Mrs. Turley's Tidbits
Week of 9/26th - 9/30th
Hello to Cooler Weather!
This week we took our second Unit Test. Wow! I am SO impressed with how much our class is retaining in Fundations. We discussed how the letters -m/-n are "nasal" sounds and these sounds cannot be made with the nose blocked. These sounds come out of your nose. The m/n can distort the vowel sounds especially the -a and -I.
Literacy: We hit our reading standard RL.2.9 really hard this week. This standard is I can compare and contrast two versions of the same story. We read two versions of Little Red Riding Hood, two versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and two versions of The Three Little Pigs. We used the graphic organizer called a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast each of the two stories. We started with doing one as a "We Do," then another one was completed with a partner, and finally the last one was completed independently. This would be fun to do at home and have more practice on this Common Core Reading Standard. Go to the library and get two versions of another fairy tale and ask your 2nd grader what was the same and what was different in the two texts. You'll see for yourself that they've become EXPERTS at this!
Math: We reviewed skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. Kudos to our fabulous first grade teachers for helping these students do so well with this skill at this point in the year. Skip counting helps make solving equations and word problems much easier. It also is a great strategy to add to our Math "Tool Box"! Using a number line and a "blank" number line were a few learning targets this week too. One more Tool Box item!
Writing Workshop: One way to make a narrative better is by using dialogue or having character talk. This week we worked on how to include quotation marks for dialogue in your writing. This is new to many of our second graders so we are trying it out and experimenting with it.
S.T.E.M. : Our STEM Engagement Activity with Mrs. Love this week targeted the important and necessary skill of COMMUNICATION. The students were paired up and given a bags of identical Legos. The students sat back-to-back so they couldn't see what the other one was doing. First, Partner A built something and then the Partner B had to ask questions to try to duplicate the building. We discovered how important good, thoughtful questions need to be to find out information. Secondly, the students were put into small teams with two bags of Legos. One student built something, another student was the "Runner" and would look at the building and then go to the third partner to tell he/she how to build it. It was a SUPER-engaging activity and it had the students really working on and testing their communication AND listening skills!
Social Emotional Learning: We have been discussing "Growth Mindset" and the importance of having one! The students are learning the importance of "grit," that mistakes are important to learning, our brain is a muscle and we need to give it a workout, and a small but might word...YET! If you'd like to learn about Growth Mindset too, just visit our Class Dojo page and click on Big Ideas. There are five short videos presenting the Growth Mindset philosophy.
Star of the Week...Elijah Lewis!
Happy Birthday to Ty Peboontom!
We love our IDR...independent reading time.
S.T.E.M. and Legos makes for a great activity.
Communicating with only WORDS!
Success for this team! Their Legos match perfectly!
Let's compare and contrast two versions of Little Red Riding Hood.
We can use two overlapping paper plates for our Venn Diagram.
Let's think and share but then divide the writing...smart idea!
Ms. Valentour shows us the vines with all the gourds.
Harvesting the garden of gourds.
Our "outside classroom" this week.
Upcoming Special Events...
October 6th - Erin's Law Presentation by Ms. Aschinger our School Social Worker
October 10th - No School: Columbus Day Holiday
October 14th - Our first of four D.A.R.E. lessons with Officer Hogan
October 28th - Halloween Dance: 6:30 p.m. in the Meadowview Gym
Rosemary Turley
Email: turleyr@woodridge68.org
Website: www.woodridge68.org
Location: 2525 Mitchell Drive, Woodridge, IL, United States
Phone: 630-969-2390
Twitter: @turleyrfox