Weekly News for Feb. 15th

What a busy February it has been in our classroom! This week, we have more special events, and we are starting new units in math and writing. A reminder that next week is vacation and students will return on Tuesday, March 1st. 

In math, we are wrapping up our unit on measurement and will be starting a unit focused on place value to 1,000. Using a variety of manipulatives, students will create and count bundles (or groups) in 10s and 100s. They will practice adding and subtracting in multiples of 10 and 100, both on and off the decade. Money will be a focus, giving students opportunities to count by 5 and 10 and to consider 25 cents or a quarter as a unit. 

In writing, we are starting our unit on opinion writing. This week, as an introduction to opinion writing, students will write about something important to them. We will then move into writing opinions about the books we read, including Red Clover nominees.

In honor of February being I love to read month, all of the second grade classes will be having a read-a-thon this Thursday. On this day, your child can wear pajamas, bring a small stuffed animal and a small flashlight, head lamp or small lantern.  We’ll make tents in our classroom with sheets to make some comfy reading spots. This should be a great day focused on a love of reading books.

On Friday afternoon, we will participate in the ski/snowshoe/walk-a-thon sponsored by the sixth graders to benefit the Bissonette Field Project. If your child has collected donations, please send those in by Wednesday. The sixth grade team has lots of fun activities planned for snow--or grass--depending on what mother nature has in store. As part of this event, an adult from our school will  be kissing a farm animal that students have voted for. All February long, students have received special stars when exhibiting positive behaviors (showing belonging, caring, trust, accepting responsibility and respect) that they use to vote for a favorite farm animal in the cafeteria . Pig is by far the favorite among our class--and it seems the school as a whole.   

Miss Becca, a junior at UVM, has joined our classroom on Tuesday mornings and all day on Thursday. We are lucky to have her with us. She will be doing a lesson on the recorders with kids on Thursday, so please make sure recorders are returned by Wednesday. As always, let us know if you have any questions. 

Reader's Theater

Engineering a coat

Go Noodle body break

Monday News for Feb. 8th

What a busy week we had!  The children had a great time on Global Play Day having time to play their games, work on puzzles, draw, etc.  The children needed no intervention by adults and thoroughly enjoyed playing among themselves!  It was a nice opportunity for Mrs. Driver and myself to watch and observe the children to see how they problem solved, shared and directed their own activities.  The children were wonderful!  On Friday, the 100th Day the children displayed their projects and shared with one another and then paraded through the wing to view other projects. It is always amazing to view the creativity involved with some of these projects!  Please check out our photos!  

We are wrapping up our unit on Animals in Winter.  The children are putting the finishing touches on their poems about the animals they researched. Their poems will be displayed along with their paintings of their animals from Art class.  We hope to have these displayed in the very near future, so if stopping by, please be on the look-out for them!  As part of an engineering task for this unit, the children were challenged to design a coat for an animal to protect it from the cold.  The children used thermometers as their animals and had to dress them in different materials to simulate a coat.  The children then tested their coats to see which insulated their animals the best by taking them outside timing them for 5 minutes and then checking the temperature on their thermometers.  The children will be looking at the properties of the different materials and re-designing another coat with the goal of improving on their original design.  During the month of February and March, we will be reading all the Red Clover Books.  The Red Clover Award is a Vermont children's book award that is awarded to an author by the children of Vermont.  After reading all 10 books, each child votes for their favorite and the author who is selected is awarded the Red Clover Award.  We are beginning a writing unit on Opinion Writing that  will integrate these books into our writing unit.  If you are looking for ways to support your child with math at home, telling time is an area you can focus on.  This month the children will work on reading analog clocks and telling time.  Math facts to twenty in both addition and subtraction are another way to support your child at home.  Thank you for all you do to support us at home!  Have a great week ahead!

 Creating a chain of 1,000 paperclips to celebrate the 100th day of school times 10

Weekly News for Feb. 1st

It is hard to believe that February is upon us! We have many exciting things going on in our classroom and school this month. For starters, it is food drive month at HCS. Students are excited about collecting food for the food shelf and for the possibility of earning an extra recess for the class that donates the most food. A reminder as well that on February 19th we will take part in the Ski/Snowshoe/Walk-A-Thon in support of the Bissonette Field Project.

