Important dates: Monday, March 20 - Unity Celebration Wednesday, March 22 - Early Release (12:05) Tuesday, April 4 - Museum of Flight (finally!) Thursday, April 6 - Poetry Reading - 8:00am April 10-14 - Spring Break - No School Hi families, Highlights from this week: The Boy Who Cried Wolf - What a great production! Thank you to families and Steph for scrambling together drivers and chaperones so we could go. The performers were talented, and the show was fast-paced and engaging. We even had a a cameo on stage with one of our classmates (Miles was the 2nd course to the wolf!). Students enjoyed the sheep who were funny, and had many questions about the costumes. Overall, we would definitely recommend it to friends and family! Irish dancing - In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we had a troop of you Irish dancers come. Check out the video! drive.google.com/open?id=0BwH8zXvw693WbEduOUg1eU1JaVpxZThxTm5yRE85cXY0Yjdv Unity Celebration - Students earned another Unity Celebration for Monday, March 20th by following routines, getting compliments from Ms. Roy and other teachers for exceptional behavior around the school, cleaning together and working together! We will celebrate by watching Wall-E in the afternoon and eating popcorn in our pajamas with a stuffy that can fit in a backpack. Thank you to all the hard work by the students! Poetry - Students looked at repetition and onomatopoeias as they created poems about wonders they have in the world. Math - Students took the test in arrays and did some problem solving with a 3-Act problem. Here is the link to the first act and third act:1st https://youtu.be/Nlt9CLAlmp0 and 3rd - https://youtu.be/IrSP099jb6Q. Three-act problem solving is a type of math problem that is supposed to encourage students to create questions and think about the tools they need to use using a video or image. If you're interested in reading more about 3-act math tasks read here: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2011/the-three-acts-of-a-mathematical-story/ Reading - Students started partner reading, reading the same book along with a partner. This facilitates opportunities to talk about books, ask questions and drive interest in new chapter books. As students grow as readers, they read more and more complex books. Having a partner can help students keep track of plot, characters and the growing complexity of conflicts in chapter books. Partner reading is also a precursor to our book club unit, and the kids love it!
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Important dates: Thursday, March 16 - Play at Rainier Arts Center - Boy Who Cried Wolf Wednesday, March 22 - Early Release (12:05) Tuesday, April 4 - Museum of Flight (finally!) Thursday, April 6 - Poetry Reading - 8:00am April 10-14 - Spring Break - No School Hi families, Poetry Students have been reading and writing poetry this week, building our poet muscles. Included in our routine is discussing and figuring out authors' use of literary language (similes, metaphors and imagery so far), and rhythm created by line breaks. By looking at mentor authors and their use of literary language, students are exposed to the various ways they can write in playful and inventive ways. Students are already noticing and using repetition and rhyming to create rhythm, making comparison in order to see old things in new ways, and playing around with line breaks. Here are a couple students examples: Lima Bean Plant Lima bean plant On window sill Sitting still, Very tall, Never small Sitting there, Very still Sitting on The window sill. Stuff in School Soil feels soft and looks brown. Pencils are hard and long. Clock The clock ticking Tocking like the wind on the window when it hits real hard But now it is sunny and not so windy But sun shines through The window like a clock. Math We started the early stages of multiplication this week with arrays. Arrays in this context are items or pictures organized into equal groups. We find the sum on the arrays using repeated addition. I have asked students to see if they can find arrays in real life and bring them into to show the class. Email me any pictures if students find cool arrays. Good places to look are sky scrapers, boxes of things (pens, crayons, etc.) and at the grocery store. Then see if your student can either make the repeated addition or multiplication equation. Both are acceptable. Seattle Public Schools math curriculum says that multiplication facts truly are underway in the third grade, but no reason not to start early! Reading As we move past the halfway point through the year, readers are working on growing and sustaining stamina, reading longer chapter books. Along with reading longer chapters books comes more characters, complex vocabulary and stories. As a result, we are focusing on reading comprehension skills. Some of these skills include monitoring, clarifying, and questioning. Some common questions are, "I wonder why ...?" "What does _____ mean?" or "How come the character ...?" As you read with your student, check in with them and ask what questions they might have as they read. Important dates: Thursday, March 16 - Play at Rainier Arts Center - Boy Who Cried Wolf Wednesday, March 22 - Early Release (12:05) Tuesday, April 4 - Museum of Flight (finally!) Thursday, April 6 - Poetry Reading - 8:00am April 10-14 - Spring Break - No School Hi families, Welcome back from mid-winter break! Often times, coming back from a break can be challenging for students, getting up early again, re-establishing routines, and putting in a lot of mental work throughout the day. However, your students made the transition beautifully! They got right back into the swing of things. Also, I can tell we are midway through the year. They are growing more self-directed and taking on more responsibility! Weights and Balances Our new science unit focuses on weights and balancing. This week, students explored different types of balancing. First with a balance beam, then mobiles and most recently with an equal-arm balance. Students are exploring how balance changes as weight moves closer to and away from the fulcrum. Students also explore moving the fulcrum and how that action changes balance. Looking forward to exploring more weights and balancing! Math We are finishing up our addition and subtraction focused unit with word problems using a bar models. Bar models came from Singapore math, and are a picture tool to help students organize and solve word problems. If you would like to know more about the progression of bar models you can go to this power point that explains how they are used in each grade. We are finishing up our addition and subtraction unit, however, we will continue to use bar models as we explore money and measurement. Writing Poetry! We are starting our unit in poetry this week. We started by sharing some of our favorite poems and then we practiced writing poetry by looking at everyday objects in new ways. Here is the poem that inspired our initial practice: Pencil Sharpener I think there are a hundred bees inside the pencil sharpener and they buzz and buzz and buzz until my point is sharp! -Zoe Ryder White We will have poetry reading on Thursday, April 6 in the morning (8:00am) to share the work we've created! |
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 |