Friday's Feature by Alex

We had a visitor this morning, it was a man named Mr. Musich. He was a painter from our town. He painted pictures of the olden days of Arlington Heights. We learned a new math strategy, +9! Miss O'Sullivan read us a story about a family who moved west across the prairie in a covered wagon. We drew our own prairie in our Arlington Heights packet. Isobel's mom, dad, and two older sisters Grace and Kennedy came to visit. Isobel did a cool experiment that blended colors. She read us a story called "Diary of a Worm." She is a great reader!

Have a great weekend

by Alex

Thursday's Thoughts by Alex

We had PE and Music today! We played another full soccer game. Our team lost, but we played well. We talked about poems and found rhyming words. We practiced Word Work with a buddy during the Daily 5. We alphabetized our words while Miss O read with the kids. We learned about needs and wants. Needs are things you have to have to be healthy, and wants are things you don't really need but you want. I need new clothes, but I want an electric scooter!

today's news by Alex

Wednesday's Wisdom by Alex

Today we went to art. We played I SPY with the iPads, and we played Spooky Mansion. It was fun. We learned a new math strategy, its called Doubles +2, or Doubles in between. It works when there is only one number in the middle of two addends. (Ex: 4+6 = 10 because 5+5=10. ) We did the Daily 5 today. We wrote in our journals, we read to ourselves, and we did word work!

stay dry , by Alex

Tuesday's Tidbit by Alex

We went to the library it was fun. Mrs. Dufern showed us paintings of places in Arlington Heights. We are going to be doing drawings like that! We learned how to use Tumblebooks online. It was a way to read books during our listening center. We can get there from this blog! It was fun. We read a story about a little girl who was deaf, her name was Rosina.

See you tomorrow!

By Alex

Monday's Message by Alex

Today was Monday. We had music and gym. We played a full soccer game in gym class. I scored a goal! In music we played the hand chimes. We sang "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain!" We took our spelling pre-test. We got new jobs. We moved our desks. Now I sit up in the front. We practiced our math facts and played "Calculator vs. the Brain." We also learned about sources of information. Its something that tells you information, just like this blog!

Thanks for reading!

by Alex

The latest news in 2-2!

Another full week in 2nd grade has gone by!

* On Friday afternoon, Dryden practiced a school-wide fire drill. Our class stayed together, remained quiet, and did just what they were supposed to do. Way to go! It was a proud teacher moment. :)

* Permission slips for our 1st field trip of the year went home this week. We will be visiting the Arlington Heights Historical Museum, the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, and North School Park for Lunch on October 4th. Please return your permission slip/fees as soon as you can. Thank you for those that I've already received!

* You might notice some interesting photos in our photo slide show! A new job this year is the classroom photographer. The child's perspective is an interesting one! Thank you to PJ who snapped some photos for us during the week.

* Thank you also to our blogger Ava, who did a phenomenal job updating the blog every day! She definitely hit the highlights! I especially liked to see how complimentary Ava was of her classmates. What a sweet girl!

On to the academic update...

Spelling

This week our words focused on words with the short and long /a/ sounds! Next week our words will have the short and long /i/ sounds!

Reading

Our theme this week was “Firefighters at Work.” New vocabulary words were: flames, forest, heat, safe and tell. These words popped up everywhere! They were on our spelling list, in our whole group stories, in our fluency passages, and even in our small group stories! The comprehension strategy we worked on included summarizing – by identifying the main idea and details. We completed a graphic organizer to help us pull out this key information from the passage. Based on our theme this week, it might be a good time to discuss fire safety in your home! Its so important to know what to do in case of an emergency.

Grammar

The children practiced identifying the subject in a sentence this week. They also worked to add subjects to incomplete sentences. We identified the parts of and punctuated a friendly letter.

Writing

Our autobiographies are complete! The children had a huge part in the publishing process. They told ME how they wanted their final copy to look! They could choose between a folded flip open version (showing each stage of their life) or a flat poster, and they chose the poster. Then they decided they wanted a colored background, so they asked me to create panels with lines for them to write on and glue to their poster. They even told me how they’d like to glue a white bubble at the top for the title and their name! It was such fun watching them take ownership of their published writing! These projects are hanging in the hallway, and will be coming home soon. They worked very hard, and the tidbits they chose to include in their writing are fun to read.

