A short but sweet week!

I hope everyone enjoyed their long 4 day weekend! The children and I hit the ground running on Wednesday and accomplished so much during the short week!

Some things to note:
1) Thank you for returning the Australian Barbecue notes so promptly! We are just about set to place our lunch order on Monday! Our Barbecue luncheon will take place on February 7.

2) We have begun our unit on persuasive writing. If you are able to send an empty cereal box to school with your child, it will help enhance a fun writing activity coming up that they are sure to enjoy! A few kids said they would be able to bring in more than one, so don't worry if your family doesn't eat cereal.

3) The kids are all buzzing about their Australian Animal research projects! It is so much fun to see their excitement. We can't wait to begin presentations on February 3rd!

As I mentioned, we have begun our persuasive writing unit! The children and I read "I Wanna Iguana" in which a little boy works hard to persuade his mother to allow him to have an iguana as a pet. The children are now working on a graphic organizer to help them persuade either their teacher or their parent to have their own pet! The creative juices are flowing!

Along with meeting in our small reading groups to work on our decoding, comprehension, and reading fluency, the children worked with a buddy to conquer this book! Their job was to read each text carefully, and work together to find "right there" answers. While reading to learn new facts about Australia, the children also worked to answer questions using complete sentences and proper spelling!

In math this week we continued to learn subtraction fact strategies. We focused on the "Count Up' strategy this week. It is used when the numbers are close together. We practiced starting at the smaller number, and simply counting up! The children also revisited the concept of subtracting two digit numbers using regrouping. They are growing more and more comfortable with this! Last of all, the children started thinking about SETS of numbers, and drew a series of pictures, tallies, and arrays to help them visualize the answer. Can you believe we are already on the brink of multiplication?! 

We started a new class read aloud story this week, an all time favorite of mine! The children are already very interested and concerned about poor little Wilbur! Reading aloud helps me to model good thinking and reading strategies out loud with the kids. We pause and think about the plot, new words, and we make predictions as we move through the story!

The kids ended their week with a fun "dance party!" They enjoyed getting their "wiggles" out in a new way after working so hard indoors this week.

Enjoy the extra few days of the weekend! Stay warm!

The week in review!

As usual, the 2nd graders were hard at work, and VERY eager and excited for all of the new lessons and activities headed their way!

After taking their handwriting test last week, the students were ready to begin their cursive handwriting lessons! We reviewed this checklist prior to our writing lesson:

1) Sit tall in our chairs

2) Both feet on the floor

3) Paper slanted (to the left if right handed, to the right if left handed :)

4) Guide hand holding the paper in place

The children's cursive is coming along beautifully. Please encourage them to consider this checklist at home prior to completing their handwriting homework.

We have also begun to really focus on our subtraction strategies this week. The first strategy the children practiced was "Count Back." This strategy works best when subtracting 1, 2, or 3. Simply start with the larger number, and count backwards!

We also dabbled with the concept of subtraction with regrouping. We learned that in subtraction, we ALWAYS start in the ones place! If there is "MORE ON TOP, DON'T STOP!" But if there is "MORE ON THE FLOOR, GO NEXT DOOR!" This cute little rhyme helped the children begin to recognize if they need to regroup in order to solve the problem.

Our whole group story this week was a nonfiction text about the Alvin Ailey Dance School in New York City. The children practiced reading and re-reading this text throughout the week. Our comprehension strategy was summarizing the key concepts. 

We spent some time learning about the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.  After reading about his life and putting the key information into our own words, the children and I viewed a clip on You Tube of his "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington in 1963. The quote above appeared both in the book we read and the clip that we viewed, and we found it to be a powerful representation of the work of this strong American leader. 

Our Australia lessons continue! We read "Are We There Yet? this week, which was a perfect story about an Australian family who has decided to take a holiday and travel around their country for several months. They stopped at amazing landmarks along the way which we identified on a classroom map as we followed along!

Popular attractions the children learned about this week included Wave Rock, Uluru, The Harbour Bridge, The Great Barrier Reef, Bondi Beach, The Pinnacles, and Kakadu National Park. The students  were excited to learn about a new research project they will be working on in the LMC (also known as a UBD- Understanding by Design) during which they will be broken into small groups to research a particular Australian territory/state, and decide what makes it a desirable place to visit! Our research begins at school this week!

We also learned about a variety of foods that you will find in Australia, including vegemite, ANZAC biscuits, lamington, pavlova, and meat pies!

 Mr. Holston's class came by on Thursday afternoon to help our class better understand the "Dryden Do's!" These are some simple rules and guidelines that will maximize the children's safety, respect for each other,  and learning while they are at school.

 They broke into partnerships to act out and photograph these guidelines in action! It really helped the kids to visualize and understand these important expectations at school!

 We ended our week with a wonderful star student presentation from Anna and her mom. Anna demonstrated a really fascinating experiment for the kids in which she showed how two colors mix to make a 3rd color! Anna mixed yellow water with blue water- and sure enough, when combined, they appeared to be green! The kids were excited to go home and give this experiment a try!

