Sunflower Day!

Beautiful van Gogh inspired Art created with Mrs. Caporello

Sunflower Day was a HUGE success!!

     A big thank you to all the donated sunflowers! With your help, we were able to have a fantastic day culminating our plant unit.The 2AA owls started the day with sunflower math in Mrs. Atherton's room. They measured and weighed HUGE sunflower stalks and learned about diameter and circumference while measuring a large sunflower head. After that, they were headed to Mrs. Caporello's room to learn about the sunflower inspirations of van Gogh's work. They then used pastels to create their sunflower vase pictures (pictured above!). After a delicious sunflower seed snack provided by Reece and her family (THANK YOU!), they were right back at it! They worked together with imagery and word choice to draft a beautiful, sunflower poem with Mrs. Leonard and then headed straight to Ms. Riley's room for some serious estimating with seeds!

     While they were quite tired when they returned to our classroom, the learning wasn't complete just yet! It was the moment they all were waiting for: dissection! Using a magnifying glass to make careful observations, students examined each part of the sunflower: seed, root, stem, leaf, and flower. I was amazed by their noticings!

 

    After a fun-filled Sunflower Day, we made our final observations of our lima bean plants. Some made it all the way to sprouting leaves, while others were eaten by mold. No matter the result---we all learned a TON about the scientific process!

  

 Great work, Owls! Now onto our animal unit!

Sept. 21st News

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Ms. Arnold’s Classroom News (9/21/14)

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What We’ve Been Up To:

What a great week with Dot Day, Picture Day, and Curriculum Night! Thanks for a great night and for your continued support in your child’s education!

*Curriculum Night: Thank you to all of you who were able to make it to our Curriculum Night! It was so nice to see so many of you. At Curriculum Night there was a sign up sheet for parent conferences and opportunities to volunteer. If you did not sign up for a conference, an availability sheet will be sent home with your child next week. Please take the time to choose your top three choices for a conference time and either email me or send the sheet back into school. I will do my best to accommodate everyone’s preferences. Parent conferences are a great opportunity to discuss your child’s progress thus far and determine goals for the rest of the year.

*Dot Day: On Monday, we had a great day celebrating International Dot Day! The day began with a wonderful whole-school morning meeting. Mr. Fosher taught us all a special "dot" greeting, showed us a slideshow full of facts about dots (did you know the dots on a golf ball are called dimples!), and then gave us a special reading of Peter H. Reynold's book The Dot.

     After reading the story, Mr. Fosher challenged us with the book's takeaway message: whenever something is hard, or you think you can't do it, begin by "making your mark" on the paper, and trying! It might end up being the mark you make on the world! To show one way SMS is making its mark, several SMS teachers were randomly selected to participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. It sure was fun seeing some familliar faces (especially Mr. Fosher and Mr. Goldsmith!) get soaked all for a great cause!

     After an exciting morning meeting, we headed back to our classroom to work on other dot-related activities. In math, we worked with coins, During centers, students got to check out the "colAR" app on the iPads, which brought their own creative dots to life!

     The colAR app is free in the iTunes App store. Just print the special coloring sheet (more designs available at http://colarapp.com/) and watch their creations become 3D! As you can imagine, this was a HUGE hit!

     Finally, in the afternoon of Dot Day, we joined our neighbors, the 2R Giraffes, for some collaborative fun. Students took their own dots, and cut them into quarters. They then had to trade pieces to create a new dot. What a creative, fun day!

                                      
*Read Aloud: Earlier in the week, we finished our first novel, The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney. Read aloud is one of the students’ favorite times of day (and mine as well!) . They come in from lunch and listen intently as each day we get further and further into a wonderful novel. The World According to Humphrey is a story about a hamster who is the classroom pet of room 26. Each weekend he travels home with one of his classmates and learns a little bit about them along the way. Turns out Humphrey is pretty good at problem solving! This was a fun, light novel to start our year. Humphrey is the main character of many other stories. Friendship According to Humphrey and Surprises According to Humphrey are some of the great books in this series if you’re looking for a read aloud for at home!.

