"Reflecting on one's success and experiences allows one to grow and become a better person."
~Mr. Tidwell
Tuesday Folder's Enews
2/10/12 Week 3.6
This week we began looking and studying persuasive text and incorporating it into our own writing on a paragraph about eating healthy snacks. We also continued working and practicing identifying story elements of fairy tales. In science, we started a 3 week long unit study of objects in space, beginning with the moon and its phases. A few more days of practicing addition math problems with regrouping is what many of the students needed to understand the process and to confidently work out problems on their own.
~Next week: Valentine's party (Tuesday 12:30-1:30p), fantasy genre (folk tales, tall tales, myths, legends, and fables) and focusing more on their specific elements and the importance of plot details, writing a persuasive letter and report on a social issue, more space travel to study the sun and the other stars in the sky, and switching classes for multiple digit subtraction with borrowing or regrouping
2/3/12 Week 3.5
This week we began reading and analyzing the fairy tale genre. We will continue working and studying fairy tales along with tall tales, fables, myths, legends, etc. After becoming more familiar with this genre's elements, students will be writing their own version or creation of their own. In math, we are continuing to work with addition with regrouping and will be moving on to subtraction with borrowing in the next few weeks. In science, we have been observing and discussing about conservation and today we put it to practice with a few projects... making our own paper out of recycled paper and using our imagination to create something from materials that would normally be thrown away or recycled. I was very pleased to see that my students have wonderful and vivid imaginations. Many students wanted to continue working on their projects at home, which is awesome. Students will get to share their products next week to the rest of the class.
~Next week: fairy tale elements, the moon (science), addition with regrouping, narrative writing
1/27/12 Week 3.4
This week we continued to work with poetry, learning a few more different types and began publishing our own poems into a mini-poetry book. In math, we wrapped up fractions and started working with addition with regrouping. This concept can be challenging for some students, so any reinforcement at home from parents would be beneficial. In science, we are discussing man-made resources and linking them back to their parent natural resource.
~Next week: finish up poetry and begin studying fairy tales, addition w/regrouping, conservation of resources, early release day (Wednesday), counselor guidance lesson (Monday), library (Friday)
1/20/12 Week 3.3
This week we continued working with poetry and learned how to write haikus and acrostic poems. In math we continued with fractions, focusing this week on introducing the concept of equivalent fractions and fractions of a group. In science we starting learning about natural resources and natural hazards.
~Next week: publishing poetry, rocks and man-made resources from natural resources, finish up fractions and begin working with addition with regrouping, and new small book groups.
1/13/12 Week 3.2
This week we continued to work and read poetry, examining and noticing patterns of fluency when reading poetry. We worked on our own creative poetry by learning to write I Like..., I Don't Like... , and Color poems. In social studies, we learned more about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his contribution to civil rights. We then researched other people from the past and created timelines to present their contributions to the world. In math, we began working with fractions and looking at how to divide something whole into equal parts. Shout out to our own Joslyn who took home a 1st Place ribbon at the Science Fair and Viktoria for being one of the top students who brought in the most boxtops. Have a wonderful extended weekend.
1/6/12 Week 3.1
This week was mostly spent reviewing class and school wide procedures and expectations. To combine it with what we had previously learned in language arts, students worked with a partner to write out a procedural as a "How to" and then had the rest of the class act it out. We also started reading and discussing about poetry. We will be working with different styles of poetry for the next few weeks in language arts. In math, we reviewed doubles facts and a little bit of doubles+1 (7+8=15, solving by using 7+7=14+1=15). In social studies, we looked back at many of the exciting special things that have happened so far in second grade and put them in a time line. We continued working and learning about time lines for the rest of the week.
~Next week: poetry, time lines/historical figures who have made a great impact on the world, and fractions
12/16/11 Week 2.8
This week consisted up learning about different cultural winter celebrations around the world. We also reviewed many concepts that we have learned this year like geographical locations, graphs, money, time, patterns, letter writing, different reading responses, etc. With the end of the year and holiday festivities approaching, it would have been a task to try to teach second graders anything new. Reviewing concepts and skills though is always good practice for retaining knowledge. We ended the week and semester with a day of fun.. party style. Thanks to all the parents who helped set up today, who have helped out chaperoning field trips and field day, helping out with workroom stuff, and for continuing to encourage your child in school and helping them extend their learning at home. Have a wonderful winter break and see you next year.
