6/8/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 6-8-18Poetry Coffee House
I am very proud of the children for doing such a great job sharing their wonderful poems! The amazing poems you parents brought made a big impression on the students as well! Thank you for your time and interest in this activity. Hopefully, our poets will continue to read and write poetry throughout their days! A fond farewell! I can hardly believe our year together has come to an end. Your children have become my family at school, so saying goodbye is always difficult for me. I have so greatly enjoyed getting to know all of you. I hope you know how much I appreciated all your trust and support throughout the year. Caring for your most precious gifts is a responsibility I take seriously and for which I am truly grateful. I will miss all of the children and will keep them in my heart always. I hope you know that you can always contact me, and I hope we will stay in touch! May you have a wonderful, restful summer. The new school year will be here before you know it! Best wishes to everyone in third grade! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I am humbled by the wonderful parents of 2Ma! You have sent your children to school each day ready and eager to learn! You have supported all we do in the classroom! And many of you have given your precious time to help regularly in the classroom! A wonderful team of school and parents makes Lincoln School the best it can be! Thank you, also, for the very thoughtful knitting gift certificate and the knitting goodies. I am truly humbled by your generosity! Thank you, also, for the personal gifts! I am truly blessed! I hope you know how much I appreciate your thoughtfulness and your kind words! Have a wonderful summer vacation! I will miss all of you!
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5/25/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 5-25-18
Please Mark Your Calendars!
We will share our poetry at a poetry coffee house planned for Tuesday, June 5th from 8:30-9:30. Please mark your calendars to come and hear your amazing poets share their best poems! Plus you’ll see your child’s poetry book. Plan to bring along a copy of one of your favorite poems to share with the children. Important Year-End Information • The last fun lunch is on Friday, June 1st, and it is a free lunch courtesy of the amazing Lincoln PTO • Poetry Coffee House is Tuesday, June 5, 8:30 to 9:30. Find your favorite poem to share with the students! • Students will clean classrooms on Thursday, June 7. School supplies will be sent home or donated at this time. • Field Day is the last day of school, Friday, June 8, with a family picnic on the lawn during the lunch hour; students must bring a personal water bottle to ensure they are hydrated throughout the day. Reading Workshop - Daily Five We are reading A Nest For Celeste, by Henry Cole. As we read, the children are writing what they are thinking and trying to support their ideas with two or even more examples from the text. The children have also chosen personal goals and strategies to practice during daily reading time. They are using their reading notebooks to record their work toward their goals. Ask you child to tell you what s/he is reading and what personal goal and strategies s/he's been practicing! Writing Workshop The children have been very busy writing poetry and are hard at work publishing their very own poetry anthology. They can't wait to share this with you at the Poetry Coffee House on Tuesday, June 5th! Math We've been hard at work with the first investigation in Unit 8 of the Investigations. So far, the work they're doing has focused on subtraction. They have used subtraction to compare and to separate, or take away. They have solved many story problems and learned several games and activities that allow them to practice subtracting various quantities from 100. The children took the assessment for the first investigation today. We will continue with work from the second investigation next week. Word Work The word work patterns your children have learned throughout the year are intended to help them decode longer, more sophisticated words. As they read books with more difficult words, remind them to recall the patterns we've discussed and use this knowledge to sound out the word. The students have reviewed the spelling patterns we've discussed throughout the year, and they took the final word work assessment. Cursive Handwriting The children are thrilled to have learned how to write ALL 26 LOWERCASE cursive letters! They are also working on uppercase letters and are practicing writing their names along with classic statement that uses all 26 letters, such as: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog! Very soon your children will bring home their cursive handwriting practice booklet, and you will see the great work they've done. In spite of popular opinion, a great amount of brain research supports the value of practicing handwriting! Please encourage your child to use cursive writing at home this summer by writing letters to relatives and friends. 5/11/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 5-11-18Math Last week, we finished our work with unit 7. The children solved problems with multiplicative relationships to build a conceptual understanding of multiplication. For example, the students used connecting cubes to build a five floor building with 4 rooms on each floor. They wrote the equation: 4+4+4+4+4=20 to represent the building and noticed that 5 groups of 4 can be written as 5X4=20. They also used pattern blocks to build this understanding. For example, three rhombuses fit on one hexagon, six rhombuses fit on two hexagons, nine rhombuses fit on three hexagons, and 12 rhombuses fit on four hexagons. They wrote the equation: 3+3+3+3=12 to represent this situation and noticed 4 groups of 3 can be written as 4X3=12. Through these activities, our goal is that students understand multiplication is repeated addition; we don't expect students to write multiplication equations at this time. This week, we began working on unit 8 which is our last unit in the Investigations Math program. The first investigation focuses