What a great month we have had...
In Math, we have assessed our learning of math facts for plus one and plus two as well as tens partners (two digits that total ten). We have also generated the steps we think are important to solving story problems. Please continue to practice math fact fluency by playing the card games that were sent home. Remember to differentiate by using different target numbers. Also, look for math problem solving scenarios in your daily routines. I recently heard a parent standing in line at the deli ask his son how many people needed to be served before it was their turn. Most importantly, you want to ask your child how their brain figured it out...step by step. All strategies should be celebrated. We will continue to share problem solving strategies in class and work towards efficient and organized representations. A new packet of unit letters will be coming home this week as we dive in to a study of geometry.
In Writing, we celebrated our narrative writing with our kindergarten reading buddies. Students will write one of their stories on demand next week. Then they will look at the first on demand piece they did and see all the progress they have made. This is a critical part of developing reflective learners. Our inquiry into narrative writing focused on using authors as mentors. We dug into the story Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and practiced the many craft moves she uses in her writing. These included; comparisons, sound words, alliteration, beautiful language and dialogue. The children are pulling words from word banks, word walls and a thesaurus.This supports increased vocabulary and spelling accuracy. Students are now using many of their favorite authors as mentors for their own writing.
In Reading, we will work hard this year to not just retell stories but summarize them using critical thinking strategies such as inferring and finding clues in the text to understand important lessons and meaning in the literature we read. We wrote baseline summaries of a story from the Frog and Toad series and will continue to practice summarizing using a template. One example is hanging outside the classroom.
In Science, we are deep into our Earth Science study of rocks! We are focusing on rock as an earth material that changes over time because of weathering and erosion. The children have been extremely engaged in the activities and we have easily integrated our learning with our writing and reading curriculums. For example, students were asked to read The Story of Sand from their science text and then retell the story in writing in their science journals. For more information and activities you and your child can visit our class page. The username and password is the same: stratton7. Each second grade classroom is working on a different science study. These units are being rolled out by the district with professional development sessions throughout this year. We, the teachers, are excited to collaborate on our successes and challenges, so that we can all facilitate as much of the new curriculum as possible by the end of the year.
In Social Studies, we have sent symbolic butterflies to Mexico and made connections to where we live in this world. The symbolic butterflies connect to our study of the continents and the science we will explore in the spring. We used Google Earth to find Stratton school and our own homes. We will be leaving North America soon!
Communication...In addition to the monthly update, I will be posting moments of our day on twitter. I will be working with students to post two tweets a day. My hope is that this will facilitate conversations about school at home. 'A picture is worth a thousand words,' right? Please follow us at @aabbott65. Most importantly, I will be facilitating conversations with your children about good digital citizenship. What is worth posting and what is not? This includes conversations about posting permission and how important it is to respect privacy and not post something the creator or person being reported on does not want posted.