12/9/11 Week 2.7
I am beginning to sense the winter break jitters already from my students. This week we continued to learn more about "All About" books and did some small research on a few winter holidays that are celebrated by different cultures. In math, we continued to work with different leveled students on learning what they need to know to move on to third grade (recognize and count coins up to $1). We wrapped up our government unit this week as well, discussing and learning more about the election process and government services. In reading, some of the small groups finished their chapter books and began working a summation of their reading by making a foldable to record their responses. As an early holiday present, there will be no reading response homework for this week and next.
~Next week: Letter writing, circle stories, review math concepts learned thus far, characteristics of a good citizen and patriotic symbols.
12/2/11 Week 2.6
This week we began learning about "All About..." books and how they are organized and composed. After examining a few published works of literature, we will be attempting to write our own "All About .." books next week. So in writing this week, we worked on how to make your writing more interesting for your audience by taking a small moment in the story and "exploding" it by adding sensory details that will help illicit your audiences mental images and connections to the writing. Second grade also started switching classes this week to allow students to focus on their level of need for the concept of money skills. We will continue to switch classes for next week too. In social studies, we are learning about government with a focus on city, state, and national levels of government, along with key vocabulary related to it.
~Next week: All About book writing, money, government services/citizenship
11/22/11 Week 2.5
Short week (two days), we used these two days to catch up on some ongoing assignments and enjoyed some Thanksgiving theme related math and language arts activities.
11/17/11 Week 2.4
This week we have been busy, with trying to squeeze in the last few practices of our Thanksgiving play, yet continuing to push forward with learning more academic skills. In language arts, we focused on cause and effect and put it to practice with reading short stories and identifying several C&E's within them. In writing, we finished our procedural text writing and then worked a little more with increasing our writing stamina with daily journaling and fluency of ideas. We resumed our normal schedule midweek after taking the final assessment of a two and half week concentration of working with clocks and telling time. The rest of the week was spent reviewing basic math addition facts and pretesting for our next unit on money. Science this week attracted many of the students' interest because we were learning about magnetism. With a few hands-on activities to play around with this concept, students were able to have a better understanding of it. Our play was performed this morning to an wonderful audience who all came to support our little theatrical stars. If anyone who videoed it could send me a copy, I would love to have it and show it to the class.
~Next Week: Thanksgiving activities to practice working with voice in writing, math facts, reading comprehension, and more cause/effect
11/11/11 Week 2.3
This week in class we have been busy practicing for our upcoming Thanksgiving play. We have also been finishing up our books from our literature circles. In writing, we started working with procedural texts and focusing on "how to" writing. Many students were able to finish rough drafting their papers this week and had time to publish them in the computer lab today. We are coming close to the end of our unit focus on telling time, wrapping it up next Tuesday. We will of course continue to throw in math problems every now and then to continue to strengthen this skill. In science, we learned more about forces by analyzing and experimenting with forces of pushing and pulling. Something new this week is that we will be working with the same list of spelling sorts for two weeks instead of just one. This will give students more time to really work with, recognize, and use the learning spelling patterns. We have also started a color chart and student calendar to record daily behavior. This group of students are more visually stimulated learners, so the color chart really helps them remember the choices they make the day and the effects of these choices. I have added information about this to the Community 5-3-0 page. Students will be responsible to record their color each day at the end of the day in their calendar, which can be found in their orange folder. This folder will come home every week on Fridays so that you can see how their week was. Of course if you want to check it daily, just remind your child to bring it home everyday.
~Next week: play practice, procedural texts,time and review patterns, and magnetism
11/4/11 Week 2.2
This week in class we have been learning the importance of retelling a story that we read, in that, it's important to remember the names of important characters, the setting, and main points in the story's plot. We finally finished up our expository writing and enjoyed listening and learning from half of the class as they presented their information. In math, we are switching classes to continue working with telling time. By the end of second grade, students should be able to tell time to the 5 minute interval with no assistance. Science this week was quite loud as we were learning about sound energy and how sound travels as invisible waves and that we can adust sound using volume and pitch.
