1/12/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 1-12-18Happy New Year! We’re off to a wonderful start in 2018. Now that everyone has had lots of rest and relaxation, we are ready for some challenging new adventures in the coming months. New Science Theme -- Sound We began a science theme this week that focuses on sound. We began the unit by writing our ideas about sound in our science notebooks. The children planned and conducted an experiment with two different sized tuning forks. They wondered how the sound from each fork would be different. They discovered that sound is made through vibration. They also wrote a claim with evidence about the test we conducted. Ask your child to tell you what he/she discovered! If you play a musical instrument and are willing to show us how it makes sound please email me to let me know, and we’ll set up a time for you to come into the classroom! Harmonica Instruction As a part of the science experience, the children also began learning to play the harmonica! Mr. John Milan, a local music teacher and harmonica expert, will be coming in for one hour each week for six weeks to teach the children how to play this versatile instrument. This week we already learned four songs! We are all very excited, and we thank the Lincoln PTO for funding this fantastic opportunity! We will keep the harmonicas at school until the instruction is completed. Many children asked where they could get an extra harmonica. If you'd like to do this, you can purchase one at Austin Music, which is on 6815 W. North Avenue just west of Oak Park Avenue. Writing Workshop The students have moved to our next unit of study which is about opinion writing. They will be writing their opinions about books they love to persuade others to love them as much as they do. Students will learn to state clear opinions and support their ideas with evidence. They will learn to introduce their book by writing about it rather than simply naming it. They will write reasons that support their opinion and use linking words such as and, also, and because to connect their opinions to their reasons. They will also learn to provide a concluding statement or section to their writing. Students will write letters to communicate their opinions and to reinforce their understanding of the books they have read. Motivation for the unit is very high! To help at home, ask your child to identify favorite books (fiction and non-fiction genres), and tell you WHY they are favorites. Look for evidence such as character traits (the main character is a pig and she's funny), setting (I like stories that teach me about different parts of history), writing style (the author uses lovely language), etc. Your conversations will serve as wonderful rehearsal for this type of writing! This week the children wrote their first opinion piece about a topic of their choice. This work is what we call their "baseline" writing and helped me see what what they already know about opinion writing. Next, we talked about the format of a letter and students learned letters have different parts such as the greeting, body, closing, and signature. We thought about favorite characters in books we've read as a class and did some shared letter writing about one of our favorite characters. We rehearsed for our writing by talking about lots of books and then the students wrote their first opinion letter to a classmate. Ask your child to tell you what s/he wrote about! Reading Daily Five Second graders at this time of year are reading bigger books and amping up their reading power! For the next couple of months we will focus on three important aspects of fiction reading: fluency, literary language, and tracking longer stories. We have gone back to using a reading log that goes back and forth between school and home each day. Students will use this type of log for the next few weeks to keep track of the number of minutes OR the pages they read in school and at home. This will provide valuable information about each child that will assist me in designing appropriate reading instruction for each student. This week we focused on the critical foundational reading skill of fluency. Research has shown that fluency has a direct correlation to comprehension. Students worked to "listen" to the voices written on the pages of their books and reread to make sure they are reading as the author intended. Even if your child seems to be able to read many words per minute, you can check to see if they are actually following punctuation, reading according to dialogue tags, reading with voice, etc. We also talked about how students need to scoop words in phrases rather than read read too quickly or read only one word at a time, and how students who read fluently change their voices to reflect the mood or meaning of their text. Ask your child to tell you what s/he has done this week to read more fluently. Math We continued working with stickers to talk about place value and to solve addition and subtraction problems. The children pretended to go to the Sticker Station store to buy stickers in various amounts, such as ones (single stickers), tens (strips of 10 stickers), and hundreds (sheets of 100 stickers). The children continued making sense of the action of different types of addition and subtraction problems and developing efficient strategies for solving them and for recording their work. Students worked with story problems whose actions involved an unknown change and wrote equations such as 34 + ? = 58. They also worked with story problems whose actions involved an unknown start and wrote equations such as ? + 24 = 58. The children are working hard to retell story problems in their own words before they attempt to solve. Because numbers are getting larger, we also emphasize the importance of fact fluency to 20. Knowing the single-digit addition and subtraction facts helps students a they work to develop efficient strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers. You can help your child become automatic, or fluent, with addition and subtraction facts to 20 by posing these facts on a regular basis and asking your child to tell you HOW they knew the answer. This will show you the strategies your child uses to solve facts to 20! Word Work This week’s word sort was the last of our study of r-controlled vowels. The children discovered that /ur/ says the engine sound, or rrrrrrrrrrrrr, just like the /er/ and /ir/ spelling we’ve already discussed. 