Important Dates:
Friday, June 15th- Highland Playground Tuesday, June 18th- LAST DAY! Walking field trip to Main St. Ice Cream |
We are so enjoying our final days together in second grade. If you have not already, please check your email for a signup from our homeroom moms regarding the picnic at Highland Park next Friday, June 15th. There are still some needs to be filled. We will be walking to Main St. Ice Cream on the final day of school, please return those permission forms and money.
Reading: The students have taken their final ELA benchmark. We are wrapping up our skills on a nice note! Math: Unit 6 Subtraction & Addition 3-Digit Students are wrapping up their final math unit which reviews finding totals and addends using numbers with higher values. This unit also explores arrays (beginning multiplication) and beginning fractional parts recognition. They will take their final math test on these skills next Thursday. Please practice your student's math facts with them at home. Memorization and understanding of these facts assists immensely in these multi-step problems. The Dollar Store sells flash cards, and there are many sites students can access at home to practice this. Science We have been exploring map features and ways to create quality maps. Students will create models and maps to go with them next week. Writing Students are finishing typing up their research papers. They have learned a great deal and are now putting their writing skills to use!
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We loved all the beautiful weather this week! I had to be out of school on Monday, and our substitute noted what a sweet group of kiddos we have.
On Friday we had another busy day. We paid remembrance in the morning during the annual UPES Memorial Day ceremony. After, the HHS' 2018 graduating class strolled through our halls as we cheered, held up their elementary yearbook pictures, and offered congratulatory high-fives. These second graders can't wait for that to be them one day! Reading: Students have continued reading informational pieces to learn about real life characters and their traits. We are using this information to write. Students will take their final ELA benchmark next week. Math: Unit 6 Subtraction & Addition 3-Digit Students took their Unit 6 math test on Thursday. We will begin Unit 7 next week. This last unite will focus on beginning fractions and multiplication using arrays and shapes. Please practice your student's math facts with them at home. Memorization and understanding of these facts assists immensely in these multi-step problems. The Dollar Store sells flash cards, and there are many sites students can access at home to practice this. Science This week the children worked on creating a barrier with given recycled resources. The barrier was used to protect a house near a river from erosion and collapsing. Writing We have started working on using our research to write informational pieces. They are coming along great! We had such a wonderful time with Miss Klein's class at the Be Healthy Institute for our smoothie making party. The students worked on teams to create a team name, flag, chant, and delicious smoothie from various ingredients! We are grateful for the Giving Garden and Mrs. Miller for providing us with this nourishing learning opportunity.
On Tuesday we saw the Hill Brothers, a presentation sponsored by our PTSA. Reading: Students have continued reading informational pieces to learn about real life characters and their traits. We are using this information to write. Math: Unit 6 Subtraction & Addition 3-Digit We are wrapping up the unit on trip digit addition and subtraction. The test on these skills will be next Thursday. Please practice your student's math facts with them at home. Memorization and understanding of these facts assists immensely in these multi-step problems. The Dollar Store sells flash cards, and there are many sites students can access at home to practice this. Science Students are working on creating barriers that will help protect land and a home that are near a river. We discussed how the barrier will slow down the water and weaken its strength. We compared this to the wind we've learned about that causes erosion, and how winds can become so strong that they spiral and create tornadoes. Writing We have started working on using our research to write informational pieces. What a fun time we had today with the Buffalo Zoomobile. The kids learned about mammals, their defenses, and how some had been domesticated. They also loved touching the chinchilla and hedgehog!
Next week we have a half day on Friday. Students from the 6th grade at HMS will be coming in to volunteer with our kids in the morning. They will play some board games together, so if your child would like to bring one they are more than welcomed. We are continuing to collect BoxTops through May 11th, so please keep cutting, collecting, and sending them in! Our class is hoping to place in the school-wide competition. Reading: Students have continued reading informational pieces to learn about real life characters and their traits. Math: Unit 6 Subtraction & Addition 3-Digit We began our new subtraction unit this week reinforcing subtraction and addition skills with triple digit numbers. Please practice your student's math facts with them at home. Memorization and understanding of these facts assists immensely in these multi-step problems. The Dollar Store sells flash cards, and there are many sites students can access at home to practice this. Science Students completed an erosion activity to see how rocks from mountains far from beaches become the sand on those beaches. Writing Students have created their opinion writing final pieces using Google Docs. It's been a great way to communicate electronically with me, and quickly check their spelling! Another great week!
