Week ending 9/12/14

Hello families!  We've had a great first week!  We continue to take time to get to know each other, learn classroom routines and expectations, and start working on our academic skills.
Important information you need to know:

• Open House for parents is on Tuesday starting at 6:00 with meeting with the PTO followed by our principal and vice principal, then meet with classroom teachers in K-2 (GRADE 2 will be in the music room near the auditorium to start, then we will come back to our room for a few minutes to do an activity for your child), followed by 3-5.  I have added the important documents typically given out to my website, under the Open House tab.  Also added there is 2nd grade classroom policies and common language informationPlease see them there as they will not go home.  
• Our specials each week are: 
• Monday is library - bring your books back
• Tuesday is PE - remember your sneakers
• Wednesday is PE and music - remember your sneakers
• Friday is art - wear clothes that can become artsy
• If you haven't added yourself to my blog updates, please do on the blog page under "Follow me by email".  Thanks!

What's been happening in room 250?

We've worked a lot this week on coming together as a community.  We've written our hopes and dreams for the school year and they've been placed on the bulletin board so we can see them all year.   The class brainstormed classroom rules and each one of us signed them to be recognize we all agree to try our best to follow them.  I've also introduced our "rest stop" area.  This is a calming station in our room where students may go if I ask them to sit there after repeated redirection or they may choose to go when they're feeling sad, tired, frustrated, or upset.  Ask you child what they can do in rest stop and strategies for getting themselves ready to get back on task.

In literacy, we've started talking about why we choose different books (by genre, author, topic, etc.), the places we love to read, types/genres of books, and expectations of reading workshop.  We've also been building our reading stamina by reading to ourselves and charting the number of minutes we are a all reading.  The most we've read is 35 minutes!  We've talked about how reading is reading the words and "reading" the pictures.  This helps the students feel successful no matter where they are in their reading journey.  Next week, we'll talk more about how to choose a book that's just right for them.  

In math, we've worked on number scrolls, math boxes, coins, dollars, and telling time.  Much of unit 1 is practice to be sure we're all ready to continue on after the summer.  Next week, we'll be working in groups and with partners to practice our money  and addition skills and review temperature.

During writing workshop, we've been writing about our summers and next week we'll start talking about tiny seed stories to start our narrative writing unit.

Hope to see you all at Open House!  Enjoy the weekend!

:)

Week of 9/5/14

Hello families!

Can you believe the first week of school is over already!  It's gone by so fast!

Important information:

* Thank you for your help at dismissal.  I've been giving the kids a high five before they can leave so they have to tell me that you are there.  Doing that helps me learn your faces and assures the children are leaving with an adult.  

* If there are any changes at all to dismissal, please send in a note and have your child place it in the red box, "Notes for Ms. DeKing".  Emails can work as well if you know in advance, but sometimes the day of can be hard if I can't check the email or there is a connection issue.  Thank you for your help with this.  

* Open House is Tuesday, September 16th.  The schedule is: 6-6:30 PTO open house for families in gym, 6:30-6:55 Principal, Assistant Principal, and PTO welcome, 7:05-7:35 meet with K-2 in classrooms (3-5 families meet in library with special area teachers), and 7:40-8:10 3-5 classrooms (K-2 meet in library with special area teachers).  I hope you can join us!

* Thursday, September 25, there is no school.  

What's happening in room 250?

I think we are off to a great start!  We've been learning each other's names, the classroom routines, the schedule, getting morning work and morning meeting underway, and meeting new staff and friends.  It can take a few weeks for the routines to be solid in place and for things to run smoothly and faster.  Right now, as we learn new expectations, where items are in the classroom, how to use different materials, and adjust to a new year...things can take awhile to get done.  Once the routines and expectations are in place, things just fall into place and we all know what to expect and we accomplish ALOT!  

This week, we started talking about coins and the calendar.  We wrote about our week in 2nd grade, listened to many read alouds, worked on  portraits, and wrote our hopes and dreams.  Next week, we'll begin Fundations (phonics review), review clocks in math, and write our classroom rules.  We write our rules based on our hopes and dreams for the school year.  In order to meet our hopes for the year, which rules are most important for us to have?  We work together to create rules that are appropriate and easy to understand.  