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 /ur/, /ir/ or /er/. They must also listen for sounds in words so they can try different spelling patterns, then see what looks correct! The children compared the /ur/ pattern with /ur_e/, which also says rrrrrrrrrr, and /-ure/ which makes the long u sound. Some students also learned that when /w/ comes before /ar/ and /or/ the vowel sounds change. /Wor/ sounds like w+rrrrrrr and /war/ sounds like w + or. These students also noticed that when /wa/ sounds like wah. Our language is very tricky, and the students are amazed at all its complexities!
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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. 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! 11/17/2017 1 Comment Mayer Memo 11-17-17 It’s almost Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a wonderful, restful holiday with family and friends! Veteran's Day Celebration The entire Lincoln School population enjoyed a wonderful Veteran's Day celebration in our Lincoln gym on Friday, November 10. Lincoln's halls were adorned with tributes to special veterans created by individual Lincoln students. Students invited special veterans to attend a school wide ceremony, and each grade level contributed a part of the ceremony that honored these veterans. Our own Markus P. represented our class by reading a Veteran's Day poem. Reading Workshop The children have been reading non-fiction informational texts during reading workshop. We've talked about many strategies nonfiction readers use to learn. For example, the children have discovered that informational texts have key words, or "lingo" that helps teach about a topic, and readers have to pay close attention to that "lingo." Students stop to joy key words they learn as they read and have share these with partners. They also post these on our class' Thinking Board so others can see the "lingo" of their topic. The students have also noticed that text and graphic features help them learn as they read non-fiction texts. They've noticed features like bold print, text boxes, labels, labeled diagrams, photos with captions, and more. They use these features and words on the whole page to understand what they are reading. Decoding and understanding words in non-fiction texts can be tricky. The students are working hard to be flexible with their strategies when trying to solve tricky words. Ask your child to tell you about the book(s) s/he is reading during reading workshop and to share some of the "lingo" about their topic! Writing Workshop We continue to practice our informational text writing during writing workshop. The students learned to identify their audience before they write and anticipate questions their audience might have about their topic. We discussed how good introductions should hook their readers right from the start, and we looked at mentor texts to see how published authors introduce their subjects. The students discovered that asking a question and stating the topic with a grabby first sentence are two good ways to hook their audience. They also noticed that descriptive language will help readers visualize their informational writing just like it did in their small moment writing. The children revisited favorite non-fiction books and identified a text feature they want to try in their writing. They learned that choosing the right paper for their writing is very important! Ask your child to tell you what text feature(s) they have included in their non-fiction writing! Math For the past two weeks, the students have been learning about fractions of geometric shapes. Our work has centered on halves, thirds, and fourths. The children discovered that fractions are equal parts of a whole, and they identified fractional amounts of 2-D and 3-D shapes. They learned that fractions of the same whole can look different. They also discovered that half of one shape may be very different than half of another shape. Finally, we looked at unit fractions (1/2, 1/3, 1/4) and non-unit fractions (2/3, 3/4, 4/4) as they appear in various flags. The children have been introduced to fraction notation (1/2,1/3,3/4, etc.), however using words (one fourth, two thirds) to represent fractions at this age seems to be clearer to most students. The children took the end-of-investigation test as well as the end-of-unit 2 assessment this week. Next week we'll begin Unit 3 which focuses on place value of 2-digit numbers and operating on those numbers within 100. They will solve a variety of story problem types (put together/take apart with one or both addends unknown, add to and take from with result unknown, and problems with an unknown change or an unknown start) and identify, read, and write numbers to 500, and add and subtract 10 in that range. Look for a parent letter to come home next week with more information about Unit 3. Social Studies The students took the history test last