2-2 Update

Thank you for the wonderful, positive, and productive conversations we have had during our conference together last week! I walked away from each meeting with a stronger and more complete understanding of each of my students, and I hope you feel the same! It is obvious to me that we are both striving to help your child achieve as much as they possibly can this year. I'm looking forward to the upcoming months watching and guiding the children to learn and grow! 

 I've attached some recent photos from our days at school. You will find pictures of the children visiting the AHML bookmobile, our school assembly with author Megan McDonald, and the children "in action" practicing math skills, reading independently, and writing/editing their fairy tales. During reading over the last few school days, we practiced identifying key features of fiction: beginning with "long long ago" or "once upon a time,"  having a clear beginning, middle, and end including a problem and resolution, an element of magic or trickery, and of course a happy ending. We are working to include these elements (and more!) in our own fairy tales!  The children have also been working on visualizing the story using the author's colorful details and descriptions and identifying the main theme or moral of the story. They are also practicing retelling the stories the read with the key details in their reader's notebooks.

The children have been practicing 3 digit subtraction without regrouping during our recent math lessons. This week, the regrouping begins! I will be attaching a cute saying to each of the children's red home folders that reminds them when to regroup. I will also be sending home a copy of the word all we have been using at school that you are welcome to post near your child's homework spot that they can access to help with their spelling in their day-to-day writing.

Here are some links to helpful information:

Halloween flyer

Halloween Home Lunch & Party Participation form for Parents

Dates to remember:

Wednesday 10/24: Picture Retakes

Thursday 10/25:  4th Grade Musical

Friday 10/26:  Just Jump Fundraiser (lunch hour)

Moving right along!

It's hard to believe that October is already here! This week, in particular, seemed to just fly right by!

Below, you will find some pictures of:

Reading! The students learned strategies to tackle new words. We practiced reading poetry to identify the "big idea."  We also read nonfiction, noticing key nonfiction text features such as bold print, subheadings, photographs, and captions which give us more information and deeper understanding.  

We finished up our "Launch" unit and jumped right into fiction! The children learned about 3 types of fiction: Traditional (a story passed on from generation to generation and is well known), realistic (this story could happen in real life, only it is a story with fictional characters), and fantasy (impossible things happen in these stories including magical powers, talking animals, etc.). We are working to determine which type of book we are reading now that we understand the difference between these 3 types!

The children completed their landform murals. They really look great! They are colorful and full of important details. The children included 11 landforms in their drawings including: hill, valley, lake, mountain, island, river, peninsula, plain, ocean, canyon, and plateau. It was interesting to watch how the children carefully sketched their drawings to make them accurate and detailed before coloring.

Last week in the LMC, the children researched an animal from Wishtree using PebbleGo. They could choose an owl, raccoon, skunk, or crow. The children used a graphic organizer to sort their notes. They recognized they could jot down pieces of information instead of full sentences using bullet points.

As part of our review before wrapping up our Map Skills and Landform practice, the children enjoyed playing Kahoot it! in the classroom! Using 1-1 devices, the children answered various questions about the topics we covered, scoring points based on accuracy and speed. They were so engaged and excited to "play!" :)

The children learned about children's author Megan McDonald this week as we look ahead to her visit to Dryden next Friday! 

Don't forget to send the children's library cards to school with them next Wednesday, the AHML book mobile will be here to visit the 2nd graders!

Have a terrific Columbus Day weekend, everyone! :)