Estimation Extends Using Voki

We have two posts today!  Please make sure you also see the information and pictures in the following post.

Today we practiced extending our estimating skills.  We worked on estimation problems with missing addends
For example:  34+ ____ = an estimation of 70 Use estimation to find all possible solutions.

First:  The closest 10 to 34 is 30 so...   30 +  40 = 70

Then: We use 40 as the number we want to round to.

Finally: We make a list of all numbers that have 40 as their closest 10.

After completing problems together we created a voki to explain how to find the solution to
 85 + ______ = an estimate of 110

Please click on the link below to access the voki.


http://voki.com/pickup.php?scid=7166559&height=267&width=200

Fables, Folktales, Fluency, and Fun with Bubbles

We have been hard a work this week reading fables and folktales to determine the lesson in the story.
We learned that there is a tricky character and that is the one that often learns the lesson.  Today we discussed that these lessons also apply to our life.

Here we are reading fables.

Mrs. Case came in to join us on Wednesday and also worked with a reading group.

Oral reading fluency has been a big focus for us this week as well.

We have talked about the importance of paying attention to the punctuation when reading.

We cannot just read the words and run them all together.

Please listen to your child read aloud and encourage them to stop at periods, pause or breathe at commas, and try to read as the character would sound.

This week's math lessons have been devoted to adding two digit numbers.

We learned to find the ballpark estimate first.  This helps us double check our final answers.

While there are many strategies to use to add two digit numbers, our target is to use partial sums to find the sum.  Please make sure your child is using this method on homework.

Thank you for your support!

We had any exciting morning of science on Wednesday.

Each of the 2nd grade classes rotated among the teachers to complete a different wind/air activity.

I was lucky enough to be the "bubble room"!

Enjoy the wonderful weather we are expecting this weekend!

It certainly does not feel as though winter break is only 3 weeks away!

Check out our wixie flowcharts!

Please click on the click below your child's name.

If you are prompted to enter a public key enter:

b5c2d4

Michael & Ben

http://wixie.com/u14996

Bryanne & Mandy

http://www.wixie.com/u14200

Sahnha & Aiden

http://www.wixie.com/u15053

Shelby & Nick

http://www.wixie.com/u14829

Lily & Nika

http://wixie.com/u15243

Rachel & Joshua

http://www.wixie.com/u14332

Vaishnavi & Eric

http://www.wixie.com/u14329

Swaraj & Aadit

http://www.wixie.com/u14208

Noah & Lauren

http://wixie.com/u14940

Isabel & Daniel

http://www.wixie.com/u14201

Take 2...Trimester 2

This week we jumped right in to our targets for trimester 2.  You can view these targets in the picture below.  The green paper includes skills that will be taught, but will not be assessed.  The targets on the labeled math, reading, and writing papers will all be assessed this trimester.

This trimester we will be working on our collaboration skills.  We discussed what it means to be collaborative and talked about different jobs for group members.  We created these posters to help us remember how to be effective group members and what the responsibilities are for each job.

This week we spent a lot of time comparing and contrasting two versions of different fairy tales.

First we read Jack and the Beanstalk and Kate and the Beanstalk.  

The class created a venn diagram with the similarities and differences among the two stories.

Throughout the week we worked in groups to compare and contrast The Three Little Pigs with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Three Little Pigs with The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.

After the groups created their venn diagrams we came together and put the information on a class chart.

On Tuesday we enjoyed lunch and a movie together in the classroom.

On Wednesday we practiced and recorded Thanksgiving poems.

Enjoy!

Thankful

Guess What Day It Is

Wishbone

This week in writing we focused on writing strong sentences.

We looked at picture and filled in a chart telling who, did what, where.

We wrote a complete sentence using words from the chart.  Then we added adjectives to make our sentence even stronger.  This will help us as we return to narrative writing.  Our focus will be on adding details and descriptions to create a visual picture.

And finally...

Today we talked about different types of questions we answer about our reading.

The two types of questions are literal and inferential.

The literal questions have answers we can find directly in the book.

The inferential questions require us to use events in the story and our schema.

I wish everybody and safe, healthy, and happy holiday!

I am thankful for all of your support of our classroom, time spent working at home, and

most of all, for getting to spend each day with your wonderful children!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The End of Our First Trimester

It is very hard to believe that we have come to the end of our first trimester together.
Report cards will go home next Friday, November 16, 2012.  Conferences will be the following Monday and Tuesday.  Please call or send an email if we do not have a conference time scheduled.

We have spent this week wrapping up some loose ends in second grade.  We have completed the end of trimester assessments and were hard at work finishing projects to decorate the hallways.
Here we are hard at work writing a paragraph about skunks.

We are very excited to be reading fairy tales, fables, and folktales.  We will have reading targets using these genres including: compare and contrast different versions of a fairytale and determine the message a character learns in a fable/folktale.  We have been reading them for enjoyment this week and have casually discussed the lessons the main character may learn in the story.  We are keeping track of the county of origin for the folktales on Google Earth.  Our journey starts at Ivy Hall and will take us around the world.  Everyone was very excited to see the beginning steps of our trip and will most likely want to try out Google Earth at home.

On Monday we participated in the Ivy Hall election.  Each student filled out a voter registration card, checked in with the election judge and voted at the booth of the polling place.

This afternoon we read the story One Hen: How One Small Hen Made a Big Difference with Mrs. Creagh's class.  All second grade classes will be collecting money to purchase a chicken (or chickens) for a family through Heifer International Organization. You will find a letter in your child's folder with more information.  You can find out more about Heifer here:

http://www.heifer.org/

Thank you very much for any donations you are able to give.

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the expected warm weather!