Science and Social Studies

I have many pictures to share this week!

We started science this week.  First we listed what we know about air, then we had a lot of fun experimenting with air and how it moves objects.

We have been working hard writing realistic fiction stories with a similar theme to stories we have read. Here we are writing a story about a character that wanted something, but needed to earn the money or show they were responsible.  We wrote this after reading Maisy's Piggy Bank and Arthur's Pet Business.  

Authors at Work!

 We worked very hard being producers and manufacturing goods for our sale today.

As usual it was Math Game Friday!

We had many activities that used our knowledge of addition math facts.

Some friends from Mrs. Fenske's class joined us.

Filling in missing numbers in a "crossword" puzzle.

Playing Doubles or Nothing

We wrote an ad telling people why they should buy our product and displayed them at our desks.

Finally it was time to buy and sell!

Enjoy the weekend!

Maisy's Piggy Bank videos

As promised, here are the videos of the class reading the play Maisy's Piggy Bank.

Enjoy!

Maisy's Piggy Bank

Tables 1 & 4

Maisy's Piggy Bank

Tables 2 & 3

Reading Logs, Readers Theater, Raw Material, and Really Important Information

Reading Logs
I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats waiting for reading logs to come home.  Well, the wait is over!  I wanted to improve on the usual keeping track of books and minutes read, so I have created Book Bingo.  I am hoping to encourage students to read different genres.  This may even lead to a new favorite author, subject, hobby or series.

Just as in regular the bingo the goal is to get 5 in a row going across, up and down, or diagonally.
When a box is completed please initial the corner and include the date.  We will be keeping a Book Bingo chart.  For each bingo the students get they will earn a sticker on the chart.  Five stickers will earn a special lunch and treat with me.  Please encourage your child to select quality books.  I would like this to be a meaningful experience that helps them discover new literature.

Readers Theater
We have enjoyed working on oral reading fluency while practicing our play.  Enjoy the video!

Sorry!  Technical Difficulties! Error Message each time I upload.
We will record again on Monday and I will post the videos Monday evening.

Raw Materials
Yesterday we discussed the manufacturing process in a factory.  This helped us further our understanding of goods and producers.  We read about a tomato juice factory in Indiana.  They grow their own tomatoes, but sometimes extra supplies of tomatoes need to be purchased from nearby farmers.  I gave a little cheer when they realized that the purchase made them both producers and consumers.  We also watched a video about the manufacturing process of Crayola crayons.
I hope that your child come home with his or her "Ask Me About" sticker still attached and that they were able to explain our new social studies vocabulary words.

Today we started playing the role of producers.  Each child received a kit (raw materials) that they will use to make (manufacture) their own good.   Each student will create an advertisement for their product.  We will get together with all of the second grade classes to see all of the goods that were manufactured by our grade level.  Then everyone will have a chance to act as a consumer and purchase the goods that are for sale.  More specific information will be sent home next week.

Here we are with our raw materials!

                   

Really Important Information
If you have not sent in headphones to class yet, please try to do so as soon as possible.

I have increased our class Spelling City subscription to the premium level.  Your child will need to log in to access the premium activities.  Their usernames and passwords went home today.  Please check their take home folders for this information.  You can continue to get to Spelling City through Edmodo.
If you have not registered with Edmodo yet please try to do so by the end of next week.  We will begin having a few short answer homework questions on Edmodo in October.  Please email me if you need the group code.  You can also use this link to get to our Spelling City account.

                                    http://www.spellingcity.com/kyutakis/

 During math we have been working on math fact strategies.  We filled in a math fact chart that allowed us to see the patterns of the sums when all of the problems were completed.  We discovered that knowing our doubles facts and sums to 10 can really help us with some of the more difficult problems to do in our head.  For instance: knowing 6+6 can help us with 6+7.  We also learned that math is about patterns and relationships.  We hung up this sign to help us remember.  I told them that they would remember this and think of me when they were grown up and making a lot of money doing something with numbers.  Some said they would not remember me when they were that old and I think everyone was surprised when I said,"Of course you will! I still remember my 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Thompson!"  There's nothing like a shocked 2nd grade face to make you remember how old are!

Today we played math games to help us practice our facts. Practice is the best way to improve speed and fluency with math facts ~ please help us by practicing at home! We also began taking our addition timed tests today. We will be doing 2-3 timed tests each week.

