12/22/2017 0 Comments Mayer Memo 12-22-17Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I wish everyone a wonderful, restful winter break. May you enjoy special memories with your family and friends as you celebrate Christmas! Thank you for the generous gifts. I am truly blessed to be a teacher among such wonderful families! I look forward to seeing everyone next year! Holiday Party Thanks to our fantastic room moms, Lauren Behan, Debbie Kellogg (Jamie's mom), Sarah Kramer, and Heather Ignoffo for the wonderful holiday party. The children enjoyed making a "Hope" tree or star, playing Toss the Snowballs through the Snowman, making Reindeer Food, Snowman Soup, and making snowmen with our feet. Plus, they got to have fun in a special photo booth! Our room moms are the BEST! Everyone had a wonderful time! Holiday Concert The holiday concert was amazing! The children did a wonderful job, and they were very proud of their efforts. Here's what the kids had to say about the concert. Frida When we were in line I was nervous, but when we started singing I felt better. Wolfie I thought I would cough in the middle of the song, but when I looked at Mrs. Halter I felt better. Liam B. Before I sang my solo I thought I' throw up, but when I was finished I felt better. Marty When I stared at Mrs. Halter very hard, my eyes felt weird. Jamie I was so nervous I thought I'd get sick, but when it was over I was happy. It was a spectacular show! Maeve I was nervous because I thought I'd mess up, but I didn't! It was good! Ava I liked having my mom and dad at the concert. Tommy My head hurt during the concert, and I had to go to the bathroom. Stella My boots made my heels hurt! Peter I felt like something embarrassing might happen, like my pants might fall down! Kennedi Singing in the concert was really fun! Orion When I first looked at my mom and dad I was nervous! Markus I couldn't find my parents in the audience for a long time! Naveen When I was playing the guerrero I thought I'd miss, but I didn't. Lillian I was embarrassed, because I almost went down on the wrong song. Jahanna My stomach hurt when I first came in but then I felt ok. Steven I felt embarrassed when my sister was jumping up and down. Math The children did more work with the second investigation of Unit 3. The students have been solving story problems based on situations involving the imaginary Sticker Station store. An important aspect of our work has been to make sure students understand a problem before they begin trying to solve it! We use "math theater" to act out the problems. This information helps students realize if the action in the problem is to join amounts of stickers (addition situation) or separate amounts of stickers(subtraction situation), and helps them write the equation that matches the problem's action. Through "math theater" students also seek to recognize which part of the equation is unknown. For example, equations for different join situations could be: result unknown (ie. 10+10=?), the change unknown (ie. 10+?=20), or the start unknown(ie. ?+10=20). Of course, the RSW steps for solving story problems are also important for students to understand what to do with story problems! The solution strategies students use to solve problems about the Sticker Station reinforce the use of place value. Many students are moving away from drawing pictures to solve sticker problems to decomposing numbers in the equation into tens and ones. By recognizing tens and ones, students use their knowledge of basic addition and subtraction facts to solve problems with much larger numbers. For example, 32+58=? can be solved by adding the tens (30+50=80), then adding the ones (8+2=10), then adding 80+10=90. Students who can decompose in this way can use a number line to solve or simply manipulate the equations to solve. You would be amazed to hear students explain their thinking to one another! Our math talks are fascinating! In addition to solving story problems and having wonderful math talks, the students have played several games, including Get to 100, Collect $1.00, and Close to 20. They wrapped up the second investigation by taking the written assessment. The results of this assessment was sent home this week. Reading The children have returned to focusing on strategies for solving tricky words in their independent reading. They have a "Tricky Word Tool Box" to help them decode challenging words. The students have noted their tricky words on sticky notes and share them with their reading partners each day. We also talked about the importance of reading punctuation marks. We reviewed how a reader's voice should sound when reading a period, question mark, exclamation mark, etc. Students are looking ahead as they read to recognize the punctuation and make sure they are reading the text as the author intended. Please ask your child to tell you about this. Students also learned a new comprehension strategy: Infer to make conclusions. To infer, the students use their prior knowledge and information from the text to conclude ideas the author has implied but not written explicitly. Once the inference is made the students share this and use evidence from the text to support their thinking. The children wrote their thinking about our read alouds, The Trees of the Dancing Goats, and An Orange For Frankie, both by Patricia Polacco, in their Readers' Notebooks. Students have received a Winter Break Reading Challenge. I encourage them to keep reading! For every 20 minutes they read they can glue a "marshmallow" on their cocoa mug. Students who read 20 minutes at least 10 times will get to pick from my "Way to Go" basket when they return from break! Writing The students wrapped up their study of nonfiction writing this week. They converted an earlier nonfiction chapter book into a different format such as a How-To book, a Question-Answer book, or a story that teaches (AKA Literary nonfiction). The students did a wonderful job and are very proud of their work. Their peers complimented the text conventions students included in their books, such as bold print, fact boxes, captions, labeled diagrams, etc. The work students did reading nonfiction certainly influenced their writing! Ask your child to tell you about his/her work! Word Study We studied homophones last week: words with one sound but different meanings and different spellings. These words are very tricky and will need to be revisited many times before they are mastered. We read a book about homophones, we drew pictures to help us remember the meaning of each word, we did an art project to test our memories! We studied contractions this week. The students learned that contractions are a shortened way to write words, and they did “surgery” on words to make them into contractions. Thank you for supporting your child with slightly different word work homework both weeks! Cursive Handwriting The students are doing a great job learning to write cursive! They have learned many lower case letters and are having a great time in the process. Ask your child to tell you about this! Reminder from Mrs. Brauweiler in the Library: Our Monarch Challenge is in full swing and many students have been checking out Monarch books (both here and at the public library). We have read some in the library which count towards the goal of 20 books. I will read at least five to all classes so everyone can vote. The deadline is March 1st to finish reading all books and to turn in the Monarch log. Please let Mrs. Brauweiler know if you have any questions. I look forward to celebrating with those students who finished the Monarch Challenge. Mrs. Brauweiler Art Moms The students enjoyed learning about Bridget Riley from our wonderful art moms, Carrie Horwitz, Keegan Ocapek, and Thea Tsasos. Bridget Riley is known for Op Art, a movement of painting in the 1960s that used geometric forms to create optical effects that trick our eyes. They created art inspired by Riley's work, and this was sent home on Thursday.
