Important dates:
0 Comments
Important dates:
Friday, April 8 - Mid-year report cards go out April 11-15 - Spring Break Monday, April 18 - Whale PBL Kick-off Hi families, With the end of PBL and the start of spring, we began three new units! Writing: Powerful fiction - We are revisiting our narrative writing skills, exploring more nuanced master author craft moves and growing our writing stamina! Reading: Fiction book clubs - We've discussed why do people have book clubs and how do you form book clubs. Next, we'll dive more into how to hold a book club, specifally how much to read, using evidence from the text and crafting opinions about authors' literary choices. Science: Liquids - Students compared water, oil and corn syrup, making observations and using words to describe the differences in each substance. In other news: If anyone has any specific requests about what they would like to see or read about in the newsletter, I am open to suggestions. It would be helpful for me to craft my newsletters so that they are most helpful and informative for you. Let me know. Thanks! Important dates: Monday, March 21 - World Water Day Tuesday, March 22 - ParentNet Wednesday, March 23 - Early release @ 1:40pm April 11-16 - Spring Break Hello families, First of all, I apologize for not writing last week. There was a lot of important news, and I did not get it out on time. Thank you for your understanding and I will get out important news to you in the future. With that said, this was an exciting week! We celebrated our hard work with a PBL gathering on Thursday night. Thanks to all the families that helped out and participated! I enjoyed discussing water and the PBL process with you all. For those who weren't able to make it, I will work to make sure your student's project is visible on SeeSaw (it will most likely be next week :) ). SeeSaw: I spoke with some families last night that didn't have access to SeeSaw. SeeSaw is a new program for students, families and teachers to share and discuss work, learning and choice time creations. 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! I have also sent home the QR code for you to use on your phones. Look for them today! Quick update on the week: Reading and writing: Water PBL! Next week we will begin Powerful Fiction in writing and book club conversations in reading. Math: Measurement - Metric - We have so far investigated measurement with non-standard units (finger, hand, books, etc) and centimeter and meters. Next, we will look into customary measurement, comparing measurements, and plotting data from items we have measured. Science: We will start our Liquids Kit next week. Look for more on this next week. Important Dates: Thursday, March 17 - Water PBL celebration (@ night TBD) Monday, March 21 - World Water Day Wednesday, May 11 - Aquarium field trip Hello families, Water PBL: As we bore deeper into our water project-based learning (PBL), one of the main goals of this first PBL is to learn how to work together as a team. We are practicing compromising, problem solving, planning and presenting. As you can imagine, these skills can even be difficult for adults! Our students are working hard researching and communicating. Today (Friday), we played some games to lighten the load and really discuss some of the ways we can improve our team work. Here are some of the ways the students came up with to work well together: Cleaned up well! Here were some challenges: -Time management - Sharing - Assigning tasks - Compromising It is clear that there are many challenges to group work! We will continue working and building as the project continues. Bar Model Math I have received some confused and even frustrated faces from my students about this new concept in math. Bar models! Here is a quick run-down on bar model math: Originating from Singapore math and now used in Math In Focus, it is a strategy in math students can use to help figure out word problems and which operation would be best to solve the problem. It can be used as a part-part/whole format or as a comparative format. Click here to find out more (see bar models helping solve fraction problems!) This strategy does not, per se, solve the problem for students. However, it does help students visualize and conceptualize the problem. Run down of the week: Reading: Research for water PBL (note taking, looking for main ideas, asking questions to guide reading) and spring ORF (1 min reading assessment) Writing: Writing for PBL and opinion letters (why we should choose our own seats in class)
