Friday, May 11, 2012

Classroom Summary May 7-11







Here's what we did this week...

In Fundations we began working on the long u sound /oo/. We added three more sound spellings to our toolbox: ew, oo and ue. We now know five ways to spell the sound /oo/! Our new trick words for this week were January, July and February. We talked about how library and February are similar words to spell because they both have the middle blend "br" and they both end in "ary". We laughed out loud when we talked about how if you say the word library without the blend in the middle, you might lead someone to believe that there is a new kind of fruit near the police station and not a special building to borrow books, magazines and movies: the liberry!



In Miss Varrell's reading class, the children finished taking notes on their nonfiction books (Remarkable Reindeer, Wonderful Wolves, The Frog Life Cycle, The Butterfly Life Cycle) and finished their nonfiction summary. On Tuesday we went to the computer lab to take a reading assessment on the computer. Teachers are able to use these universal assessments to confirm where strengths and weaknesses are in reading skills. These assessments are not used on the report card but to better understand where to focus children's reading learning. Next week all second grade students will be taking "live" reading tests by reading a book and answering questions about it. We have all been working super hard to be the best readers we can be. We are ready to show all we have learned!

Here are Daniel's notes and summary:






In math we continued to work on subtracting with double digit numbers. We have been using different strategies to solve problems.

Strategy #1: Line up the double digit subtraction problem vertically. Look to see if the problem you have is a MATH FACT. Can you do this problem in your head right away?


Strategy #2: Line up the double digit subtraction problem vertically. Is the problem a math fact? If not, Subtract the ones first IF THE PROBLEM CAN BE DONE. Then move on to the tens and subtract the tens.



Strategy #3: Line up the double digit subtraction problem vertically. Is the problem a math fact? If not, subtract the ones first. If the ones place has a subtraction problem that can't be done (e.g. the top number is smaller than the bottom number) you will need to pull apart the bottom number to subtract it from the top number more easily.



In writing this week we finished our unit on poetry. We learned about many different poetry styles and forms. We learned how a poem doesn't just SOUND different from a paragraph but it LOOKS different too! Miss Varrell showed us how poems are written in lines that are not necessarily sentences. Poems can also use fewer punctuation marks and lines of poems often start with--can you believe it--connecting words! All those times we were told not to start a sentence with a connecting word like and, but, or, and because, we CAN use in our beginning poetry lines if we choose to! We tried writing some shape poems this week and we just had fun experimenting with rhyme and rhythm and fun with words. We will finish Jack Prelutsky's book Pizza, Pigs and Poetry next week. We look forward to every chapter!


In science we finished up our unit on reptiles. We got to have Squirt, the musk turtle, visit our classroom for a week. We loved having him visit. He was like having another student in the room! He watched and listened as we learned during the day. As a matter of fact, as you watch below you can see how friendly and interactive Squirt is when he has an audience! Take a look....



We also saw a special program on amphibians and reptiles that Ms. Pavlicek presented for us. We got to touch a real live alligator! We also began working on our next and final unit on animals for the year: insects. Mrs. D'Elia invited us down to the library and computer lab this week to learn about some of the fabulous online resources we can use when we begin studying insects. She showed us how to use the Pine Glen LTC website to view all the kid-friendly websites about insects. We also got to look at the magazines and books about insects too. There sure are lots of resources to use! On Friday, we got to choose a special insect that we would like to study in science class. Mrs. D'Elia showed us her own homemade video (she was an animated character!) on how to take research notes (even second graders can do research!) so that we can produce a report about our insect at the end of our unit. We are very excited to start learning about these fascinating creatures.



F.Y.I.
  • Our field trip to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary is scheduled for Friday, May 18. More information will be coming home about our field trip next week. Chaperones have been notified. Apologies to those parents whose names were not chosen for this final field trip of second grade. :(
  • We desperately need more cleaning supplies for our classroom. If you are able to donate any anti-bacterial wipes, we will gladly accept them!
  • Happy Mother's Day!


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