Sorry for the lack of a post last week. Being gone for three days was exhausting, and it completely slipped my mind! I had the privilege of attending the Ohio Educational Technology conference in Columbus last Monday through Wednesday with three other second grade teachers, and we came back with a lot of ideas! It was definitely worth missing our first and only snow day! Many of the ideas won't be able to be implemented right away because they are beyond the current budget of our district, but it was exciting to see what is going on in other districts around the state and to see what we may be able to do in the future. As I finish sorting out all of the information I have swarming around in my brain right now, I will be sending home a note (probably early next week) with more details about what I am able to implement (free of charge!) right now and how we will be able to use technology to further our education in second grade this year. I will say this, though...the kids are going to LOVE it!
One thing that I realized I want to do through my weekly posts are to give you a little more insight as to what is happening in the classroom. Rather than giving a general summary of the week and the topics we are studying, I'm going to try to break it down for you, day by day, so you can have a clearer picture of what we do each day in second grade. I'm anxious for feedback, so if you are reading, jot me a note in your child's assignment book (or, better yet, leave a comment right here on the blog) letting me know that you're reading and what you think of the new format. I will have a treat for your child on Monday (and Monday only) if you do! Here goes...
On Monday, we had no school! Wahoo!
On Tuesday, we introduced our new spelling words. Our words this week had the eer and ear spelling patterns. We really put emphasis on the pattern this week, as I'm seeing that many students are not able to transfer that pattern onto their weekly tests. I think it will really help with studying at home if you can point out the pattern to your child while helping study the words. We added the "tion" hunk and chunk to our Phonics Dance board. We also introduced vocabulary words for the week. This week's words were supplies, crop, provide, earn, committee, and experiments. We always begin with a stoplight activity on the first day so I can get a feel for what the students already know about the words and how much time we will need to spend on learning them that week. You can see this on the first page of their vocabulary packets that come home at the end of the week. We used our Storytown book to practice using a Table of Contents (though my afternoon class didn't get to this until Thursday), and we worked on our president reports that we began last week with Mrs. Harpel.
On Wednesday, I was out with strep. The students practiced spelling words on their dry erase boards, read our story for the week - The Life of George Washington Carver, and discussed nonfiction text features (such as headings, pictures, captions, etc.) using the story. They completed a graphic organizer highlighting the three major headings in the story and a detail from each. The students answered R.A.P. questions using vocabulary words, which you can see on the third page of the vocabulary packet. Again, we worked on president reports.
On Thursday, we had our spelling test. We practiced by playing Sparkle first. We reviewed the pattern for the week again. We added the "sion" hunk and chunk to our Phonics Dance board. We finished up the vocabulary packet and made a vocabulary cube that we used on Friday to review before our test. The morning class finished up the graphic organizers from Wednesday, and the afternoon class worked on president reports and practiced using the Table of Contents in the Storytown book.
On Friday, we played catch-up. Many students had president reports to continue working on or finish up, and many others had Star of the Week letters from the past few weeks to finish. We did use the vocabulary cubes from Thursday to review for the vocabulary test. We did not take the comprehension test on Friday because I didn't feel like the students had enough exposure to the story at that point, since the week was short and I was out one day. We will take that test early next week. We continued to discuss using the Table of Contents.
On the agenda for next week is a review week for spelling. We have some more catching up to do, but we have planned to take two weeks for the next story, so I will not be starting the vocabulary packets until later next week or the following Monday. There will not be a vocabulary test or comprehension test next Friday. We will continue discussing nonfiction text features, and we will work on using both the glossary and index in our Storytown books as well. It's been a while since we talked about adjectives, so we will go back to those too. I'm hoping to finish up the president reports and send those home late next week. The kids have worked so hard on them!
Spelling words for next week will be:
know, noise, tough, phone, breath, health, ready, bread, soil, voice, last, school, father, keep, tree, never, start, city, earth, eyes
Challenge words will be:
wrote, enough, photograph, instead, breakfast, sweater, choice, enjoy, cheerful, disappear, last, school, father, keep, tree, never, start, city, earth, eyes
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - art
Tuesday - music
Wednesday - gym
Thursday - library
Friday - music
* Readings logs are due on Wednesday, February 29th with a minimum of 300 minutes required. These are a grade, and five points are deducted for logs that are turned in late. This is the easiest A your child can get in my class, and the only homework grade. Don't forget to turn it in!