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12/8/2017 0 Comments Mayer Memo 12-8-17Please make sure your child has a sweater to wear every day at school.
Our room tends to be rather chilly! Reading Workshop For the past two weeks the students have been reading nonfiction texts to grow knowledge. We finished Knight in Shining Armor, by Gail Gibbons as a class. The students used sticky notes to stop and jot big ideas they learned from different sections of the text. They thought more deeply about their reading by using a strategy to stop and jot called "Caption It." This strategy has students look carefully at photos, read the text, then write a caption or statement that teaches others about what they've learned. The children's writing helped them learn more about the topic, and we had a wonderful discussion about the book. They also created their own knights in armor to show all they learned. The children also did this work with books they read independently. We celebrated our nonfiction learning by sharing books with our 1st grade LEAP buddies. The students prepared for the celebration by pretending they were going to be "Tour Guides" for their books. They thought about important pages they wanted to share, marked these with sticky notes and numbered them so they would remember the order to share them, and found photos and examples they'd show as well. Our LEAP buddies were very impressed with all the 2nd grade students knew! Math We began Unit 3 last week which focuses on place value of 2- and 3-digit numbers. In the first investigation, the students were introduced to "Sticker Station," which is an imaginary store that sells stickers in strips of tens, singles, or sheets of 100 stickers. Students used this context, as well as money (dimes, pennies, dollar bills) and cubes organized in towers of 10, to think about how numbers are composed. Students have discovered that someone can have 32 stickers from "Sticker Station" four different ways: 1. three 10 strips and two singles (30+2=32) 2. two 10 strips and 12 singles(20+12=32) 3. one 10 strip and 22 singles(10+22=32) 4. zero 10 strips and 32 singes(0+32=32) Students also played a game called Roll a Square and solved addition and subtraction story problems that involved multiples of 10 and ones. Click on the link below to see how students are to solve story problems, using the RSW strategy. I emphasize students solve problems in a way that makes sense to them, and we have wonderful math talks that enable students to share their solutions and the strategies they use. You would be very impressed with our conversations about mathematics! The students took the assessment for the first investigation which came home today. Make sure to check out the benchmarks your child is working toward in the next two investigations in this unit. Writing The children published a nonfiction chapter book about a topic of their choice. We celebrated their writing and have placed these books in a special bin in our classroom library so others can read them. Next, students have learned that writers can write other types of nonfiction books such as How-To books, Question and Answer books, and Stories that Teach (literary nonfiction). The students are taking their original books and rewriting them in other formats. Ask your child to tell you what format s/he is writing now. Social Studies - Geography - Travel America The children learned about the compass rose, cardinal and intermediate directions, the continents, and landforms in social studies. They discovered the cardinal directions are north, south, east, and west. The intermediate directions are northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest. They watched a Brainpop Jr. video about continents and made a map of the continents. They also read their social studies book and watched a Brainpop Jr. video about landforms. The students made a map of landforms and drew and wrote definitions for landforms. Word Work This week and last week our word study continued to look at r-controlled vowels. Last week, the children discovered that /er/ says the engine sound, or rrrrrrrrrrrrr, as in clerk and certain, while /eer/ and /ear/ make the long e sound, as in steer, peer, clear, and dear, and follow the cvvc spelling pattern. This week they learned that /ir/ also makes the engine sound, or rrrrrrrrrrr, as in bird and girl, while /ire/ and /ier/ make the long i sound, as in fire, wire, crier, and drier. This makes spelling very challenging, and requires the children to use their eyes and ears to spell words. They must use their eyes to memorize if a word makes the rrrrrrrrrrrr sound with /ir/ or /er/. They must also listen for sounds in words so they can try different spelling patterns, then see what looks correct! Some students also looked at /ur/ and discovered this, too, makes the engine sound, or rrrrrrrrr, as in fur and spur. Important Concert Information! Second grade students will perform their holiday concert on Thursday, December 21 at 10:30. If you plan to attend the concert, please come in the Franklin doors and sign in there. We hope you understand the importance of managing all the folks visiting our fine, fine school that day so that everyone is safe! |
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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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