Reminders:
If there is a change to your child’s schedule or dismissal plan, please reach out to Cindy LaWare (claware@cvsdvt.org) and your child’s classroom teacher. It is so important we are all kept in the loop and are aware of your child’s plans!
On Tuesday, September 30th we will have an Open House from 5:00pm until 6:00 pm. There will be a CCS PTO Potluck outside on the playground from 6:00pm until 7:00pm.
If you would like to volunteer to lead a Pease Mountain hike, please check out the Pease Mountain sign up.
Fall Family Conference Sign Ups: Hall-Potvin Spellman
Word Study: During word study this week we launched our first unit of our FUNdations program. This first unit will focus on reviewing the concepts taught in first grade. So far we have focused building routines and reviewed the concepts of digraphs, blends, and digraph blends. Digraphs are 2 letters that work together to make 1 sound (ex: sh, ch) while blends are two or three consonants that appear together and keep their own sounds (ex: sl, scr).
Writers Workshop: Second grade writers are focusing on narrative writing by sharing small moment stories from their own lives. Second graders are working on writing strong beginnings and endings. As a group, we leaned on our mentor authors and other authors to determine ways to write strong beginnings and endings.
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: Our second grade mathematicians have been busy putting their growth mindset into practice this week. Our focus over the week has been on representing and solving addition and subtraction word problems. We began exploring a special math tool known as a number rack. This number rack contains 20 beads in all, 10 red and 10 white organized into two rows of ten. The number rack reinforces our number facts to 10 and introduces facts up to 20. We played a fast-paced math game known as “Flash Attack”. In this game students waited while the teacher built a number on their number rack. Then students were able to take a quick 3-second look at the rack. In this time they would need to determine how many beads were present on the left side of the rack. To explain how they saw the number they used equations to show how many were on the top and how many were on the bottom. Later in the week we pretended to go on a field trip via a train! Students practiced their 10s facts in order to figure out how many students were taking a nap and how many were awake. Seeing these numbers and explaining how we saw them was an important part of our Habits of Interactions that we learned about last week.
Project Based Learning: Our second grade squad aims to engage in project based learning once a week. Our topics and subjects will vary throughout the year. These themes are often based on the current “Heritage Month” . A heritage month is a designated time, usually one month, to recognize, celebrate, and honor the history, culture, contributions, and achievements of a specific group of people. These months help raise awareness and educate others about the unique aspects of the group's heritage, while promoting inclusivity and understanding in the broader community. September 15 - October 15 is Latinx Heritage Month. Want to learn more about Latinx/Hispanic Heritage month? Click here to watch the video your children saw!
This week’s project was inspired by Pablo Picasso’s cubism artwork.
Quiet Time: Throughout the year, second graders are heading ‘on vacation’! As students transition from recess back into the classroom, we have Quiet Time. This is a time to fill our water bottles, use the restroom, color, relax, read, unwind from the activity of recess/lunch and reset our minds for the classroom. As part of this time, the lights are low and we are ‘on vacation.’ Each week, students ‘go’ to a new country! We ‘go’ there by having a video of the scenery of the country by ‘flying over.’. On the first school day of the week, we learn which country we are going to, what continent it is on, its official language(s) and a few facts about the country. Over the course of the year, our goal is for students to be able to identify the seven continents, understand the difference between continent & country, and to be exposed to this amazing world we live in!
Our students have ‘traveled’ far these past two weeks!