on subtraction fluency within 100. The second investigation focuses on models for adding and subtracting larger numbers. This unit is packed with problem solving activities which represent many problem types. So far, students have solved comparison problems with the smaller amount unknown. We are working to have rich discussions during our math talks. Our goal is for students to use the eight math practices throughout their math work, and especially during math talks. New subtraction fact fluency cards were introduced this week. Please remember to support your child's growth in mathematics by regularly quizzing him/her on addition and subtraction facts to 20! T-Shirts Needed for Tie-Dye Every second grade student needs a T-shirt to tie-dye! Please send your child with a clean, white, COTTON T-shirt by Friday, May 25! We will dye the shirts the following Tuesday and send it home so it can soak in the dye for a few days before you wash the shirt. Your child should wear the tie-dyed shirt on June 5 for the Poetry Coffee house and on the last day of school for Field day, Friday, June 8. Writing Workshop - Poetry The children are hard at work writing poetry, and I’m amazed at what they’ve created! Next week they will begin publishing their own poetry book! The children are enjoying this unit so much, and they can’t wait to share their work with you. Please mark your calendars so you can attend our Poetry Coffee House on Tuesday, June 5, from 8:30 to 9:30! You won't want to miss this! Reading Workshop The children continued their Patricia Polacco author study the last two weeks. They are working to become much more capable of writing in response to reading and supporting their ideas with details from the text. We are also looking for the author's message in Polacco's books. We finished reading Polacco's Just in Time Abraham Lincoln, and we've started reading Henry Cole's A Nest For Celeste. Ask your child to tell you about his/her writing in response to reading! Word Study For the past two weeks, students have worked on sorts at their own levels. Last week, some students compared long and short o words using the spelling patterns CVC for short o and CVVC (oa)/CVCe for long o. Others compared words that began with silent consonants. This week, some students compared long and short u words using the spelling patterns CVC for short u and CVVC(ui and oo)/CVCe for long u. Others compared words that ended with -le using the spelling patterns VCle for long vowels (open syllables) and VCCle for short vowels (closed syllables). The last weeks of school we will be reviewing all the spelling patterns the students have learned throughout the year. We will NOT have traditional word study, so the students will not have word study homework. Social Studies - Citizenship The children learned that state and local governments have the same three-part structure as our national government. They took the unit test and did a great job. New Science Theme - Insects! We were excited to welcome some insects to our class last week! We aren't sure what they are yet, but we designed and conducted fair tests, also known as scientific investigations, to decide what type of habitat our visitors will need when they are staying with us. We tested whether the visitors like to eat apples or potatoes, whether they like light or dark, whether they like to live in oats or wheat, whether they liked dry or wet, and whether they like their bedding shallow or deep. Our tests provided evidence that allowed us to make the following claim: Our visitors like to eat apples, they like the dark, and they like dry oats piled high so they can burrow in it and be in the dark. Next, we built habitats for the insects based on the claims we made from our fair tests. Finally, we carefully observe our insects using loupes, a magnifying lens we hold right up to our eye, and watch them grow and develop. Being like scientists, we made detailed scientific drawings and labeled our drawings using science words. The Library Lowdown As the year comes to a close, please return all library books by Monday, May 29th (the Monday after Memorial Day). If you cannot find a book, please send in payment for the amount of the book (located on the Friday overdue book email). If you find the book after submitting payment, Mrs. Brauweiler will happily return your money. She would definitely prefer to have the book! If you have any questions about a book, please contact Mrs. Brauweiler directly. Thank you for all your help in returning all books (or payment) by May 29th. We really appreciate it. 4/24/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 4-27-18Writing Workshop
The students chose a piece of realistic fiction from their collection of work they wanted to published. They fixed up and fancied up this piece and shared it with their classmates and our first grade LEAP buddies. The children took the end-of-unit assessment and have really become wonderful story tellers! This week, the students began writing poetry. They learned that to say things in new ways, they need to look at things through a poet's eyes. We looked at ordinary objects such as a pinecone, candle, paint brush, shell, and seeds, and the children imagined what else these items might be. We also talked about listening for line breaks to help their writing look like poetry with stanza and verse. We even wrote our first poem as a class: Pinecone Hotel A hotel with many floors. For ants and insects and more. Gathering, storing all their food. Tucked inside for winter. Reading Last week and this week, we continued reading poetry and looking for the seven tips: It sometimes rhymes; has rhythm (keeps a beat); it says things in new ways (metaphor, simile, alliteration, adjectives, adverbs); it repeats important ideas; has shape; expresses feelings; and it ends on its best line. The students are becoming quite the experts on poetry, and have begun selecting poems they will include in an anthology of poetry they are creating. Social Studies New Theme: Citizenship We began a new social studies theme this week about how our government is structured. We watched some videos to support our learning. We discussed how voting allows citizens to choose their