Mystery Skype -- Blogging Buddies (Mrs. Merced's 2nd Grade)

On Monday morning we Skyped with Ms. Merced’s 2^nd grade class. During our Skyping session each student had the opportunity to ask, or answer, a question. When a question was asked our class answered, and then Ms. Merced’s class answered the same question. We were very lucky to have Ms. Randall as our recorder. Ms. Randall recorded all of Ms. Merced’s students’ answers.

After our initial Skyping session we used the answers from Mrs. Merced’s classroom to formulate a question to enter into the google search engine.  We worked on formulating questions which would help us locate the state where Mrs. Merced’s classroom is located.

For example, one of the questions asked during our Mystery Skype was: What famous person was born in your state?  Mrs. Merced’s class answered: Derrick Rose.  Using the answer from Mrs. Merced’s class we formulated a search question: What state was Derrick Rose born in?

As a class we worked together to type questions into google to help us determine where Ms. Merced’s class was located.

Some of our specific questions and the answers we received were:

What famous people are from your state? (Michael Jordan and Barack Obama)

What is your state famous for? (The Bean , Trump Tower, deep dish pizza)

What is your hometown sports team? (White Sox, Cubs, Bears and Bulls)

Do you border a Great Lake?  (Yes)

What is on your state flag? (an eagle)

Once partnerships brainstormed possible state locations for Ms. Merced’s class we compiled a list of our guesses. The last step in our Mystery Skype process is to develop “We think” statements. 

We think you are in Illinois because Derrick Rose was born in Illinois.

We think you are in Illinois because Illinois is near Lake Michigan.

We think you are in Illinois because Illinois’ state bird is the red cardinal.

We think you are in Illinois because Illinois is famous for deep dish pizza.

We think you are in Chicago because Chicago is named the Windy City.  We learned that Chicago is named the Windy City because it is near Lake Michigan.

Tomorrow we will Skype with Mrs. Merced’s class to find out if our guess was correct.  We want to thank Ms. Merced and her class for taking the time to Skype with us! They had amazing questions and worked incredibly well as a class. We are so excited to be blogging buddies with Ms. Merced’s class!

Helping Your Child Navigate School: Supporting Your Child at Home

The start of twice monthly sessions for helpful information, discussions and socialization on the First and Third Thursdays, starting October 2^nd.

Time will be from 6-6:45. Child care and snacks will be provided.

First Up: HOMEWORK

October 2 – Math facts/expectations by grade level; some practice time; Math games for fun at home

October 16 – Reading with your child; Common Core expectations; fun ways to provide extra support for your child.

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Next Up: Parent Choice

Week 3’s topic will be selected from ideas you provide.

We hope this will become a regularly occurring get together that will provide staff and parents with a place to share ideas and help each other.

Plan for starting informational meetings for parents – Dawn Bissonnette and Mary Axworthy – We would like your input

Meeting time: 1^st and 3^rd Thursday each month from 6 to 6:45

Child care provided by High School Student Volunteers

Healthy snacks provided by Dawn and Mary to start

Dawn and/or Mary will be at every meeting. We are hoping that other staff will volunteer to help with the break out groups or the presentation when the topic interests you.

Open House: Publicize via flier and discussion. Send home survey (to be created) with parents.

First meeting: October 2 – Covering Math Facts and expectations. Start with the district homework policy presentation by Carolyn Millham; Grade level expectations and focus for the first 3 months hopefully presented by teacher from each grade level; break into grade level groups for answering questions and providing help, extra support from other staff much appreciated (maybe do presentation in grade level groups as well); Ending presentation – Math games and how to use.

Second meeting: October 15 – Reading with your child; Common Core and how to help your child learn to examine the books you read – grade level groups if possible; Ending presentation – where to get extra support (hopefully Marie Hayes can help with this presenting games, etc.) Burnham Library information.

Hopefully, parents will return the survey with ideas for topics they would like to hear. We hope to have a list of suggestions for topics that they can rank as well as space for their ideas. Here are some ideas from Dawn and Mary, but please add to the list for us and comment on our ideas:

·        How to have healthy vacations and holidays, including why routines help even when not at school.

·        Time for play. Discussing research about how unstructured play helps children learn.

·        Hiding vegetables, healthy snacks and meals with extra vegetables added.