Playing Number Bonds

Playing CountDown

Playing 4-Way Countdown

Playing 4-Way Countdown

We also played Math Quiz this morning. This game allows us to practice up to 5 different math skills during the game.  Today our categories were:  Addition, Subtraction, Time, Money, and Place Value.
Addition and Subtraction are our current targets, while Time, Money, and Place Value will be targets in  Unit 3.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Please remember there is no school on Wednesday and picture day is Thursday.

Settling In

I'm sorry this post is a little late.  I have some videos that were taken today that I wanted to be sure were included in today's blog.

We have had a very nice week.  It never fails to amaze me how far we come in such a short period of time.  The children have been working with partners and in groups in both reading and math.  They are already very self sufficient.  I walk around to monitor, take pictures, and film video.  The class needs very little assistance from me.  I know things are going to go just as smoothly when we begin reading groups next week.

The class has been working on extending the math targets ordering numbers to 999 and comparing numbers to 9,999.  We have played games, worked on substituting the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols (>  <  =) with words to ensure that the students truly understand the number sentences they are writing.  For example 176 < 854 is read aloud as, 176 is less than 854.  This target will be assessed next week.  I will continue to send home the assessments so you always know how your child is performing on each target.  The green papers are questions that I expect the class to answer correctly.  The pink papers are the extends questions.  I encourage everyone to try to solve the problems, but it is okay if they are not successful.  We talk about strategies to solve these problems before we take the unit test, but again I do not expect everyone to be successful on the more challenging problems.  I send these home for all children so you are able to see examples of  the questions/problems.

Please enjoy the videos of some of the 2nd graders explaining and playing two of our math games.

The Marker Game

Place Value Challenge

We have been working on oral reading fluency by reading a play with a group and reading poems with a partner.  To enable us to work more with our poems the class will begin taking home their poetry binders on Friday instead of Thursday.  It is not necessary to sign off on the poems, but please encourage your child to at least read through the new poems.  Once a week I have the students read a poem aloud to the class with either a partner or in a small group.  This sometimes can make 2nd graders nervous. However, it is important for them to begin learning how to speak in front of a group.

Practicing Maisy's Piggy Bank

Reach for the Stars!  We have been in 2nd grade for 17 days!  Since we know our routines and schedules, it is now time to work on our individual goals.  You can find pictures of the class with their star below.  Be sure to ask your child what they are going to work on.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Testing, Targets, and Centers

We have had quite a week in second grade!
We finished both the reading and math MAP on Tuesday and Thursday morning. Due to the new format, some students need more time to finish. There were some very lengthy reading passages!  Make-up times will be scheduled for next week.

Working on the reading MAP section.


Our targets for the beginning of our first trimester have been posted.  We refer to these targets often. My goal is for the students to understand exactly what we are learning and how the independent class work and activities help us to meet these targets.

Math Targets

Reading Targets

Writing Targets

Today (Thursday) the children wrote a letter to me telling what they thought made them special.  I was amazed!  What a talented group of children!  These letters allowed us to work on 2 of our targets: adding commas in the greeting and closing of a letter, and writing a personal narrative.

During our literacy time this week we had an opportunity to practice our centers.  We worked on managing our time, cleaning up and moving to the next center at the signal, and working quietly and independently.  Centers include work work (spelling and vocabulary), listening to reading, reading with a partner, writing, poetry, reading comprehension, and meeting with me.Next week you can expect to begin seeing this work coming home.

Working on writing a personal narrative or a realistic fiction story.

Working on word work.

Reading with a partner.
(They love to sit under my desk!)

Reading with partners.

Working on word work.

  To correlate with our report card I will mark work on the targets with the letters E (extends), M (meets), B (below), W (well below).

Please click on the link below to see a copy of the second grade report card, as well as an explanation of the above marks.

http://www.district96.k12.il.us/about/curr_frameworks/2012-12ReportCards/Gr2ReptCard12_13.pdf

My goal is to keep you informed by regularly updating you with the performance of your child on our learning targets.  Please rest assured if a student receives a B or W I continue to work closely with them. In addition, I will send home additional practice to work on at home.



I hope you have heard about our newest read-aloud book, The Chocolate Touch. We are using this for a variety of comprehension skills: predicting, visualizing, and answering and asking questions to show understanding.  I have included a picture of our Asking Questions chart.  When reading at home with your child, please have them come up with questions about the book they are reading.  These questions should be able to be answered by going back into the text.  Questions can relate to the characters, setting, or plot.

Asking Questions chart.

Just a reminder, you can follow our class on Twitter.  I have made the account private, so I will need to approve your following.  You can find us @MrsYutakis.

Have a wonderful weekend!