*Reading Buddies: We met with our fifth grade reading buddies again on Friday. To help us with our plant unit (and to enjoy the beautiful weather!), we went on a nature scavenger hunt! Working together, students were on the hunt for at least two different varieties of flowers, an acorn, a pinecone, something round, something smooth, animal tracks, a fall-colored leaf, and many more! They were quite successful!

                                      
 *Fall Leaf Project: Information about a fall leaf project will be coming home next week. Students will be asked to gather 20-30 dried leaves to bring into school. While the leaves are not due for a couple of weeks, it’s a good idea to start keeping an eye out for interesting, unique, bright, or bold leaves as they start to fall. More information will be sent home by next Friday.
*Math: During the past few weeks, second graders have been reviewing addition and subtraction number sentences. They have also been excellent number detectives as they explored number patterns and sequences. Unit #1 continues to reinforce their ability to use a number grid and number line as a math tool, to follow number patterns as they count up and back by a given number, and to represent a given number in many different ways.

     We continue to build IXL practice into our weekly routine and I am so impressed by the number of students using this great web-resource at home! As a class, we've already answered over 1,000 math questions! Keep up the hard work!

*Reading: During the past week, we introduced "read to someone" or "buddy reading" to our reader's workshop. Students were paired with a just-right reading partner and were taught how to best use this partner. By sitting "EEKK" (elbow-to-elbow, knee-to-knee) they can practice their fluency by reading books aloud together. They can also bring something they find during their independent reading to the table when they meet with their partner (a question they have about their story, a funny/exciting part they'd like to share, a word they're unsure of). We will talk more about being an "active" reading parter next week (eyes on the book, ears toward the reader, conversations on-topic, question starters to get your partner digging deeper into their book, etc.).

 *Homework: Beginning next week, students will receive a small amount of homework most days. I want to encourage students to set up regular study habits at home that work. Working at the same place and around the same time each day can be very helpful. Students may need an adult to help them get started with directions, but then they should be able to complete it on their own. Reading/math logs will be sent home on Fridays and are due the following Friday. Math Homelinks are due the morning after they are given. Students will also be given their weekly spelling sort list on Mondays (to make sure they are independent with the sorts, we will begin our spelling sort homework the following week). Homework should not take more than 20 minutes, even when there is math, spelling, and reading. I look over the homework that is returned and have students make corrections if necessary.

Have a great weekend!

Monday is Dot Day!

Have you ever read Peter H. Reynold’s story The Dot? This story tells of a teacher who reaches a reluctant student in a creative way. The teacher pushes the student to “Make her mark,” which all begins with a simple dot on a piece of paper.You can watch this great story here:

To celebrate this story, and to encourage students to "make their mark," educators around the world have delared Monday, Sept. 15th, International Dot Day!
SMS will begin the celebration with a whole school morning meeting. Then, our class will participate in various dot-related activities throughout the day (we'll even join the 2R gifraffes for some collaborative, creative fun!). Please remind your child to, if possible, wear dots on Monday. Remember, I have plenty of dot stickers we can put on when they arrive if they don't have any dots--don't worry!

Other reminders:
-The first Scholastic Book Order is due tomorrow, Monday, Sept. 15th. You can order online at: www.scholastic.com/readingclub, and typing in our class code (HXF8D) or by sending in an order to school. Already ordered books? I will send the order tomorrow morning, so books should arrive by the end of the week!
-Picture Day is Thursday, Sept. 15th. You can send picture order forms in as soon as they're ready.
-Curriculum Night is Thursday, Sept. 15th, 6:30-7:30. Look forward to seeing you all there!

A Budding Group of Scientists

I think we can all agree, we have had a fantastic week beginning our first science unit! The science curriculum is based on experimental philosophy and gives the children a chance to explore, observe, wonder, predict, investigate and record information. We begin with a biology unit on plants! This week, we focused primarily on the parts of the plant and what a plant needs to grow. To begin, working in table teams, each group learned about one part of the plant and then worked together to create a poster to share their learning with the rest of the class.

Leaves!

Stem!

Roots!

Seeds!

Flowers!