week. Their culture and history booklet and the history test was sent home last week. The new theme for social studies is geography. The children made "suitcases" to collect information as they "travel America" during this unit. They also brainstormed everything they already know about this topic. We read Laurie Keller's Scrambled States of America, and talked about how states can have land and water borders. We tore a piece of paper to reinforce that Illinois has both land borders which are straight and water borders which are wiggly. We also worked to learn Illinois' state symbols and we've started discussing cardinal and intermediate directions. More to come next week! Word Work We began a discussion of r-controlled vowels, or “bossy r” words last week. The children discovered that words spelled /ar/ say "R!" such as in shark, remark, etc. We compared the /ar/ spelling and its sound with words that have the long a sound and are spelled /-air/ or /-are/, such as in chair, repair, and stare, compare. This week, we continued our discussion of r-controlled vowels. The children discovered that words spelled /or/ actually don't allow the r to be bossy! In words spelled with /or/, such as fork, horn, etc. the “o” makes the long sound and the “r” makes the engine sound or “rrrrrrrr,” so both sounds are heard. We compared the /or/ spelling and its sound with other words that have a long o sound and are spelled /-oar/ or /-ore/. We discovered that all three spelling patterns sound the same, so we have to use our eyes to see if the word LOOKS right as we spell it. Cursive Handwriting The children are excited to be learning to write in cursive! We have learned the lower case letters c, i, e, l, and m. Many students are working hard to use a proper pencil grip and form the letters properly! I ask students NOT to write their names in cursive until I have taught them the correct letter formation. Practice makes permanent . . . and I don't want to have to undo incorrect cursive letter formation as I've had to correct problems with improper print letter formation! Thank you for your support! 11/2/2017 0 Comments Mayer Memo 11-2-17Naper Settlement Field Trip Was Amazing! The students enjoyed seeing what Illinois life was like during the 1800s at Naper Settlement. We learned about being a blacksmith, a printer, attending school, and living in a one-room log cabin. We also saw a post office, a Conestoga wagon, various early settler’s houses, a fire house, a storage cellar, and we had a chance to visit an Illinois fort. The expectations of boys and girls were very different in historic times. Ask your child to tell you about this! Thanks to Mr. Marx for being our chaperone! Here's what the kids had to say about their experience: Frida I liked how we said ma'am at the school rather than the teacher's name. Wolfie I liked how we said the pledge differently at the school by holding our hand out. Liam B. I liked how the log cabin had bowls and spoons made out of a horn. Marty I liked how the mansion was owned by a Mr. Martin, because that's my name. Jamie I liked how the school was so little. I was sad when we had to leave. Maeve I liked calling the teacher ma'am in the school. Ava I liked the fort because you could run around like it was recess. Tommy I liked writing on the mini chalkboard at the school. Stella I liked how the kids were together in the school from kindergarten to 8th grade. Liam K. It was rough living in a mansion back then because you couldn't come down to breakfast without being dressed! Peter I didn't know the maid put up a sign for the iceman to deliver ice to the mansion. Sylvia The school was interesting because we don't go to a school like that! Kennedi I liked how we got to read a poem in the school. Orion I liked the blacksmith because I liked seeing how he made the horseshoe. Markus I liked the blacksmith and seeing all the stuff he made. Naveen The telephone and the door hinges in the mansion were cool. Lillian It was weird we had to say ma'am after everything at the school. Jahanna I liked watching the blacksmith making a pony shoe. Steven I liked seeing the blacksmith's hammer and anvil. Parent Teacher Conferences I enjoyed having a conversation with each of you about your child's progress so far in second grade. Thank you so much for your support! Reading Workshop Starting last week, we have been reading non-fiction texts during reading workshop. The children have chosen good-fit non-fiction books for their book boxes and are learning that non-fiction reading has many things in common with fiction, but there are differences, too! They know they still have to roll up their sleeves to read tricky words the same as they do reading fiction. But when readers read non-fiction, their purpose for reading is slightly different. They read non fiction to grow KNOWLEDGE! We discussed several things readers must do when reading non-fiction books, such as pay attention to details, put the parts together in your mind, ask questions, and think "what is this book/part teaching me?" The children are also recording their thinking by stopping to jot their ideas on sticky notes. They jot new information, what they wonder, etc. We have also read two more books by Mem Fox for the Global Read Aloud. The children read and wrote about Whoever You Are, and Tough Boris. I hope you've had a chance to see their writing in response to reading by viewing their weekly Seesaw postings. You should be noticing how their writing is becoming more detailed and provides evidence from the text to support their thinking. Writing Workshop The students are also writing non-fiction during writing workshop. They have chosen topics about which they are