Friday, September 25, 2009

All of you would be so proud of the hard work that happened all week! The students are really getting the idea of using strategies to help their reading. We talked some more about what real reading looks like when we do it. We read several stories to practice these strategies this week.
I have seen some amazing beginnings for our personal narratives (small moments). Small moments include true stories that take a small moment in time of an ordinary experience and "stretch it out" to make an interesting story. We have read several books that are from this genre and it is helping us get started. I am very pleased with this first big writing project.
In math we looked at writing number sentences to solve a math problem. Our responses showed a picture, number sentence, labels, and sentences.
We met our 4th grade buddies today and did a social studies activity with them this afternoon. It worked out very well.
Don't forget your pillowcase if you haven't sent it in yet.
Have a terrific week.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

What a great week we have had so far. We are seeing our first writing projects near completion and we have finished two learning units in math! Students have started putting important information in their Reader's Notebooks. We talked today about how text plus thinking equals real reading!!
Could you send in an old pillowcase? We will have them sewed and we will put them on the back of our chairs as a book pocket.
Thank you for all the donations of hand sanitizer, tissues, wipes, and paper towels. It really helps.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

I am so excited to begin this new school year! We are off to a great start of learning and growing in second grade.
I just want to remind you that our specials are as follows:
Mon - gym, music
Tues - art
Wed - gym, music
Thur - lib.
Fri - gym
We have already begun our important discussions of what good readers do when they read. We learned what the word metacognition means - thinking about your thinking! The students enjoyed learning about this idea and how it relates to reading. We talked about all the wonderful things our brain does when we read.
I am looking forward to meeting everyone on Thursday, Sept. 10th. See you then!