Post 32

NEW INFORMATION:

Children's Museum Field Trip: We had a blast at our field trip this week. If you haven't already asked your child about the trip, make sure to ask him/her about the roller coasters that they created. Thank you to all of our amazing chaperones for helping out!  

Homework: There will no longer be homework assignments for the remainder of the year, however reading at home is always important. Please continue to read throughout the summer and, perhaps, continue reading response routines throughout the summer. This kind of active reading and reading response will be good practice for third grade.

Work sent home: This is the time of year when classwork starts to flood home in backpacks. You will find that most of our work folders and workbooks (writing folders, reading folders, math journals, etc.) will come home with notes attached to them about how these materials were used in the classroom, considerations for looking at this work, and suggestions for using it at home. In case the notes get lost in transit, please know that many items may appear incomplete and that this is the nature and intended purpose of these classroom materials.  

Formal classroom assessments will also start to come home. These look like tests. Please know that assessment happens in many ways throughout the year - it is a dynamic process of considering student progress through review of daily work products, dialogue with peers, conferring with teachers, reflection, and so forth.  The primary purpose of assessment is to inform instruction. The formal assessments that will be coming home should neither be considered singular indicators of your child's progress, nor should they be considered wholly representative of data summarized in progress reports.  

While the end of the year is in clear sight, please don't hesitate to ask should you have any questions about your child's continued growth. 

IMPORTANT DATES:

Thursday, June 15, 2017 - Color Day - 8:45-12:00

Thursday, June 22, 2017 - Step Up Day - We will visit a third grade classroom and learn                                             about third grade from the third grade teachers.

Friday, June 23, 2017 - LAST DAY OF SCHOOL - 12:00 release

REMINDERS: 

Water bottles: Please make sure to send your child to school with a sport top water bottle (i.e. one that you do not have to take the cap off to drink) each morning that s/he should bring into class each morning to keep on his/her table to have easy access to water throughout the day. Thanks! 

Wow words: Thank you for your participation in this routine this year. I have noticed students inquiring more about words that they do not know, which is one way for them to take control of their own learning. I hope that you continue having these conversations about new vocabulary beyond this year. In the meantime, please continue to help your child gather new words each week through their reading and your conversations at home and bring them in on Wow Word Wednesday. Here are links to an online dictionary (Merriam Webster for kids - Word Central) and our wow word worksheet in case you need a new one. This is an ongoing reminder for the year. Please make acquiring new words part of your home routine.

CURRICULUM UPDATE:

In reading: 

• We visualized and illustrated poems.
• We identified and wrote adjectives to describe nouns.
• We read and read and read!  

At home, continue sharing your favorite poems with your child. Borrow poetry books from the library or check out this website of kid-friendly poems and read them together.   

Next week, we will continue work in our poetry unit.

In fundations (word study): 

• We worked in unit 13, in which we learned 5 ways to read and write the long o sound in words (oa, oe, ow, o-e and o)
• We used the spelling options procedure to practice writing these words. 

At home, please refer to the Units 1-13 family letter to learn how you can support our word study work at home. Also, look though the fundations/word study section on my website. There, you will find all of the first and second grade trick words. If your child needs practice with these words, please practice through activities such as playing bingo, memory or through reviewing them on flashcards. Here is a link to a great website with different sight word games that you might like to try. 

Next week, we will finish unit 13 and move on to learning about the /oo/ sound, like in moon.

In science we:

• We drew and explained what we know about how the Earth, sun and moon work together.
• We write about what we know and wonder about the Earth.
• We watched a movie about the Earth and discussed what we learned. 
• We observed the Earth and drew/labeled our observations.

At home, ask your child about what they learned about the Earth this week. Also, have him/her start observing the moon if possible. It will be full tonight! 

Next week, we will continue learning about the Earth, sun and moon.

In Social Studies: 

• We flew to Ghana.
• We wrote what we know and what we are wondering about Ghana.
• We learned about the Ghanaian flag.

At home, discuss what your child is interested in learning about Ghana and what they already know about Ghana.

In writing: 

• We began writing poetry
• We looked at objects using our "poet's eyes"
• We practiced organizing the line breaks of a poem until the words looked and sounded right to us.

Next week, we will continue learning about how poet's write poetry and writing poetry of our own.

At home, create poetry together! 

In math:

• We worked through a high-cognitive demand problem titled The Race and worked on clearly articulating our thinking through discussion, drawings and diagrams. For some students, this problem was quite challenging and they were not able to solve it. However, the main objective of our lesson was persistence and all students met that goal! 
• We solved addition and subtraction number stories involving dollars and cents.

At home, check out The Race together and have your child show you how s/he solved it. If s/he didn't solve it, continue working it out together.

Have a great weekend!