experts and are looking at mentor texts to see how published authors teach someone about a topic. They are striving to include different subtopics on different pages of their books as well as different types of information to support their work, such as tips, facts, definitions, etc. The children LOVE writing and sharing their expertise. They can't wait to write every day! Cursive Handwriting The students have begun learning how to write in cursive! They have learned to write a lowercase cursive c, i, e, and l. We are also using drawings to support the formation of these letters. Ask your child to tell you about what s/he's learned! Halloween Party & Storyteller The children had a fantastic time celebrating Halloween with their classmates. The storyteller was loads of fun! Thank you to room moms Debbie Kellogg (Jamie's mom), Sarah Kramer, Lauren Behan for running and organizing an awesome party. Plus there were many other parents who volunteered to make Halloween a wonderful, memorable day! Our volunteer parents are awesome! I have posted some photos. LEAP Buddies The children met with their 1st grade LEAP buddies from Ms. Klusak's class. We had worked with them to share our favorite things and draw pictures of one another! It was great fun, and we look forward to many more adventures with Ms. Klusak's 1st grade friends! Math For the past two weeks we've done a second investigation that focused on quadrilaterals, and more specifically rectangles. The children learned that rectangles are quadrilateral polygons that have four right angles and four straight sides. They used square tiles and geoboards to make rectangular arrays and practiced using terms such as rows and columns to describe their arrays. The language of geometry is very challenging for many children at this age! The students took the assessment for this investigation which focused on describing attributes of 2D shapes (number of sides, number and type of angles) and drawing shapes with those attributes. It also asked students to make a rectangle out of same-size squares and specify the number of rows and the number of squares in each row. Please ask your child to tell you about the activities we've been doing in math! 10/20/2017 0 Comments Mayer Memo 10-20-17 Living History Fair made wonderful memories! The children were thrilled at the success of their Living History Fair. We spent lots of time practicing for the event. The students truly enjoyed this great activity that tied together our Culture and History themes. So many parents, teachers, and other students commented on how poised the children were and how well they told their stories. THANKS for your support with this great project. Photos from the big day will be added to our photo gallery very soon. Here's what the kids had to say about their experience: Frida I was standing so long my back hurt. Wolfie Every adult knew what my project was about. Liam B. Lots of people said their grandpa had a bronze star like my grandpa did. Marty Some kids went to the same school that used the bricks my grandpa made. Jamie Some people just looked and talked about my board so I didn't get to present. Maeve I got real thirsty from talking so much. Ava I was surprised I got questions I didn't know the answers to. Tommy My neck got sore from standing so long. Stella I learned Orion's great grandma also canned and they used wax to close the jars. Liam K. I learned more facts about my cottage, like they had boats that gave people rides. Peter My throat hurt from all that talking. Dylan People said they'd been to the restaurant that was the old fire house from my project. Sylvia I learned I need to talk a little slower. Kennedi I learned Jamie's mom and my grandma both came from Tennessee. Orion My feet and back hurt from standing. Naveen One person said they had a friend from India like my grandpa. Lillian Someone asked how old my stained glass was and I said 60-70 years. Jahanna I liked how lots of people came to see my project. Steven People said, "Wow! Awesome!" because they liked my artifact. Math Last week, the students finished Unit One of Investigations, our new math program. They took the end-of-unit test which you have seen, signed, and returned. Many children have discovered the importance of showing their work when they solve math equations and story problems through this assessment. If your child struggled on any aspect of the first unit's test, please note that a wonderful feature of the Investigation Mathematics program is that concepts are continually revisited throughout the year with extensions and other applications. Plus, we review key concepts daily through our ten minute math review. That said, on days when math homework is not assigned, please help your child practice his/her addition and subtraction facts to 20. This is a standard your child should master by the end of second grade. Our second unit in Investigations focuses on attributes of shapes and parts of a whole. The focus of this unit is on observing and describing attributes of 2D and 3D shapes (ie. number and shape of faces, number and length of sides, number of angles and vertices) and using those attributes as they sort, construct, draw, and compare shapes.This unit also develops ideas about equal parts of a whole, focusing specifically on partitioning and describing halves, fourths, and thirds of one whole and recognizing that the same equal parts of a whole can be different shapes (ie. one half of a square). Students have sorted 2D and 3D shapes, recognized that 3D shapes have faces that are made of 2D shapes. Children have drawn 3D geo blocks and played games such as Find the Block, Mystery Shape, and Trace the Shape and practiced using