 Anna chose one of her favorite books to share with the class! It was a Christmas story about an adorable little kitten named Mistletoe. What a cute story! We could tell why it was a longtime favorite of Anna's!

A beautiful picture of Anna and Mrs. Mullan. We are so lucky to have such a sweet, hardworking, and focused student in our class this year! Anna sets a wonderful example of excellent behavior for all of us each and every day. We especially enjoyed the visit from Mrs. Mullan! Thank you for spending the afternoon with us!

Another fun week in 2nd grade!

The 2nd graders were just as busy as ever this week! We spent some time on Monday preparing for our big trip to Australia! The children made their suitcases and passports, and then we learned some initial facts about the country we were traveling to including: population (of course we compared it to the population of the United States-  we roughly have 330.000.000 people compared to Australia's 23.000.000!) government, currency, and capital city. We also looked at several pictures of Australia to get a feel for the types of places we would be "visiting" such as: a sheep station, the outback, the Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, and the Great Barrier Reef! We made a packing list of all the different types of clothing and things we would need for a trip like this!

 Here are the kids with their suitcases! Inside are their passports, boarding passes, and packing lists!

 The children had to show their passport and boarding passes in order to board the plane!

 Mrs. Jojo helped the children find their seats...

Together the 2nd graders at Dryden watched a short introductory video about Australia!

 We arrived safely in the "Land Down Under!" The children are about to learn so much about the country and continent of Australia!

Side note: The kids are very excited to begin their home projects on an Australian Animal! The student contracts weren't due until Monday, but 17 of the kids turned their contracts in on Friday, and have already received their assignments! We are going to have so much fun learning about 20 different animals that are unique to the country of Australia from our very own classmates!!

 Here is a photo of our class on the story steps in the LMC on Thursday. Mrs. Jojo is no longer our flight attendant and now has her "Library hat" on, as she is sharing the Dryden Dolphin book award books with the kids!

 It was Demetra's turn to be our star student this week! We enjoyed a special visit from her mom, who helped Demetra share an experiment with the class. Demetra showed us how she was able to make it appear as though the colors on her color wheel were blending together when she spun it very quickly! When the wheel slowed down, the colors separated again. The students seemed excited to give it a try at home!

 Demetra shared one of her favorite stories with the class, The Ugly Duckling. The kids came up with some wonderful ideas about lessons we can learn from this story: to treat everyone fairly/kindly, not to judge someone by how they look on the outside, and to reach out to a friend who might feel alone. What amazing thinkers!

 Here is a sweet picture of Demetra and her mom. We are so fortunate to have such a creative, independent, responsible, and friendly girl in our class. You had a terrific week, Demetra!

Our writing lessons this week involved writing a business letter!  Sometimes business letters request some type of correction/resolution, sometimes they offer a suggestion for improvement, and sometimes they are simply acknowledging something positive!

Together, we practiced writing a business letter asking for a correction for missing pieces to a bookshelf we were trying to put together. Then, the children wrote their own business letter to the library suggesting a service or improvement, and finally they wrote a letter to the mayor letting him know about a pot hole in front of their house!

The children made sure to 1) state the problem or reason for the letter, 2) clearly suggest how to correct or improve the situation and 3) end with kind sentiments and a thank you!

Their letters grew stronger as the week progressed! I was very impressed! 

The children also took their handwriting test this week. We were making sure that the children are READY TO WRITE IN CURSIVE! Good news! Everyone passed the test, and our cursive lessons will begin this week. There are a few friends who need to continue to keep a close eye on their printing, however, to make sure it is always their best work. :)

Also this week, the children will be taking their MAP test (Measure of Academic Progress). They will take the reading test on Monday, and the math test on Tuesday. It is a lengthy test on the computer that will take roughly an hour each time. A good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast would help get those little brains some extra energy! 

Our favorite food results: Students vs. Adults!

Here is a graph showing the favorite foods of the students in our class! 

     1st place: Meat group with 7 votes

              2nd place: Fruits and Vegetables: 6 votes

3rd place: Grain group: 4 votes

4th place:  Dairy group: 2 votes

Total votes: 19 votes

 Thank you so much to the adults who replied to our message requesting a favorite food! We received about 35 responses! The kids were so excited to see messages from their parents and teachers pop up throughout the day. Here's Erick tallying the results as we opened each message!

This is the graph showing our favorite adults' favorite foods!

      1st place: Meat group with 13 votes

               2nd place: Fruits and Vegetables: 8 votes

3rd place: Grain group: 7 votes

4th place:  Dairy group: 4 votes

Total votes: 32 votes

(there were also a few votes for pizza, but unfortunately that's a food that falls into too many food groups to graph! :)

We thought it was so interesting that BOTH the children and parents picked the same top two foods, meat, and fruits/vegetables! 

Thank you again for your help making our math lesson not only more authentic, but extra fun today!