A wonderful week in 2-2!

The children have settled into a nice pace for our school year. They appear comfortable in the classroom and are able to show independence the moment they walk through the door. They understand our routines and have begun to use their time throughout the day very efficiently! 

We are really enjoying our reader's workshop lessons. This week, the children learned how to process a nonfiction text carefully, pausing to jot down an important fact or to sketch a drawing that represents new learning. They loved "turning and talking" to a neighbor to discuss their reading and to share what they learned! 

Other strategies that we practiced this week include 

1) stopping and thinking about our reading to make sure we understand before moving forward

2) visualizing, or making a picture in our minds to help us understand the text

3) thinking carefully about new words we encounter, and using the words around that word to help us determine its meaning

4) re-reading the text to reinforce our understanding and to clear up anything that might be confusing

The children received book marks this week to keep in their book boxes that contain strategies to help them while reading.

The children were very engaged while reading, and the facts that they jotted down were very interesting! It made us interested in reading each other's books, too!

The kids enjoyed a lively game of "Slap it!" during social studies! We had fun reviewing the 7 continents, the 5 oceans, the equator, and the north/south poles in this way.

Our star student this week was Maggie! We were so happy to welcome Maggie's mom to our classroom to share Maggie's science experiment and a story with us. Maggie showed us how mixing vinegar, baking soda and water created gas bubbles that caused chocolate chips to rise! It was so neat to see the bubbles cover the chocolate chips and begin to move them upward.

Mrs. Troup read a story to our class called The Day the Crayons Quit. It was an imaginative story about a sensitive box of crayons that had grown tired of coloring the same things over and over again. The class loved it! 

Maggie had a terrific week! We enjoyed celebrating this happy, energetic, intelligent, and caring girl all week long. She is truly a 2nd grade star!

The children's landform posters turned out beautifully! Not only are they artistic, detailed, and interesting to look at, but most importantly they show that the children understand their landforms. Great job 2nd graders!

Additional notes to mention:
* Our Dream Box account is up and running! This link will take you to the sign in page. The children know their password. (If they forgot, please email me and I can let you know pretty quickly what it is.)
* The children practiced xtramath and typing training at school this week too! Feel free to also access these accounts at home.
* We practiced a Hard Lock Down drill at school this week. The children did a great job preparing for what we would do in case of a serious situation at school.
* Now that we have finished our unit on maps/landforms, we are going to begin a science unit on Motion!
* We look forward to editing and publishing our autobiographies next week.
* The children took their Unit 1 math test this week! We look forward to Unit 2 which focuses on strengthening our math facts and building number sense.
* Thank you for your participation in "Just Jump!" It was a terrific way to raise funds for our PTA to help enrich the children's learning with interesting assemblies, exciting activities, and family engagement all throughout the school year. (They loved jumping during the lunch hour on Friday, too!)
* Don't forget, Picture Day is Wednesday, September 30th.

That's all for now!
Enjoy this beautiful weekend!

Kelly O'Sullivan

Another terrific week in 2-2!

The kids have been busy little bees in 2nd grade this week! Here are some points to ponder:

• The children took their first MAP tests in Reading and Math. They worked hard and focused to do their very best on these computerized assessments.  

• We began our Fountas & Pinnell Reading assessments this week. These are very in-depth, lengthy reading assessments that will enable me to place the children at their appropriate guided reading level. My goal is to complete these assessments next week so that our guided reading groups can begin ASAP.

• Our reading workshop continues! We have have been enjoying whole group stories together as a class that introduce a strategy that the children go on to practice during their independent reading time. Today the children and I practiced a K-W-L chart while reading a nonfiction book about sharks. It is an important practice to think about what we already know about the topic of a book prior to reading, wonder more about the topic while reading, and then note our learning after we have finished reading. The children enjoyed going on to share a book with a buddy, following this same practice!

• We continue to plug away at our autobiographies. The children are having fun thinking about what they were like as smaller versions of themselves as they think, draw, label, and write their ideas and memories down. 

• During social studies, the children worked on their landform murals. We also read and learned the difference between a globe and a map.  The children started thinking about the many "homes" they live in, including their continent, country, state, and city! We will review these, along with our landforms, the 7 continents, and the 5 oceans throughout the week next week in preparation for our first social studies test on Friday!

• Be on the lookout for our first Math Home link to come home next week!

• We received this communication from the PTA regarding our student newsletter:               KIDZ VOICE Extra! Extra! Let's read all about what's on the minds of Second and Fourth Graders!  Kidz Voice, Dryden's student newsletter, needs you!  We are looking for article submissions. Articles can be about current events at Dryden, in Arlington Heights, the U.S. or the world. Write about sports, an interesting person, submit artwork, or compose an opinion. It's all about making your voice heard! Email articles or pictures to Teresa Geisler by September 25. A hard copy can be dropped off in the office, if preferred.

 During math, the children played "The Broken Calculator" game! They searched for different ways to total a specific number on their calculator screens, while pretending that one of the keys was broken. The children especially loved the challenge of putting together 3 numbers or more than one operation into their equations to reach that number!