the language of 2D and 3D geometry. Ask your child to tell you about what s/he's learned! Writing Workshop Last week, we talked about how to create a title for their stories, and the children discovered the best titles are usually short and hint at what the book is about to encourage their audience to read it. The children fixed and fancied their final personal narrative, and we had an author's celebration this week! Finally, I gave a narrative writing assessment and discovered how they are a truly blossoming as writers! I hope you had a chance to read your child's work when you visited today for the Living History Fair! Global Read Aloud & Reading Workshop We continued our GRA author study of Mem Fox books. We read Possum Magic last week, and the children wrote their thinking about characters or story elements in their Reader's notebooks. They shared their work with Mrs. Holstine's second grade class from Germantown, Maryland, and they were thrilled to receive comments about last week's work from Mrs. Holstine's students. This week, we read Whoever You Are, and did a similar activity with our buddies from Maryland. We finished our chapter book by Lois Lowry, Gooney Bird Greene, and the children identified the story elements and author's message in this book. The students thought Ms. Lowry wrote the book to teach children how to write good stories (AKA small moments!), because the main character, Gooney Bird Greene told lots of stories about experiences in her life and suggested ways to make them interesting along the way. I hope you saw their work in the hall that showed their pictures of Gooney Bird and what they learned about stories from her. During reading workshop, the students have been reading folktales and finding story elements and lesson with supporting details. I have also conferred with each child as they read books of their choice and discussed reading goals with each of them. Ask your child to tell you about this! Word work Last week, the children compared words that end with a final /k/ sound, and this week they compared words with long and short /e/ vowel sounds. They discovered that when a word with short vowels and a final k sound are spelled with a ck rather than a k. They noticed that short e words are spelled CVC such as sled, and some short e words have the CVVC spelling pattern such as bread. We also talked about how long e words are spelled CVVC with ee such as sweet, or ea such as team. Many children have trouble remembering these spelling patterns, so they will need to practice this a great amount! Fall Conferences & Assessments I can hardly believe conferences are only two weeks away! I have conducted many assessments to prepare for your child’s conference. Most of you have already made an appointment for a conference. If you haven’t, please make an appointment for a conference by following the directions provided by the district. Please plan to arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled conference time so that you may review your child’s file before the meeting. This and That • As the weather gets cooler, please make sure your child has warm clothes to wear for recess. • Please look through and clean out your child’s take-home folder every evening. This way you will know what your child has done each day in school. THANK YOU! 10/6/2017 0 Comments Mayer Memo 10-6-17Reading & Global Read Aloud! Our class is very excited to be participating in the Annual Global Read Aloud! The Global Read Aloud (GRA) is part of Connected Educators Month. Participating GRA teachers read the same books aloud to their classes during the month of October. Then, we connect with other kids and teachers around the world and share information and ideas about the books. We are participating in an author study of Mem Fox books. Fox has written and illustrated over 40 children's books. We will read one of her books each week of October, and this week we read her book called Koala Lou. This is a cute story about a koala who competes in the Bush Olympics in an attempt to gain his mother's affection. The children wrote and drew about the character Koala Lou and recorded their thinking using Seesaw. We "met" friends from Mrs. Holstine's 2nd grade class in Germantown, Maryland who did the same thing, and next week, we will enjoy looking at and commenting on one another's blogs. I will also tweet about the children's experiences using our classroom Twitter site, @2MayerLincoln. If you have a Twitter account, please follow us on Twitter to share our adventures! The children also wrote and drew about the main character in our read aloud, Gooney Bird Greene, by Lois Lowry. They posted this work to Seesaw. I hope you have had a chance to join your child's Seesaw account by scanning the QR code I sent home earlier this week. The children are also inferring the meaning of words while we read Gooney Bird Greene. They discovered that inferring involves using existing knowledge - called schema - combining this with the text to achieve new ideas. When we come to a word we can read but don't understand we stop, say what we think the word means, then look it up in the online dictionary to confirm its meaning. We will need lots more work with this strategy! Finally, we also began reading folktales. The children learned that folktales were first told orally, passed down through generations, and were told to teach children lessons. The children will be finding story elements AND the lessons in these tales in coming weeks. Math We finished our third investigation which focused on concepts related to counting coins and objects. The students practiced basic subtraction facts, counted objects by 2s, 5s, and 10s, and played a game