During the month of September, we will be reviewing math topics learned in first grade, assessing reading to be sure they are in a guided reading group that is appropriate for their strengths and needs, and assessing their writing skills.  The assessing now, will help me understand where the students are in their learning and guide my instruction.  

Thank you for helping your children feel positive and excited about school!  I can see their excitement and it's wonderful!

If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to  let me know!

Mrs. DeKing

Jitter Glitter

Are you ready for Tuesday?  Don't forget to put the "Jitter Glitter" you received under your pillow!
Can't wait to see you all Tuesday morning in room 250!

Welcome to 2nd Grade in Room 250!

Hello Families!
I'm so excited to start school with you in just a few days!  I hope you had a great summer!  What was your favorite part?  I loved going camping and spending time on the Cape.  Are you excited to start school?  I know I am!  I have to tell you I'm a little nervous too!  You might be too but it'll be a great day!  We'll get to know each other, learn the names of our new friends, take a tour of the school, play some games, and  have snack.  We'll also have a special before we end the day together.  When you come to school…bring your curiosity, imagination, and willingness to learn (don't forget a small snack too :)).
Looking forward to Tuesday!
Mrs. DeKing

Final update for the year!

Hello Families!
I can't believe the school year is so close to being done!  We only have 5 days left after today!
Our last day of school is next Friday, the 20th, with a 12:00 dismissal.
It's been a busy week finishing up our unit on Ghana, practicing our math skills and challenging ourselves with math circle sums, writing poetry about our year and the summer, and having a closing circle each day to leave on a positive note.  We also finished sharing our projects!  They were fabulous and we learned so much!  A huge thank you so much to those that were able  to make it this past Wednesday to our celebration!  The students were so thrilled to share their work with you and share what they're proud of and their strengths. Don't forget…in the bag is the end of the year trick word test and math test.  Please look at these and use them to help your child get even more prepared for next year.
Don't forget to check out "What did we learn this week?" to see our favorite memory of 2nd grade!
As the year comes to a close next week, I want to thank all of you for your support and commitment to your child, me, and the whole class.  I feel very lucky to have had a wonderful group of students this year and I'm amazed at how far they've all come in their own ways!
I wish all of you a wonderful, safe, and happy summer and I look forward to seeing them in the hallways next year!
Thank you again!
Megan DeKing

Weekly Update 6/6/14

It's June!  I'm sure your child is very excited!  I know I am!  Did you get a chance to go to Springfest?  I took my daughter and she had a great time!  It's nice to see our families outside of school time.  I love this time of year…it's great to be finishing up units, work on some other activities that allow us to have some more fun and socially interact more, see their progress since the beginning of the year, and get outside with the better weather!
Here's some important dates to keep in mind…
* If your child hasn't brought in their projects yet, please do so on Monday so we have time to share!
* Wednesday is our parent celebration at 2:00.  We hope you can make it!  If you can't, don't worry, I'll still be sending all their work home that day.
* Tuesday, the 17, is Color Day!  It's a great day for fun, good sportsmanship, and lots of laughs!  I'll be sending home more info next week regarding t-shirt color.
* The last day is Friday, June 20.  Dismissal is at 12:00!

This week, we've been finishing up a lot of activities and started a few new ones!  In reading, we continue to work on poetry and noticing poetry features.  I've also completed the end of year assessments and they all improved so much!  We will keep working on poetry and also focus on some end of the year and summer books.  In writing workshop, we've been writing poetry such as list poems, place poems, haiku, cinquain, and a poem when two voices read.  It's been great to see their creativity come out!  We'll continue writing poems as well as start reflecting on the whole year.  We've also been taking a trick word test based on the trick words we've worked on through Fundations this year.  The test will go home in their bags on Wednesday.  Please look for it and practice any words missed over the summer so they are more prepared for next year.  In math, we've been reviewing all our units we've covered, including clocks, telling time, interpreting graphs, adding and subtracting, and problem solving.  We also took the unit 12 test and the end of the year test.  This will also go home and can give you an idea of somethings to practice this summer so your child doesn't lose anything learned.  In science, we let our butterflies go last week and it was awesome to see them fly away!  We now have a Cabbage White butterfly and hopefully will have one more soon.  We've made charts and diagrams of the butterfly and plant life cycle.  In social studies, we started working on Ghana by focusing on it's location and the parts of the flag.  We also had a great time before library!  We Skyped with our pen pals in New York!  It was a bit fuzzy and all but the kids loved it nonetheless!

