Weekly Update: November 15-19

Greetings!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! It’s hard to believe that this time of year is already here. Your children have brought home their first progress report of the year. Go over it with them, and accentuate their strengths! Talk about ways they can make improvements, too! Overall the children are working very hard every day. I am proud to say that we have a very kind, caring class! It is so nice to see the children getting along so well with each other. They look out for each other, too! Thank you for all of the support you give the children at home with their schoolwork, it does not go unnoticed. I am amazed to see all of the children bringing their homework in every single day! The children are benefiting from all of the emphasis you place on their learning at school.  Thank you!!

• The children did a phenomenal job in their music show Wednesday night! They spoke so loudly and clearly, and they sang their little hearts out. You must be so proud!
• Remember to return your signed report card envelopes next week at conferences!
• Encourage your child to keep working on their Landmark Challenge Project, they are due on December 7th! Really encourage them to take ownership of their project. Have them practice presenting it- to the family, a mirror, or even a digital camera so they can play it back and see how they did! 
• See the bottom of this post for our fall conference schedule. See you Monday or Tuesday!

Spelling

The week after break, the children will be focusing on words with the long /e/ sound, spelled ‘ee’, ‘ea’, ‘e’, and ‘y’! 

Reading

Our theme this week had to do with sports and physical activity!  We started off listening to the story of John Henry, and how he defeated a machine digging a hole through a mountain with his physical strength!  Our oral vocabulary words included: physical, hero, energetic, and exhausted.  We then went on to read a realistic fiction piece called, “There’s Nothing Like Baseball.”  We practiced making inferences again to build our understanding of the story. We remembered that when we make an inference, we mix a little about what we read with a little about what we know to determine what the author is intending for us to understand.  Our new vocabulary words that popped up all week included:  imaginary, uniform, practices, starting, tryouts, and coach! The children played a little guessing game with their vocabulary words that we called “Vobackulary!”  I stuck a vocabulary word on all of the children’s backs, and they had to ask their classmates for clues using Yes/No questions about their word- without saying it!  It was fun to watch them think critically about their new words as well as their meanings. Also, try this activity for additional review: Have your child try to think of a sentence about YOU, using each of their vocabulary words!  Take turns! 

We practiced identifying words with multiple meanings, such as: coach (a mode of transportation, and the leader of a team), and uniform (official clothing of a group of people, and “unchanging”). We looked at sample dictionary entries to determine which meaning was being used in a series of sample sentences. 

Finally, we read an informational text about activities that students like to do to keep physically fit. The text incorporated the use of graphs to reinforce the information. (This tied in nicely with our math lessons last week!) The children are able to recognize that graphs are generally a nonfiction text feature, and they help us to better visualize and understand the text.

Grammar

We continued to work on apostrophes this week! The children reinforced what they learned last week: ‘s is added to a singular noun who “possesses” something, s’ is added to a plural noun who “possesses” something, and sometimes, the letter s is just used to make a noun plural, or more than one! It can be tricky to differentiate the use of the apostrophe, but the children are really impressing me with their understanding of these concepts!

Writing

We are currently publishing our narrative stories. The children learned to sequence events into the beginning, middle and end. They developed a problem, created a solution, and practiced editing and revising their work. They are transferring their stories into a "book" format including illustrations. It will be fun to share their writing with another writer's celebration after the Thanksgiving holiday break!


The children applied the sequencing skills they’ve developed and wrote a recipe on how to make a turkey for Thanksgiving! Using laptops in our classroom, the children word processed these pieces on their own. (I helped them add bullets and increase the size of the font, but the rest of the work was theirs!) Normally these can be pretty inventive, but the children thought carefully about what they’ve seen you do in the past!  Some of these recipes could actually be close! For the most part, they did a great job using the computers independently!

Math

We spent some time reviewing frames and arrows problems with two rules this week. We also did some hands on work using coins- counting them and practice making change.  The children took their Unit 3 assessment and we jumped right in to Unit 4, which focuses on addition and subtraction.  We began the unit by completing “Change to More” number stories. Coming up after break: parts and total number stories, reading temperature on the thermometer and calculating temperature changes, estimating, and adding 2 and 3 digit numbers!