Math

The children took their Unit 1 assessment! We moved right into Unit 2. We started off with reviewing the parts of a story problem, including a unit box, number model and a labeled answer. The children solved these problems, and practiced creating their own, too. The children will be really focusing on learning their math facts. We’ve already learned our doubles, so we moved into our “doubles +1” facts. The children chanted “think about the double of the lower number, then add… one…. more!” This helped them not only identify which problems they could use this strategy on, but also how to use it. Next week we will continue to practice these basic facts, as well as “turn around” facts, and +9 facts! The children will soon be dreaming about their math facts.

Social Studies

We have begun to talk about history, artifacts, and the past. Using their social studies text books, we are practicing not only reading the text, but also reading the titles, subtitles, pictures and captions to gain information. The children are also practicing answering “right there,” questions. This can be a challenging skill! Given a question, our job was to identify an important “key word” in the question, and then skim the text to locate it. The answer was right there! This was a great connection to a test taking strategy we learned in one of our reading lessons this week. The children also discussed the passing of time, and reviewed how a time line functions- from left to right. Next week we will be talking about needs and wants, as we travel back in history to the very beginning of our town, Arlington Heights!

Jack Musich, an Arlington Heights artist, will be visiting the children on Friday morning. Each of the children will be connected to a landmark in our town, past or present. They will study it, and draw it with some tips from this amazing artist! The children will be recording a podcast with information about their landmark. An added challenge for the children will be to photograph themselves either with their landmark, or in the spot where it used to be. This is going to be such a fun unit!

Enjoy your weekend!

Friday's fun! by Ava W.

Today is my last day that I am blogger. I am going to miss being blogger :( But I had a fun day at school! We had Drew's mom, sister and dad come to our classroom because he was star student. His science experiment was cool. They had electricity transfer from a battery to a screw driver. We also had a fire drill today, we were very good.

Have a good weekend!

Ava W.

Thursday's Thinking by Ava W.

Today was an awesome day at school. This morning we had PE and music. In PE we had a full soccer game. Charlie played very well. In music we learned a new song called "Clickety Clack." Danny sang really loud and clear and we could hear the words he was singing. We learned our doubles +1 facts. This works when the numbers are next door on the number line. We sang, "Think about the double with the LOWER number then add...one..more!" We wrote story problems with unit boxes and number models! We are busy kids!

Bye!

Ava W.

Wednesday's Wisdom by Ava W.

We took our Math MAP test in the LMC. We worked on Danny's star letter. We worked on our reading fluency and learned how an index works in the back of a book. We buddy-read a story in our Treasures book. We read a story about a family of farmers who planted potatoes 100 years ago during social studies.

See you tomorrow!

Ava W. :)

Tuesday's Tidbit by Ava W.

We took our MAP test in the LMC, and every body was focused and quiet. It was fun to take a test on the computer. We also talked about wildfires and how they can get out of control. We read that wildfires can harm animals and people's homes.

bye- bye!

AvaW.

Monday's Message by Ava W.

Hi I am Ava, your new blogger. Today we learned about thermometers and telling temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius. We practiced our doubles. We are starting a new unit in Social Studies about the history of our town. We watched a video about the past, present and future! We played Soccer Pirates in Gym class. We also had a Shelter-In-Place drill, we did great.

It was a great Monday!

Ava W.

Hi, all!

The children and I had a great week together at school. Everyone is becoming a bit more settled, and they are really showing me how ready they are to learn! I was excited to get all of our reading groups up and running this week! It was great listening to every child read, and their leveled group seemed to fit them nicely. We've now practiced 4 out of our 5 "Daily 5" centers: Read to self, Read with a buddy, Writing, and most recently- Word work. There are a few different ways to practice new words during the week, but the children practiced "Buddy Spelling." They quizzed and checked their buddy's spelling words as they wrote them on a dry-erase slate. If the child misspelled a word, their buddy had the magical power to instill the "Tower of Terror!" (Have them show you!) I'm so pleased at how confident and independent the children are becoming during these Daily 5 practices. The more independent they are, the more quality practice they will receive, and the more reading groups I can meet with! Its a win-win. :)

* Our September book orders arrived! Of course the children were excited to receive their new reading material, as expected! Thank you for ordering.