leaders, and the students had a mock election to choose a mascot for our class. There were several good candidates, and the Black Panther won! Math We finished Unit 6 -- linear measurement -- last week. The students took the assessment for the end of the second investigation and the results were sent home last week. Please give your child things to measure using standard inch/foot/yard and centimeter/meter units. They could all use more practice in this area. We started Unit 7 which is about partners, teams, and other groups. This unit's first investigation provided students with the opportunity to investigate even and odd numbers and create a working definition for both concepts. They took the assessment for this investigation, and you should have seen those results on Thursday. In the second of this unit, students work with two contexts—buildings with the same number of rooms on each floor and pattern blocks covered by copies of a single shape—to explore sums of equal groups. They create tables that display the multiplicative relationships and consider why some tables look the same even though they represent different contexts. About Math Fact Fluency By the end of second grade, students should fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies, and know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers. This is an expectation according to Common Core State Standard 2.OA.B.2. Throughout the year, your children have brought home math pages that show six addition or subtraction facts they are working on. Although the example shows the answer to the equation, these pages show the equation WITHOUT an answer so your child can use the page to practice. Please note the clue line on which students are to write an equation they know which helps them solve the equation. You can support your child at home by cutting out the facts "cards" and quizzing your child with them regularly. I am attaching a blank "Practicing the Facts" page here if you'd like to have your child make more of these cards for practice at home. If you have questions, please let me know. Word Work Last week, the students learned a rule for words ending with -ch. They discovered that short vowel words that end in -ch are spelled -tch such as match, stitch, fetch. Long vowel and other vowel words are spelled -ch with this pattern, such as beach, couch. If there is an l, r, or n before the ch, those letters are heard and used in the spelling of the word, such as gulch, porch, bench. This week, we discussed a rule for words that end with y. The children discovered that when a word has one syllable, the y says the long i sound as in cry, shy, why. If there word is greater than one syllable, the y says the long e sound such as family, baby, treaty. Erin's Law Presentations Coming Erin’s Law, House Bill 6193 was signed by Governor Pat Quinn on January 24, 2013. This law requires schools to implement an age-appropriate sexual assault and abuse awareness and prevention curriculum for grades pre-K through 12. District 90 researched best practices and programs for delivering this instruction. We reviewed several recommended programs and visited several area school districts to observe programs in action. We are very pleased to share that Victor Pacini will be visiting Lincoln School on May 2 to deliver his program entitled, Be Seen and Heard©, a prevention-oriented child sexual abuse program. Below is a link to information regarding his presentation. Please contact Mr. Godfrey if you have other specific questions or if you prefer your child not participate. https://www.victorpacini.com/peace-of-mind/ 4/13/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 4-13-18Math After Spring break, the students started Unit 6 in the Investigations Math program. This unit focuses on linear measurement using the United States customary measurement system of inches, feet, and yards as well as the metric system of centimeters, and meters. The first investigation, provided students with experiences measuring using nonstandard objects such as paper clips, shoes, popsicle sticks, and connecting cubes. Through this experience, the children discovered common units are necessary for comparing lengths. They created their own "Inch-Brick" measuring tool, and focused on measuring correctly. Students also discovered that individuals can come up with different measurements for the same object by measuring with different size units, measuring different dimensions of the object, or by making measurement errors, such as miscounting, having overlaps, or having gaps in their measurements. In the second investigation, students were introduced to 12-inch rulers, yardsticks, and measuring tapes. They found body parts to represent benchmarks for one inch, six inches, and 12 inches. Ask your child to tell you his/her benchmarks. The students use their benchmarks to estimate the length of various objects, then they measure the object with the appropriate tool. Students also completed many story problems comparing the lengths of various objects. The children have also started using centimeters and meters to measure. Reading The children wrapped up their realistic fiction series study the first week back from Spring break. After much wonderful discussion, each group created a "quilt" to explain the important parts of the series to their classmates. Their quilts are on display in the hall. We also started reading January's Sparrow by Patricia Polacco, which is historical fiction about slaves who escape slavery and travel north to Michigan then Canada. The comprehension strategy we're working on with this book is "Ask and Answer Questions." The children are noticing when a question pops in their head as we read. They jot down their question and look for the answer as we continue reading. We reviewed question words such as who, what, where, when, why, and how, and the students discovered that by starting their questions with these words, they will have "thick" questions which generate more detailed answers. "Thin" questions can be answered with a yes or no. We are practicing turning "thin" questions into "thick" questions. Ask your child to tell you a question s/he has from the story. This week, we started