I hope everyone has a nice weekend!
Megan

Weekly Update 5/23/14

I can't believe there's only 20 days left of school!  Oh my!  As we think about the last few days of school, there are many things going on…we'll have Color Day, presentations for parents, last day of school, our Museum of Science field trip, and so much more!
Things to remember:
* Going home today is information about special homework project coming up starting next week.  Please be sure to read it carefully and allow your child to guide the process and complete the work on their own as much as they can.  They love showing their work that they've accomplished!  Thank you! Look for the info in your child's folder!
* There is no school on Monday, May 26th.
* Don't forget about the silent auction!  It's all set up by the front door.  I'm offering pancake breakfast with a friend one morning.  Go bid and raise money for the school!
* Monday, June 2, is our field trip to the Museum of Science.  More info will go home next week but just wanted to remind you that students will need a packed bag lunch as there's no fridge and difficult to carry lunch boxes around.  Also, send food that's easy to open and easy to eat as we have a quick lunch so we can get back to the museum exhibits.
* Wednesday, June 11th, at 2:00 is our end of year parent presentations for you!
* Tuesday, June 17th, is Color Day (more info going home soon about that).
* Please send in 2 brown paper bags to carry artwork and classwork home.  Your child has a notice about it.
* Friday, June 20, is our last day of school.  Please keep me updated if your child will not be here as I have things that need to go home. Thanks!
* If you have any tissues, please send them in!  Even though cold season seems to be over, allergy season has begun!

A few thoughts about the end of year…

What's happening in room 235?
In literacy, we continue to focus on poetry.  We've read many poems with rhythm, poems with a beat, onomatopoeia, poems with sound, poems with connections to us, poems with verbs and nouns, and describing words.  We wrote the poem below for you using nouns and adjectives.  We hope you enjoy it!  In writing workshop, we've been working on writing poems, making poetry observations, describing the difference between scientific and poetic observations, and we turned our science observations from Kayla's Garden, into a poem to share with our friends. Ask you child to share some words they chose to use for their observation poem.

In math, we worked on subtracting larger amounts of money and started talking about arrays and chickens and eggs.  We also started unit 12, which is a review of all we've learned this year! Ask you child what chickens and eggs have to do with math!

In science, we've been observing the chrysalis that we have for the Painted Ladies butterflies, the caterpillars we have for the Cabbage White butterflies, and talking about whether a chrysalis is alive or not and what a habitat is.  Next week, hopefully we'll have some butterflies to observe!

I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!  Enjoy the weather and time with your families!  When we return we'll only have 19 days left!  Where did the time go???

Weekly Update 5/16/14

It's been a beautiful week overall!  I love this weather and I hope you do too!
It's been busy in room 235 this week as well.
Important information:
* It is so important that students are very fluent in their addition and subtraction facts as they move on next year.  If they don't do Xtra Math, that's total fine.
* With the nice weather…please be sure your child has sandals that are appropriate for the playground and remember sneakers on PE days.  Please try and leave flip flops at home.  Thanks!
* Monday, 26, there is no school for Memorial Day.
* Tentatively our end of year celebration is set for Wednesday June 11th at 2:00.  We will send you an invitation once the date is official.
* June 17th will be Color Day with a rain date on the 18th.
* The last day for students is June 20th with a dismissal at 12:00.  If your child will not be here the last day of school, please let me know as I have things to go home with them.

What's happening in room 235?
In literacy, we've been working on poetry.  The students love it!  We have worked on noticing elements  of poetry such as rhythm, alliteration, line breaks, recognizing some poems rhyme and some don't, some are long and some are short, and what descriptive words the author uses to pull us in.  We even wrote our own alliteration poem (which is at the bottom of this blog for you to read)…they giggled away and loved working as a whole class to write it!  In writing, we've been writing opinion pieces on our favorite places and favorite day.
* Ask your child what their favorite place is?
* Ask your child what they know about poetry so far in our unit?