                        Students hearing about the February food drive from a middle school student

This Wednesday, kindergarten, first and second grades will use a portion of the day for unstructured play time, taking part in Global School Play Day. We will begin by explaining the expectations for both students and teachers so that it’s a safe, fair and fun time for all. We will put out activities to begin and will occasionally come back together as a class to discuss how things are going, review the expectations and then resume. It is optional for your child to bring in a board or card game for this day, and anything that is sent in should be labeled. To help us plan, please let us know in advance if your child would like to bring in a game and what it is.

For more information visit: http://www.globalschoolplayday.com/

Last Thursday, we began learning some of the songs for recorder, voice and dance to prepare us for our field trip to the Flynn in March in which the audience is part of the show. This is part of the Carnegie Hall Link Up program. Make sure recorders are returned to school each week! We'll be working on the songs in the classroom as well as in music class.

This Friday, barring any freak snowstorms, will be the 100th Day of School! This is a day kids really look forward to. In second grade, we look at what happens when we count by 10s for each of the 100 days (getting up to 1,000). We are looking forward to seeing all the creative 100th Day projects on Friday that will be displayed throughout the primary grade classrooms. If you need any help or have any questions about this project, please let us know.

Last week, we began our measurement unit by using a teacher's foot and a giant's foot to measure things. We then started to measure with inches and feet--standard units of measure. This week, we'll continue to focus on inches and feet and will also learn about yards. During our Number Corner time in February, we'll be working on mastering addition facts up to 20, looking at models of two digit addition, exploring flags and story problems from around the world, and doing activities focused on learning how to tell time.

Students measuring with teacher feet

Students measuring with giant feet

Weekly News for January 25th

Our on-site field trip with Shelburne Farms was a hit with all the second graders!  You should have seen your children imitating the way many animals move. There were waddlers, hoppers, bounders and straight walkers.  The children hunted for tracks and tried to identify animals by track patterns.  Children spent some time indoors sorting animals by what they do in winter.  All in all it was a great learning adventure for your children!  Thank you for supporting this wonderful opportunity!


This week the children will continue to work on writing poetry.  Each child has chosen an animal native to Vermont to focus on how their animal is able to survive the cold winter months.  They will be using this information to help them create a poem about their animal and then in Art they will be painting their animal.  We will be finishing up our unit this week or early next week.

In math we will begin a new unit this week on measurement.  A letter will be coming home in homework folders that will explain the goals of this unit.  The children will be exploring both non-standard and standard measurements and will use measurement tools.  On another note, on the evenings that your child does not have math homework, it will be beneficial for your child to use this time to practice their addition and subtraction facts for ten minutes.  This will help to insure they meet the standard for achieving 20 addition and subtraction facts in 1 minute by the end of second grade.  We thank you for your support in this!

We are getting ready to celebrate the 100th Day of school on February 5th!  This could change if by some reason we wind up with a snow day.  We will be sending home a letter in your child's homework folder with more information regarding our 100th Day Celebration!

Reminders:
Please be sure your child brings their sneakers on PE days.  Also please make sure that your child has shoes to change into each day so they do not have to wear their boots all day long.  Thank you!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.  Have a great week ahead!

Weekly News, January 19th

Students were so excited to earn pajama day last Friday! We followed a regular schedule in the classroom, but doing things such as reading and writing in our pajamas with our stuffed animals made it extra special. Students were given the chance to introduce their stuffed animals during our morning meeting. We look forward to more fun rewards for positive behavior in and out of the classroom. Recently, we have been reviewing our classroom rules such as respecting peers and adults, taking care of classroom materials, and doing our best work.

