We are off to a wonderful start in second grade! Over the past couple weeks we spent a lot of time getting to know one another, learning class routines, and establishing behavior expectations. Last week we began our daily detective report.
The purpose of this report is to establish 2-way communication between home and school. Each day the kids report out on their behavior as well as on any classroom news/updates. I am asking that a parent signs their child's report nightly, this lets your child know that there is daily communication between home an school. Has your child mentioned kid bucks or Mr.Mrs. Potato Head? If not, see what they can tell you! Each day the class shows proof of star behavior, we add a piece to Mr./Mrs. Potato Head. Once all the pieces are all on, the class earns a reward. Kid bucks are away to reward kids for individual star behavior. For each day a child shows star behavior, a kid buck is earned. The kids will then have an opportunity to buy rewards from the class reward catalog!
In reading, the class is learning about The Daily Five. The Daily Five consists of read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, work on writing, word work and meet with teacher. The purpose of daily five is to teach the children to become meaningful, independent readers and writers. Right now we are teaching the class the first of the daily five, read to self. We've focused on what read to self looks like in the classroom. Reading the whole time, staying in one spot, reading quietly, getting started right away and building our reading stamina will make us better readers. This is what read to self looks like in our classroom!
The kids also learned 3-ways to read a book. Check out our video!
Next week we use the "i-pick" method for choosing just right books! Stay tuned for more information!
Lastly, we wanted to share some pictures from the last ten days of school! We look forward to seeing all of you at our curriculum night this Wednesday!
The class completed their first mission: Who's our mystery friends? Based on the clues, they were able to figure out that the friends joining us this year are hermit crabs! Great detective work!
We've been researching various life cycles. We worked in groups to create Life Cycle Posters. The kids did an amazing job! Each group then got to teach the class about their life cycle. Ask your child to teach you!
Recently, during Read to Self we spent a lot of time reading poetry. Each time the children found a poem they enjoyed, we made a copy and placed the poems in their poetry pockets. Ask your child to tell you what a poetry pocket is! Each child then selected his/her favorite poem and practiced reading it. We learned that understanding a poem helps us to know how our voice should sound as read. We then illustrated our poems using sidewalk chalk. (Thanks for all the chalk donations!) Listen to us recite our favorite poems!
Recently, we formed continent expert groups. Each child's job was to become an expert on one of the 7 continents. We first read nonfiction books on our continents. Then, collected information about the contents. The focus of our information collecting was identifying the main idea and supporting details of the topics we read about. Last, we worked with Mrs. K. in Google Drive to create slide shows. Our next step is to teach others about the continent we are "experts on." Check out our amazing slide shows.
Email me the correct answers to these questions by Friday, May 9th and earn 20 extra points!
1. What are the names of the 7 continents?
2. We learned that poets use "tricks" when writing poetry. What is one trick poets use? Explain what the trick you chose means.
3. How may feet are in one yard?
