Friday, October 13, 2023

 Reminders:

• Here is the Pease Mountain Volunteer Sign Up. Please join us if you are able to!

Remember, volunteers will need to complete the CVSD Procedure for Supervised Volunteers & Chaperones. This will include a background check and fingerprinting. Please refer to the CCS Family/Student Handbook 2023-2024 for more details on this procedure.

***Please contact Jessica Hourett at CVSD Central Office to confirm your status as a volunteer. Her direct phone number is 802-985-1900

• Fall is here and the weather is starting to get cooler. Please support your child to dress in layers, have an extra set of weather appropriate clothing in their backpack in case they need it, and a water bottle at school. If you need assistance with any of these items, please reach out to your child’s teacher and they can help!

Math: Our first unit in math is well underway! The goal of this first unit is to help students develop a solid understanding of addition & subtraction and some of the ways in which these two operations complement each other. Over the last two weeks, students have worked to develop fluency with number facts to 20 and use subtraction as a process of finding the difference between two quantities. Students have been working with different models, including number racks, bead strings, and number lines. We’ve had a lot of fun exploring these concepts through new ‘workplace’ games!

Writers’ Workshop: We are well into our work as narrative writers! This past week, and for the next week, we have been spotlight writing with intention and learning craft moves. Our second grade writers have worked to revise with intention as they continue to hone their skills as narrative writers.

Word Study: Our class has been hard at work exploring the spelling patterns that exist within one-syllable, closed syllable words. A closed syllable has one vowel that is closed in by a consonant, which makes the vowel short. We have learned about bonus letters and glued sounds. A bonus letter is added when a short vowel is followed immediately by f, l, s, and occasionally z. The f, l, s, and z must be the last letter in the one syllable word. Check out the slides below for some examples!

We also learned that glued sounds are groups of letters that can be tapped out but often occur together. The vowel often has a schwa sound. This week we learned the glued sound all and it’s keyword, ball. 

Readers’ Workshop: Our second graders are already growing like beanstalks! In readers’ workshop, students have reviewed strategies for decoding and comprehending words. This first unit establishes our routines, reviews previously learned strategies, and gives students a  broad overview of tools/strategies they can use while reading. 

Science: Curiosity is at the core of science. This week and last our second graders began to wonder about the world around them. Our science launch started by asking, ‘How do scientists know so much?’ Together we explored this question and determined that scientists ask questions, make observations, record what they see and ask more questions. Questioning leads scientists to observe more, conduct investigations & experiments and record their findings. Scientists are curious! Our second graders were curious as they explored the question, ‘Why leaves change in the fall?’ We let our curiosity bring us outside where we observed leaves. In our science journals we used a KWL chart to organize what we already knew about leaves as well as what we wondered and wanted to know more about this phenomenon. Next week we will explore this question by learning from experts. 

SEL/Theme: This week second graders learned about how self talk, focus and attention can help them to become a better learner. Students participated in a variety of activities and games to help them practice using their focus and attention. Our squad also looked at scenarios, and discussed how we can use self talk to regain our attention and persevere.

Quiet Time Vacations: Second graders traveled to Asia & Oceania visiting China and Australia.

Some other highlights over the past two weeks: Frida Kahlo inspired self-portraits, bus safety, whole school assembly, two small groups have now hiked Pease Mountain, and lots of fun outside!