After learning the function of each plant part, they were put to a challenge: could they eat a WHOLE plant?!?! After a lot of predicting and questioning ("Even the roots?", "Will it make me sick?"), they were happy to learn that they could actually buy each part of the plant at any old grocery store! Then the predictions began again as they tried to predict which vegetables were from each part!

 I was impressed by their willingness to act in the name of science. One child even proudly claimed: "I HATE celery, but I'm going to eat it for the experiment and to say that I ate a WHOLE plant!" :)

After becoming experts on the parts of a plant, we watched The Magic School Bus: Gets Planted to learn more about what a plant needs to grow. With all this new knowledge, they were ready to test our their thumbs, and plant some seeds! Their greenhouses are proudly adorning our windows as our scientists now begin the observing and recording phase. When will their seeds sprout??? Tune in for updates!!

For some extension activities:
    -Growing Plants: Site for kids to virtually experiment and see how different variables affect the growth of a plant
    -Magic School Bus: Goes to Seed (video): They loved the Magic School Bus: Gets Planted video; this episode shows how seeds are created, transported, and turned into a plant

Clearly, we've been a bunch of busy owls here in Room 19! I look forward to seeing you all next week at Curriculum Night. This will be a great opportunity for me to tell you a little bit more about the second grade curriculum and to show off some of their hard work!

We Love Math!

Each day, before leaving the room, I ask each child, "What's one thing you liked or learned today," and I frequently hear the reply: "Math".
Each morning, we begin our math routine with whiteboard warm ups. Running through a series of problems, students work to solve for an answer using their whiteboards. Then they "ready, set, show!" their answers and discuss how they got them.
After warm ups, we review the objectives for the math lesson and then begin a math workshop consisting of math with a teacher, math with a friend, and math by yourself.
Our first unit in Everyday Math focuses on number sense and establishing math routines. We've spent the week working on number patterns and carefully looking at the special properties of a number grid.


To help reinforce theses skills at home, have your child:
     -count by 2s, 5s, and 10s
     -tell you what number is 1 more than a given number; 1 less; 10 more; 10 less
     -build the self-created number grid puzzle they brought home on Monday
     -describe the patterns found in a number grid; explain what happens when they move up one, down one, over one, or back one; explain how to use a number grid to add or subtract
     -log-in to their IXL account (IXL), using the login information sent home today, and complete any of the "Counting & Number Pattern" skills (A.5 specifically works with hundreds charts)
     -play Give the Dog a Bone!

More information regarding our math program will be available at Curriculum Night (Thurs. Sept. 18th, 6:30-7:30). Everyday Math homework sheets will not begin until after Curriculum Night.

We're off to a great start in 2AA!

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Ms. Arnold’s Classroom News (9/3/14)

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What We’ve Been Up To:

We made it into our second week of the school year. While they may be a little tired, they’ve certainly had a great start with a  lot of learning!

*Literacy: We have launched right into our reader and writer workshops and students have been eager to both read and write! In reader's workshop, students were reminded of strategies for finding just right books, had a chance to "shop" for both fiction and nonfiction books for their bookbins, and have begun building their independent reading stamina! In writer's workshop, we've used two different types of paper for writing, established our writing folders, created "heart maps", and have begun drafting several stories!

*Math: As we delve into Everyday Math Unit 1, students have been refreshing their math brains with the numerous skills we have reviewed this past week. Students explored their math journals and built their math tool kits; they reviewed number sequencing (counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s) and coin values; and completed a fun graphing lesson looking at who they had for a first grade teacher!

*Scholastic Book Orders: Scholastic Book Orders were sent home on today. Orders are due on Monday, September 15th. If interested, you can order online at www.scholastic.com/readingclub with the activation code HXF8D, or by sending your order into school.

*Reading Buddies: We had our first day of Reading Buddies with Ms. Hodgdon's fifth grade class today. Some were a little nervous at first, but all settled in nicely with their partner. Ask your child who their reading buddy is, what they read together, and what's the one thing they learned about their new friend! We will continue to meet regularly with our buddies, typically every "Blue" day, for the remainder of the school year.

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Coming Up:

- Early Release: Wednesday, Sept. 17th

- Picture Day: Thursday, Sept. 18th

- Curriculum Night: Thursday, Sept. 18th