called Collect 50¢ which involved changing pennies for nickels, nickels for dimes, etc. They also solved problems to determine whether we had enough cubes for the class. Next, we began our fourth and last investigation in this first unit of our math program. This work focuses on routines for solving story problems and expectations for conducting math talks. Ask your child to tell you about these things. Writing Workshop The children continue to work on small moment, narrative stories. They learned to try a published author's craft move several ways before deciding whether their version of the move works in their writing. They chose a piece to publish and have begun to fix up and fancy up their work. We hope to have an author's celebration next week. Social Studies - Living History Fair and Naper Settlement Field Trip We'll be heading off to Naper Settlement on Thursday, October 26 for a full day adventure to learn about local history and how this area of Illinois was settled. Look for a permission slip for this trip to come home soon. The trip is paid for by our wonderful Lincoln PTO! I need one chaperone for this trip. If you are interested in doing this please send me an email. We continued learning about culture by watching a Reading Rainbow video of Mrs. Katz and Tush. This is story by Patricia Polacco that tells about Jewish culture and traditions. We also read a big book about "Where We Came From" and had a very rich discussion about this topic! In honor of Columbus Day, we read Encounter by Jane Yolen which tells of Christopher Columbus coming to the new world from the native American's point of view. The students took the Culture assessment. Reminder: Living History Fair project information went home on Wednesday! Projects are due Monday, October 16. Also, don't forget to send $4 for the poster board! Word work and high-frequency word wall words The children worked on word sorts at their level to discern between words with short and long i spelling patterns. While every child worked on letter i words, there were different groups working with different spelling patterns. The patterns we discussed include: CVC makes the short i vowel sound and CVCe makes a long vowel sound as well in words like bike and mine. The pattern igh is VCC and also makes a long vowel sound as in sigh and bright, as does the pattern CV when the vowel is y as in why and try. Although we discussed all of these spelling patterns as a class, children are only responsible to know the spelling patterns on their word list. Please ask your child to tell you his/her spelling patterns each week and have him/her explain them to you! Please be sure to have your child practice their words at home using the fun STAR sheet in your child's take-home folder. I’ve already noticed how the students are growing in their ability to recognize spelling patterns and the sound rules they follow. This skill will enable the children to decode and spell larger, multi-syllabic words they will encounter throughout their life. We have also been practicing high-frequency word wall words. These words do not always follow spelling patterns, and therefore, we just “gotta know” these words through memorization. Halloween This year, we will celebrate Halloween on Tuesday, October 31, with a full day of school. You will receive complete details about the plans in an upcoming Lincoln Log. Students should wear NOT their costumes to school. They will change into their costumes during recess time. This is how the day will look for 2nd grade students: 9:00 K-2 Storyteller 11:25: Dismissal for lunch and costume change (form to come if you wish your child to come home to change) 12:30 Halloween parade Afternoon - Halloween party (time to be determined) Notes from the Library: In Library this week, your child learned about the Monarch Award Book Challenge. This is an award that is given out by Illinois students voting for their favorite book out of 20 books chosen by school librarians. Your child will bring home a reading log that can be used to keep track of the books they read. Once they read five books (I will make this happen in the library), they can vote. If they read all 20 books, they will be invited to a lunch party in March. All 20 books must be read by March 1st. Students are able to check out books from Lincoln, as well as their public library. Please note since this is an Illinois program, you may need to put the books on hold. This is an optional program that allows students to read books that they may not normally pick up. There are fiction, non-fiction and short chapter books included. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Brauweiler directly. 9/22/2017 0 Comments Mayer Memo 9-22-17Math The children spent the last two weeks practicing addition and subtraction strategies to twenty. We discussed the commutative property of addition, by addressing the question, "Does order matters in addition?" The children discovered order does NOT matter, and they are developing their own explanations for this. Please note, I introduced the word, commutative property, but don't expect them to use it yet. By building their own explanations, they will develop a solid, conceptual understanding of this property, rather than just memorize the words. The students have enjoyed playing several wonderful games to support this learning. Ask your child to tell you about the games. The students have used the commutative property to solve number strings, and they've discovered that looking for facts they know--facts to ten, doubles, or doubles plus or minus one--can be helpful and make solving these equations very efficient. What's important is students are becoming flexible is solving