Next Monday will be our community meeting and wear purple spirit day. We will be sharing our Things That Are Most in Hamburg class book at this meeting. On Friday the Buffalo Zoomobile will be visiting us, bringing mammals for us to learn about adaptations and habitats. we are excited and thankful to the PTSA for sponsoring this experience. We visited the Giving Garden this week and practiced companion planting in square-root planting areas! We are aiming to win the SOLE competition of most GG visits and healthy, "green" choice making to get the prize of a smoothie making party at the Be Healthy Institute. Using recycled newspaper, we created "recycle kids", replications of ourselves, this week. We are continuing to collect BoxTops through May 11th, so please keep cutting, collecting, and sending them in! Our class is hoping to place in the school-wide competition. Reading: Students have read informational pieces and used inferencing skills. Math: Unit 6 Subtraction Students took their math test this week on telling time and interpreting graphs. Next week we will move onto subtraction with numbers that have higher values. We will also be revisiting addition. Please practice your student's math facts with them at home. Memorization and understanding of these facts assists immensely in these multi-step problems. The Dollar Store sells flash cards, and there are many sites students can access at home to practice this. Science Students took a look at a picture of an area of land that has experienced erosion. They decided what the erosion type was and created images of what the land looked like pre-erosion. Writing Students have created their opinion writing final pieces using Google Docs. It's been a great way to communicate electronically with me, and quickly check their spelling! I am just seeing now that the update from last week didn't fully post. Very confusing, sorry about that!
Despite the blustery and snowy weather, we celebrated Spring in big ways this week! We had a chance to visit Mrs. Miller in the Giving Garden and were the first class to plant seeds out there this year! We planted pea seeds. We'll be visiting her again next week. In honor of Earth Day we reused egg cartons from the MakerSpace and turned them into beautiful flowers. For vases we used paper towel and toilet paper tubes. We also created a writing piece on how we can "heal" the world. We are continuing to collect BoxTops through May 11th, so please keep cutting, collecting, and sending them in! Our class is hoping to place in the school-wide competition. I hope you enjoyed our classbook using comparative adjectives. The students did an amazing job using Google Slides. Each student had their own slide, typed their writing, edited it how they wished, and imported their drawing that I had taken a picture of. We love how it turned out and can't wait to share it at the school-wide community meeting at the end of the month. Reading: We've focused on identifying main idea and details this week and continue to work on our reading fluency. Math: Unit 4 Subtraction We've had great fun practicing reading and creating picture and bar graphs. The students have taken surveys with their classmates then graphed the information. We've focused on using the graph information to solve word problems. We'll be taking our test on this topic as well as telling time next Wednesday. Please practice your student's math facts with them at home. Memorization and understanding of these facts assists immensely in these multi-step problems. The Dollar Store sells flash cards, and there are many sites students can access at home to practice this. Science We've continued working through our weathering and erosion unit, identifying whether certain forces cause change quickly or slowly. This has been quite fun! Writing We have continued working through our opinion writing unit. The students are working on final pieces with opening paragraphs and separate paragraphs for each reason and explanation that supports their opinion. They will be typing these pieces in the coming weeks. This week was eventful and fun!
On Wednesday we took a trip to visit Mrs. Miller from the Giving Garden and learn about seeds and the vegetables they produce. We were able to feel seeds before and after they were put into water. We also tasted beets, radishes, kale, snap peas, and broccoli. On Friday, we did another breakout box! This one was centered around math and St. Patrick's Day. Mrs. Snyder and Mrs. Calvert came in to assist in the groups. Students showed resiliency and worked hard to share roles. Check Seesaw for some awesome pictures and videos! Our field trip is next Thursday. We will be leaving in the morning for the show and returning before dismissal. Please send your children to school in theater appropriate clothing. We suggest their "Sunday best" and no jeans, please. Reading: This week we talked about the words author's use in books to help us create pictures in our minds. We also discussed sequencing, author's place events in an order with purpose. Math: Unit 4 Subtraction This continue to practice tricky word problems this week. We used comparison bars for problems that compared two places or people. We then moved into 2-Step word problems. This is a tricky concept that we will continue to practice. Our test will be next Friday. Please practice your student's math facts with them at home. Memorization and understanding of these facts assists immensely in these multi-step problems. The Dollar Store sells flash cards, and there are many sites students can access at home to practice this. Social Studies Our weathering and erosion unit has been quite fun! We've created volcanoes and landslides to determine where the best place is to build a home when these natural disasters could happen. We also discussed whether these events happened quickly or slowly, and how speed effects the damage done. Writing We continue with our opinion writing unit. Students have practiced writing persuasive letters to others. We discussed giving strong reasons, and being able to see people's other opinions so we can effectively persuade them. It has been our luck lately that the Friday after each of our breaks has been a snow day. Hopefully this won't be true again after our upcoming Spring break, as we'll all be screaming for sunshine! This week students worked hard adjusting back into our school routines as the expectations continue to rise and the curriculum becomes more challenging. It's hard to believe that in 3 short months they'll be third graders!
