Hard working 2nd Graders!

We had a really terrific week in 2nd grade! The children were hard workers and accomplished so much! Below are a few snapshots of the fun and learning that happened!

In reading this week, the children and I read a whole group story called My Name is Yoon. Through reading this story, the children practiced making predictions while reading. We went on to directly transfer this skill into the texts they are reading in their small guided reading groups! We also talked this week about the reading strategy of asking questions. It is so important to read- not just saying the words, but really thinking about and processing their meaning. A great strategy is to ask questions that you are wondering while reading, whether or not you are able to answer them!

The children practiced using quotation marks and combining sentences during their grammar lessons. We practiced identifying the "talking" word in each sentence that let us know that quotation marks were needed!

The second graders enjoyed exploring motion through a series of time trials outdoors this week! We practiced crawling, hopping, and walking backwards for a set time interval. The children measured how many meters they could travel in 5 seconds.  Based on the data the children collected, they determined which motion allowed them to travel the greatest distance. The winner was hopping! We then analyzed our data and evaluated possible reasons why this was the case. The children noted that with hopping, they were moving moving forward, and using only two feet as opposed to both their arms and legs (as in crawling.) Clever thinkers!

We went on to discuss motion at a deeper level. The children shared different examples of motion, and we realized together that motion does not happen without some type of FORCE. The children were given toy cars and a variety of materials to use, and they explored different ways to get their car to move (often using a PUSH or a PULL of some kind.) Again, the children put on their thinking caps and investigated a whole range of ways to get those cars moving! We noticed that the car traveled farther on the tile floor than on the carpet, due to the reduced amount of FRICTION! What a bright bunch of scientists we have in 2-2!

It was Nick's week to shine as our star student this week! His dad came in and helped Nick demonstrate a really neat science experiment! In the experiment, Nick showed us how to get a heavy dictionary to shoot across the counter by putting straws underneath it! They functioned as wheels, and reduced the amount of friction between the book and the counter. What a perfect experiment to learn from as we study motion! Nick's mom came in and shared the story The 13 Nights of Halloween. We are so lucky to have such a happy, funny, sweet, and unique little fellow in our class this year! You had a great week, Nick!

An Amazing Birthday!

LOOK at what happened to my desk yesterday! My adorable students completely covered it with cards, pictures, a beautiful fall bunch of flower-markers, a delicious vanilla latte from Starbucks, AND a gift card! I cannot express what an amazing surprise this was! Thank you so much for making me feel absolutely wonderful on my birthday. It was the BEST birthday yet! (A special thank you to Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Kennedy, our distinguished room moms, for arranging such an unexpected and sweet series of surprises for me! :)

Our Weekly Update!

The students in our class were such hard workers this week! I'm really starting to see their independence and focus increase as we settle into the school year. I found myself looking around the room at the children working so carefully and quietly at their desks, the computers, or with a buddy several times this week- and I was so impressed! This independence is crucial so that I am able to pull small groups to work with. We have such a great bunch of learners in our class this year!

In reading this week, the children read a whole-group story about a little girl named Rosina, who is deaf. We read about her school, her family, her interests, and we noticed that even though Rosina can't hear, she is just like us! It was a great text-  not only to practice our comprehension strategy of identifying the main idea and details, but also in recognizing that we may have differences but we are still alike in so many ways. We used a graphic organizers similar to the one below in class this week. They are simple to create or find online- consider using them at home after your child has finished reading for the day!

Our small guided reading groups met this week too! After completing our Fountas & Pinnell reading assessments, the children are now placed in groups that match their reading ability level. The children will be working on their close reading strategies during this time. This will include: activating background knowledge prior to reading, predicting, visualizing, connecting, inferring, questioning, evaluating, and summarizing. We are also on the lookout for new vocabulary words! The children will keep track of their thinking on post-it notes, and those notes will come home when the text is complete. Its so important to stop and think critically while reading!

Our grammar lessons this week focused in on identifying the predicate, or the "action" of the sentence. You might have noticed that the children were coloring the subject of the sentence yellow, and the predicate green. This reminded us visually that there are two important parts to every sentence! It also helped us to see that the first word in green was usually an action word. 

The children's autobiographies are really beginning to take shape! After writing about our lives as a baby, pre-schooler, Kindergarten/1st grader, and our lives now, the children worked with a partner to edit their work. We looked for conventional errors such as spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, but we also made sure to compliment our partner's writing, as well as suggest areas that could use more detail. We have begun the publishing stage of the writing process, and we plan to celebrate our finished autobiographies next week. 