In math, we've been working on subtracting and having the students understand the way subtraction and addition  work together.  We've also been working the very basic concepts of multiplication.  We've been focusing on groups of items and how many in each group.  We may have 4 cups, each cup has 2 buttons.  How many altogether?  4 groups with 2 in each group.  Our answers look like this: 2+2+2+2=8 button and 4x2=8 buttons.  Recognizing that understanding how multiplication works, groups and how many in each group, will help them later in 3rd grade.
* Ask you child some addition or subtraction word problems.

In science, we are growing brassica plants, have added butterfly eggs to the plants, have caterpillars eating food and we will be watching their transformation to butterflies as the next few weeks go on, we've been observing and measuring our plants, observed the inside of a lima bean, and we started working on plant structure.
* Ask your child what living things need to live.

Weekly Update 5/9/14

This has been a busy week!   We started a new poetry unit and life cycles.   We also had a fabulous presentation today from the Museum of Science on life cycles.  The students loved it and the presenters had lots of information to share.
A few reminders:
*As the weather gets warmer, you may choose to put sunscreen or bug spray on your child before they leave in the morning.
*If you have any paper towels or a cleaning wipes container that's just laying around, please send it in!  *With the end of the year coming, we use quite a bit cleaning out lockers, student bins and cubbies, etc.
*Monday, May 26, there is no school for Memorial Day.

What's been happening in room 235?
In literacy, we've started doing some sight words and Fundations assessments to see student progress in reading the words.  Students are doing fabulous so far!  We will start the reading assessment, DRA's in the next few weeks.  It's wonderful to see all their progress.  All students have made progress this year!
We've been working on words with /ou/ and /ow/ in Fundations and will move on to the different /u/ sounds next week.   We started working on poetry this week and focused on what poetry sounds like, how to read poetry fluently, and choosing a line of poetry that speaks to them and illustrating that line.
We have been writing back to our pen pals and also have been writing opinion pieces about recess and the playground structure.  We even went outside at the end of the day to do our writing.  It was so nice to get out and just write in Kayla's garden at the tables.  Perfect place to end the day!
In math, we've been working on dollars and cents, place value, and learning how to think about the multiple ways to solve number sentences.  They know the answer often but explaining the answer and solving it a new way, only increases their math flexibility and understanding.
In science, we planted brassica plants and are waiting for them to grow!  We will be receiving butterfly eggs next week which will live on the plants and continue to grow.   We got off to a slow growing start for the plants, but now it looks like they're taking off so hopefully we'll be all set for the eggs.  Students love this time of year because they can see the eggs, the caterpillars, and later butterflies!

Weekly Update 5/2/14

Hi Families!
It's been a busy week!  I hope all of you had a wonderful vacation.  The students were so excited to share what they did, where they went, or who they visited!
Important information:
* We have visitors from the Museum of Science coming next week to talk about life cycles.
* CAP permission slips went home and we will have our workshops the last 2 Tuesdays of this month. If you haven't sent in the slip, please do so on Monday.

In literacy, we've spent this week reviewing character traits, questioning before, during, and after read as well as working on story maps.  It's always important to review information we've learned this year.  Next week, we'll be starting poetry!
In math, we finished up our unit 10 on coins, making change, place value, and adding tens and ones to make a new number.  We also working on problems solving with money.
In writing, we've finished up our book reviews!  Yeah!  They are awesome!  I'm so impressed with all the hard work they've done!  If you have a chance, come visit our lockers and see our work!  Next week, we'll work on writing opinions about recess and lunches, as well as our ABC China book.  We will write it, illustrate it, and also type each page.
In science today, we planted brassica plants in preparation for our butterfly eggs to arrive next week.
In social studies, we've been finishing up China and learning about what a day is like for a child there compared to what a day is like for us.  We also talked about foods and other products from China.  Today, we had a special presentation!  We had visitors today from Ghana who shared their life and told stories.  The students loved it!  I sent you some pictures and a video…they were great!

Have a great weekend!