·        Getting to sleep. Routines that help a child wind down and rest well at night.

·        Dealing with playground issues. Making friends and solving problems.

·        How to ask for help. Support for school work, school problems, even support for at home issues.

·        Changing families

Any ideas for topics or presenters would be welcome.

SWR Week 4

This week in SWR we are leaning when /f/ /l/ /s/ or /z/ is heard after a short vowel at the end of a one-syllable word, it is spelled with a double ff, ll, ss or zz. To help us remember these four sounds we came up with the acronym Sam Loves Fried Zucchini. For our mini-lesson we brainstormed words that ended with the following sounds: Our Read Words for the week are:

Our Week in Review 9.22 - 26

Warming Up our Minds

On Monday, in Reading Workshop, we talked about how readers look closely at the title and the cover and think about what their book might be about.  We practiced saying the cover of the book aloud and looking closely at the illustration on the cover page.  Students learned that thinking about the cover gets you warmed up to read.  Partners then looked at their own book, read the title aloud and looked at the illustration on the cover.  Partnerships discussed what they thought the book was going to be about just by reading the title and studying the cover illustration.

On Tuesday, students learned the power of taking a picture walk! We discussed that taking a picture walk allows us to develop a deeper understanding of what the book might be about, and to help them know if a book is not what they are interested in before reading it. During the mini-lesson we talked about how when students are shopping for books for their book bags, they should use a sneak peek picture walk through the book to see if it is a good choice for them.  Sneak peeks help get our minds ready and get the juices flowing.  Students learned that sometimes a picture walk can remind us of something in our life, or other books.  During the “active involvement” period partnerships took a picture walk and discussed what they thought the book would be about just by studying the illustrations on each page.  Below are pictures of students during their picture walk.

Today we learned about the importance of reading the back cover of a book.  Students learned that when they are looking for their “just right” books, and after they have done a picture walk and looked at the cover, they can learn more information about a book by reading the back cover.  The back cover gives readers a sneak peek about the book.  Good readers read the back cover because it can remind them of something in their life or in other books that makes readers get interested in the story.  Students each received a book and read the back cover to help deepen their understanding of the book.

Hot Shot All - Stars

Today we had our Hot Shot All-Star lunch.  Students who earn a Hot Shot All-Star lunch eat with Ms. LaRose and a special healthy treat is provided. To earn a Hot Shot All-Star lunch you need to be a Hot-Shot 4 weeks in a row.  Students become a Hot-Shot when they, hand in their homework 4 weeks in a row (on time) and go without taking a break OR if they take a break they lived their plan.  These students worked very hard for the past month!

Powerful Endings!

Today in writing workshop we learned about reviewing with the masters and how to write powerful endings to our personal narratives.  We began by looking at the beginning of both Owl Moon and the Leaving Morning.  As a class we discussed what we heard and what we saw at the beginning of both of these stories.  We then talked about how authors go back and re-write all parts of their stories, especially their endings to make them powerful!  We then read the endings of both Owl Moon and the Leaving Morning.  We discussed how in Owl Moon the story begins with a journey in the woods and ends with a return home.  We also talked about how in Owl Moon the book ends with the words in the title of the book, owl moon.  In the Leaving Morning we noticed that the story begins and ends with the little boy making lips on the window.  As a class we discussed the what makes a “good ending”  we came up with the following: endings that echo the beginning, and ending that leaves the reader thinking about something, an ending that brings the story full circle, an ending that solves a problem and lastly an ending the brings out the meaning of the story.  Tonight at home ask us about what ending we choose to use for our personal narrative!

Listen to some of our stories from share:


 

SWR -- Week 3 (Digraphs)

This week in SWR we are learning about the digraphs –sh, -wh, -th and –ch.  They are also called the H Brothers.  

In class on Monday we learned how a digraph is two letters that make one sound.

We brainstormed words that have the –sh digraph in them. 

We matched words that started with the –wh digraph to the correct picture.

We brainstormed more words that have the –th digraph in them (also known as the naught H digraph, because you have to stick out your tongue to say this digraph)!

We then circled pictures that represented words with the –ch digraph.

Lastly, we correctly spelled words with the digraphs we are working on this week.

Our red words so far are:

their                      other                     have                      were

Our Week in Review 9.15 - 9.19

Estimation Machine!