We have begun Unit 2 in math. The children started off the week creating story problems using the addition facts that we are working so hard to memorize! After working hard on our "doubles," "doubles + 1", and "doubles in between facts," we are ready to move on to some new strategies this week! The children will be practicing their "+9" and "make a ten" facts next! We have the xtramath.org site up on our classroom computers and the children are rotating to the computers and iPad throughout the day to get additional practice in this way, too. (Don't forget, you have access to this account at home, too!) So many kids have moved down from 5 minutes to 4 minutes on their "mad minute"  this week! Our hard work is paying off! Keep up the great work!

Our new science unit on Motion started this week! We started off thinking about what makes a good scientist. We learned that good scientists are always thinking, trying, observing, recording, discovering, and wondering. These will be underlying themes in our science units throughout the year. The children went on a motion hunt during afternoon recess one day, and then we practiced recording our observations in our science notebooks. We made sure to label our drawings, including the motion we observed, as well as the speed and direction of the motion. 

                                           

Finally, we wrapped up our week with a wonderful "Star Student" afternoon with Katie Rose! Mrs. Ryerson came in for a visit and assisted Katie with a fascinating experiment that showed us how to create our very own homemade lava lamp! All Katie needed was food coloring, water, oil, and salt! What a neat experiment! Katie read the class Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes, and we all shared why we think she is a star student. We are so lucky to have such a hardworking, bright, helpful and caring girl in our class! You had a great week, Katie!

That's all for now! 

Remember, your reading minutes and fluency passages are due on Monday.... 

I hope you all enjoy the weekend!

:) Miss O'Sullivan

A Great Week! By: Danny

We had a good time this week at school. We did a lot of math this week! We learned a new strategy to solve doubles +1 facts. We sang a little song to help us remember, it went like this: "THINK about the double of the LOWER number and ADD... ONE... MORE!" We practiced our math facts throughout the week on our xtramath.org accounts, too!

We reviewed and took our first Unit 1 math test. We did some practice questions on our slates before we took our test. There were questions about telling time, counting money, and solving number grid puzzles. I think we did really good. We took our unit 2 pre-test, too! Unit 2 starts next week! There is a new letter explaining our unit in the middle of our red home folders.

We saw a Music for Youth Concert on Wednesday! We watched kids like us playing the violin and the cello! It was really great music! Our class was a terrific audience and showed our best behavior. Did you know my sister plays the violin?

We took a spelling test today after we played double elimination Sparkle! That's a fun game we play to practice our words one last time before the test. In grammar this week we reviewed that sentences have two parts, a WHO and a WHAT, or a subject and a predicate- if you want to use their fancy names. We made sure that every sentence has a subject! We also made sure that each sentence ended with the right punctuation mark.

We took a geography quiz, too! We've been practicing the 7 continents, 5 oceans, and our 4 homes. I think we did really good on this quiz, too!

This afternoon, Alex's mom came in for Alex's star student presentation. They did an experiment that showed hot air expands and cold air shrinks. He put a a bottle with a balloon on top in hot and cold water. The hot water made the balloon grow, and the cold air made the balloon shrink!
 They read a story to us called "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs." Then we shared why he is a star!

Boy are we smart 2nd graders!
Have a great weekend!
See you on the blog!
Danny

The Best Week in 2nd Grade! By Jennifer

We did so much at school this week! We had art class. We made haunted houses. We made them on paper, using paper shapes. We also went to the library! We got to choose 2 books. We learned how the library works and where to find different books with Mrs. Dufern. In music class we learned our school song!

In our class we are listening to a read-aloud story called Superfudge! Our class read a story together in our reading books about Mr. Putter and Tabby.  We practiced describing the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story.  We also worked on our Daily 5 stations. We learned how to practice our spelling words during word work. We wrote them on cards and put them in ABC order. We also did spelling buddies this week where we quizzed a buddy on their words using slates.

In writing we started writing our very own autobiographies! We are writing all about our life as a baby and then a pre-schooler. We will work more on these next week.  In math we practiced counting money, worked with the hundreds chart, and completed number grid puzzles!

In social studies, we made awesome landform murals. They show all the different kinds of land we learned about! They are hanging in the hallway!

We practiced the 7 continents and 4 oceans. We also reviewed our 4 homes~ North America, the United States, Illinois, and Arlington Heights.

We had a great week!
Have a nice weekend!
Jennifer :)