our unit on poetry! The children read and discussed a variety of poems and discovered that good poetry includes seven tips. The students have learned the first three tips: It sometimes rhymes, has rhythm, and it says things in new ways (with metaphor, simile, alliteration, adjectives, adverbs). We have been finding these things in the poems we are reading. Next week we’ll continue to “marinade” in poetry, so we begin to take on the flavor of a poet and learn the five other tips of good poetry! If your child has a book of poetry at home, please have him/her bring it in to share! Writing The children are hard at work writing realistic fiction. They are truly pushing themselves to incorporate the things they notice mentor authors doing to make their stories gripping and interesting. The children are striving to write good beginnings, tell the inside and outside of their characters, drop a hint about what a character might be thinking or feeling that ties to the problem, and make the problem worse and worse for the character rather than wrap the story up to quickly. The children used the narrative checklist to evaluate their work and took a gallery walk through one another's favorite pieces. We will continue more realistic fiction writing over the next two weeks. Science We planned and conducted several fair tests about light, and we wrote lab reports for each test. The children learned that when light travels best through transparent materials such as clear plastic, it travels somewhat well through translucent objects such as wax paper, and does not travel well through opaque materials such as solid paper. They also worked to find out how light can travel in another direction. The children shone a light on mirrors and paper and realized light bounces off the mirror's shiny surface back in the direction it came while the paper absorbs light. They also discovered that light can be refracted, or appear to bend, when light travels through air compared to water. Ask your child to tell you about this! Word Work Last week the children reviewed rules for adding -ing suffixes onto words. They discovered short vowel words must end with two consonants before adding -ing. Sometimes, these words already end with two consonants and you do nothing to add -ing, such as picking, passing, thanking. Something short vowel words end with only one consonant so you need to double the consonant before adding -ing, such as swimming, batting, running. Long vowel words that have vowel teams need nothing before adding -ing, such as meeting, mailing, floating. Long vowel words that end with e need the e dropped before adding -ing, such as taking, smiling, mining. This week, the children worked with sorts at their level. Some looked at words that end with the soft g sound. If the word has a short vowel, the soft g is spelled -dge, such as judge, badge, ledge. If the word has a long vowel, it is spelled with the CVCe pattern, such as page, huge, cage. If you hear an l, n, or r before the ge, those letters should be written, such as bulge, large, range. You should expect the rules for the word sorts we are working on now and through the end of the year to be challenging for most students. Please ask your child to tell you about his/her word study each week! News from the Library The deadline for ordering Michelle Schaub's poetry book (4/24 visit) has been extended. Families have until April 20th to submit their form for a personalized and autographed copy. Please contact Mrs. Brauweiler directly if you have any questions. Join the 2018/2019 PTO team There is a lot you can do for the PTO and for Lincoln School whether you are a working parent or a stay at home parent. Volunteer opportunities are available for events taking place at school during the week or on weekends. And opportunities are available for you to work from the comfort of your own home while younger children nap. Please click here to view the list of positions available for the 2018-19 school year. 3/23/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 3-23-18Social Studies: Working World We wrapped up our study of economics last week with the unit assessment and our visit to Fullersburg Woods. We had a wonderful time at Fullersburg learning how Sugar Maple trees are tapped to make maple syrup. Thanks to Dan Gibbs for chaperoning the event. The children walked through the woods and stopped at stations showing the various steps necessary for making maple syrup. The students learned that maple sap is a renewable natural resource but it is time consuming to make and the trees are only found in certain parts of the world. Because of this, maple sap is scarce, and maple syrup is quite expensive! Science: New Theme - Light We started a new science unit about light this week. The children brainstormed all they thought they knew about light, then they planned and conducted their first experiment. The children discovered that light travels in a straight line out in all directions from the source. We will conduct more tests about this subject after Spring break. Reading For the past two weeks, the children have been reading books in a fictional series. Four groups are reading different series of books and we are having discussions about them. The four series are: Nate the Great, Cam Jansen, Judy Moody and Stink, Ivy and Bean, and A to Z Mysteries. At the end of each reading period, the students answer questions and share ideas about their books with one another. These talks have generated much greater thinking about reading! We look forward to more of this work after Spring break. This week, we finished reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate Dicamillo. Our final comprehension focus for this book was about Synthesis. The students discovered that Synthesis is noticing how their thinking grows as they read. We stopped and jotted ideas as we read to demonstrate this growth in thinking. If you listened in on our talks you'd think you were at an adult book group conversation! The students also created a final project about the book that showed how the main character changed and grew throughout the story, what the lesson or theme of the story was, and/or explained what the character's