Social Studies

This week the children broke down the different levels of government. They learned about our leaders at the city, state, and national level (mayor, governor, president). We talked about the group of people who help at each of these levels (city- council, state- legislature.)  The children also learned more specifically how the government in the state of Illinois helps the people who live in it, including providing funding and setting standards for our schools, maintaining the highways, keeping the land and water clean, and making and enforcing laws that are special for Illinois. 

Have fun working on your landmark challenge projects over the long break from school!

       

Coming Soon:

November 22/23:  No School, Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 24/25/26: No School, Thanksgiving Holiday

December 7: Landmark Challenge Projects are due!

Thanks for reading, and

have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Below is a copy of our conference schedule:

Monday, November 22

8:30:  Michael D.

9:10:  Nicolette E.

9:30:  Eric P.

9:50:  Audrey H.

10:10:  Lexi N.

10:30:  Christine A.

2:30:  Azan K.

2:50:  Annie H.

3:10:  Logan H.

4:30:  Aleksandra K.

4:50:  Michael R.

5:10:  Kristopher B.

5:30:  Emily C.

5:50:  Peter G.

6:10:  Sarah R.

6:30:  Matthew S.

6:50:  Jack P.

7:10:  Robert L.

7:30:  Noah M.

7:50:  Hannah E.

Tuesday, November 23

8:30:  Brooke S.

8:50:  Lucas B.

9:10:  Alya P.

Weekly Update! November 8-12

Greetings!

Hi everyone! It’s hard to believe that there is only one week left until Parent/Teacher Conferences and our Thanksgiving Break! Below are some points to note!

* The children had a visit from Mayor Mulder this week! She did an amazing job of connecting her presentation with what the children learned during their Arlington Heights unit, as well as with what is coming up in our Citizenship unit! It was truly an authentic learning experience! 

* Progress Reports will go home next Friday, November 19th! Please sign and return your conference envelope at our conference, so we are able to use the envelope again the following trimester.

* The second grade musical will take place on Tuesday evening, November 17^th!

* The children received a brightly colored leaf today to decorate for the musical, feel free to decorate it and bring it back to school on Monday

* The children also received their Optional Landmark Challenge project packets today. They are encouraged to study a National Landmark, learn some interesting facts about it, create a visual representation, and present it to the class. Look through the packet to find out more about it, or visit:

** The beautiful drawings of our students' Arlington Heights landmarks have been added to the District 25's cable network!  From November 13-22,  the children's work can be seen at 9:00 am and 11:12 pm on AT&T U-verse 99, Comcast channel 15 or WOW channel 17. Or, you can view it here: Arlington Heights Projects

Spelling

Next week the children will be focusing on words with the long /o/ sound, spelled ‘oe’, ‘oa’, ‘ow’, and just plain ‘o’!

Reading

Throughout the week, the children were exposed to texts involving animals. The piece we read to build our listening comprehension was about the life cycle of a frog. Our oral vocabulary words included: mature, occur, hatch, sturdy, and develop.  The children enjoyed learning the aspects of the development of a frog from this nonfiction text. They also enjoyed writing about their life from the perspective of a frog! Our main selection this week was entitled, “Farfallina & Marcel,” a warm story about an unlikely pair of friends, a caterpillar and a duck.  We talked about how these two types of animals grow and change in different ways- the caterpillar goes through the metamorphosis process and changes entirely, while the duck simply grows larger in size until it reaches maturity.  While reading this story, the children learned how to make inferences to build their comprehension. We learned that an inference is a good guess about something that happened in the story that the author doesn’t specifically tell us. We broke down this process into steps. First, we think about something that we read in the text. Then, we think about information we already know about it. Last, we put the two together and think about a likely outcome based on these two things. For example, we READ that Farfallina was up in the tree, wrapped in silk.  We KNOW that caterpillars create a chrysalis in order to go through their metamorphic change.  Therefore we were able to INFER that Farfallina would soon be a butterfly! As we continued reading, we were able to confirm that we were correct!  Making inferences can be a challenging skill, but breaking it down into steps this way seemed to be very helpful for the children. Vocabulary words we noticed in this story include: fluttered, recognized, snuggled, vanished, peered, and giggled.  We noticed that all of these words are verbs, and they are all in the past tense! The children are very observant, and also identified these SAME vocabulary words in the books from their guided reading groups, too! (This is one nice example of the alignment Treasures has built into our program!)