I'm impressed if you actually made it through this entire post - it was a long one! Enjoy the weekend!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Happy Hearts, Presidents, and More
I'm finding out that this year, there really is no consistent normal. While this week would be considered fairly routine, next week is going to be another crazy one. But more on that in a bit...
This week we read Annie's Gifts, a realistic fiction story about a little girl who comes from a very musically talented family but finds out she has absolutely no musical talent. Instead, Annie's gifts are her ability to draw and write poetry. Some students are still having difficulty determining the difference between fiction (a made-up story) and nonfiction (a true story that gives facts). Ask your second grader to tell you what each means, and ask the difference between realistic fiction (a made-up story that could really happen in which the characters act like real people) and fantasy (a made-up story in which the characters do things that could never happen in real life). We continued with setting (the where and when of a story). Our robust vocabulary words this week were stomped, sipped, entertain, except, carefree, and screeching. We also continued with adjectives, and we spent a lot of time describing a lot of objects. We even made a list of close to 100 adjectives that we are keeping in our language arts folder at school to help us remember to be more descriptive writers!
Next week will be somewhat different. I will be out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for a technology conference in Columbus. The sub will be Mrs. Harpel. The students know her because she was Mrs. Pennington's sub before Christmas when she had her knee surgery. She also did my maternity leave last year when I had Brayden, so I completely trust her and know she will do a great job! Activities next week will be a mixture of Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day (including the president reports that your child needed the can for), and adjective activities. We will not be reading a specific story, but we will begin working on locating information in nonfiction texts. We will still have a spelling test, and words will follow the oi and oy spelling patterns. Words are:
join, boil, joy, soil, noise, voice, boy, point, toy, coin, destroy, avoid, annoy, loyal, enjoy, high, every, near, add, food
Challenge list:
destroy, avoid, annoy, loyal, enjoy, joyful, choice, foyer, joint, oyster, trapezoid, voyage, poison, tomboy, cowboy, high, every, near, add, food
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - computer
Wednesday - art
Thursday - music
Friday - gym
Also, please note that next Thursday, February 17th is a one-hour delay for a teacher inservice. Friday we will have an assembly at 2:30 to kick off our next candy sale fundraiser. Look for information to come home next Friday about that.
Just a reminder that if you haven't sent in a clean can for your child to complete his/her president report next week, we need those by Monday! Thank you to a few parents who sent in extras!
A big thank you goes out to everyone who sent in treats for our Happy Hearts party this week, and especially to Mrs. Hosey, who was brave enough to volunteer to help!
Should you have any questions or concerns about anything next week, please direct them to Mrs. Myerholtz. She can either get in touch with me or answer to the best of her ability. Otherwise I will be back on Thursday and can return any emails or phone calls at that point.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
This week we read Annie's Gifts, a realistic fiction story about a little girl who comes from a very musically talented family but finds out she has absolutely no musical talent. Instead, Annie's gifts are her ability to draw and write poetry. Some students are still having difficulty determining the difference between fiction (a made-up story) and nonfiction (a true story that gives facts). Ask your second grader to tell you what each means, and ask the difference between realistic fiction (a made-up story that could really happen in which the characters act like real people) and fantasy (a made-up story in which the characters do things that could never happen in real life). We continued with setting (the where and when of a story). Our robust vocabulary words this week were stomped, sipped, entertain, except, carefree, and screeching. We also continued with adjectives, and we spent a lot of time describing a lot of objects. We even made a list of close to 100 adjectives that we are keeping in our language arts folder at school to help us remember to be more descriptive writers!