journey really was in this book. We also read a wonderful realistic fiction book by Patricia Polacco called Thank You Mr. Falker. This book was about a girl who had trouble reading until her fifth grade teacher realized her problem. The students enjoyed the message of this book. Please ask your child to tell you about it. Writing Workshop The children have been writing "Gripping" realistic fiction stories during writing workshop. This unit builds on their knowledge of writing personal narratives, also known as small moments, and allows students to create their own realistic tales. The writers in our class seem to love this work, and they are finding success by creating characters with the same age, same gender, and same interests as themselves. We have done some shared writing about video clips from Toy Story and Sandlot to help students understand the importance of detailed descriptions using adjectives, comparisons, and onomatopoeia. We've also talked about how to build tension in their stories by adding unexpected but believable details. Please ask your child to tell you about his/her work! Math During the past two weeks, students have been working on visualizing, representing, and solving addition story problems with the total unknown. We have also developed efficient strategies for adding 2-digit numbers and efficient methods for notating addition strategies. The two strategies most students use are (1) adding by place and (2) keeping one number whole and adding the second number in parts. Please see the examples of efficient notation for these two strategies below. Efficiency in strategic thinking and notating are critical as students work with larger and larger numbers. The students took the assessment for investigation 3 of this unit on Friday. We will begin Unit 6 after break. This unit will be about linear measurement in standard and metric units. Art Moms
Special thanks to Carrie Horwitz and Keegan Ocepek for sharing the self portrait art of Frida Kahlo. The students made their own self portraits in Kahlo's style and took them home for your enjoyment. News From the Library This week, your child listened to a story in the library about someone taking a trip and mailing back letters and postcards. Mrs. Brauweiler has given everyone a postcard for spring break. It would be really fun if kids filled out the postcards with a note about what they did over spring break and a picture. They don't have to travel - it could be playing in the park or going to the movies - basically anything they did over spring break. When they get back, we read the postcards during library time and hang them on the wall in the library. This is totally optional but the students get a big kick seeing their postcard up on the wall. Please note that postage is not included. If you have any questions about this, please contact Mrs. Brauweiler directly. Summer School District 90's summer school program will be in session from Thursday, June 14th through Friday, July 13th, with no classes on July 4th. Students entering Kindergarten-4th grade will be at Lincoln Elementary and students entering 5th-8th grade will be at Roosevelt Middle School. Registration opens on Wednesday, April 4th at 7:00 a.m. You can find the brochure and the link to register at: http://www.district90.org/about/summer-school 3/9/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 3-9-18Reading & Social Studies Last week, the children read a story in their Journey’s book called The Goat in the Rug by Charles L. Blood, Martin Link, and Nancy Winslow Parker. This story is a narrative nonfiction selection about a Navajo weaver who sheared her goat for its wool, or mohair, then dyed it, spun it, and wove it into a rug. This story reinforces our Economics social studies theme, because it shows how people take natural resources and use them to make products for sale. The children discovered that making a rug from goat’s wool is very time consuming, and this makes hand-made Navajo rugs scarce. We talked about how the Navaho weaver is a producer of goods, and the students made a flow chart to show the steps the weaver followed in producing the rug. The children also worked together to weave potholders from looms using cotton loops. We read from our social studies book and learned about goods, trade, producers, and consumers, as well. This week . . . the children read Donald Hall’s, Ox Cart Man, a narrative nonfiction story that describes how a farmer produces goods, sells (or trades) them at market, and consumes goods for his family. We discovered that some of the items he consumed were needs and some were wants. The children also noticed that the story described a sequence of steps that is repeated by the family every year. The children made another flow chart to show the steps the farmer took to produce and consume goods. We also noticed lots of verbs and pronouns since they appear throughout the Ox Cart Man. In addition to the social studies tie-in reading, we continued reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo. The children are using various comprehension strategies to keep track of this long and complex book. Ask your child to tell you what strategies s/he likes best! Field Trip to Fullersburg Woods is next Thursday, March 15! We will travel to the DuPage County forest preserve to see how Sugar Maple trees are tapped for their sap and turned into maple syrup. This trip supports our social studies Economics theme. There is no charge for the trip since it is funded by the wonderful Lincoln PTO! We will leave at 10:30 and return at 1:00. The students will eat their lunches in the classroom when we return. Please remember there can be NO NUTS in your child's lunch that day! The permission slip was sent home on Wednesday of this week. If you haven't already done so, please sign the permission slip and send it to school with your child by Monday, March 12! Math The children have been practicing basic addition and subtraction facts to 20 by using related facts to solve trickier problems. For addition, many students try to make a ten to add or use doubles facts. For subtraction, students try to get back to ten or use related addition facts. Students recorded clues they use to