Grammar

The children were exposed to possessive nouns this week. We learned that when a singular noun “possesses” something, we add and apostrophe s to the end. When a plural noun possesses something, we add an apostrophe to the end!  We had to really think about what to do in the case of irregular plurals, including “mice,” “children,” and “geese!” (we added ‘s to these!)

Writing

The children reviewed the components of a Friendly Letter this week. They noticed that often there is a heading at the top of a letter that includes the sender’s address and the date. Next we found the greeting, body, signature, and closing.  The children wrote friendly letters (cards) to veterans in honor of Veteran’s Day. They were sent out to a Veteran’s hospital to bring a smile to one of our everyday hero’s faces.  The children further practiced this skill by writing YOU a friendly letter! You will be receiving it at conference time!

Math

We worked with frames and arrows with two rules this week! The children were very successful incorporating this added component into their math practice! We also learned to make change. The children practiced counting up from the cost of the item, to the amount paid, in order to find their change. They also practiced identifying more than one way to make change. We used the hundreds chart to assist us with this practice. We are nearing the end of Unit 3 and our assessment will be approaching next week!

Social Studies

We learned about a patriotic song this week -“America, the Beautiful.” We broke down the words in the song and talked about their meaning!

We also reviewed rules and consequences, and their importance, in a community. The children learned about our local government- including the Mayor, the council that supports her, and the judge and court system that maintains fairness and equality for the members of a community. We talked about taxes, and the government services that are funded because of the taxes that citizens pay. Why not watch a village board meeting with your child at home?! We learned that “we are the government,” since we have a voice in what happens in our city, state, and national government through the election process and otherwise.  We especially enjoyed our visit from Mayor Mulder. She talked to us about her job in our town, and how she wants Arlington Heights to be the best town it can be. She also explained a little bit about the voting process, and how important it is to choose a leader that listens to the people he or she represents. The children learned so much and were very engaged during her visit!

The children were given one of our past 43 presidents to research! They used several websites in the LMC this week to learn interesting information about their president, including: where they received their education, their political party affiliation, and important events that happened while they were in office! These will be on display in the hallway for everyone to learn from! They practiced searching for an image online, then they cut and pasted the picture of their choice onto their report. 

       

Coming Soon:

November 17: 2^nd grade Musical

November 19: Report Cards go home, Landmark Challenge Contracts due

November 22/23:  No School, Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 24/25/26: No School, Thanksgiving Holiday

November 29: No School for students. SIP day

December 7: Landmark Challenge Projects are due!

Thanks for reading!

Weekly Update: November 1-5

Welcome to November! The weather has been quirky lately, but it seems the chillier weather is setting in.  Sending in your child with clothing layers is a great idea so that they are comfortable throughout the day! 

• We enjoyed the most beautiful day on Tuesday as we walked to the Arlington Heights Police Department. The weather was perfect, the children were very well behaved and we learned so much from Officer Hajek about this very important community service! There are new photos added in our "November" slideshow! Thanks to Mrs. Hiskes, Mrs. Giannopoulos, and Mrs. O'Sullivan for making the trip with us!
• We have completed our unit on the history of Arlington Heights! Up next we will begin our unit on Citizenship. To complement this unit, the children will have the opportunity to work on a challenging research project that they can complete at home. In a nutshell, they will choose a landmark, study it, and present their learning to the class! Look for the details about this project to come home next week.
• Thank you for reviewing your conference times and sending back those purple forms! 14 out of my 22 families requested an evening time slot. I did my very best to accommodate all of your requests, and I so appreciate your flexibility. It’s hard to believe our first conference is just around the corner!

Spelling

After practicing long a words spelled /ai/ and /ay/ this week, next week the children will be focusing on words with the long /i/ sound!