As many of you know we have a new addition to our classroom – the Estimation Machine! Estimation is an important skill for our second graders to develop and it's one they will continue to revisit through the years. The Estimation Machine is a really fun way to bring that skill to life in the classroom.

Many of you guessed at Open House how many erasers were in the Estimation Machine!  On Friday we went through and counted how many counting bears were actually in the Estimation Machine.  We brainstormed possible ways to count all the erasers: group them in 2s, 5s, 10s, etc.  We took a class vote on what strategy to use and the groups of 10 strategy won.  Together we formed 14 groups of 10!  We added our groups of 10s together to find out how many counting were in the Estimation Machine.  Many jaws dropped when we realized 140 counting bears were in the Estimation Machine.  Many students thought there were between 70 and 100 counting bears in the Machine. Students jaws dropped even more when we went through the estimation guesses and realized Leah's sister (Erin) was only 4 counting bears off with an estimate of 144! Way to go Erin! 

Since Leah’s sister was closest, Leah has taken home the Estimation Machine to fill for next week.  Next week the student whose estimation is closest to the actual number will take the estimation jar home to refill with a new item. This cycle will continue throughout the school year.  Some suggestions for items to put in the Estimation Machine are:

-       Animal cookies

-       Beads

-       Beans

-       Bolts

-       Bottle caps

-       Crayons

-       Cotton balls

-       Corks

-       Drinking straw halves

-       Erasers

-       Gumballs

-       Goldfish

-       Macaroni

-       Marbles

-       Marshmallows

-       Nuts

-       Paper clips

-       Pasta

-       Puzzle pieces

-       Rubber bands

-       Seashells

-       Stickers

-       Sunflower seeds

-       Toothpicks

-       Washers

Thanks to all of you who made an estimate at Open House!  Your responses made for a room full of excitement on Friday morning.

Shelburne Farms

We had the most amazing day at Shelburne Farms!  Our class teamed up with Ms. Warren's class and had a fun filled day exploring the question -- How do we feed our community?  We worked together to make our own pizza using ingredients from the farm.  Four different groups made a component of the pizza.  The four groups were: dough, sauce, cheese and toppings.  Each group then used the items to make their own pizza -- it sure was delicious!  While our pizza was cooking we were able to get out and play games in the field, taste food from the garden, and some of us even caught chickens and milked the cow!  It was a great learning experience and a wonderful way for us to build a community of 2nd graders! We can't wait to learn more about where our food comes from during our nutrition unit of study!

Our Week in Review 9.8-9.12

Number Mystery Skype!

On Thursday, we had our first Number Mystery Skype post! We Skyped with Mrs. King’s 2nd grade class in Indiana. Instead of trying to figure out what state Mrs. King’s class was in, we were trying to figure out their mystery number! In addition, Mrs. King’s class was trying to figure out our mystery number. Our mystery number was 73. To figure out Mrs. King’s class’ mystery number we asked a variety of yes/no questions. Some of the questions we asked were:

Is your number odd?

Is your number greater than 50?

Is your number a multiple of 5?

Does your number have a 9 in the ones place value?

Does your number have a 3 in the tens place value?

Every student had a 100s chart and marked off numbers on their hundreds chart when Mrs. King’s class answered one of our questions. After a lot of hard work and collaboration we figured out Mrs.King’s class mystery number was 17! We are planning on scheduling more mystery number skypes this year! 

International Dot Day

Yesterday we celebrated International Dot Day in our classroom.  We started off the day by reading the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds.  As a class we discussed the “big idea” of the book – never give up! After the Read Aloud each student colored in their own dot.  It was wonderful to see students working together, placing their dots on the floor, open the Color Mix app and watched their Dot come to life (3-D).  Students then (with the help of a buddy) took a screen shot of their 3-D dot and uploaded the photograph of their 3-D dot to their own blog!  What amazing 2^nd graders!!   Next week we are going to connect with classrooms all over the world and comment on their dots.  International Dot Day is September 15^th; however, we did this activity a few days early due to our field trip on Monday.  For more information on International Dot Day click here.  We can’t wait to comment and learn about other classrooms thanks to International Dot Day!  Click here to see our dots! 

Our First Celebration!