remember facts they need to work on. I hope you are seeing this work at home. We have also been using what we know about making 10 to make 100. For example, if 8+2=10, we can use that to solve 80+20=100. Our new math program includes many excellent math games that support students' work with basic facts to solve more complex equations. Please check out the link to these games on the Forms and Homework page and play the games with your child. This will give you a clear picture of your child's strengths and areas for growth! Writing The children in 2Ma are really growing as writers! Last week they finished making posters for the book they nominated for an award. Hopefully you saw their opinion writing in the form of nominations and their posters when you stopped by for conferences. They also learned that verbs and pronouns are parts of speech. The children learned that verbs name actions, and they identified verbs in sentences. They also learned that pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. We sang a song to remember this. Ask your child to sing it to you! This week, the children took the end-of-unit assessment by writing a final opinion piece about one of their favorite books. They also continued working on verbs and pronouns. The children played a form of charades to act out various verbs. They also watched a video called the "Royal Principality of Pronouns." They discovered that pronouns can be used for the subject of a sentence, such as I, you, he, she, it, we, they. Pronouns can also be used after action verbs in a sentence, such as me, you, him, her, it, us, them. Next week, we will return to narrative writing, and the children will begin learning how to write gripping fictional stories. Word Work Last week, the children compared words with hard and soft c. They discovered that hard c sounds like a k, and this sound comes before a, o, and u. Soft c sounds like an s and this comes before e, i, and y. This week, they compared words with hard and soft g. A hard g makes the g sound, and it comes before a, o, and u. The soft g sounds like a j, and it comes before e, i, and y. The Annual Lincoln School Auction Lincoln families! Please don’t forget that our annual fundraiser Hoops and Heels is quickly approaching on Friday, March 16. HOOPS and HEELS The Lincon School Auction Friday, March 16 6:30 PM Lake Street Kitchen If you are unable to attend, do not fret!! You do not need to attend to be a part of it!! You can purchase tickets online and bid on items regardless — and all proceeds go to our school! We are hoping to repeat another record-breaking year for our kids and teachers! Thank you for your support, Melissa Bergetz and Rebecca Ehart, co-chairs. 2/23/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 2-23-18Sound and Harmonica
We wrapped up the sound unit with the written assessment last week. The children did a FANTASTIC job playing their harmonicas for an audience this week. I am very excited about their musical talents after just five hours of instruction. Please encourage your child to continue playing at home. The harmonicas, books, and gift certificates were sent home with your child on Tuesday. If your child would like to continue studying the harmonica, piano, or drums you can schedule your two complimentary lessons with Mr. Milan by contacting him at 708-612-PLAY. Parent-Teacher Conferences are NEXT WEEK! I have been conducting many assessments to prepare for parent-teacher conferences. Please follow the directions you received from the district to sign up for a conference! I look forward to meeting with you to share your student's progress very soon! Reading Workshop The children are working to become better readers in a variety of ways. Because most students are reading longer, more complex books, they need to keep track of what's happening in these books as they read. One strategy for doing this is to ask a partner for help if the book is confusing. Another way to keep track of longer books is to use sticky notes to write important events from the story and to make notes to remember things. Hopefully, students are also stopping to reread if they get off track and are asking themselves questions to be sure they understand the text. Many students are reading the same book as their partners and they can talk about their book during share time. We are also using the strategies for keeping track of longer books with our read aloud, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate Di Camillo. The students are becoming deeper thinkers about the text and we are having wonderful conversations about this great book. Writing Workshop We continued working on opinion writing the past two weeks. The children have learned the most convincing letters state a clear opinion (Pinky and Rex is a fantastic book!), giving a specific reason (The character, Pinky and Rex, really care about one another.), then supporting it with examples from the text (For example, when Pinky was sad Rex tried many things to cheer him up.) Their published letters about favorite books and those are on display in the hall. This week the students began writing nominations for book awards. For example, they chose a book they felt strongly about and wrote what a judge might need to know to give that book an award. We brainstormed awards they thought their books might deserve, such as Best Book About History for Kids Award, Most Funny Award, Most Colorful Pictures Award, etc, I am very impressed with their growth in opinion writing since we started this unit! Math We are working on Unit 5 in Investigations Math. The first investigation in this unit is about combinations of 100. Students add and subtract 10, 20, and 30 and 1, 2, and 3, to or from 2-digit numbers as they try to capture 5 chips scattered around a 100 chart. They solve 2-step story problems about money and stickers and figure out how much more they need in order to have 100 or $1.00. Students continue to review and practice addition and subtraction facts and consider the relationship between adding 9 and 10 and subtracting 9 and 10 when the +/−𝟫+/−9 Fact Cards are added to their set. The second investigation will be about adding within 100 and counting to 1000. Students will