equations. Accuracy, flexibility, and efficiency are our goals! For example 8+7+3+3+2=? This might be solved: 8+2=10, 7+3=10, so 10+10+3=23. Or, this might be solved: 3+3=6, 6+2=8, 8+8=16, and 16+7=23. Reading Workshop Our reading focus has been on accuracy and decoding long and tricky words. The students have learned they can take off prefixes and suffixes and flip the middle vowel sound, to name a few strategies for decoding longer words. Meaning is also important when decoding new words. If they read a word and don't know its meaning they must stop to think about what would make sense in the text, then check the letters to help decode the word. We are also working on retelling as we read with partners. Students have marked pages they want to discuss with sticky notes to remember important points for their partner conversations. This is very tricky for most students, and we will need much more work in this area! This week, we finished our read aloud, Jake Drake Bully Buster, by Andrew Clements. The students learned about basic story elements such as identifying characters and their traits, setting (where and when), problem, and solution. The children created story "bubbles" to identify key scenes from the book. They are excited to put these on display in the hallway very soon! Writers’ Workshop The students have been hard at work writing personal narratives, AKA small moments. The children worked with a partner to analyze how published authors of books we love, such as Jane Yolen, Julie Brinkloe, Jonathan London, and Donald Crews add detail to their stories so their readers can make mental images. The students discovered that writers add detail by using dialogue, telling "the inside story" such as how they feel and what they think. Writers also add detail by comparing unlike things using similes and metaphors, and by using onomatopoeia. Our writers marked our favorite books with sticky notes to remind themselves where great writing exists. The students are learning how to make decisions like a writer and work independently as they try writing "moves" like our favorite mentor authors. Social Studies - Communities Theme We read and talked about about types of communities in our social studies book and by watching Brainpop Jr. The children learned that communities are places where people live, work, play, and have fun together. They wrote and drew about urban, suburban, and rural communities. We had great discussions about various aspects of these communities, and they discovered River Forest is a suburban community because it is close to the urban community of Chicago. They also discovered that Illinois is actually more rural than urban or suburban! Word study and high-frequency sight words We have compared short vowel and long vowel /a/ and /o/ spelling patterns over the past two weeks. Through our word study activities, your child should know that short vowel sounds are commonly found when the pattern is CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant). They should also know that the “sneaky” silent /e/ at the end of words CVCe) AND vowel teams (CVVC) make the vowel say its name! The children are expected to differentiate between the spelling patterns and know the rules for each pattern. They write the patterns and the rules on the top of their word work assessment each week. Ask your child to explain his/her spelling patterns and rules to you! The sight words we've practiced are: where, want, went, why, while, add, ask, plant, last, back 9/8/2017 0 Comments Mayer Memo 9-8-17Reading Workshop Second-grade students grow like beanstalks in reading, and they have been hard at work with reading each day. I am reading aloud Jake Drake Bully Buster, by Andrew Clements. Students are writing their thinking about this book in their Readers' Notebook. In addition to a read aloud, I use a workshop model of instruction that includes explicit instruction about reading strategies and time for students to put that instruction into practice. I confer with students and small groups about their progress with the strategies they are working on, and we share our successes at the end of our reading time. During the past two weeks, we have talked about how students need to choose good fit books to grow as readers. We have also discussed how to look at a book to understand how it should be read, how to build stamina by reading for longer and longer periods of time, how to scoop phrases rather than individual words to improve fluency, and how to ALWAYS stop and think as we read and retell what we comprehend. Many students have discovered that retelling is challenging, and they must reread to be able to retell with detail. Finally, the children have learned many strategies for trying to read long, complex words. Ask your child to tell you about the strategies s/he uses! Word Study The children are learning routines related to studying words and learning common spelling patterns in the English language. We have worked the past two weeks on a sort that differentiates between the beginning consonant digraphs th, wh, sh, and ch. The students have written their words, cut and sorted them, and chose from several activities to practice writing the words. Starting next week, the students will be working on sorts at their own levels. Daily homework for word study will begin next week. Sight Words and Handwriting Each day the students learn a new sight word. We write the words, identify rhyming words, synonyms, antonyms, and create sentences using the words. Sight words do not always follow common English spelling patterns, so students have to memorize them. You should have seen half sheets of paper coming home each day showing the sight words