Jan. 30th News

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Mrs. Healey’s Classroom News (1/30/16)

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 *Half Day: On Monday of this week, SMS students celebrated Day 90---our halfway mark! It's hard to believe we have already flown through half of our year together. While we'll be celebrating Day 100 more extravagantly, we couldn't help but have a little fun with "Half Day" (which I had to quickly clarify, was not an early release "half day" from school :) )!

Honoring our half names, like "Mad" and "Hay" and "Mack"!

Creating designs out of shape halves.

 *Reading: We continued to do incredibly hard and powerful work this week during reader's workshop. Each reader was given an "Emergency Reading Tool Kit" equipped with a special mechanical pencil and lots and lots of post-it notes. One strategy readers can use when they're stuck at a confusing part, or if they want to hold on to important information, is to "stop & jot" their thinking on a sticky note. We had a lot of fun practicing using our tool kits during various shared reading experiences.

We've been reading Minnie & Moo Go Dancing at the start of each reader's workshop. We got to a pretty confusing part this week when Minnie & Moo (cows) thought they had eaten their friends as hamburgers! Uh Oh! All of a sudden they hear voices...is it a ghost? Their friends? Somebody else? It was time for a stop & jot...

 After practicing together, students went off to use their tool kits independently. They have a lot of powerful, deep thinking going on!

Later in the week, we reviewed all of the strategies we've learned this unit. It was then time to set individual reading goals. It's hard to find what you already do really well as a reader, and what you'd like to work on, but these Owls were up for the challenge. I was impressed by their honest reflections.

After sharing our goals, we found that many of us had similar reading goals. We grouped together and formed goal clubs!

After all that goal setting, we realized that in order to be successful, we needed a plan. Groups met together to define their goal, gather up tools, and write out specific steps. Take a look at some examples!!

This is INCREDIBLE work for any reader, let alone second graders!! I look forward to working with each club this week as they work toward their goal.

 *Engineering: We continued to develop our engineering skills this week by completing several design challenges. Our engineers quickly discovered that designing and creating was only half the battle. The real challenge often came in working together, taking turns, and sharing space, ideas, and materials.

We will continue the designing, building, collaborative fun over the next several weeks!

 *Valentine's Day: Last week you received a notice regarding our Valentine's Day celebration. Our class will be having a small Valentine’s Celebration at the end of the day on Friday, February 12th.

Students are encouraged to exchange valentines with their peers. Homemade ones are best! Please be mindful of our classroom food allergies (walnuts) and remind your child that if they are bringing in valentines, they must bring one for every member of our class.

Our class of 18 includes:

Caraden, Cate, Eli, Erik, Hayden, Hailey,

Leli, Lizzie, Lucas, Mackenzie, Madison, Michael,

Nicholas, Sara, Sebastian, Tanner, Trey, and Will

While it's not quite Valentine's Day (or Groundhog's Day for that matter) just yet, we enjoyed some crafty, addition fun with Mrs. Forest on Friday to get us in the spirit.

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Coming Up:
-100th Day Project: Due Friday, Feb. 5th

-100th Day (tentative): Monday, Feb. 8th
-Early Release: Wednesday, Feb. 10th

-Valentine's Day Celebration: Friday, Feb. 12th
-Winter Break, No School: Monday, Feb. 22nd-Friday, Feb. 26th.

Jan. 24th News

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Mrs. Healey’s Classroom News (1/24/16)

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What We've Been Up To:
Reading: This month, we continue to "amp up" our reading power! This week we learned that one of the most powerful reading tools we have is.....OUR PARTNER! Students had the opportunity to choose the same book as their partner to practice using this great "tool".

 We learned that "Same Book Partnerships"...
1. Make plans for stopping and checking in after reading a section.

 

2. Don't just ignore the confusing parts...they ask questions and reread to figure things out!

We'll continue using our partner as a reading tool next week when we work on keeping track of longer books. As your second graders continue to grow as readers, the length of their books will too! 

Writing: To launch our creative writing unit, we began by reading a fictional favorite: The Day the Crayons Came Back. Following 2R's lead, we decided we'd like to write another crayon tale: The Day the Crayons Came Back to School!

Using Drew Daywalt's book as our mentor text.

Where could our crayons be writing from? 

Taking on a crayon character, each Owl student wrote a postcard with voice and detail to create a page for our class book. While our final drafts were sent off to the Pitcher Publishing Press, take a sneak peak of our work in progress!

 

We'll enjoy reading our published class book this week!  

Word Study: On Thursday, SMS tech coordinator, Mrs. Sargent, joined us for word study to launch an exciting new spelling opportunity! Spelling City provides additional ways for students to practice their words. Each account is linked specifically to your child's word sort. After our trial in class, we quickly realized, students really needed their word list in front of them in order to complete many of the activities. Words will be sent home on Monday, so I apologize if your child experienced difficulty trying to use the program at home without having their words available! Starting the following week, I will send words home on the first Monday of our two-week cycle, so students have them available for the full two weeks. Let me know if you have any questions or need login information to be sent home again!

 

Novel Engineering: This week, revisiting our engineering roots, we tried out a new idea shared to us by Mr. Goldsmith! Novel Engineering is an integrated approach to teaching literacy and engineering. Starting with a winter favorite, The Snowy Day, we listened to the story thinking about what problems our client, Peter (the main character!), encountered, and how an engineer might be able to solve them.

 Then it was off to design! Choosing a problem, each Owl sketched out a solution to one of Peter's problems. We saw everything from "Kitty Claw Feet" to keep him from falling through the snow, a "Snow Blaster" to help launch snowballs at the big kids, a "Freezer Pocket" to insulate a snowball, and a "Snow Catching Hat" to prevent snow from falling on his head. Genius!

 

Have a great week!

Go Pats!

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Coming Up:

-100th Day (tentative): Monday, Feb. 8th (more information to come!)
-Early Release: Wednesday, Feb. 10th

-Valentine's Day Celebration: Friday, Feb. 12th (more information to come!)
-Winter Break, No School: Monday, Feb. 22nd-Friday, Feb. 26th.

Mystery Readers

Our class always gets SUPER excited when they learn a mystery reader will be visiting our classroom. We've had SO many visits already this year! From Mr. Goldsmith and Mr. Fosher to Lizzie's mom, Caraden's mom & dad, Cate's mom, Maddie's mom, Michael's mom, Will's mom, Sara's mom, Hailey's mom, and Erik's mom. Wow! And what great stories they have shared! It's time to sign up for mystery reader spots for the remainder of the year. If you, an extended family member, sibling, or friend of an Owl student is interested in becoming a mystery reader, please sign up here.

Thank you to all of our fabulous mystery readers who wrote tricky clues, chose great stories to read, and were great sports when asked to read The Book with No Pictures :) Thank you for your help in making learning fun!!

After listening to all of our wonderful readers, many Owl students were left wondering when they could have a chance at being a mystery reader. Well, as promised, it's time! Talk with your child. If they are interested in being an Owl Mystery Reader, select a time and sign them up here. Just like with adult mystery readers, I will email you a week prior to their scheduled date to remind them to create their clues and begin practicing the story they'd like to read. It's a great opportunity for these budding readers to show off their great fluency! I encourage them all to sign up! Please let me know if you have any questions.