2MU News
Weeks of September 2 through September 21, 2015
Dear Parents,
2MU has had a wonderful start to the school year. As a class, we have formed classroom rules and many new friendships! I feel so blessed to spend my days working with your child.
Read on to learn more about our first few weeks of school and all the learning activities we have completed. Also, be sure to check out all the pictures below documenting many of our wonderful learning experiences.
- We read Miss Nelson is Missing and Miss Nelson is Back. The children enjoyed reading about Class 207 and the very clever Miss Nelson who can dress up to be Miss Viola Swamp. We completed many reading comprehension activities for these stories, including a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp. Mrs. Devine extended the learning experience by reading Miss Nelson is Missing in Spanish!
- The children enjoyed reading Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, NO Good, Very Bad Day. They wrote a short literature response detailing a day that they felt like Alexander, having a very bad day as well.
- As part of our Journeys Reading program, we read Henry and Mudge last week. We discussed the importance of story "sequence of events" and how transition words are used to give story events order.
- This past week, we read Mi Familia~My Family. We used a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast Camilia's family traditions to our own.
- During Guided Reading, we use the Daily 5 CAFE. Each group throughout the week meets with the teacher, reads to self, completes word work, as well as work on writing. The children also use technology throughout the week.
Writing
- We created a personal "heart" listing people, places, things, and memories we hold close to our heart. The children can use their personalized heart as a tool for personal narrative story ideas.
- The children also created an "Authority List." They listed things they are really good at doing, like playing football, soccer, an instrument, and/or dance. Their Authority List can also be used to help them 'write like experts' about topics in which they possess lots of knowledge.
Math
- As mathematicians, we have been working on building number sense by studying the number line and number grid.
- We practiced counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's using "skip counting" strategies.
- As part of the Everyday Math 4 program, we are learning how to respond to mathematical problems and then write a response justifying our mathematical thinking, strategies, and answers. The children did very well with this activity and enhanced their critical thinking skills.
- We utilized Math Centers to play math games, play on iPad-Math App, and complete a Math Worksheet.
Social Studies
- As a class, we talked a lot about communities and the various communities we belong to~home, school, neighborhood, etc.
- We worked together to form fair classroom rules and then we each signed the classroom rule poster signifying our classroom unity and community building.
- To help us learn more about our home community, we created houses in which we wrote about how we get our food, clothing, shelter, and help within our homes. The children then drew a picture to go along with each category.
- We began our new Social Studies program this week. We learned more about communities, specifically focusing on our Haddonfield community. We depicted the places in which we live, work, play, and solve problems in Haddonfield.
Grammar
- During Grammar, we have been working on sentence structure~using capitalization, punctuation, and complete thoughts.
- We learned about subjects and predicates, including a song to help us remember the difference between the two.
FUNdations
- We began learning the sounds of all the letters of the alphabet
- We learned about digraphs, blends, and blend digraphs including how to mark them correctly. A digraph is two consonants that make a new sound (chip and deck) and a blend is two consonants the each say their sound and are blended together (crib rest). A blend digraph is 3 consonants in which the first consonant says its name and the remaining 2 consonants make a new sound (digraph) as in the word lunch.
- As part of the program, we learned how to write letters correctly by using the "sky line," "plane line," "grass line," and "worm line" while forming letters.
- We used our individual magnetic boards to build words and represent sounds.
Other Activities
- We solved our Letter/Word Puzzle. On the first day of school, each child brought their decorated letter to school. Then, we broke into groups and each group unscrambled their letters to form a word. As a class, we unscrambled the words to form the mystery sentence, "Second Graders Are Busy BEEs!" The word BEE stands for Best Effort Everyday!
- We meet our 4L Buddies! The 4th Graders interviewed their 2MU buddy to learn more about them. We look forward to spending more time with our 4L buddies this year, completing many meaningful activities together.
First Day of School ~ Unscrambling Mystery Words and Sentence!
"Second Graders Are Busy BEEs!"
Social Studies ~ Creating Houses
Who provides our food, shelter, clothing, and help within our homes.
Guided Reading ~ Daily 5 CAFE ~ Read to Self, Word Work, Work with Teacher, and more!
Math Centers
Meeting Our 4L Buddies
First Week of School Class Photo
Lisa Murphy
2nd Grade Teacher
Elizabeth Haddon Elementary School
Email: lamurphy@haddonfield.k12.nj.us
Website: lamurphy.haddonfield.site.eboard.com
Location: 501 W Redman Ave, Haddonfield, NJ, United States
Phone: 856-429-0811