think about combinations that make 100 as they try to find pairs of 2-digit numbers that equal a number close to 100. They also revisit activities that extend the rote counting sequence to 1,000. They practice reading, writing, and comparing 3-digit numbers, skip counting within that range, and adding 10 or 100 to any 3-digit number. They use the stickers to represent 3-digit numbers as hundreds, tens, and ones. The third investigation will be about fluency within 100. Students will solve story problems, including comparison problems with a bigger unknown and problems with more than one step. They will focus on developing efficient and accurate strategies for adding 2-digit numbers within 100, specifically those that involve adding tens and ones and adding on one number in parts. Social Studies We dove into our Economics theme this week by learning about needs, wants, technology, saving, and many other concepts related to economics, or the working world. The students are reading the social studies text and learning how to find definitions for key vocabulary words by looking around the bold or highlighted words in the text. We are having many fabulous conversations about this topic! I hope you are hearing about it at home! Word Study and Other Concepts About English Due to the short weeks of school, I have not introduced new word study sorts. Instead, we have discussed how to write abbreviations and identified verbs. Ask your child to tell you about these concepts! Valentine’s Day Party Was Wonderful Thanks to our fabulous room parents for a fun, memorable Valentine's Day party! We loved every minute of the activities! The children enjoyed playing games, making "Cupid's Clubhouse," and enjoying the yummy treats! What a great day! 2/9/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 2-9-18Valentine’s Day is Coming in 2 Ma We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Wednesday, February 14 with a party from 2:00-3:00. Each child has been writing a thoughtful, personalized valentine to each of the other children in the class. Students have also made an envelope to receive their valentines. Because of this, students need not bring store bought valentines or valentines made at home. However, if your child has already made valentines and would like to bring them, s/he may do so as long as s/he brings in one for everyone in the class. Harmonica Share will be Tuesday, February 20 from 2:00-3:00! Mark your calendar so you can come! We've been hard at work learning how to play the harmonica with instruction from Mr. Milan. The students have learned to play many songs, and we are trying to decide which songs we’ll play when parents come to listen at the Harmonica Share. Mr. Milan brought in very large and small cymbals to reinforce the concept of pitch and a special drum from Mexico to reinforce the concept that vibration causes sound. Ask your child to tell you about this! The children watched a fascinating video about sound which provided information that enabled the children to confirm a great amount of their learning from our experiments. They also conducted an experiment to learn the pattern for how to change volume. They will take the sound written assessment next week. Math For the past two weeks the children have been working on investigations in Unit 4 which involved collecting, organizing and representing data. They learned how to classify information into categories based on similar characteristics. They also learned how to make a bar graph to represent information. They conducted a survey of Lincoln students to see how many teeth they'd lost and represented their findings in a line plot. The students discovered graphs must include a clear title and labels. They also learned to interpret data on graphs. They created line plots of teeth lost by "mystery classes" then matched the graph to the class based on the data. Finally, the children took the assessment for this investigation, and they did a great job! Writing Workshop In writing, the students have been writing letters to classmates with their opinions about their favorite books. The children have learned to structure their letters by identifying their opinion, explain the reason for their opinion, and provide examples from the text to support their opinions. They have learned how to craft good leads that hook their reader right from the start, and to create endings that remind the reader of their opinions. I've seen their love of books grow with this unit along with their conversations about what makes a good book! Word Work Last week The children compared words that are spelled /aw/ paw, crawl, hawk, lawn and /au/ as in cause. They discovered that words are spelled /aw/ when it comes at the end of the word/syllable or is followed by l, k, or n. Words are spelled /au/ when it comes in the beginning or middle of the word word/syllable. This week they compared words that are spelled /ow/ as in plow, howl, and down, and /ou/ as in count. They discovered words that make this sound are spelled /ow/ when it comes at the end of the word/syllable or is followed by l or n. The sound is spelled /ou/ when it comes in the beginning or middle of the word word/syllable. Some students also worked with words spelled /ou/ and make the short u sound such as rough. Reading We continued reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate Di Camillo. We talked about how good readers notice literary language and stop to think about what the author wants us to think based on the language. Students worked with a partner to read the same book and notice literary language as they read. We also talked about how partners can work separately then come together to share their thinking about a story. We discussed how good readers hold on to longer stories by thinking, "What is important in the section I just read?" and writing their thinking on a sticky note. We did this work together with the read aloud and students did this independently with their shared book and books they are reading on their own. Parent-Teacher Conferences I've conducted several assessments as I prepare for upcoming parent-teacher conferences. I look forward to sharing your child's progress with you soon! 