Students were introduced to the differences of how life was long ago compared to now, and how past events have shaped their life. We explored and analyzed photographs from the past with partners and a whole class discussion. By learning what life looked like long ago, children may begin to develop an awareness of change over time that prepares them to think historically about their ancestors life in the past.
We launched our first project on Tuesday with a special visit from a guest. The guest and Ms. K shared a little bit about their heritage and family background. Second Grade students seemed to enjoy hearing the stories that were told with a slide show and a suitcase of artifacts. After the presentations, all kinds of conversations were sparked among students about their own family stories and the countries their families were from. Students will be digging into their own roots to discover more about where their families came from with an assignment in the next couple of weeks (Details to follow).
![]() On Friday’s students have the opportunity to participate in Community Open Work time for the last hour of the day. COW time aims to allow students to try new opportunities/activities and teach them new skill sets that are applicable to a subject that interests them. Every 6 weeks 5 new activities are introduced and students make independent choices about which activity they want to do. This last week some students chose to participate in an activity that encourages creative thinking, teamwork, problem-solving and other skills necessary to be successful in school, work and life. Teams of 2-4 students worked together to solve a challenge of using a bag of various items to build a model of a museum. Students are learning how to work towards a group goal in a limited amount of time. Strong groups have members that show sensitivity to the ideas of others and group members that stay on task. In math, we have started working on our math facts with a program called Factswise. FactsWise breaks the addition/subtraction facts up into nine goals, progressing from more easily-learned facts to the ones that provide more challenge. It is important that students are fluent with their math facts. By fluency, we mean being able to automatically recall the facts, quickly and easily. Knowing their facts by memory helps them focus on more complicated math processes later rather than basic calculation. We use an abacus, unifix cubes, number lines, and ten frames to help the students learn their facts. These manipulatives help students build a mental image that will help them become faster at solving facts (and eventually memorizing them). We are seeing an improvement in the skill and confidence levels of our second grader students already! Hoot-Hoot Hooray for second graders! In Reader's Workshop this week we talked about how we'll be learning about what students can do to be better readers and how "reading is thinking!" What does this mean? Students will be learning reading comprehension strategies that help them better understand their reading. The strategy we practiced this week is to use our Schema to enhance our understanding and interact with the text. Schema is all the stuff that's already inside your head, like places you've been , books you've read and all the experiences you've had. Readers comprehend better when they actively think about and apply their knowledge of the books topic, their own experiences and the world around them. ![]() Students worked collaboratively in groups to illustrate the “CRA6” school rules. The CRA6 rules are applicable to all students at CRA. This activity helped students gain a better understanding of what the CRA6 included. Students seemed to really enjoy this activity and have a better understanding of the CRA6 . In Math, we have started the factwise program and the math unit on Measurement. Students enjoyed estimating and measuring the height of each other. ![]() Second graders painted lovely self portraits this last week. These artists worked hard to accuratedly sketch and paint their face. Some students did a lot of color mixing to create the correct tones for their skin, hair and eyes. Self portraits are a great way for students to explore the concept of a sense of self and explore how they are different or alike with others. They will be putting the final touches on their paintings this week. After brainstorming adjectives that describe what makes them special or unique both inside and out, they will write the words on their painting. Our young writers have been very busy writers these past two weeks. They’ve written about their summer, 2nd grade goals, favorite part of second grade and the best day they ever had. These writing pieces have helped us get to know our students better as writers and were enjoying getting to know more about them. The writing focus for these first few weeks has been on including the topic and closing sentence, transition words (First, Next, Then, etc.,), and lots of details to support the topic sentence. We had a wonderful first week of school together in 2nd Grade! We spent the week getting acquainted, sharing our favorite books and building routines, procedures and our classroom communities! With this structure in place, we're ready to start our great learning as readers, writers and mathematicians!
Students have already started to think like mathematicians and were introduced to a variety of mathematical tools that will be available and accessible in the classroom. They had the opportunity to select tools that were needed to help them solve two digit addition word problems. This week we also started sharing our "All About Me" bags and we're learning so much about one another. We're off to a amazing start and are looking forward to a great year in second grade! Students sharing "All About Me" bags |
"Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand." Archives
June 2016
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