Important events: Thursday, February 4 - Field trip to Gates Foundation - (Bring a sack lunch and dress for the weather) Wednesday, February 3 - Unity Party and Day of Play! Friday, February 12 - Valentine's Day Party February 15-16 - No School - President's Day Weekend (Let me know if you will be absent) Hello families, Here is a quick update from the past week: Science: Students observed and experimented with weights and measuring. Ask your students what they know about a fulcrum. Math: We had a guest teacher, Ms. Shaw, come in and teach a lesson about Adding to Subtract. We also learned "Add by Friendly Numbers" to our addition strategy toolbox. Writing: Students started their own fairy tale story mountain (plot diagram). They will finish the stories this week. Reading: Students read and were read various fairy tales. Students examined the different elements of fairy tales. Ask your student how many of them they remember! Where the Wild Things Are: It was a wild hit! Look at these wild things (sorry about the quality).... The week to come: On Wednesday students will enjoy a hard earned unity party. Students voted on having extra recess, bringing a stuffie to class and hot chocolate. On top of the unity celebration, students will partake in a Day of Play. Read here to learn more about the inspiration for this event. Please bring a favorite toy or board game for students to play. We will enjoy our hot chocolate and learn the lessons from play: taking risks, cooperative problem solving skills, and using our imaginations! Thursday we will go to the Gates Foundation as a kick off for our first project-based learning. There, we will learn about the Gates Foundation's role in global water access. More to come on this!
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Hello families,
Important events: Monday, January 25 - Non-fiction Publishing Party (3:20pm) Friday, January 29 - Field trip to Children's Theater - Where the Wild Things Are Thursday, February 4 - Field trip to Gates Foundation Writing On Monday, our publishing party celebrates the hard work students have put into their non-fiction reading and writing. Students used a check list of important non-fiction features and master author's to help guide their craft. Students were encouraged to write across many pages and chapters, and use photos and labels to help teach readers. Teaching topics range from "How to Write in Cursive" to "Doolas and Babies." As a result of hard work and detailed research, when you come visit, some students may still be in the process of finishing their books! Our publishing party will take place at the end of the day tomorrow at 3:20pm. After the publishing party, teaching texts will stay in the hallway for a couple weeks for other students and families to share. Once shared, students are welcome to take them home! We look forward to your visit! When you come, ask students about the big ideas they learned and give any compliments from their presentation. See you then! Hello families, Math This week we explored many new ways to solve addition problems. According to the Seattle Public Schools math curriculum, "in second grade, students are not expected to learn or use the standard algorithm for multi-digit addition ('carrying'). This skill will be taught in third grade as a key fluency strategy." So, to our math strategy toolbox we added (no pun intended) adding by parts, adding with a number line, adding by place value, and adding by associative property. In second grade, the main goal in mathematics is for students to gain number sense (playing with numbers and place value) and using multiple strategies for solving addition and subtraction strategies. We will continue practicing these strategies as we start adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers. Pacific Northwest Ballet Pliet, releve, and pique! Students pranced, danced and learned about the behind-the-scenes at PNB. Enjoy these photos of our warm up and costume reveal. Hello families,
Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a restful and calm break. Students started the new year back continuing our non-fiction reading and writing units, and started reviewing and learning adding and subtracting within 100 strategies in math. In this newsletter I have included a summary of SeeSaw, a new journaling/blogging app, and the login process for Reading Horizons. Technology Update SeeSaw At QAE, we are so lucky to have access to the newest technology. We just started a using a new program called SeeSaw! It is an app that allows students to document their work in writing, drawing, photo or video. It's similar to KidBlog with slightly less login hassle and a simpler user interface. Students will be able to sort their work into separate folders depending on what they are blogging about. Students can comment on other students' work. Before any work is posted, SeeSaw requires that I approve student work. This feature is great because I can give feedback to students right away about their work, and regulates what content is posted. Here is the letter from SeeSaw for parent access: Dear Parents, This year we're going to use a new tool to share what we're learning in class called Seesaw. Your child will have his or her own learning journal, and you can get notified when your child adds new items. It's completely private -- only you can see your child's journal outside of class. Click on https://app.seesaw.me/s/011-355-975 to sign up -- it takes just 30 seconds. Once you sign up, you can download the Seesaw Parent app for iPhone or Android, or access your child's journal on the web. Thanks! Once you click on the link, SeeSaw will send me a notification that you would like to view your child's work and I will approve you. You may send the link to anyone, and I will verify with you if there is anyone who is not a guardian asking for access. Most students should have at least one post. Some might not have any due to some technology glitches, but we will be adding more in the weeks to come! Reading Horizons We also started the Reading Horizons app which is associated with the Reading Horizons phonics curriculum. It is an engaging app that teaches and reinforces the marking skills from the Reading Horizons curriculum. We will mostly use this app in school. If students would like to use it at home, that is great! I would set the limit to about 60 minutes per week, however this is not required. To sign in, first download the Puffin Academy app (the background is purple). Then download the Reading Horizons app within Puffin Academy. Then, students use queenanne as their site ID. Next, use the first initial of their first name, and then their full last name. No spaces. For example, my name would look like: kthibault Please let me know if you have any questions or ask your student to see if they remember our login process! |
Ms. ThibautOne of the second grade teachers at QAE. Read this blog and stay up-to-date on classroom activities. Archives
March 2017
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Ms. Thibault's 2nd Grade | Class Blog |