During our "Number Corner" time, we have begun exploring fractions. We have been randomly choosing tiles from a bucket with 15 red tiles and 15 blue tiles. Each day, we choose the number of tiles that matches that day (for example, 9 tiles on the 9th day of the month). We then come up with a fraction that matches the number of red tiles. For example, if 5 tiles were red, and 4 were blue we talk about how the fraction that shows the number of red tiles is five-ninths (5/9) and what the 5 and the 9 mean in the fraction (5 is part that is red, 9 is the total number of tiles or the whole). We then talk about whether the fraction we have created is more, less or exactly half and graph the results each day. 

This week for word study, we will be doing assessments and reviewing common "trick" words. There will not be regular word study homework or spelling tests this week. We will be sending the review words home to be practiced informally. Spelling tests from last week will be coming home on Wednesday.

In our reading groups, we have been reading about animals in winter and cold weather adaptations in addition to reading poetry. During our writing time, we've been exploring the art of poetry through reading and writing poems about winter. This week, we will continue to explore the craft of poetry--thinking about objects in new and interesting ways (metaphor) and how to use line breaks to add meaning to our poetry. We'll be choosing an animal native to Vermont that we will research and then explore through poetry and the visual arts. 

We are excited that on Friday we will have educators from Shelburne Farms coming for the morning. Please make sure your child has appropriate clothing to be outside for a few hours this day. Also, if you are interested in joining us for this great learning opportunity, let us know. It will be from 8:45-10:45. 

On Friday afternoon, we will have Darcie Thorburn visiting our classroom to discuss the importance of oral health.  Have a great week. As always, let us know if you have any thoughts or questions.

Writing in our pajamas with our stuffed animal friends

Reading with friends

Monday News for Jan. 11th

The children enjoyed watching a cardinal outside our classroom window!

Happy New Year!  It is exciting to start a new year with all your wonderful children!  We are beginning a new unit on Animals in Winter. This unit will integrate reading, writing and science.  We will be collaborating with our Art teacher and Librarian as well.  During this unit the children will be reading all about animals and how they survive the cold winter months.  The children are creating a bulletin board in our classroom where they are displaying new learning with their drawings and labels and captions of any new learning that provides evidence as to whether or not an animal migrates, hibernates, remains active, or is dormant (otherwise referred to as a napper and snacker).   In addition to learning through reading, the children will be conducting science experiments that relate to animal survival during winter months.  In writing the class will create poems about different animals and include their new understandings of how their animal makes certain adaptations in order to survive the cold winter months.  On top of all this we are also having a Shelburne Farms educator visit our class on Jan. 22nd for a morning to lead indoor and outdoor activities related to our unit.  We will be looking for parent volunteers to help us out on this morning.  Please let us know if you would be interested.  January is going to be an exciting month!  We appreciate your help in supporting this visit with your donation of $3.50.  Please try to send payment in by next week.  Thank you in advance!

Report Cards and Assessment - We will begin assessing students this week and next in reading and in math.  This information will help us in reporting out to you how your child is performing in school.  Report cards will be sent home on Jan. 29th.

Reminder:  Since winter has finally arrived and the children are fully decked out in snowsuits, boots, hats and mittens, it is helpful to have names on all clothing items.  The children need to travel the hallways with their snow clothes going to lunch, coming indoors to their classroom and on their way to and from the bus.  Lots of opportunities present themselves for students to drop pieces of clothing along the way.  Almost everyday we have a child searching for different items.  If names are on these items they find their way to their rightful owner most of the time.  Thanks for your help with this!

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.  Have a wonderful week ahead!

Monday News for Dec. 21st

We all had a great time at Colonial Craft Day last Thursday. This was our culminating event for our Long Ago unit and a celebration of the season. Thanks again too all of you who sent in supplies and volunteered at the event. We hope you enjoy "the goods" your child brought home and the pictures below.

This week, we'll be working on story problems in math that use presents (units of 1) and parcels (groups of 10), and we'll continue this work after vacation. We'll be finishing up our writing prompts about our choice to live today or long ago and will be finishing up with holiday/long ago books in our reading groups.

On Tuesday, we'll participate in the Holiday Sing-Along and have a small Holiday celebration (popcorn and a movie) in the afternoon. We hope you have a wonderful break. Perhaps we'll actually have a stretch of winter weather when we return! We look forward to lots of new learning with your children in 2016.