1/26/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 1-16-18Harmonica Instruction and Sound We've had two more sessions of harmonica instruction with Mr. Milan. The students have learned to play many songs! Mr. Milan brought in a very large harmonica to compare with our ten-hole harmonica. He also brought a large and small drum to reinforce the concept of how we can change the pitch of sound. Ask your child to tell you about this! The children planned and conducted additional tests in science. They tested how three different size nails would sound when they tapped them with a pencil. They created this test to see if their previous claim about pitch was correct. They wrote their claim and evidence about this tests, then they planned and conducted a test about what objects sound travels through best. They designed and conducted this test with a partner. They will write their claims and evidence next week. My goal is for the students to become proficient with designing, conducting, and writing about their own fair test in science. Math Last week we wrapped up Unit 3 in Investigations. The students did a great job with this unit! A quiz and assessment were sent home last week and show your . They are becoming much more proficient reading and understanding the action in story problems. They are also becoming more flexible in choosing strategies to solve various addition and subtraction problems with two-digit numbers. Next, we began working with Unit 4 in Investigations which involves the collection and representation of data. In this first investigation of this unit, students identify and sort data by common attributes, including overlapping attributes, as they play Guess My Rule with the class and with Yekttis, a fictional set of creatures with a defined set of attributes. They organize and represent data, and they learn the conventions of picture graphs, bar graphs, and Venn diagrams. In the second investigation, students work with numerical data as they collect information about the number of pockets worn by their classmates and the number of teeth lost by second graders and other elementary-age students. They organize and represent numerical data, and they learn the conventions of line plots. The children are having a lot of fun with these concepts! Reading Last week, during reading workshop we focused on reading fluency. The children learned many methods for making their reading more fluent, such as (1) read aloud in your head, (2) scoop words into longer phrases, (3) talk like the characters, (4) make your voice match the mood, and (5) read with a "just right" pace. The children practiced each day to improve their fluency, and they recorded their reading using SeeSaw. Hopefully, you've had a chance to listen to your child's fluency and comment on what you heard! This week, we worked on understanding literary language. The students learned to (1) pay attention to special language, reread it, think about what is happening in the story, and ask themselves "what does the author want me to know from this language?", (2) notice comparisons (similes and metaphors) and think about how they are alike, (3) figure out what playful language REALLY means, such as silly use of homophones. This work requires lots of thinking and partners worked together to understand the literary language they encounter. Ask your child to tell you about his/her discoveries! Writing Workshop In writing the children are writing opinion letters to their classmates about their favorite books. The students have learned they can write about characters, pictures, favorite parts, lessons learned, etc. Many students seem to struggle thinking deeply enough about books to support their opinions with evidence from the text. Partners are working together to rehearse before they write. You can support your child at home by talking about the books they are reading and helping them identify what they like about their books and why. Word Work Last week we didn't have word work, because it was a short week and we spent this time writing valentines to our classmates. This week, the children compared words that are spelled oy or oi. They discovered the /oi/ spelling comes at the beginning or middle of a word or syllable. The /oy/ spelling comes at the end of a word or syllable. Valentine’s Day in 2 Ma We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Wednesday, February 14 with a party from 2:00-3:00. Each child has been writing a thoughtful, personalized valentine to each of the other children in the class. Students have also made an envelope to receive their valentines. Because of this, students need not bring store bought valentines or valentines made at home. However, if your child has already made valentines and would like to bring them, s/he may do so as long as s/he brings in one for everyone in the class. |
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Mystery State!Mystery state for June 1 Did You Know...New evidence links handwriting and educational success.
Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information. "When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated,” said Stanislas Dehaene, a psychologist at the Collège de France in Paris. “There is a core recognition of the gesture in the written word, a sort of recognition by mental simulation in your brain. And it seems that this circuit is contributing in unique ways we didn’t realize,” he continued. “Learning is made easier.” Parent's attitudes about mathematics affect their kids!
"A 2015 study showed math-anxious parents who frequently helped their elementary schoolers with homework saw their kids learn significantly less math by the end of the year than kids whose parents didn't express an aversion to math." (Heidi Stevens, Balancing Act and Chicago Tribune) According to Jennifer McCray, Principal investigator at the Erikson Institute's Early Math Collaborative, "Statements from parents are extremely powerful in terms of helping a child decide, 'Who am I going to be relative to math" How should I feel about math?'" If you're a math-averse parent, the article linked above has great tips for addressing this! Archives
June 2018
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