Second Grade in Room 108

Reminders:

With cooler fall weather here, please label your child’s jackets, sweatshirts, and other layers so we can easily return any items that get left behind. Thank you!
If you would like to volunteer to lead a Pease Mountain hike, please check out the Pease Mountain sign up.
Please sign up for a fall family conference. The sign up sheet is linked in the “Blog Updated & Family Conference Sign-Up” email you received in September.
Donation Request: Our classroom is in need of tissues and cough drops. We appreciate any and all donations.

Word Study: We officially wrapped up Unit 1, which focused on closed syllables, short vowels, and spelling of the /k/ sound. Students practiced recognizing closed syllables (one vowel, closed in by a consonant, the vowel sound is short) , and they became experts at identifying and spelling words that fit these patterns. We celebrated the end of our unit with assessment and reflection on how far our word knowledge has come! Students are moving into our second unit in word study in which we will focus on the bonus letter spelling pattern, spelling with glued sounds and explore r-controlled vowels when reading. Students continue to review their first grade heart words and are adding their first set of second grade heart words: pull, full, and shall.

Readers’ Workshop: Our readers have been working hard! Students have been working with the idea that reading is thinking. We need to read the words as they are written (decode) and understand what we are reading (comprehension). In our minilessons, we focused on the core idea: Readers retell a story to help them understand the story better. We shared one retelling technique, the 5 Finger Retell, which supports retelling of major events while also synthesizing details.

Math: In math, we’ve been building fluency with addition and subtraction facts within 20 and learning strategies that help make number thinking flexible and efficient. We explored doubles and halves, doubles plus or minus one, and identified even and odd numbers. Students used these strategies in hands-on and authentic ways, such as figuring out how many ways we could seat guests at a dinner party– a fun challenge in logic and reasoning!

We also played games like Battling Bugs and What’s the Difference?, which gave us the chance to practice our new skills while having fun and working together.

WIN (What I Need) Time & Menu: WIN/Menu is a time for students to independently practice literacy and math skills that support the skills we are working on. While students work on completing a literacy practice activity, a math task, and a technology opportunity each day, their classroom teacher and other adults may pull them to work individually and/or in small groups. WIN/Menu offers an element of choice for students while giving them opportunities to work on skills they are learning. An important note is that while Menu has options that could be completed, students may not have the opportunity to complete the menu in its entirety by the end of the week. This is okay! Students may have met with an adult during WIN/Menu time or possibly be completing a different task/activity. At the end of the week, their menu will be sent home in their “home-school folder”. If there are unfinished worksheets, students may complete the packet at home or leave it be, the choice is up to them!

iReady: Over the past two weeks, our second graders have been working on the i-Ready Inform (previously called the i-Ready Diagnostic) assessments in reading and math. All second graders in the district take this computer adaptive assessment Inform to help us see what students already know, where they may need support, and what they’re ready to learn next. This is just one way we track students’ progress throughout the year, and they’ll take it again in the winter and spring.

Fire Safety: On Tuesday, Chief Jamie Valyou and Mrs. Blandshine from Charlotte Fire & Rescue Services visited our second grade community to talk with students about fire safety. One important topic they discussed was having a family meeting point in case of an emergency, so we encourage families to talk together about where your meeting point could be at home. Students also had the chance to explore one of the fire engines, which was a very exciting way to end the visit!

Bus Safety: Last week, our second graders participated in a bus safety lesson and drill. Students reviewed how to safely get on and off the bus, how to sit safely, and how they can help the driver by listening to instructions and keeping their voices at an appropriate level. They also practiced what to do in an emergency, including an emergency exit out the back of the bus!

Quiet Time: Our students have ‘traveled’ far these past two weeks!