Reading

We had a nonfiction theme this week, as our whole group reading selection was entitled, “A Trip to the Emergency Room.” We learned that stories are written in a sequential order that makes it easy for the reader to understand and follow. Often, “order” words are used to highlight the steps, including first, next and last.  The children practiced summarizing the text in this way: First, a sick person goes to the Emergency Room and is checked in by an Admissions Worker. Next, a nurse collects more information about your injury.  Then, an orderly will come and take you to have tests run. Last, a doctor reviews the results and informs you about your situation!  You can see that our comprehension skill of the week was sequencing! The children also worked to pull out key information from the text when summarizing, instead of simply repeating everything they can remember! Sometimes, less is more! Our vocabulary words included: broken, informs, personal, serious, and heal.  We also learned about homophones, which are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings! We practiced defining the meaning of several homophone pairs and using each one in a sentence. The children also learned about different types of resources that can be found in a library, including: newspapers, globes, almanacs, atlases, card catalogs (often electronic now!) and even telephone directories!

Grammar 

The children learned about proper nouns this week! With solid practice of nouns already under our belts, the children were quickly able to identify the specific names of nouns! We also worked on identifying abbreviations such as Dr., Mr., Mrs., and Ms., and noticed that there is a period at the end of each one.

Math

Using a geoboard and rubber bands, the children made, described, compared and drew a variety of shapes. We also learned how to gather data as we counted the pockets on our clothing during class. The children recorded their data with tally marks in a table and drew a corresponding bar graph. After sorting our data, we found the “middle” number of pockets in the data set, also known as the median. It was 2!  

Social Studies:

As a part of our Arlington Heights Unit, the children learned about a special landmark in our town. They researched it and then created a piece of original artwork to go along with it- based on the inspiration of our guest artist, Jack Musich. Finally, the children recorded their information into a podcast. I am told that the product of all of our hard work will soon be running on the Arlington Heights cable channel. Keep an eye out for it.... Prepare to be impressed!

Over the weekend, keep an eye out as you pass the intersection of Arlington Heights Road and Northwest Highway for the statue of William Dunton. He is looking out at the railroad tracks that he brought through our town! We talked about how important the railroad was to the development of Arlington Heights, and how it made our town a very convenient place to live. Aside from the Miner, Dunton, and Kennicott families that we have previously discussed, we have also studied several other important early settlers in our town, including: Frederick Muller (he owned a soda pop factory!), the Meyer Family (they built Meyer’s Park and Pond!), and the Klehm family (they had a nursery full of plants and donated many of our town’s trees!) The children looked at how transportation has developed and changed over the course of the last 120 years, from the covered wagon, to the horse and buggy, street car, early locomotive, up to our modern transportation methods of today.  We also learned why Arlington Heights was such a desireable place to settle: it is near the train, close to the city of Chicago, it has fertile soil,  and there is a good climate for farming! We also learned that “Heights” was added to our name, because our town is approximately 106 feet higher than Chicago! We discussed the benefits of living on elevated land. We also learned the towns that surround our town on all sides, ask your child to tell you what they are.... The children took their test today!

Up next: Our unit on Citizenship! The children have already been assigned a president to study! They worked on a webquest in the LMC this afternoon identifying notable facts about him.

Special Notes:

*Two of our classmates, Logan and Eric, have a very exciting football game tomorrow! They are playing a championship game at Melas Park at 12:45. If you have a free hour and would like to cheer on our classmates, head on over! They are currently undefeated. Good luck, Cowboys!

*We welcomed our newest friend to the classroom this week. His name is Azan Khan, and the children have been so eager to show him whatever he may need to know during the day. Welcome to Dryden, Azan and family!

* Jack Musich, the Arlington Heights Artist who inspired our children in their town landmark projects,  will be showcasing/selling his artwork at an upcoming art festival, on Sunday 11/14 1:00-5:00pm in Art Around the Town:  Artists Studio Tour, sponsored by the Arlington Heights Historical Society. http://www.ahmuseum.org/Events/art.htm   His artwork is truly full of interest. Check it out!

Coming Soon:

November 9:  Photo Retakes

November 10:  Visit from Mayor Mulder

November 11: No School, Veteran's Day

November 12: Dads and Donuts

November 17: 2^nd Grade Musical

November 19: Progress Reports go home

November 22/23: Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 24-29: No School for Students