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