Room 101 News
Important Reminders, Highlights, and Exciting News!
Week of October 12, 2015
We are so proud of our amazing Second Grade Teams and their hearts, minds, and applied effort, as they strive to grow each day!
Both classrooms 101 and 102 are working hand and hand to ensure that our content, experiences, and resources are parallel. As educators, this is our heartfelt and dedicated commitment to the students and families we are serving this school year and beyond.
We are grateful for this opportunity to work with all you! Thank you for your interest, support, and enthusiasm for our teaching and learning! This is will be an exciting and magical school year!
Friday's Field Trip to the Lincoln Park Conservatory and Zoo
Please note that our first Field Trip EVER with our Fourth Grade Buddies will be on Friday, October 16th. In support of our Plants and Ecosystems Unit, we will be traveling to the Lincoln Park Conservatory and Zoo! Please remember that we will be bringing a bag lunch for this field trip to school as we will not be back in time for school lunch.
Volunteers and Materials For Our Upcoming Hands-On Science Learning Opportunity with our Fourth Grade Buddies on Monday, October 19th
On Monday, October 19th, we will be outside planting bulbs of spring flowers with our Fourth Grade Buddies. We are in need of parent volunteers to assist us with this special activity as well as bulbs, gloves, and garden tools labeled with your family's name. We will be meeting at 1:30PM on the South Side of the school and hope to be finished by 3:15PM. Students should dress accordingly for weather and gardening. Many hands will help us tremendously! Please let your child's classroom teacher know if you are able to purchase bulbs or lend needed supplies to assist us with this experiment! Thank you so much for the donations already sent into school with your child! It will help us prepare for this adventure!
Progress Reports
Progress Reports were distributed on Friday, October 9th. Please sign and return to school by Thursday, October 15th as confirmation of review and receipt.
Parents' Daily Assignment Book Check
Please remember to sign your child's Assignment Book (AB) each night as confirmation of review and receipt of these important deadlines as well as dialogue with your child regarding their Sticker Chart for all of the school days they stay at Green or Higher.
Our progressive behavior incentive system begins each day with all students on Green or "Ready to Learn." The colors are arranged as follows from the top down. Pink "Super Student," Purple, "Great Job," Green, "Ready to Learn," Yellow, "Think About it," Orange, "Teacher’s Choice, and Red, "Parent Contact." The last move would result in a Student Behavior Form being completed in school and signed by the teacher as well as the parent at home. This progress informs our citizenship awards as well as our classroom climate and teamwork.
Students who reach Pink or "Super Student," are honored for their super behavior. We have a Hall of Fame for those students who collect five days on Pink and earn special gems symbolizing their amazing progress on their clip. The students are very motivated to try to reach Pink each day. Please join us in celebrating encouraging this progress! Thank you for your continued support and partnership!
Daily Five Literacy Tasks
We are enjoying immensely our Daily Five Literacy Task Learning Cycles. The students have latched onto the routines and are immersing themselves in these literacy tasks! Throughout the past few weeks, we have been reinforcing and practicing our routines and expectations for Word Work, Work on Writing, Read to Self, iPads, and teacher-guided group expectations. The students have latched onto the routines and are immersing themselves in these literacy tasks!
Differentiated Math Centers
Our Math Centers will soon be an exciting addition to our math lessons!
In addition to IXL practice and enrichment, we will be working on MARS Tasks, Problems of the Month, Hands-On Math Games to build our Math Fluency and Scavenger Hunts and Scoot Games. The students love these opportunities to extend and enrich their learning!
Author of the Month
The Second Grade is enjoying our new Author of the Month, Jon Scieszka!! We have been exploring his entertaining and award winning literary works! The students are welcome to look at our local library for any other works by our celebrated Author of The Month! His reading selections include: Math Curse, Science Verse, The Frog Prince Continued, The Stinky Cheese Man, and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and many more! If you are able to check any out, then we will share them and return the loaned book to you as soon as possible.
Math Chapter Two
In Math, we are embarking on a new area of study entitle, "Number Patterns." Our Essential Question is "How can equal groups help me add?" We will be utilizing hands-on manipulatives such as counters, unifix cubes, playing cards, and IXL to enhance our knowledge and understanding mathematical problem-solving strategies!
Science
In Science, we are exploring plants and ecosystems!! This is a new unit to the Second Grade as we are integrating the Next Generation of Science Standards. We are looking forward to enriching our learning with our Fourth Grade Buddies who are also extending their knowledge and understanding of these areas. We are coordinating fall planting project with our Fourth Grade Buddies on Monday, October 19th. See above for additional details.