Important Dates: Tuesday, March 1st - 100th Day (Square Day - 10 squared) Thursday, March 17 - Water PBL celebration (@ night TBD) Monday, March 22 - World Water Day Wednesday, May 11 - Aquarium field trip Hello families, I hope everyone had a calm and restful long weekend. The valentine's party was a hit and we had a busy short week last week investigating the water cycle, irrigation methods and addition and subtraction word problems. This week, I had the wonderful opportunity through the SPS STAR Mentor program to go on a site visit to 3 different school in the Seattle Public School district. I was able to see teachers at Rainier View, Broadview and Coe Elementary Schools. I feel so fortunate! It opened my eyes to the many resources we have access to at QAE, and the many things I can start implementing in our classroom. I feel invigorated and have already started sharing some of the teaching tips I learned on my visit with the class. Quick run down of the week: World Read Aloud Day: So great! Students were able to manage navigating the buildings, and I only heard positive reactions from ALL students. Thanks to all the volunteers! Reading: We have been reading about water and the various properties, locations and effects of it that it has on life. Students have been practicing note-taking skills in reading to prepare for our group work in PBL. Writing: Students have been practicing writing opinion pieces. Today, students wrote proposals about which water topic they want to explore and present! Math: Students have been using bar models to help illustrate and solve word problems for addition and subtraction. AT HOME SCIENCE CHALLENGE: We had a guest visitor, Shaun O'Neil, from King County talking to us about what happens to our poop and pee (yes, he did use those words in front of the kids). He gave us information about how our waste water gets processed on a city- and county-wide level. Here's the experiment: Materials: -3 clear jars with water -toilet paper -paper towel -dirt/soil Put toilet paper, paper towel and dirt in jars (do not mix materials). Shake. Rest. See what happens to the materials in side. You've just created a small version of our wastewater system! Tweet or share your results! Important events: Friday, February 12: Valentine's Day Celebration Monday-Tuesday, February 15 and 16 - No school Wednesday, February 24: World Read Aloud Day Hi families, With our first PBL underway, our second unity party celebrated and the QAE word of the month being compassion, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the year so far. First of all, I want to thank all parents and family members who have volunteered their time in the classroom. Your hours of help and creativity have been immensely helpful in growing our classroom and has allowed us to go on some excellent field trips! Secondly, I appreciate the support you have given me as a first year teacher at QAE. It was a bit of a bumpy start to the year and I appreciate the encouragement and patience I've received along the way. I would not be where I am without your support. As we reach the mid-point of the year, we still have a lot of work to do. I hope that I can maintain your support knowing that all students will reach their full potential in different ways, with different kinds of support at different times. It is an honor to be teaching here at QAE. Finally, I hope you all enjoy your long weekend! I look forward to your students sharing compliments on Friday (I will be out), and getting a break so we can come back with renewed enthusiasm and focus. Here’s a run down of the week: Math: Subtraction – Subtract in parts, subtract by counting up, and subtracting with base 10 blocks. Reading: Note taking skills! Students were introduced to different ways to collect and organize information. Writing: Letter to the editor – students wrote letters expressing their feelings and reactions to the Flint, MI water crisis. Some might even be addressed to you! PBL: Students learned about the water cycle and played Bodies of Water Bingo. Can you name all 5 oceans? Important events: Thursday, February 11: Compliment cards due Friday, February 12: Valentine's Day Celebration Wednesday, February 24: World Read Aloud Day Hello families, This week we celebrated the Day of Play and our second Unity Celebration (check out @qaethibault for photos). In addition to these fun events, we kicked off our Water project-based learning unit. As a class, we read about the Flint, Michigan water issue, talking about how even in the United States access to clean water can be difficult, watched a video of a boy name Martin and toasted to clean water! Students then discussed some of the information they know about water. “[Water] can be liquid.” “Water is the earth’s main material.” “Some water can be poisonous.” These were just some of the facts students shared. Next, students wrote down what they wanted to know about water. Here are some of their questions:
Our kick-off was followed by a field trip to the Gates Foundation. This gave us greater insight into one organization showing compassion and helping communities in our neighborhood and in the world. This helped us reach our water PBL question: How can everyone get access to clean water daily? For the next three weeks we will research and problem solve solutions to answer this question. Students will come up with questions and research topics they are interested in, working in teams, to come up with different ideas on how to answer this question. Writing: Finishing our fairy tales. Look for them in your students folder (today or Monday) Math: Addition word problems, solidifying multiple addition strategies. Look for your students work in the orange folders. More on water PBL next week! 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! 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. |
Ms. ThibautOne of the second grade teachers at QAE. Read this blog and stay up-to-date on classroom activities. Archives
March 2017
Categories |
Ms. Thibault's 2nd Grade | Class Blog |