Enjoy photos from Field Day! Hello families, What an amazing year we had together! Thank you all so much for your support and help with your students at home and in the classroom and in the greater QAE community. I know families have many fun things planned this summer. However, no matter where you go, your students can continue learning and practicing the skills they gained over the year. Below is a short list of things students can do this summer to build skills. This is such a small list though! You could have your students make their own lists that suits their likes and goals for the summer. Thanks again, and I look forward to seeing the returning students in the fall in 3rd grade and good luck to all families venturing out to new destinations! Reading Start a book club with friends Summer reading lists - Imagination Soup 2nd - 3rd - 4th - Education.com Seattle Public Schools Summer Programs Finish a whole series Writing Keep a Journal Writing Projects Photo journal - Take photos and describe the moments in the photos Math Photo journal - Take photos and describe the math (shapes, addition and subtraction, arrays, time) Make your own math game Be the change counter over the summer for your family Play Blackjack to practice mental math Math in Focus workbooks Reflex Math ST Math
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Important dates: June 19 - Father's Day June 23 - Field Day June 24 - Last day of school - 1-hour early release Hello families! Showcase For all those that were able to make it, thank you so much for coming to the PBL showcase night! As you saw, students worked hard to create interesting and informative presentations. The amazing turn out of families made it feel official and important. As someone familiar with project-based learning, and a new teacher, it was heart warming to feel the excitement and support among families from all grades at QAE. Thank again! Beach Reading Students participated in the first annual Beach Reading event with their reading buddies from Ms. Wards class. We brought towels, blankets and buckets of books. Luckily, we just evaded the rain! Mother nature wanted to make sure we got our reading celebration in! Last Week! Monday and Tuesday we will be decorating our t-shirts for field day! Jody and Shinae will provide all the necessary materials including the shirts. The only thing you need to do is make sure your student brings in or wears paint clothes on Monday and Tuesday. We're going to finish the year with cleaning, refections on the year and thoughts about next year. One request is if any families have any books from either the QAE library or Ms. Thibault's library (my library :)), please return them by Thursday. Also, don't forget to return the art portfolio if your student plans on coming back next year. Important Dates:
June 14 - Volunteer breakfast - 9am June 16 - PBL Showcase June 17 - Unity Celebration June 19 - Father's Day June 23 - Field Day June 24 - Last Day of School Hi families, It's gonna be a quick note this week. We have been furiously working on our whale projects this week! Though it is not super PD of me to say, I am proud of all students for their hard work and stamina this week. Students have focused on planning, revising (starting another draft, gasp!), accepting and giving feedback, writing facts in our own words, using Google Drive and Google Docs and working hard to produce our best work. Some students have opted to put all their information on Google Drive. If you would like to access Google Drive, the username is first letter of first name, first letter of middle name, and last name @qae.us. Password is birthday, 8-digits. For example: [email protected] Password: 03121985 (not my actual password! :) ) Other students have chosen to hand write their work. I supported either option. Come next Thursday to see your student's hard work! Email me if you have any questions. Important Dates: June 8 - MAP testing June 16 - PBL Showcase June 17 - Unity Celebration June 19 - Father's Day June 23 - Field Day June 24 - Last Day of School Hi families, Whale Wonder Work All week students have been hard at work researching their whales. Students read and took notes on their whale's appearance, diet, habitat, communication and pod behaviors, threats and an action plan to save whales and their habitats. To start their research, students plan their own learning each day by using a checklist, marking off each fact needed to complete the project, and circling the facts they still need to find. Students also help each other by having an ongoing list of shared kid-friendly online resources written on the front white board. Students give feedback to each other on these resources, and then use the resources that are most helpful. The students have found some amazing resources filled with valuable facts and information! As students finish their research, they compile their keywords to create a glossary, and finish their resource page. Once they have collected all their data, that is when the writing begins! Next week students will start using their research to create expert whale informational texts! Math Challenge #14 Thanks to our very own Lara Francisco, our students were give the gift of math challenge #14! This challenge asks students to create their own math game, accompanied with rules, materials, number of players and a game