Reading: We continue to work on reading strategies of character development and making connections. Students are always encouraged to look back in their text for details that can prove their answer. We also have been discussing that not all answers are in the text and we have to inference based on the details we are provided with. Math: Unit 4 Subtraction Students have grasped the skill of subtracting with two and three digit numbers very well. I love seeing them use math vocabulary (addend, sum, difference) and applying their place value knowledge. Now that the skill has been been practiced and taught for a while, we have moved on to word problems. Students are encouraged to use CUBS and work slowly to decide which operation to use. We also have been checking our work to ensure that the answer we got is correct. 1 - write and draw the total, the number you are beginning with 2 - look at the ones place, is there more on the floor or more up top? More on the floor - go next door and borrow ten more. More on the top - stop right now, do your subtraction (bringing in the Spice Girl's Stop Right Now tun to reminisce on the 90s). Update your drawing and problem. 3- Repeat step 2 if necessary for the tens place. 4- Solve. We have practiced this skill on workbook pages and whiteboards with problems about the students, they always enjoy when I work their names into word problems. Please practice your student's math facts with them at home. Memorization and understanding of these facts assists immensely in these multi-step problems. The Dollar Store sells flash cards, and there are many sites students can access at home to practice this. Social Studies In science we have begun a unit on weathering and erosion. We've discussed vocabulary terms such as volcano, landslide, erosion, earthquake, quickly, and slowly. We'll study different types of weathering and erosion and determine whether they happen quickly or slowly. Writing We have read and discussed multiple mentor texts that are examples of opinion writing. We've looked at different non-text examples of using persuasion, made our own advertising posters, and are not practicing writing letters that persuade. We'll be moving into writing about our opinions in an essay format in the future. We continue to ensure that answers to questions are written in complete sentences. Whew! What a crazy week we had! Students participated in a morning of Olympic centers, challenged themselves by solving clues to unlock our break-out-box with Mr. Wirth, and more! The break-out-boxes were quite a hit and I loved watching the children persevere and work together to solve each clue, both valuable life skills. I can't wait to do some more of these with them. Our centers were also very fun. The students tested their taste buds with Mrs. Smith in making berry green smoothies, practiced their math skills in a makeshift curling game with me, and used the STEM skills along with teamwork with Mrs. Lauer and Mrs. Peffer as they created a bobsled that would travel the farthest distance. This week we also had our Valentine's Day party! Mrs. McDonnell brought us fun games, treats, and a love-bug craft. On Friday Dr. Mills, Henry's mom, paid us a visit to discuss the important practice of good dental hygiene.
It is a privilege to teach your children each day. Their vivacious spirits bring me much joy, and I'm grateful to guide them every day. Enjoy your breaks! Remember to check Seesaw for updates and classroom pictures! Reading: This week we completed a few reading passages on the 2018 Winter Olympics and famous Olympians. Students practiced the strategy of going back to the passage and underlining where they find their answer, so it can be proven, vs. just writing down whatever they think the answer is. Math: Unit 4 Subtraction For many students, this is a more difficult unit. We are practicing subtracting using ungrouping and regrouping. The students were taught the following steps to solve: 1 - write and draw the total, the number you are beginning with 2 - look at the ones place, is there more on the floor or more up top? More on the floor - go next door and borrow ten more. More on the top - stop right now, do your subtraction (bringing in the Spice Girl's Stop Right Now tun to reminisce on the 90s). Update your drawing and problem. 3- Repeat step 2 if necessary for the tens place. 4- Solve. We have practiced this skill on workbook pages and whiteboards with problems about the students, they always enjoy when I work their names into word problems. Please practice your student's math facts with them at home. Memorization and understanding of these facts assists immensely in these multi-step problems. The Dollar Store sells flash cards, and there are many sites students can access at home to practice this. Social Studies Olympic centers, reading, and work pages! Writing In writing students are learning to expand their writing into multi paragraphs. I have taught them to keep the writing they've already done as their first paragraph, then taking each detail paragraph and expanding on it in its own paragraph. We used our journal entries to study how we can do this, and will be practicing it more in the following weeks. We continue to ensure that answers to questions are written in complete sentences. |