* Our PTA Progressive Dinner Project is just about complete! With your donations, Mrs. Geisler and I arranged a "Family Night In" bin. It contains several games, some snacks and candy, some soda, and a $20 gift certificate for pizza at Tortorices! The children and I also created a game of Memory to add to the bin- with their faces as the playing cards. (Match the child's happy face with their silly face to make a match!) Its everything you will need for a night of family fun. We hope that a family in our class will win the raffle! Thank you Mrs. Geisler, for all of the organization and execution! It really looks like a great gift.

Spelling

The children are doing a nice job of adapting to our new spelling routines in second grade! This week they focused on words with the short /o/, short /u/, and short /e/ sounds. Coming up next week will be words that have long and short /a/sounds!

Reading

Our theme this week was “Making Friends.” The children listened to a fable about the Lion and the Mouse, and did a nice job determining the moral of the story. We read another story called “Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea.” The children analyzed the story structure and plot. They identified the beginning, middle, and end of the story. They also worked to retell the story in their own words using laminated picture cards. New vocabulary words we worked on include: company, delighted, enjoyed, share, thinning, and wonderful. We worked on our fluency by rereading select portions of the text. The children also noticed that sometimes words are italicized in a text. We practiced emphasizing words in italics as we read aloud.

Grammar

The focus for this week was identifying commands and exclamations. The children showed much success with this skill!

Math

This week the children familiarized themselves with the hundreds chart, identified patterns they noticed on it, and worked to fill in a number scroll up to the number 1,300! We reviewed the term “equivalent,” and found equivalent names for given numbers. The children played a game called “Broken Calculator,” in which they had to get an answer on their calculator without pressing a particular button that we determined would be broken. Finally, the children practiced calculating the value of a variety of coin combinations! They will be ready for their first math test next week.

Social Studies

The children created beautiful landform murals demonstrating their understanding of each of the new terms we have been learning! We have quite a roomful of artists! Wow! We also worked to identify all seven continents, and five oceans. Pull out a map at home and have your child sing for you the "Continent Song," and label those oceans! The children also identified the equator, and determined if various countries and continents were in the northern or southern hemisphere. The children were assessed on their understanding of these concepts this week. Our Arlington Heights unit is next!

Please view the side bar for details about upcoming events. MAP testing is coming up this week. Good nights of sleep and breakfast each morning will give the children lots of energy to focus on these tests.

I hope you are enjoying the weekend!

Friday Feature by Amaya

Today we had some tests to take in grammar, DOL, and spelling. We took our Treasures Weekly test together as a class. We listened to a story called Pirates Go So School. We learned our 4 homes: North America (continent), United States (country), Illinois (state), and Arlington Heights (town)!

Amaya

Thursday's Thoughts by Amaya

Today we had gym and music. In gym we played the Cookie Monster game. 2 people are the taggers and when Mr. Gries calls a certain type of cookie, the kids have to run or gallop or jump to the black line. In m ath we practice <, >, and =. We read a story today Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches. A little guy kept losing his homework! We practiced finding the continents on the map and noticed the difference between a globe and a map.

seeyou tomarowamaya

Wednesday's Wisdom by Amaya

We played a game this morning called "Slap it!" It was a game to see who could find the continents and oceans the fastest on the white board. We worked on our landform posters, and we are almost done. We went to art class. We are working on a drawing of a haunted house. Lily had the best day ever!

See you tomorrow!

Amaya

Tuesday's Tidbit by Amaya

Good afternoon! Today we practiced math. We played "Broken Calculator." We had to show a number on the calculator without pressing a certain button. We watched the Music for Youth concert. Ava was in the show! She played the violin and did a great job. We learned the 7 continents. We sing them to the tune of Row, Row, Row your boat. We also started creating our landform murals. They are going to look cool!Finally we checked out books at the library!