board (if needed). Students started last Friday on their creations and we will finish them up today, turning them into Ms. Francisco this evening. Students have been very invested in their creations, making multiple drafts and revisions, incorporating addition, subtraction, time, money and some multiplication! Students even chose to work on their games instead of having choice time! Next week we will finish up time and start counting money! Whale photos I apologize for the tardiness of this. Here is a link to whale photos taken by Ms. Shaw and some of the chaperones: Ms. Shaw: https://drive.google.com/a/qae.us/folderview?id=0BxaAvcmDMX3uMTJyRXo1NU5DOEk&usp=sharing Ben Hanisko: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/grzvtpdrtohg695/AABGfHKsOds9sdPrcRoOOMQVa?dl=0 For other chaperones that came, if you would like to add some photos, please do! Important Dates: May 24 - Poetry Reading Celebration - 9:25am May 30 - Memorial Day - No School June 1 - Early Release - 1:40pm June x(2?), 8 - MAP testing June 16 - PBL Night June 23 - Field Day June 24 - Last Day of School Hi families, It seems like lately all we have had are exciting weeks, however, this was another truly adventurous week. Whale PBL: Students have continued to work on scientific drawings of their whales. Students have practiced creating many revisions and giving and receiving critiques for following drafts. Using positive language and not considering a "not perfect" draft a failure has been the big learning goals. In addition, students received a research packet with a page dedicated for whale research topics such as habitat, appearance, diet, young, and action plans to help save whales. Students use note-taking skills and specific keyword searches to acquire the information they need. Writing: We have been working hard to build up our poetry portfolios. Tuesday, May 24th we will celebrate by having a poetry reading. Students will pick one poem that they feels highlights a certain strategy, or is just plain enjoyable. Be there! Math: We started our time unit with skip counting by 5's, followed by writing analog time to digital time, playing a time memory game to practice. Later on, we looked at the root of AM and PM (ante meridiem - antes in Spanish = before (thanks Cecilia!)- before noon! Conversely, post meridiem - post test =an after test - after noon!). Important dates: May 17 - In-school whale speaker - Whale Scouts May 19 - Talent show May 20 - Field trip - Whale Watching! May 24 - Poetry Celebration! - 9:25am May 30 - Memorial Day - No School Hi families, What a whale week! The week began with Jeff Hogan from Killer Whale Tales, a non-profit organization that studies whales and teaches about environmental advocacy to save whales. Students listened to whales calls from local Pugent Sound pods (J, K, L), and received whale trading cards! Jeff gave students an opportunity to collect 10 more! He sent home an environmental checklist. If the whole class completes it, each student gets 10 more cards! I have extra copies. The soft due date is May 27th. Let me know if you need another copy! Aquarium: Wednesday we went to the aquarium! Students participated in hands-on actities and got to explore the aquarium on their own. Highlights: Octopus, fish and sea lion feedings, scuba diver dress up and touch tanks. Whale PBL: Students are becoming whale experts! Students chose their top 3 whales, explaining questions and wonders about their options. I then went through and assigned a wide variety of whales to students so that we will be experts about whales on every inch of the globe. If students want to start doing research at home they may do so and bring it in. Topics we will research: whale communication and behavior, feeding habits, migration patterns, babies, sleeping, and other fun facts unique to their whale. Math: We finished up fractions and geometry with a post-assessment. On to time! Writing: Students closely considered carefully chosen words in poetry. We tried out alliterations, similes, and repeated words to create rhythm. Important dates: May 9 - Whale Tales - In-school speaker May 11 - Field trip - Aquarium May xx - Poetry celebration! (Date TBA) May 17 - In-school whale speaker May 19 - Talent show May 20 - Field trip - Whale Watching May 30 - Memorial Day - No School Hi families, This week in math we started comparing, adding and subtracting fractions. We first named a fraction as an equal part of a whole. We then labeled fractions in word form and numerical form. Ask your students about the numerator and denominator (Which one is the whole? Which one is the part?). In second grade students should be able to identify, name and compare 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4. In addition, students should be able to take a rectangle and split it up into 2, 3 and 4 equal parts and count the number of parts. Later, comparing fractions, we discussed how if we had a cookie of the same size, what would be more, 2 equals parts or 23 equal parts? We then started adding and subtracting like fractions, finishing up the week by playing Bump, an adding fractions game. We will finish up fractions next week and start in on time! THANK YOU! Thank you so much to everyone for the wonderful gifts, food, flowers, compliments and coffee! This has been a great week and I have really felt your appreciation. I look forward to sharing the rest of the year with you and your students! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! Important dates: May 9 - Whale Tales - In-school speaker May 11 - Field trip - Aquarium May xx - Poetry celebration! (Date TBA) May 17 - In-school whale speaker May 20 - Field trip - Whale Watching May 30 - Memorial Day - No School Hi families, What a whaley fun week! Students this week researched, sorted and mapped baleen and toothed whales, learned about echolocation and watched The Whale: The True Story of Luna, a documentary about a lost whale trying to find connections with humans in a community in the Canadian Puget Sound. Next week, we will look into pod behavior, captivity and watch Free Willy. Let me know if you would not like your child to watch the movie. I will find an alternative for them to discuss some of the issues in the movie. Our guiding question, "How can we as compassionate and concerned global citizens help whales?" will lead us as we continue our investigation. For the final project, each student will create a written report about a whale of their choosing. After finishing the report, they will create, in some form, a presentation to share the information they gathered. We will display them at the PBL night on June 16th. Reading - Students are in the midst of book clubs! Students have been avidly reading books and discussing with their group of 3 or 4. Students ask questions such as "Why did the author write this book?", "What do you predict?" and "How has the main character changed throughout the book?" Math - Shapes and Fractions! This week, we reviewed shapes, shape names and fractions. Vocabulary words included numerator (part of a whole) and denominator (whole, number of parts or number in a group). Ask your student to share some of the knowledge. What is the fraction of cake eaten if I eat 3 of the 4 pieces? Writing - Students had a mini celebration of their poetry, sharing with the class their favorite poem they wrote so far. Students have been working on line breaks, adding imagery, creating rhythm and taking big feelings from small moments. I will be sending out another round of permission slip on Monday. It is the back side of the first permission slip. Look out for it! Important dates: May 9 - Whale Tales - In-school speaker May 11 - Field trip - Aquarium May xx - Poetry celebration! (Date TBA) May 20 - Field trip - Whale Watching May 30 - Memorial Day - No School Hello families, Welcome back from spring break! Students warmed up with 3 new units! We started poetry, geometry, and got to look at all of our amazing book clubs! We had an exciting Friday, as it was the final day of Dwankhozi week. Students experienced art, food and play from Zaimbia in the morning. In the afternoon, the entire school got together to celebrate the amazing connection between the two sister schools, honoring Maurice and Ida. Writing: Students looked at old objects with poet's eyes - describing items in new ways. The also started playing around with line breaks, and how changing line breaks can affect the sound and rhythm of a poem. Math: Students reviewed 2-D and 3-D, explored the classroom looking for plane shapes and started their very own whale art using only shapes! Our next endeavor will be to break up shapes into equal shares, exploring the foundation of fractions. Reading: Students did a gallery walk of all the book club books, working on partner reading, retelling and coming up with agreements for how to run a book club. They worked really hard and came up with better agreements than I would have been able to alone! Pictures to come! Bonus at home work (not homework): PBL: Bring in an article about a whale! Be ready to present a brief summary of what you learned. Math: Find shapes in nature. Take a picture or make a drawing of the shape/s you found. Where did you find this shape? Was it repeated? Was it animal or vegetable or mineral? We will present these during math. Important dates: May 9 - Whale Tales - In-school speaker May 11 - Field trip - Aquarium May 20 - Field trip - Whale Watching May 30 - Memorial Day - No School Hi families, This week we finished up our measurement unit, comparing lengths in customary units. We celebrated our fantastic fiction! We celebrated our growth working together with a unity party! Yesterday, report cards went out. Look for them in your student's backpack if you haven't already seen it. Thanks to all the folks who already returned the envelope! With your student's report card, I also sent out aquarium and whale watching permission slips. Please return these slips! The total for both of these field trips is $62.00. We have scholarships available if needed. For the whale watching field trip, expect more forms! Today, we had the opportunity to have a guest author speaker, Liz Wong, author and illustrator of Quackers. She read us her story, talked to us and showed us her revision process, and drew some of her characters. We were so lucky! Look for a book form if you're interested in purchasing Quackers. To keep you busy over spring break, I sent refresher forms on how to log in to Reflex, Epic and Reading Horizons. Your students should be familiar with these programs. The directions can help you help them if necessary. Lastly, enjoy your spring breaks and see you in a week! |
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 |