ONE DOWN, THREE TO GO

It is hard to believe we are already a quarter of the way through the school year!  I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun.  While there has been plenty of fun in 2J, that has been integrated with a healthy dose of learning. We have been very busy this quarter, and we will continue this trend throughout the rest of the year.

In Reading, we have continued to practice our “Good Reader Strategies.”  Those include identifying narrative elements, creating mental images, making predictions, solving word problems, and summarizing. We will move into a number of different strategies throughout the year, but it is always important to keep these ones in mind as we read.  “Good Readers” use ALL the strategies, not just one or two at a time.  On another note, please make sure the students are reading a minimum of 100 minutes a week while at home. There is a lot of research out there that suggests the more independent reading a student does, the more successful they will be in all subject areas. Reading is a major focus in 2J, and it will continue to be throughout the year.

We have also started to make the connection between Reading and Writing.  In order to teach a number of “Good Writer Strategies,” I use a number of high-interest trade books that highlight the strategy we are working on.  This helps to make a connection between what strategies these authors used while writing their books, and what we should be doing as we write.  All of this instruction on strategies is culminating in our final opinion writing piece.  We have been working through the entire writing process from “pre-writing” to “publishing,” and I am very happy types of pieces I am seeing so far.  The students really are incorporating the things we have learned in Writing so far this year as they create their opinion pieces.  We will even be meeting with the Cool Cat Press to help us “make our writing pieces even better!”

Math has also been running like a well-oiled machine!  As I mentioned at the Curriculum Night, I use a “Guided Math” model in order to best meet the students’ needs, and deliver them with instruction that is MOST appropriate for them.  While it is a very effective instruction method, it does require some creativity in terms of management.  Well, I am proud to say that the class has really embraced the Math Workshop time, and we have accomplished A LOT so far this year.  We are currently moving into Unit 3: “Place Value, Time, and Money.” We will also continue to discuss various addition and subtraction strategies, and working on discussing the HOW & WHY we do math (“Intelligent Mathematical Conversations”).

In Social Studies and Science, we have wrapped up a number of units.  The kids have shown a real interest in the Discovery Education and Wiki sites, and I encourage you to use those at home as well.  We are almost done with our unit on Sink or Float in Science, and then we will move back into Social Studies.  While we have already started talking about the election process, government, and the branches of government, we will also move into U.S. History.  We will get to watch one of my favorite programs, The Liberty’s Kids Series, to begin learning about the American Revolution, and the kids are going to LOVE this!  We will also start learning about life cycles and the “MEAL WORM” unit, and the kids will LOVE this even more!

Time really has flown by so far this year, and we really have had a lot of fun!  Then again, we have been EXTREMELY busy working through a wide variety of content, and we will continue to do so throughout the year.  I look forward to talking to you more about this at conferences, and feel free to contact me at any time if you ever need anything at all!

A GREAT Start

It really has been a great start to the year!   We have been extremely busy so far this year.  In Reading, we have spent a lot of time practicing what good readers do.  Good readers identify Narrative Elements, create mental images, and make predictions before, during, and after reading.  We have also talked about a variety of ‘fix-up strategies” to utilize when we come across a word we can’t pronounce.  These are just a few of the strategies we have worked on during Reading Workshop. We will continue practicing “Good Reader Strategies,” and our goal is to increase fluency and comprehension skills.  Please make sure the students are reading a minimum of 100 minutes a week while at home. There is a lot of research out there that suggests the more independent reading a student does, the more successful they will be in all subject areas.  Obviously Reading is a major priority this year.

We are also working on becoming better writers.  We have talked about complete sentences, and how each sentence must start with a capital letter, have end punctuation, and include a subject and predicate.  We have even practiced the 6+1 traits of writing.  Good writers always keep in mind those traits including, “Ideas,” “Organization,” “Voice,” “Word Choice,” “Sentence Fluency,” “Conventions,” and “Presentation.”   We are now working on writing opinion pieces, and I am excited to see what the students have in store for me.

The new Math Curriculum has been off to a good start.  While the previous curriculum focused on covering a lot of material and skills, the new Common Core Math Standards focuses on digging deeper into each skill. By the end of second grade, every student should be fluent in adding and subtracting number sentence within 20.  They should also be able to utilize a number of different strategies to solve number stories, while explaining what they did, why they did it, and other ways they could have solved the problem.  The students must be able to have “intelligent mathematical conversations” in order to be proficient in each math standard.

We have been extremely busy in Social Studies and Science.  Although there are a number of resources we could utilize, I have decided to deliver most of the instruction via Discovery Education. The students are able to login to Discovery Education, record important learnings on the 2J class Wiki, and explain in their own words each Essential Questions for the Social Studies and Science units. We have already discussed the Scientific Method, Map Skills, and even what it takes to be a good community member.  We will now go into our “Sink or Float” unit, and I am excited to see how much the students learn from this unit.

It really has been a good start to the year.  Although I have extremely high expectations for the class, the students have really stepped up to the plate, and shown me that they can handle some advanced academic content.  I have high hopes for this group of students, I have no doubt they will meet and/or exceed my expectations.

WELCOME BACK!!!!

I hope everyone had a great summer! I stayed very busy, and I am definitely ready to be back to school. I will be using this blog as a way to communicate with parents, students, and others involved with 2J. There will be a lot of valuable information on this blog throughout the year. Browse around and you will see some helpful features that may be useful at some point. I will be updating this periodically on what we are doing in the classroom, the homework we had for the week, and links students can use at school and at home. Those are just a few of the features I have embedded in this blog, so be sure to check this on a regular basis.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to start a new year. I hope everyone is ready to go. I promise to do my best to make your 2nd grade experiences as exciting, challenging, and memorable as possible. However, I expect everyone to come in ready to work. You are big bad 2nd graders now, and as you will see, I have some high expectations. If all goes as planned, by the end of the year, you will be more than ready for third grade!!!

ALWAYS GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG TO SEE THE HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK!!!!