2Mu Busy Bee News
Weeks of September 3-17, 2018
Community Building Activities:
- On the first day of school we solved our mystery puzzle by unscrambling the letters to create words and then our classroom theme ~ "Second Graders Are Busy BEEs." We are the Busy BEEs because we plan to give our Best Effort Everyday!
- To get to know our classmates and familiarize ourselves with our new learning community, we completed many community building activities. We went on an "Autographs Please" hunt to find classmates who completed certain activities. For example, did you hike, go camping, plant a garden, etc.
- We discussed the value of being respectful and modeled ways to show respect. Then as a class, we devised a set of classroom rules that show respect for ourselves, others, and our school. After creating our classroom rules, we all signed the agreed upon rules consenting to follow the rules to the best of our ability. We promise to give our Best Effort Everyday in all that we do!
- To help us be risk-takers and stay motivated, we talked about Growth Mindset. We plan to train our brains to realize that we can accomplish all our goals with a positive growth mindset. The power of YET!
- As second graders, we discussed our Hopes and Dreams. We discussed and then wrote our goals as second graders.
- We read and discussed My Mouth is a Volcano. We discussed the importance of being attentive and listening to the speaker and not "Bumping Words."
Readers' Workshop:
- As readers, we read and discussed First Day Jitters. We made a text to self connection by writing about our first day of second grade jitters.
- To prepare for our Narrative Writing Unit, we read and discussed Owl Moon. We focused on descriptive words the author used to set the story scene and entice the reader to want to read more of the story.
- We also read and discussed Miss Nelson is Missing. We compared and contrasted the story characters Miss Nelson and Miss Viola Swamp. We also wrote about our favorite part of the story and created a Schoolhouse to display our writing.
Writers' Workshop:
- During Writers' Workshop, we talked about various topics we could write stories about. We completed a Heart graphic organizer denoting all the people, places, things, and memories we hold close to our heart. We placed the heart in our writing folder as a reference for when we need story ideas.
- We completed our Beginning of the Year writing assessment by writing a Small Moment story. We showed off all that we learned in First Grade.
- To help build our spelling and dictionary skills, we began to use a Quick Word book. The book contains all the basic words we may need help spelling and we can also add additional words we learn. So far we added the words literature, genre, and indivisible.
- We began to build our grammar skills by completing Daily Edit.
Math:
- As mathematicians, we started to establish math routines by documenting the school day count, discussing the daily calendar and weather, as well as the Roman Numeral for each school day.
- We practiced doing mental math using our slates, dry erase markers, and erasers. We practiced counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's
- Our class completed a Beginning of the Year Math Assessment to determine our retention of first grade math skills.
- We also practiced writing a sequence of numbers counting by ones and by skip counting.
- To help reinforce our skills with comparing and ordering numbers, we learned to play a game called "Squeeze the Number Line."
- During Math on Friday, we played Fun Friday Math Games. We had 4 centers: counting coins, finding math sums of 10, playing squeeze the number line, and telling time.
Social Studies:
- As a class, we discussed the pledge of allegiance. We helped define some of the unfamiliar words in the pledge such as indivisible, liberty, allegiance.
- We began our first Social Studies Unit learning about communities. A community is a place where people live, work, play, and solve problems. As a class we discussed how we can belong to more than one community. For example, we belong to our classroom community, our school community, our neighborhood community, etc.
Special Activities:
- We met with our 4L Buddies and completed a "Getting to Know You" Activity
- Mr. Bissinger visited our class and read two stories to us.
- We attended a Dr. Recess assembly and learned some new recess games
- To add a personal touch to our classroom decor, we drew and painted a self portrait of ourselves.
- We participated in "Fruity Friday!" The donated grapes were deeeelicious!
Unscrambling Our Second Grade Mystery Puzzle
Second Graders Are Busy BEEs!
Meeting with Our 4L Buddies
Our 2Mu Classroom Community
Math ~ Playing Squeeze the Number Line
CAFE ~ Buddy Reading Using E.E.K.K
Social Studies ~ Designing and Drawing Our Unique Community
Fruity Friday Fun!
Mrs. Lisa Murphy
Email: lamurphy@haddonfield.k12.nj.us
Location: 501 West Redman Avenue, Haddonfield, NJ, USA
Phone: (856)429-0811
Twitter: @LisaMurph206