 We attended a Music for Youth concert this week! The children enjoyed the performance and showed a lot of interest in possibly playing a stringed instrument themselves one day!

 Here are some photos of our class as they take the MAP test. The children worked very hard during this time! Its hard to stay focused for such a long period of time, but they did a terrific job.

 Tyler was our first star student of the school year. We were so happy to welcome Mrs. Stevenson to our class for his special day! Tyler shared a science experiment with us that showed him mixing primary colors with water and food coloring. We watched as Tyler turned blue and red into purple, and red and yellow into orange. Wow!

 Mrs. Stevenson read us a cute story about a child babysitting their grandparents, and we noticed that many of our students do some of the same things with their grandparents!

 We are so fortunate to have such a sweet, caring, and friendly boy in our class! You had a tremendous week, Tyler!

Coming up next week:
* Wednesday, September 30: Picture Day!
* Friday, October 2:  Hearing & Vision Screening

Have a wonderful weekend!

Some highlights of our week!

We had another terrific week in 2nd grade! 

Events from this week: 

• Our whole school had a practice fire drill on Wednesday morning, during which the children reviewed how to exit the building both quietly and safely. We located our position on the field where we will wait for further instructions.

• We practiced sorting and counting paper money, beginning with the largest increments first. The children then played the "Money Exchange Game" during which they rolled dice and collected the dollars to match the amount they rolled. They exchanged their 10 singles for a $10 bill, and then they exchanged 10 $10 bills for a $100 bill! 

• We began specific practice of our basic math facts this week.  Our first strategy of the year to focus on was "doubles!" We took 2 "mad minute" timed tests during the week so the children can begin to see that with practice, they are able to recall more and more facts each time. The children looked forward to logging into their Xtramath.org accounts as a way to independently practice their facts. Feel free to use this account at home, too!

• We launched the first lessons of our reader's workshop! The children have begun really thinking about themselves as readers. This includes thinking about the types of books they enjoy reading, their favorite spot to read, and the people they like to read with at home (and what that looks like.)  We read two stories that inspired and stimulated these discussions: A Story for Bear, and Interrupting Chicken. The children spent some time personalizing their 3 subject notebooks to make them both useful and fun to use! This included adding a fun cover page on the inside, as well as tabs for organization. The children are beginning to enjoy the process of both reading books, and then responding to them!

• The children finished learning about various landforms this week. They will begin applying this understanding next week in landform murals they will create! We will also review the cardinal directions, continents, oceans, and the names of our city, state, country & continent.

•  Weekend homework! We are going to begin writing an autobiography for our 1st writing unit of the year. Today the children are bringing home a piece of paper on which they can gather a few facts about their lives from their early days that they may not be able to recall on their own. If you could help them jot down a few facts about their life in each box, it will really help their autobiography come to life!

• MAP testing will take place next week! There is a short note in backpack mail today explaining the test a little bit further. We are scheduled to take the Math test on Wednesday afternoon 9/16, and the Reading test on Friday morning 9/18. Please help your child by offering them a good night sleep and a healthy breakfast prior to their tests!

• I shared parent email addresses with our amazing room moms, Kathleen Schmidt and Elisa Arellano. You may be hearing from them periodically throughout the year via email to schedule classroom volunteers and to gather supplies for classroom parties. 

• There was a small problem with our school supply order through the PTA this year. Somehow, the 2nd grade supply list the company worked to prepare the orders from stated that the children need ONE dry erase marker, when our 2nd grade school supply list actually called for FOUR dry erase markers. All of the children who purchased supplies from the PTA are in need of 3 more markers. I apologize for that inconvenience. Please send those in when you can, there is no hurry.  Thank you!

• THANK YOU for the amazing response with our first book order of the year! The children will be extra motivated to read once their new reading material arrives. Thank you for encouraging and inspiring wonderful reading experiences at home! 

Have a terrific weekend!

Kelly O'Sullivan

The children practice sorting money into $1.00, $5.00, $10.00, $20.00, and $100.00 increments.

We practiced counting the money starting with the largest bills first.

The children were excited to play the "Money Exchange Game!" They rolled dice and collected money that matched the number they rolled. Their goal was to roll to $100!

Here we are practicing our doubles facts!

The children learned how to log into Xtramath.org from our classroom iPads.

We took some time to organize our writing notebooks! The children labeled each of the 3 sections: Class Books, My Books, and My Reading Goals.

They decorated a colorful title page!

They started a list of books we have shared during Reader's Workshop.

They practiced writing the title of the book, the date that we read it, and their thoughts about the book in their notebooks.

Sometimes, their thoughts won't be about the books directly. In this entry, the children were asked to write about a favorite place that they like to read.

It feels great to set up a structure in our class that we can follow for future lessons, and then watch the children confidently go back to this routine as they become familiar with it. Its fun to see them begin to show independence, comfort, and excitement for the activities they recognize and anticipate!