Week ending 1/18/19

Happy Friday!

We had a busy week!  Don't forget that Monday there is no school.  Remember that next week, with snow on the ground, students must have snow pants, jackets, hats, gloves, etc to play on the field and structure.   Also, if you'd like to donate some regular paper towels or cleaning wipes, we would greatly appreciate it!

Below are two of our favorite and new activities we participated in.  

The first was Kahoot!  It was so fun!  I created a "quiz" for the kids made up of some general questions, some funny, and some curriculum review questions.  The class was broken into teams and each team used an iPad to answer the questions.  They did amazing and it was a learning curve for all of us but now that we've got it, I look forward to doing it again!  Also, I'm so grateful to our PTO who has helped us get 5 iPads in the room (which we've started using for the Raz-Kids programs as well as some information writing research, and today's game) and the wall mounted projector!  

As you know, Martin Luther King Jr day is on Monday.  We took time today for an exercise that was very different from our usual routine.  Today, students experienced moments where they were segregated by others, were excluded, expected to do things others were not, and more. For example, some could sit together for snack and others couldn't.  It's a great exercise to help the students gain a little bit of a sense of what segregation and unfair rules was like. Just the tip of the iceberg of course!

We talked a lot today about how they felt and how the day went on, but we also have a lot of work to do with recognizing empathy, understanding how our actions impact others, and identifying others' feelings.  

Here's some of our take aways from today...

• Today was a day of empathy by thinking about those who are not doing what you're doing. 
• Our actions might affect someone's feelings. 
• People cooperated in the book to make changes. 
• I felt sad when I couldn't do something. 
• We were happy when we could do something. 
• I felt unhappy when the people that couldn't do somethings, like when they couldn't talk.
• We weren't treated equally.
• I felt sad when other people couldn't do the same things as other people. 
• I felt kinda bad and kinda happy because I got to do something but at the same time I watched the other people not get to do it. 
• I felt sad when I watched other people not do what I was doing. 

Week Ending 1/11/19

Happy Friday!
Our first week back has been great!  We're back in the groove of things after a nice and relaxing vacation.

Important information:

• Weather - Please remember that students go out for lunch almost every recess.  If there is snow, they must have hats, gloves, boots, and snow pants to play in the snow and be on the field.  Also, with the chilly temperatures, please be sure your child has a hat and gloves or mittens.
• If you would like to donate some cray-pas to the class, we'd love it! I hope to use them next week during our Art in Morning reading on Friday.
• Be sure to check out the email sent to you earlier this week regarding Kaleidoscope bag.  Each week one student will take the bag home Friday-Wednesday.  It's a great opportunity to read or do activities with your child!
• Going home today, your child may have a list of sight words with some highlighted.  These are words that should be practiced regularly throughout the week.  These are words we have covered in Fundations but they still need some practice.  Some of the errors may be spelling errors or some may be rushing and not paying careful attention, so practicing daily will be helpful to encourage consistency in accurate spelling.

3, 2, 1 things you should know about our week...

3 math activities we worked on were playing Get to 100 and then proving our math was correct by using addition strategies to add up to 100, adding up to $1.00 while playing the Collect $1.00 game, and showing our work while problem solving (reading carefully to determine if you need to add or subtract and showing work in two ways in the most efficient way possible).

2 literacy strategies we worked on were determining what's most important versus what's interesting in our non-fiction books and putting important information in our own words.  Both of these strategies are important to reading because they focus on reading carefully and showing our understanding of the text.  We read a Time for Kids about Helen Keller and also learned few important Mexico facts during our lessons this week.  

*Ask your child which non-fiction book they used to create their water color picture this morning.

1 social studies activity we completed was flying to Mexico!  We gathered with the other second grades to take off, watch an in flight movie, and then land in Mexico.  Before we could leave the library we had to go through customs!  They loved it!

Here's some pics of our Art in Reading activities today...