See you tomorrow!

amaya

Monday's Message from Amaya

Today we went to gym and music. In gym we played soccer. In music we played a game where we thought about the length of different times. We have new books in our book bags. We had recess too. In math we made number grid puzzles and had our friends solve them!

More tomorrow!

Amaya

Fall is just around the corner!

Hello everyone!

Even though it was a shorter week due to Labor Day, the children were busy little bees! I noticed what a fantastic job they did on their homework each day. Thank you so much for helping them through the week! Their reading logs were completed neatly and carefully (especially the "parent" box :). I could see they practiced their spelling words in a variety of ways, and their fluency logs were full! Such responsible little people I have in my class!

I received an update from Mrs. Geisler, she mentioned receiving many donations from our families for the PTA fundraiser! The children will be helping us create a personalized item to raffle off during the upcoming Progressive Dinner. Thank you so much for your help!

Spelling

The children took their first spelling test Friday! We played Sparkle to review our words ahead of time. Thank you for helping them practice at home. We'll work to find a good level of difficulty for the children with a little bit of time. Our next pre-test will be on Monday.

Reading

The children worked hard in reading. We strengthened our oral vocabulary (these words include: appreciate, fond, companion, agree and loyal.) We worked on the phonics sounds of short /a/ and /i/. The children completed word sorts and reviewed ABC order. We read a story together from our textbooks about a little boy named David who was nervous about his first day of school. We focused in on the characters and setting of the story to enhance our comprehension. Vocabulary words included in this story include: excited, tomorrow, carefully, different, and groan. The children edited sentences (what we call DOL) and took their first quiz! With the help of Mrs. Riesing and Mrs. Spaitis, we were able get a chance to listen to each of the children read. Our reading groups are ready to go, and my goal is to begin next week.

Handwriting

We have been working to improve our printed handwriting this week. We are reinforcing good posture, proper slant, use of their “guide hand,” and appropriate spacing. The children are also working to start their letters up and bring them down toward the line! Finally, we are moving away from the “ball and stick” approach they learned when they were first beginning to write. We are working on smooth, fluid motions that will lead us easily into cursive handwriting that will begin in January! Please encourage proper pencil grip, and the closure of the letters on top- this will help to build consistency between school and home!

Writing

We are moving into the final "chapter" of our autobiographies- present day! The children are following the process of "think, draw, label, and write" during our writing lessons. As Charlie mentioned, the children took some time to share their writing with a buddy using plastic microphones. Their goal was to compliment their buddy, and help them find a way to improve their work, as well. Soon we will be able to edit and publish our work!

Math

The children practiced counting money this week. We remembered to start with the largest amount first when counting. We practiced grouping money by denomination (ones, tens and hundreds) and then we were ready to count. The children created a miniature poster of visual cues to remind them of their doubles facts. We practiced these several times- there are a few strategies that stem from the "doubles" so the quick recall of these facts will help so much. The children took a “mad minute” today to see how many addition problems they can complete in 5 minutes. I explained to the children that every time they improve their score they will earn a sticker for their incentive chart! Finally, the children were introduced to their hardcover Math Reference Book. They learned how it works and how it will function as a tool this year. The children know that they can access the reference book at home with the username and password found inside their red home folder. We also completed our first “Math Boxes,” in our math journals

Social Studies

The children have completed their landform practice this week. They will apply their learning as they complete their “Landform Mural,” next week! It will be a fun way for them to demonstrate their understanding of each term.

MAP Test

The MAP test is the computerized achievement test that we discussed briefly on curriculum night. Please make sure your child is well rested the night before the test, and that they have a good breakfast, too! They will take the reading test on Tuesday morning and the math test on Wednesday afternoon.

Reminders:

*I am still hoping to receive a small handful of parent signatures on the yellow, purple, and white forms. Please send those in as soon as you get a chance.