~Next week's agenda: cause and effect, procedural text, telling time, forces of push/pull
10/28/11 Week 2.1
This week in language arts, we are focusing on using our schema to think about texts, by asking questions and getting a better idea of what we are about to read. In writing, we have finally started the actual writing process of our expository writing, now that we have learned about how to use a nonfiction text to located specific information and identifying the main idea of paragraphs. In math, we worked with rounding numbers, graphs, and started working with telling time. We are switching classes for teaching time so that every student will be able to work with other students who are also at their learning level on the skill. We will continue to work with clocks for a few more weeks. Science this week introduced us to concept of energy, with a focus on light and heat energy.
~Next week's agenda: reading and retelling, expository writing, time, and sound energy.
Have a safe Halloween.
10/21/11 Week 1.9
The last week of the first 9 week grading period has finally come to an end and oh what fun it has been. This week we finished up our unit study of maps and graphs, and using number lines to locate numbers and for rounding numbers to the nearest 10. We continued to analyze non-fiction texts in language arts, to identify the elements and to continue researching info for our expository writing. We took our first field trip of the year to Inner Space Caverns and even though the students had a good time, after going for the last 6 years, I was disappointed with our tour guide, but at least the kids had fun. In the next few weeks the students will be switching classes for math as they will learn more about clocks and telling time at their instructional level. With Halloween just around the corner, I ask every parent to monitor your child's candy intake, as lately we have been doing a fantastic job with the fresh fruit and vegetable snacks. As a teacher, I can see the difference it makes in the students' physical and mental abilities in the classroom.
10/14/11 Week 1.8
What a week... everything from a physics presentation that was hilarious to interviewing the news director from KVUE news to our exhausting field day (and that was all in a four day school week!), I am sure glad this week has finally come to an end. So what did we do in between all the excitement, we learned more about non-fiction text features and fact finding to prepare us for our next writing assignment of an expository writing. In math we practice and learned more about picture graphs and how to convert a survey data to a visual representation. In Social studies we are continuing with working with maps. Reminder that we will be going on our first field trip to Inner Space Caverns on Wednesday, so don't forget to pack a lunch with your child and for them to wear our class shirt.
10/7/11 Week 1.7
With only two weeks left in the first 9wk grading period, we have covered quite abit already. This week we focused our reading lessons on making predictions, noticings, and wonderings that we make and have while reading a text to help us think and understand what we are reading better. We worked on the final stage in the writing process this week by publishing our personal narratives about a vacation we went on. Math this week has been fun learning and working with comparing numbers, working with place value, and working with doubles facts. This week and next, we will be learning a little geography. Second graders are expected to learn and identify the seven continents, 4 oceans, Texas, major cities of Texas, the 3 countries that make up North America, and other map elements like a compass rose/cardinal directions, key/legend, and the Equator and Prime Meridian. Next week will be a short one with Monday off for Columbus Day and field day on Friday. For the other 3 days, we will be taken the OLSAT (letter of explanation can be found in the FBE E-folder), diving into nonfiction text and looking for the main idea and fact finding, graphing in math, and brainstorming and prewriting for our next writing assignment on an expository piece. Have a wonderful long weekend!
9/30/11 Week 1.6
This week had our ups and downs but we made it to the end. In language arts, we focus was an author study and we read several books by Kevin Henkes and identified text features (characters, setting, plot, problem, and solution) as well as looking at characters deeper by asking ourselves how the characters felt, why they did the things they did, and how they acted at specific moments in the story. In writing, we practiced with nouns, verbs, and adjectives and then used what we practiced to revise our personal narratives to make them better. Math this week consisted of more practice with place value by writing a number in expanded form and in words. (standard 392, expanded 300+90+2, words 3 hundreds, 9 tens, 2 ones). We also reviewed working with addition +1 facts and how to recognized patterns in numbers to make it easier and quicker to add. We also made a trip to the computer lab to do some activities on the Online Math book to help reinforce learned concepts. We wrapped up our unit of matter study this week with a trip to the science lab for a hands-on activity and an outside experiment today by mixing a solid and liquid to produce a gas that helped launch a rocket. The students had a great time with the last one and wanted to do it at home so here are the materials they need to reproduce the experiment: film canister (clear ones with internal snapped lids work best, vinegar, and alka-seltzer tablets). Have fun!
During our regular Friday library time, I noticed several students checking out books that are above their reading level. When I questioned them, they said that their parents are going to read it to them. Love hearing that parents are helping their child become a stronger reader by letting them work on their listening comprehension skills and getting a taste of more advance books that are out there waiting for them in a few years. Keep up the awesome work parents!!!
