2H Class Blog!: Our first FULL week of 2nd grade!

We completed our first FULL week of the 2017-2018 school year! We had such a busy, exciting week full of learning, I'd be surprised if they weren't awfully tired Friday evening! Just a reminder that this Thursday, Sept. 21st, at 6:30, will be our Curriculum Night. This is a great opportunity to get an in depth look at just what happens here in 2H! I'll be handing out numerous resources as well as going over what to expect during this school year. I hope to see you there! We're going to have such a great year working together!

The beginning of the year is all about getting to know each other. Check out the #awesome bulletin board we share with 2D!

Highlights from our week:

*Science: Our science curriculum is based on inquiry and gives each child a chance to explore, observe, wonder, predict, investigate and record findings. This week, we began an exploration of magnets! After posing the question, "What is magnetic in our classroom?" the scientists worked together to figure how they could test and discover. They received their official science notebooks and began recording their data. As a class, we decided that each notebook entry should include the date, the question, as well as an organized format for recording. One Owl volunteered the idea of creating a "T" chart, so each of us tried recording our findings in that way. I am SO impressed with the neat, detailed information they collected! We're going to have a great year of discovery :)

Since we'll be working hard as scientists all year, we completed some activities to help understand just what are scientists. What do they do? What tools do they use? How are YOU like a scientist? They're thinking like scientists already!!

*Math: Math this week was all about the doubles! Knowing all the doubles addition facts (ex: 4+4) is an essential skill to help set us up for continued math success. We spent the week reinforcing these facts and explored how knowing our doubles allows us to also know doubles plus one (ex: 4+5) and doubles minus one (ex: 4+3). We also used the iPads and logged into IXL for the first time this year. Student login information will be handed out at Curriculum Night.

*Reading: Our Reader's Workshop is fully underway! While we continue to build our independent reading stamina, we've reviewed and practice ALL the great strategies they already know and use! We introduced the use of post-it notes as a way to hold onto our thinking and be able to "talk long and strong" about our reading. We've also been meeting with our reading partners, having book talks and working to coach one another.

*Reading Buddies: On Friday, we saw our 5L buddies again and were challenged to complete a playground scavenger hunt! This hunt had them riding down the slide, running laps, playing a new game, finding a bug, playing hopscotch, and many other fun things! Our buddy time is quickly becoming a favorite time of the week among the Owl class!

*Writing: Friday afternoon, we had a BLAST decorating our writing folders! Thank you for your help in sending in pictures to help personalize their folder. If your child did not bring in photographs, but would still like to, please send them in (or email them!) on Monday. The folders will be sent to the laminator later this week. As mentioned, these decorated folders will serve as inspiration for their writing for the remainder of our year.