Earlier this week we earned our first class celebration – wahoo!  Students have been working very hard on being safe, respectful and ready to learn.  When we earned our first classroom celebration we brainstormed what types of celebrations we want to have this year and placed them on the DecideNow wheel.  Some of our brainstormed celebrations are:

When we spun the wheel on Tuesday it landed on POPSICLES! On Friday we enjoyed our popsicles and celebrated all that we have accomplished throughout the first three weeks of 2^nd grade! 

Lake Champlain

This week we began our first social studies unit of study:  Lake Champlain. The focus of this unit of study is for student to learn how the lake impacts our lives.  To kick off the unit students went out a Scavenger Hunt.  We looked for classmates who: like to swim, have gone fishing, have been on a boat, want to see Champ, like to eat fish, and has been to Bayside Camp. This was a great activity to help us learn more information about our classmates while learning new information about Lake Champlain.  After our Scavenger Hunt we completed a K-W-L on Lake Champlain.  For the first part of the K-W-L we filled in what we KNOW about Lake Champlain: 

For the W we filled in what we WANT to learn about Lake Champlain:

The L part of the K-W-L will be filled in at the end of the unit with everything that we have LEARNED about Lake Champlain! On Tuesday we discussed what we can do on or around Lake Champlain:

We also brainstormed our favorite activities on Lake Champlain.  After hearing everyone’s favorite activities we completed a class graph showing what our favorite activities to do on Lake Champlain are:

 We are excited to continue learning about Lake Champlain later in the week! 

Small Moments: Generating Ideas for Writing

On Monday we began our first Writing Workshop unit of study:  Personal Narratives.  The first part of this unit focuses on studying the Masters for Inspiration and Ideas.  The second part of the unit is on Author’s Crafts:  studying imagery, tension and literary language in Owl Moon.  The unit wraps up with students studying their own authors.  Our first lesson focused on discovering small moments that generate ideas for writing.  Students learned that not just any story is worth telling – but meaningful stories stand out.  As a class we read the first page in Owl Moon and The Leaving Morning.  We discussed how in Owl Moon the author, Jane Yolen, felt that the one small moment when her husband and daughter went on an owling trip was worth sharing.  We also discussed how The Leaving Morning is an unusual way to describe a moving day.  Many students agreed that Angela Johnson, author of The Leaving Morning, most likely has moved in her real life.  We wrapped up the lesson with students brainstorming small moments from their lives that are worth writing about.  Below are the stories we brainstormed. 

Our Week in Review 9.3-9.5

Internet Safety

On Friday, students watched Router’s Birthday Surprise. As a class we discussed what kinds of fun things we can do online (blogging, Raz-Kids, XtraMath, Mystery Skype). Router’s Birthday Surprise taught students about the four rules of internet safety. Each student signed an Internet Safety Pledge which contains the rules for online safety. Below is a copy of the Internet Safety Pledge (and rules) we discussed. As a class we learned that “the rules” are meant to keep us safe online and also at home. The Internet Safety Pledge is in your child's homework folder.  Please review the pledge with your child, sign the pledge and return it at your earliest convenience.  For more internet safety information please click here.

Our First Mystery Skype

Today we had our first "Mystery Skype" of the school year. At 2:00 we joined our buddies from Ms.Warren's class and the room was filled with excitement! We skyped with Mrs. Murch's 4th grade class located somewhere unknown to us. The goal of our Mystery Skype was to ask yes/no questions to help us determine what state Mrs. Murch's class is located in. Based on the answers to our questions, we figured out that Mrs. Murch's class is located in Indiana! Below are some photographs from today's Mystery Skype. For more information about Mystery Skyping please view the slideshow Ms. Warren and I created last year for our presentation at Dynamic Landscape.

 

Fun Filled Week

What a wonderful 1st week we had in second grade.  We spent time getting to know our classmates, we created our classroom expectations (we are already earning a lot of “Warm Fuzzies”), completed “All About Me Tees” and even completed a quick math assessment. We were very busy!

In Reading Workshop we focused on our favorite books and favorite nooks. Together we talked about how we all have very busy lives but it is important to squeeze reading into our day.  In addition, we discussed the the following questions: Where do we like to read?,  When do we like to read?  

Next week the primary focus will be learning about the 2nd grade math routine along with continuing to build our classroom community.  

Below is our first “Our Week in Review” video of the year -- enjoy!