The 2B Times
January 15, 2016 - Issue 8
Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a nice and restful break and wish you all a healthy and happy 2016. We’ve had a busy two weeks since returning from the break. Thank you to all families who were able to come and make our first Publishing Party a success! We had a lot of fun sharing our personal narrative pieces with you, especially because we worked hard to edit and revise our pieces. We looked for writing that was off topic, added thoughts and feelings, added adjectives as well as a strong lead and powerful ending. We may have been shy when reading such personal stories but we really enjoyed your visit and Skyping with Mrs. Abetti was another highlight of the celebration!
- In Literacy, we started strong with a review of what nonfiction text features are in our reading. Some nonfiction features we know are title page, caption, photographs, keywords, etc. We are integrating reading and writing together as we examine how nonfiction authors write with a purpose to teach and inform. As a class, we are writing an “All About 2B” book to help us getting used to organizing our ideas when writing a nonfiction book. Each student is writing a page about something that makes 2B unique and we will combine it together to create a class book. We’re excited to begin brainstorming and researching on a variety of topics of interest that we’d like to become experts in because we will conduct individual research and then write an “All About” book on a topic of our choice! Some of us already have ideas and we can’t wait to jump right into the research and drafting process.
- We have also begun mixing students from 2A, 2B, and 2C in Lit Block so that students are exposed to different learning styles as well as other students across the grade. This is a fun opportunity for all of a second grade to come together and learn from each other. Soon, we will begin interclass Math Block as well!
- In Math, we are on a new unit of Addition and Subtraction Within 200 with Word Problems to 100. Our goals of the unit are to be able to fluently add and subtract by using the most appropriate and efficient strategy. To do this, we determine what operation (addition or subtraction) to use to solve a word problem by identifying the action in the problem (adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing), and then proving our addition and subtraction strategies work by using our understanding of place value and the properties of operations (in this case addition/subtraction) to show our thinking. The metacognitive skill we are using is U-understand (what are we looking for? What do we know?), P-make a plan (what strategy is best), S-solve, and C-check (does my answer make sense?, Is at accurate?, What other strategy can I use to check). This UPSC strategy is helpful as it also transcends everything we do in life!
- We’ve begun our fun unit on Communications in Inquiry! So far, we’ve been exploring what communications is, and realized that signs and symbols are a form of communication. We came up with a bunch of questions that we want to inquire about in this unit and are hoping to be able to find out about them by the end of the unit (e.g. How can we communicate to dogs and gorillas?) We’ve done a neighborhood walk to explore signs in our last unit so we are going to do a school tour at BPCS in search of signs and symbols that communicate something to us. As an extension at home, be on the lookout for signs around your neighborhood and have conversations about why it is useful.
Important Announcements
- Monday, January 18 - No School
- Tuesday, February 2 - Field Trip to The Drawing Center
- Week of 2/8 - 2B Morning Drop-off: You are invited to come in to take a look at what 2B is working on!
- Here are the Trick Words that we worked on so far in Second Grade:
answer, different, think, again, house
through, around, picture, change, learn
large, small animal, right, left
place, most, sound, follow, means
idea, important, world, high, excited
Learner Profile of the Month
Mr. Hicks as Coach Hicks
Publishing Party
Publishing Party
Publishing Party
DEAR Time
Math Block
Armory
A Science Update From Ms. Rosabal!
Dance With Ms. Siby
Español with Ms. Rosado
¡Me gusta mucho 2B! This new term we are getting ready to share our experience of México through postcards. Yeah! But before that, we need to practice our writing. We are working really hard to share our likes and dislikes in Spanish. Me gusta correr, pero no me gusta nadar. (I like to run, but I don´t like to swim.) We love to play the me gusta game in the classroom.
Keep practicing at home.
Ps,
On January 6 we celebrated El día de los Reyes Magos, a very important holiday in México (and other Spanish-speaking countries).
Gracias,
Ms, Rosado
¿Te gusta nadar?
¿Te gusta escuchar música?
¿Te gusta andar bicicleta?
Please check out 10th Floor Airport Security Hall! Aduana -Custom-Desk
Second Grade Artists Dabble in Communication, Decoding and the Art of Creating Symbols
Second Grade Artists/Inquirers Build on Their Understanding of the World! Their excitement for symbolic languages shows in the way they are exploring Hieroglyphics, Mayan, and Andinkra symbols. Currently in ART they are creating symbols of their own. While this may sound simple it’s really quite challenging!
Artists first shopped catalogs of ancient symbols and drew their favorite ones in sketchbooks. They guessed what Mayan symbols might mean and recorded the actual meanings of Adinkra symbols. Our artists then began designing new symbols by combining aspects of those they liked and asking peers for thoughtful feedback (which they applied). They are working together to ensure their symbols are bold, graphic, and match their desired messages. Now the artists are making patches for their backpacks using sewing skills they developed last year! This is great stuff! Check out video of Ai and Roman talking about our process.
If you are interested in helping your student’s class with sewing and threading needles(first two weeks for February), please email awalsh@brooklynprospect.org. With a project like this, extra hands really help!
Additionally, we are looking for the following supplies in the Studio Lab : Styrofoam meat or vegetable trays for printing (styrofoam egg cartons work as well!), corks, plastic bottle caps (especially the big colored laundry detergent ones), dryer lint, and old game pieces!
Many thanks!!