* I think we have passed the point of needing the personal water bottles now that the weather has grown cooler! We will try to rely on our classroom water fountain now as our main means of hydration. Hopefully we've tripped over our last bottles and cleaned up our last spills for now... :)

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Friday's Feature by Charlie

We had our first spelling test and our first grammar quiz. We practiced taking a reading test all together using the white board. We shared our autobiographies with a buddy using microphones. We gave each other 2 compliments and a tip. We did really good with our reading stamina. We read for 22 minutes and 12 seconds! Ria's star student experiment was really cool. She put paper in a plastic cup and put it in water, and it stayed dry!

Have a good weekend

Charlie

Thursday's thoughts by Charlie

We went to gym today. We practiced dribbling the soccerball. We practiced our doubles for math. For example, 2 + 2= 4 (wagon wheels) 6 + 6 = 12 (a dozen eggs). Miss O'Sullivan read us a book about homework excuses. No excuses in our class! :) Happy birthday, Ria!

Charlie

Wednesday's Wisdom by Charlie

We learned how to buddy read for our Daily 5 centers. We went to art and started our first drawings. During math, we did our first math boxes in our journals. Now we know what a gulf is! Its a body of water that has land partly around it.

More tomorrow!

Charlie

Tuesday's Tidbit from Charlie

We changed our jobs for the week, and I am your new blogger! We went to the library and learned how it works. We had our first book check out. In math, we counted money up to the hundreds place.

See you tomorrow!

Charlie

Curriculum night came and went....

Hello!

Thank you so much for attending curriculum last night at school, and for showing such interest in your child's learning. It was so nice to see some familiar faces, as well as the new ones! I know it was a lot of information! Who knew there was so much to cover in 2nd grade? I hope that I answered any questions you may have had, and gave you a preview of what's to come in the next few months. The children were very excited to read the notes you left for them this morning when they arrived. I wish you could have seen it. Believe it or not, there are a few more points I wanted to quickly reiterate while I'm thinking about them.

* There was a note in the curriculum folder that you received about a classroom allergy to peanuts. We are going to maintain a nut-free environment in the classroom this year!

* Please remember to send in your child's blue calculator from 1st grade. We will be using them during various math lessons throughout the year.

* Don't forget to sign and return your purple, yellow, and white forms that were also in your curriculum folder. Those forms:

1) allow me to use your child's name and image (purple)

2) show you've read the Dryden handbook -don't worry there isn't a quiz! (yellow)

3) enable you to work with a small group of children (white). The office does need a record of each of those forms, so please send them in as soon as you can. Thank you for the bundle I received already today.

* Scholastic Book orders will be due the morning of September 8th.

* A huge thank you to Mrs. Geisler for sending the information about the PTA Progressive Dinner project out the the parents, and so quickly, too! As she mentioned in her email message, she will be collecting any donations for our project up until September 9th.

All in all, we had another great week at school. We have begun our preliminary math lessons that introduce typical lesson routines and get us thinking about numbers, counting, and patterns. We practiced our math facts and played a card game- similar to the game of "War" that Owen described for us in a previous post. The children have been working to increase their sustained silent reading time (also known as "stamina") as we prepare to begin our reading groups following our assessments next week. The class read about a number of different landforms and illustrated them in their personal glossaries. Finally, we took our very first spelling pre-test of the year today. We did this in case the children would like to practice their new words over the long Labor Day weekend. There is no official homework, but I wanted to send the spelling practice page home just in case they decided to get a head start on those words. Please leave next week's homework and spelling list (dated 9/5) in your child's red folder for us to use next week!

Thank you for visiting the blog!

I'm looking forward to a really great year!

Enjoy the nice long Labor Day weekend.

Friday's Feature by Owen

Today is my last day of blogger. It was a fun job. We watched a landform video. Did you know that a peninsula is surrounded by water on 3 sides? We practiced our math facts and took a mad minute! If we beat our score we will get a sticker! We learned new vocabulary words like tomorrow and different.

Happy Labor Day!

owen

Thursday's Thoughts by Owen

Today we played Addition Top It during math. Addition Top-It is when you take 2 cards, add them together, and see if you or your partner have the higher number. We drew pictures and wrote about landforms. We had PE and Music. In PE we played Pac-Man. You had to stay on the line and try not to get tagged. Happy birthday, PJ!

See you tomorrow!

Owen