The 2F Express
The Weekly Roundup
Week Six....
Here we are again at the end of another week,
The past five days has moved very quickly. I guess it is a testament to how busy we have been in the classroom. This week has seen 2F start many new units and have completed our previous ones. It is always fun to start new units and see the students engage with new material, whether physical or academic.
We had a lot of fun counting straws this week, bringing our communities together to make a 'super community' and beginning our stories in any chosen genre.
Please take the time to look through the bulletin, click on the images of your child engaged in learning and feel free to contact me with any queries or issues that may arise.
The Sixth Week
The Subjects
Math
We had a pre-assessment that saw the students finding the value of different coins from the "Lost City of Atlantis". This gave me some information regarding who could read numbers in different forms; ie: base 10, expanded form, word form, and standard form. It was a very interesting assessment piece and provided a lot of data to shape the upcoming lessons. Take a look at the photographs below.
To start the unit students were split into two groups and were given a pile of straws and were simply asked to count them and record their amount in the most efficient way and see how many straws we had in total.
We began with the concept of bundling many smaller units, single straws (ones) into bundles of ten, and then bundled ten bundles of tens to make one larger unit (ie: a hundred) and then we bundled 10 hundreds to make a thousand.
We ended up with 1,347 straws and a great counting strategy.
From this point we are building on showing numbers as visual representations, in expanded and word form.
Please take a look at the attached Unit 3 parent letter to give you an idea of how to support your child at home.
The Lost Coins of Atlantis Pre-Assessment
The Great Straw Counting Challenge
We then worked together to bundle 10 bundles of 100 to make 1000.
This exercise really showcases how the numbers of our base ten system are composed.
Our total was 1,347 straws.
Next week we are looking to find the total amount of all the straws in second grade!
Reader's Workshop
This week sees our readers look at a range of strategies that will support them as they work towards their reading goals.
The main focus this week was to work on our fluency, ensuring that we not only looked carefully at the punctuation to help us scoop up the passages smoothly, but also scanning the sentence ahead so as to know what kind of expression we should use.
We started each fluency lesson with a poem. These can be found embedded below so you can have your child read them to you. There is a poem that we did not read titled "the Pretty Flowers".
Once we read through it with our internal voice, worked out the tricky words with our strategies, and the expression that we would need, we would then take a marker and underline our scooped phrases. This was helpful to keep our reading smooth and expressive.
Writer's Workshop
This week we took the time to finalize our published pieces and premier these pieces to our peers.
Each sharing session included the partner reading the story and offering feedback, consisting of two compliments and one thought for next time.
These will be going home on Sunday with the Unit Rubric attached. This rubric reflects their work for the whole of the unit, not just their published piece.
We also had some time to be creative and begin a 'free write' story session. This enabled us to take a look at the different genres under the umbrella of fiction. There are some interesting story ideas that I hope go through the publishing process.
Next week we will start our new writing unit which sees 2F writing reviews and sharing their opinions, whether these are positive or negative. As long as these opinions are supported by a range of evidence, everyone should be happy!
We will be looking at a range of reviews that include restaurants, hotels, movies, games and books. We will be spending the week getting to know the structure of a well written review and understand the difference between a fact and an opinion.
Please feel free to share some reviews at home, reading through a review of a place that you have stayed at or a movie you have watched together. Asking them about their opinions and why they feel this way is a very important part of understanding how to write a persuasive review.
Published Writing Premiere
The Author's of 2F
Science
This week we have closely looked at the role of the flower and it's relationship to pollinators. Below are the two videos that we watched. We stopped at certain times, each scientist was to record their observations, thoughts, questions or draw a diagram. I was impressed with the amount of experience and knowledge the class has regarding pollination.
Next week we will begin investigating a range of laboratory activities designed to further expand the understanding of pollination, and their role as a scientist. It should be a wonderful week!
Observing, Recording Information and Asking Questions as Scientists
In Other News...
Social Studies
We also joined our communities up to create a super community.
Presenting the Community to the Class
The Super Community
IT
Things To Know:
Junior and Senior Parent Committee's Annual Pumpkin Patch
Make sure you grab your Halloween decorations, pumpkins, toys, candy and baked goods at the Junior Senior Parent Committee’s annual Pumpkin Patch. This is an event not to be missed!
Elementary classes will have the opportunity to visit the Pumpkin Patch and homeroom teachers will send home more information about the visit in the coming week
Items can only be purchased by DragonBand and we kindly ask parents to ensure that there are sufficient funds available on their bands on Monday October 24 and Tuesday October 25 to avoid disappointment.
You can top up your account by using one of the kiosks located in the MS/HS Cafeteria, in the main reception area (where the sales will be held) or online.
Visit dragoncard.asd.edu.qa
Username: With your family number found on the front of the parent ID card minus the last letter eg: FM001361M
Password: Is the same as the username
Students will need to return the permission form sent in your child's folder completed by the parent, to purchase Halloween treats with their DragonBands.
We thank you for your support and we hope you have a happy Halloween!