Social Studies
My Community is our focus for this Quarter in Social Studies. We are enjoying discussing and analyzing this exciting unit in our community of learners! We drafted Classroom Promises and aligned them to our school's Core Values of Mind, Heart, and Effort. In addition, using a supplemental and informative Social Studies Weekly Publication, the students were able to apply a close reading strategy entitled Three Reads to enhance and enrich of key vocabulary, main ideas and supporting details related to this unit.
Language Arts
Please encourage your child to practice Raz Kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays at least each school week. Keep in mind the desired benchmarks and your child's progress to guide the time that will be needed to keep progressing in this content area.
Our year end goal is for each child to be reading at the End of Second Grade Level-P or higher. Please remember that you will be able to access your accounts throughout the summer and should utilize that time to make sure you have attained the goal.
Language Arts Reading-
Students should read for at least 15 Minutes a day or longer this week.
We are suggesting that the students Read Out Loud to an Adult for at least fifteen minutes for homework on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, complete at least one Raz-Kids reading selection and test.
In Second Grade, they will have daily Read to Self opportunities as part of our Daily Five Literacy Tasks. They each have an individualized book bin with "Good Fit" books. They may check out a classroom library book to assist with these journal entries.
Reading Response Journal (RRJ)
On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, your child will be assigned a Reading Response Journal entry on a book of their choice. Please use the classroom modeled example to guide you. They will be collected on Thursdays and credit will be given for their effort.
Please refer to the copy of the Reading Response Journal Prompts stapled to the inside cover of your child's Interactive Language Arts Journal (red spiral notebook). An additional copy is also contained in the Parent Night Information Packet for Reference. We recognize that Active Readers use Thinking Stems. These will deepen our students' interaction and response to their given texts and reading selections.
Reading
For the Love of Our Earth written by P.K. Hallinan is our new reading selection.
Genre Rhyming Fiction is a made-up story that uses rhyme to entertain readers.
Comprehension Strategy~Summarizing
As you read, use your own words to sum up important points and information in the story.
Vocabulary
A vocabulary study card will be completed for each of these key vocabulary words. Our procedure will be modeled and time will be given in class to complete these. They will be submitted for credit on the day of the assessment.
dawn, engines, glows, witness, litter
Vocabulary Strategy
A definition is sometimes provided in the text right next to or near the word it is defining. Use apposition to find the meaning.
Grammar Focus and Emphasis~Action Verbs
An action verb tells what someone is doing.
Example: Every week, we complete our Reading Response Journal for homework on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
Writing
We will be reinforcing our Daily 5 Literacy Tasks and learning cycles as well as developing our very own stories during Work on Writing and Writing Workshop.
Spelling
Students will be taking a ten word Pretest on Tuesday, October 13th. A test will be administered on Friday, October 16th. The Pretest will be taken and corrected in your child's red Interactive Language Arts Journal. Word Work practice activities will be modeled there as well. Please refer to the additional practice routines in your Parent Night Information Packet to assist your child's review this week.
This week's spelling words emphasize long vowels, a, spelled a and a_e, i, spelled i and i_e, o, spelled o and o_e, and u spelled u and u_e.
label, vine, bonus, wild, gate, huge, zero, made, spoke, use
Signed Tests
Thank you for taking time to sign your child's assessments and return them to school. As shared at Parent Night and in our Second Grade Informational Packets distributed at the beginning of our school year, these returned assessments are compiled into Student Portfolios and will be returned to you and your child at the end of our school year. They serve as a confirmation of your receipt of this important feedback and reinforce the Home-School Correspondence. This practice is part of your child's daily assignments. Thank you for your continued support!
Please remember...
-The Classroom/Homework page will be updated weekly or as needed to inform our students and families of upcoming important reminders, announcements and our anticipated homework for the week.
-Visit our school's website at and select this Classes/Homework page regularly in order to facilitate our Home-School partnership as well as your child's progress this school year. Please also note that you child has a personal Assignment Book that will contain "Real Time" updates regarding daily Homework assignments and expectations. Please check your child's assignment book each night to monitor any additions or revisions to our schedule. We will utilize their performances to inform and shape the pace of our lessons.
We feel so honored to be with you all on our educational journey this school year! Your children have inspired us and touched our hearts with their kindness and enthusiasm for learning!