Next week will be somewhat different. I will be out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for a technology conference in Columbus. The sub will be Mrs. Harpel. The students know her because she was Mrs. Pennington's sub before Christmas when she had her knee surgery. She also did my maternity leave last year when I had Brayden, so I completely trust her and know she will do a great job! Activities next week will be a mixture of Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day (including the president reports that your child needed the can for), and adjective activities. We will not be reading a specific story, but we will begin working on locating information in nonfiction texts. We will still have a spelling test, and words will follow the oi and oy spelling patterns. Words are:
join, boil, joy, soil, noise, voice, boy, point, toy, coin, destroy, avoid, annoy, loyal, enjoy, high, every, near, add, food
Challenge list:
destroy, avoid, annoy, loyal, enjoy, joyful, choice, foyer, joint, oyster, trapezoid, voyage, poison, tomboy, cowboy, high, every, near, add, food
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - computer
Wednesday - art
Thursday - music
Friday - gym
Also, please note that next Thursday, February 17th is a one-hour delay for a teacher inservice. Friday we will have an assembly at 2:30 to kick off our next candy sale fundraiser. Look for information to come home next Friday about that.
Just a reminder that if you haven't sent in a clean can for your child to complete his/her president report next week, we need those by Monday! Thank you to a few parents who sent in extras!
A big thank you goes out to everyone who sent in treats for our Happy Hearts party this week, and especially to Mrs. Hosey, who was brave enough to volunteer to help!
Should you have any questions or concerns about anything next week, please direct them to Mrs. Myerholtz. She can either get in touch with me or answer to the best of her ability. Otherwise I will be back on Thursday and can return any emails or phone calls at that point.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Back to Normal
It was really nice to get back into a "normal" routine this week. The kids worked really hard, but as a whole we are really having to work on following directions in a timely manner and decreasing talking.
This week we introduced the concept of setting using the story Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book. We also began working on a long unit of adjectives. Our robust vocabulary words were cozy, enchanting, thrilled, review, instead, and celebrate. We added three new hunks and chunks to our Phonics Dance board - kn, wr, and ph.
Next week we will continue with setting. We will read Annie's Gifts, a realistic fiction story about a girl who has a special talent. Robust vocabulary words will be stomped, sipped, entertain, except, carefree, and screeching. We will continue with adjectives, specifically adjectives that pertain to the senses. Spelling words will have the short e sound spelled ea. Words are:
heavy, steady, bread, sweat, head, thread, breath, ready, meant, health, meadow, instead, breakfast, treasure, feather, still, learn, should, America, world
Challenge list:
meadow, instead, breakfast, treasure, feather, ahead, healthy, heaven, weather, thread, ready, weapon, sweater, headline, steady, still, learn, should, America, world
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - computer
Tuesday - art
Wednesday - music
Thursday - gym
Friday - library
Next Friday is our Happy Hearts Valentine's Day party. Specific information about this party is coming home in your child's traveling folder this weekend, so be sure to check for it.
The week after next we will be doing president reports using an idea from Miss Murphy. Each student will need a clean metal can with the label removed. Anything the size of a soup can or larger will work. We will need a total of 39 cans, and if you are willing to send in extras it would be greatly appreciated. We will need them by Monday, February 13th.
Enjoy the weekend, and don't forget to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday!
This week we introduced the concept of setting using the story Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book. We also began working on a long unit of adjectives. Our robust vocabulary words were cozy, enchanting, thrilled, review, instead, and celebrate. We added three new hunks and chunks to our Phonics Dance board - kn, wr, and ph.
Next week we will continue with setting. We will read Annie's Gifts, a realistic fiction story about a girl who has a special talent. Robust vocabulary words will be stomped, sipped, entertain, except, carefree, and screeching. We will continue with adjectives, specifically adjectives that pertain to the senses. Spelling words will have the short e sound spelled ea. Words are:
heavy, steady, bread, sweat, head, thread, breath, ready, meant, health, meadow, instead, breakfast, treasure, feather, still, learn, should, America, world
Challenge list:
meadow, instead, breakfast, treasure, feather, ahead, healthy, heaven, weather, thread, ready, weapon, sweater, headline, steady, still, learn, should, America, world
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - computer
Tuesday - art
Wednesday - music
Thursday - gym
Friday - library
Next Friday is our Happy Hearts Valentine's Day party. Specific information about this party is coming home in your child's traveling folder this weekend, so be sure to check for it.
The week after next we will be doing president reports using an idea from Miss Murphy. Each student will need a clean metal can with the label removed. Anything the size of a soup can or larger will work. We will need a total of 39 cans, and if you are willing to send in extras it would be greatly appreciated. We will need them by Monday, February 13th.
Enjoy the weekend, and don't forget to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday!
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