9/22/11 Week 1.5
This is week we continued to work on the steps of the writing process with our first writing piece... a personal narrative. We have learned and practiced how to edit and revise to make our writing better. In reading we are continuing to practice how to read with a buddy, thinking about our reading while we are reading to make connections and predictions. By making connections and predictions while we are reading, we will better understand the story and the characters. In math, we had to take another district assessment that took up two days. The rest of the week we practiced working with grouping items in 10's to count by 10's, place value up to the hundreds, and strategies when using a 100's chart. In science, we are continuing with matter and looking at physical changes in matter, whether that change is reversible or irreversible, and that the some changes can be made due to a change in temperature (heating vs. cooling). If you would like to help your child out at home/ help reinforce what they are learning in class, then ask them questions about what they have been doing in class and/or have them explain a concept or topic, or even model for you an example.
9/16/11 Week 1.4
This week we focused and practiced making connections while we are reading to help us better understand either a character in the book or the plot. We will continue to practice these next week so that we will be prepared to write some at home in a few weeks. Our current writing project is a personal narrative on a vacation that we have gone on. This week we focused on the rough drafting stage in that the idea is to get your thoughts on paper with a beginning, middle, and end to it. We then worked on rereading for revision and this week our focus was on sentence fluency (sentences have different beginnings, using transition words, having both short and long sentences). In math, we worked with place value with tens and ones. This should be more of a review from first grade skills, but its always good to review it because we will be venturing into the hundreds place soon. We also worked a little more with time and practicing telling time at the top of the hour and at 30minutes. By the end of the year, second graders are expected to tell the time to the 5 minute increments. For social studies, we discussed American symbols and freedom in accordance with National Freedom Week. Today we went to the computer lab where we all learned how to log on to our online math book so that we could practice working with current math topics.
9/9/11 Week 1.3
This week we learned more about reading strategies that aids a reader in decoding new vocabulary. In writing workshop, we learned and practiced retelling a story using just five fingers and how to organize our thoughts with using a web. Math was not as exciting as normal, as we spent several days taking a district diagnostic test that covers 2nd grade material. This assessment gives teachers and parents an idea of what a student already knows that will be covered in 2nd grade. Many math concepts are expanded with each grade level, with the foundation of these concepts taught in kinder and first grade. We played around with matter this week in science and learned a little about 3 stages of matter and that matter has properties that can help us describe it. We ended our week going to the computer lab and was introduced to SpellingCity.com (accessible at home) and QuizShow (FBE only) for math skills. On a sad note, the "smelly fish" came to visit our classroom and hopefully we can get him to leave next week. It will have to be up to the class to see that it leaves. Have a great weekend.
9/2/11 Week 1.2
So our first official full week of school has come to an end and both the students and the teachers are still standing. This week was a good one because now that most of the students have familiarized themselves with the routines and expectations, we were able to start working with some academics. One of the major changes that took place for this week was a total schedule shift. Because of the breaks we have during the day (recess, lunch, and specials) I had to move things around so that we could all utilize the times in between to the best of our ability. I think it went pretty smoothly for us too. As for the academics, in reading we learned and practice 5 different reading strategies to decode unfamiliar words. We also shared with each other what makes a good reader and some of our favorite books that we love to read or hear being read to us. In writing, we discussed what a writer looks like and how we can better ourselves as writers by reading more and writing everyday. We practiced the different daily spelling activities that we will be doing this year and next week will be our official start with words. Students will be working in small groups that are compatible with their word spelling ability. Math this week was used to work a little with place value and using a hundreds chart as a math tool. Finally science was probably most of the class's favorite activities of the week because we learned about fungus and mold and even set up our first science experiment today. I am really enjoying getting to know each and every student a bit more every day and have high hopes of success for them all.
8/26/11 Week 1.1
The first week of school is almost over and what a great bunch of students I have this year. This week we reviewed all of FBE's QRRs (quality, respect, responsibility) for the hallway, bathroom, cafeteria, and playground. We also did several activities to get to know our new Room 530 community. The first week of school is pretty much the same in every grade level. We go over and practice procedures that ensures that our school and classrooms run effectively. In our class, we talked about what a community is and that we are a small classroom community, in that we have to work together to get things done. To help us work together, our classroom community is adhering to a set of standards (ABCD levels of behavior and 6 character traits). You can learn more about these standards by visiting the "Community 5-3-0" page or asking your child to explain them to you.