+40+10, 100-90, a dime, 10:00, ten tally marks, a domino with ten dots, etc. The children went on to play the “Broken Calculator” Game, identifying several different names for given numbers, only this time a certain number was “broken,” and couldn’t be used. The students also learned how to turn their calculator into a counting machine and they practiced counting up by 2, 3, 5, 10, and more. They looked for possible patterns in the numbers they jotted down! Math homework (called Homelinks) will begin on Monday after our lesson on ‘greater than’ and ‘less than.’
Social Studies: We have finished our study of the various landforms. The children are applying their learning in beautiful murals they are creating incorporating each one. (See the beginning stages in the photos in the slideshow) These will soon be on display in the hallway for all to see. We will discuss maps, continents and landforms this coming week.
Our unit on the history of Arlington Heights is coming up next! The field trip to the Arlington Heights Historical Museum has been scheduled for October 6th. We have also confirmed our walking field trip to the Arlington Heights Police Department for November 2nd. More information about these trips will go home closer to the date of the trip, but you may get a call beforehand from our room moms as they confirm our volunteers, so I wanted you to be aware. We look forward to seeing you!
Writing: The children wrote the last portion of their autobiography this week. It was about their life this year in second grade. As always, we began with a picture full of all of the possible ideas we wanted to include in our writing. Then we went back and labeled the pictures with as many key words as we could think of. Last we connected the dots and wrote down all of our ideas about second grade using the picture and labels as background information. The children practiced “microphone reading” this week, as they read their writing to their writing buddy into a blow-up microphone. The microphone helped us keep it very clear as to whose turn it was. The children were asked to give their buddy 2 compliments and 2 suggestions. As we shared helpful suggestions, I was very impressed with the tips the children gave each other! They helped each other identify misspelled words, fill in missing punctuation, and reminded each other if they forgot to write about something that they drew in their picture! One friend suggested to go into more detail about an idea they had, because they wanted to know more about it! I was amazed at the constructive feedback that I saw and heard as I listened in to each of these small conversations. They did a great job! (See the photo slideshow to view our microphone sharing!)
Homework: The homework is coming in consistently, and the effort has strengthened! The writing is neat and careful and the children are including wonderful details, descriptions, and thoughtful information on their reading logs. I am so happy to see this! They are also proud of their work and will often run over to show it to me before turning it in. Thank you for your help and support!
Have a relaxing weekend!
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