What a Start!

We are taking off like a rocket ship in our classroom. It has been amazing to see what my students know. We have been talking a lot in our room about Justice and its synonym Fairness. Through many conversations about about how we demonstrate justice in our classroom we have agreed that we will all follow the four school rules: Respect, Responsibility, Kindness, and Learning. As long as we follow these four rules we will have a community of learners that feel safe to try new things.
Many of our conversations about books have been revolving around how to read like writers. It might sound like a funny idea at first, but suddenly we are noticing not only what the book is about, but how it was written. Some of our noticings have included: repeated lines, words within pictures, pop-ups, lift the flap, books without words, and genres of texts. It is quite amazing that even though we are only beginning second grade, we are already thinking about books in a way that allows us to learn from them. If you get a chance to stop by the hallway outside our door you will notice traces of these writing styles in our own writing. I'm sure it would enthrall you to hear about why one student used a repeating line or how another wrote only in questions. Not only are they noticing these things in published books and trying them in their own writing, but they can tell you WHY they tried it.
Math has been a great adventure as well. In second grade we will be focusing on tens. We have started learning that you can group tens in many different ways through the use of manipulatives. It is important that students begin to not only understand, but apply the idea of base ten. We will soon be sending home two card games: Tens Go Fish, and Turn Over Ten. Please make a special time where you can play these games each day with your child. The cards (that will be run off on card stock) will be used over and over again throughout the year, so make sure you find a safe place for them!
In other exciting news: On Thursday August 30th Channel 4 News will be visiting our classroom. Through a program that they do called "Pay it 4ward" (http://cbs4denver.com/payit4ward) they will be observing and interviewing some of the kids and myself about how we are using technology in the classroom. They will then be giving us a check to go towards a new SMART Board (www.smarttech.com) for our school. If, for any reason, you do not want your child to be a part of this please let me know and I will make arrangements for your child to visit another classroom during that time. I don't currently know when it will air on TV, but keep your eyes open for it and if I find out before hand I'll let you know.