There are so many interesting things that I stumbled upon yesterday that I am excited to use in our classroom. Some of that is a new way to video record what we are doing on the SMART board with the classroom audio. That way I can post the main points of a lesson and if a child is absent they can watch it at home. We can also use it as a review.
A classroom update:
Our focus for October in reading is Questioning Strategies. We have learned that asking questions deepens a readers comprehension. As students start to pay attention to what they are thinking while they are reading they are internalizing comprehension strategies that they can apply to other situations. Tomorrow I am excited to share a questioning web where students pick a question that they want to dig deeper into and then 'web' some answers and where they got those answers.
We are also focusing on fluency (reading like you speak). It is important that students are able to orally read grade level materials, attending to phrasing, intonation, and punctuation. To help students grasp this concept we will be learning a variety of October poems and paying specific attention to those aspects of fluency. I wouldn't be surprised if you started hearing the poems at home. The kids really do love them =-)
Writing has been a blast lately. Our author studies have turned out some amazing work. We will be beginning an intensive study about conventions. This includes things like: Use complete sentences, use capitalization at the beginning of sentences and for proper nouns, use correct punctuation, use correct spelling of high frequency words, regular plurals, and phonetic spelling for difficult words. We will also be talking extensively about proofreading your own writing and noticing and correcting errors. As a second grade team (and part of our staff focus on writing) we noticed that our students were particularly low in the conventions area across all grade levels. Because of this we are jumping right into what our kids need most (right now) to be proficient writers: conventions.
In math we have learned to play Close to Twenty, which I keep meaning to get a video of kids explaining how to play. We are also talking about counting strategies. Today I asked, "How many student legs are in the room?" We talked about using the strategy: Count by 2's because everyone had two legs. As it turned out there were 38 student legs in our classroom today. We will also be talking about multiples of 5 and counting by different groups in an effort to prepare kids for counting coins and coupons. If you have some time have your child count the change that you have in a purse or a drawer. Pay attention to if they know what the coins are and how to count them.
Next week we start learning about mapping. It has been so much fun getting responses about our Flat Stanleys and we will be using that to help us learn more about maps and why they are useful. Students will get the opportunity to locate the places that their Flat Stanleys have been.
Typing club will continue for another week and a half though there will be no typing club on Halloween Day. I am still working on a schedule for November and December groups to learn more about PowerPoint, MS Word, and Blogging. During the December/January break students will be expected to share their special moments on our blog. That's right, they will be doing the blogging! Parents will also be invited to join us for these classes so you can support what we are doing at home. Look for a schedule to come out soon.
Halloween is once again on its way and the second graders will spend next Friday, October 26th as Pumpkin Day. We will be doing all sorts of reading, writing, math, and science activities with pumpkins that day. I am looking for 4 medium sized pumpkins to be donated to pumpkin day as well as extra parent volunteers that can help us for as much of the day as possible. Look for a note to be coming home about that.
I know I've been long winded and I hope you have made it to the end here. If you have then: Way To Go!
Thank you for your support.
A classroom update:
Our focus for October in reading is Questioning Strategies. We have learned that asking questions deepens a readers comprehension. As students start to pay attention to what they are thinking while they are reading they are internalizing comprehension strategies that they can apply to other situations. Tomorrow I am excited to share a questioning web where students pick a question that they want to dig deeper into and then 'web' some answers and where they got those answers.
We are also focusing on fluency (reading like you speak). It is important that students are able to orally read grade level materials, attending to phrasing, intonation, and punctuation. To help students grasp this concept we will be learning a variety of October poems and paying specific attention to those aspects of fluency. I wouldn't be surprised if you started hearing the poems at home. The kids really do love them =-)
Writing has been a blast lately. Our author studies have turned out some amazing work. We will be beginning an intensive study about conventions. This includes things like: Use complete sentences, use capitalization at the beginning of sentences and for proper nouns, use correct punctuation, use correct spelling of high frequency words, regular plurals, and phonetic spelling for difficult words. We will also be talking extensively about proofreading your own writing and noticing and correcting errors. As a second grade team (and part of our staff focus on writing) we noticed that our students were particularly low in the conventions area across all grade levels. Because of this we are jumping right into what our kids need most (right now) to be proficient writers: conventions.
In math we have learned to play Close to Twenty, which I keep meaning to get a video of kids explaining how to play. We are also talking about counting strategies. Today I asked, "How many student legs are in the room?" We talked about using the strategy: Count by 2's because everyone had two legs. As it turned out there were 38 student legs in our classroom today. We will also be talking about multiples of 5 and counting by different groups in an effort to prepare kids for counting coins and coupons. If you have some time have your child count the change that you have in a purse or a drawer. Pay attention to if they know what the coins are and how to count them.
Next week we start learning about mapping. It has been so much fun getting responses about our Flat Stanleys and we will be using that to help us learn more about maps and why they are useful. Students will get the opportunity to locate the places that their Flat Stanleys have been.
Typing club will continue for another week and a half though there will be no typing club on Halloween Day. I am still working on a schedule for November and December groups to learn more about PowerPoint, MS Word, and Blogging. During the December/January break students will be expected to share their special moments on our blog. That's right, they will be doing the blogging! Parents will also be invited to join us for these classes so you can support what we are doing at home. Look for a schedule to come out soon.
Halloween is once again on its way and the second graders will spend next Friday, October 26th as Pumpkin Day. We will be doing all sorts of reading, writing, math, and science activities with pumpkins that day. I am looking for 4 medium sized pumpkins to be donated to pumpkin day as well as extra parent volunteers that can help us for as much of the day as possible. Look for a note to be coming home about that.
I know I've been long winded and I hope you have made it to the end here. If you have then: Way To Go!
Thank you for your support.
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