we've worked with so far. Students are also working on using a correct pencil grip and writing with their very best printing. Please ask your child to show you his/her pencil grip. Using the correct grip and proper letter formation will make writing less laborious and will enable your child to move smoothly into cursive handwriting. Thank you for your support with stressing proper pencil grip with your child. If you have questions about this. please let me know. Math We are enjoying our work in mathematics with our new Investigations Math program. Our first unit is called Number Strings and Story Problems. The children have reviewed many different concepts related to counting, understanding the base ten number system, telling time, money, and tools to help students have success with mathematics such as the number line and the hundreds chart. Children have learned many routines for math and are exploring each day by choosing from a variety of math games and activities. Motivation is high among the students, and I am learning a great deal about their existing math skills. Writing Workshop The children are hard at work writing personal narratives, which are also known as small moments. Students have learned that small moments are about one time or event in their life. They stretch the experience over many pages and write detail to bring their stories to life. The students look at the work of published authors such as Jane Yolen's Owl Moon, and Angela Johnson's Leaving Morning, in an effort to write as they do. I am very impressed with the quality of writing I have seen from the children so far! Social Studies - Culture and History Theme Our first social studies theme called Culture and History. The beginning focus is on communities and family. We established a set of community rules for our classroom community. We read Mrs. Mingo's First Day of School by Jamie Harper and Sylvie by Jennifer Sattler to reinforce the importance of being yourself and accepting everyone's differences in a community. We also read the first lesson in our social studies book. Benchmark Testing Your children have taken benchmark assessments for reading and math using the Aimsweb Plus online testing program. Your child’s first experience with the Measures of Academic Progress (MAPs) testing program will take place on September 11 and 13. Your child will be tested in math and reading. The children will take the tests in the classroom using iPads. Open House is Thursday, Sept. 14 Don't miss the Open House where teachers will present an overview of your child's experiences planned for the year. Here's the schedule: 6:30-6:55- 3rd and 4th Grade in classrooms and AM/PM K in Auditorium 7:00-7:25-PTO/Casey Meeting In Auditorium 7:30-7:55- 1st and 2nd Grade in classrooms Author-Musician Visit On Thursday, September 28th, we are excited to welcome Musician and Author Justin Roberts to Lincoln School. He will be sharing his creative endeavors with all the students throughout the day. The students have learned about him and his visit this week in the library. They also received an order form if you would like to order either one of his CDs or picture books. Any questions, please contact Mrs. Brauweiler directly. 8/25/2017 0 Comments Mayer Memo 8-25-17Welcome to second grade!
I look forward to a great year with your children! I plan to update you about the happenings in our classroom on a regular basis--every two weeks, or as needed. Bookmark this website or check the district site to find my newsletter and learn our news of the week. If you use the district site, go to schools, select Lincoln, and select staff emails. Then click on my picture! I hope this web site will be helpful and informative. Your comments are always appreciated. I am available ... You can reach me best through email at [email protected]. You can also send a note with your child in the green take-home folder, or call me at 366-7340, ext . 8127. I will get back to you as soon as possible. Attendance Reporting Change As a logistical convenience to our families please utilize the following methods when communicating the absence of your child: 1) Call the School Attendance Line and leave a detailed message: 708.366.7340 2)Send an email 24-7 to lincolnattendance@district90.org Daily homework Check the link above to learn about general homework expectations and find standard forms. I'll update these as needed. Open House is Sept. 14 Mark your calendars for Lincoln’s open house scheduled for Thursday, September 14. I'll share an overview of the curriculum and expectations at this time. I can't wait to meet all of you! Take-home folder Your child's take-home folder must come back and forth to school every day. This take-home folder will include completed schoolwork, homework, and messages from me regarding our class. Any Lincoln school-wide communication is sent via the school’s list serve. If you are not on the list serve, please let me know and I will be sure to get you a hard copy of communication. Any additional flyers or information will be sent home in your child’s red Lincoln take-home folder. Birthday party policy In conjunction with the district’s wellness policy and to complement the building’s non-edible birthday treat policy, I have instituted a birthday celebration that will be fun and memorable for your children. Rather than send in food for your child’s birthday, we will celebrate in class as follows: - The class will sing “Happy Birthday”. - The birthday child can choose a fun activity for the class to do, such as playing outside, playing a game in the classroom, or having free choice time. (This would take the place of the 15 minutes we had normally spent passing out treats and eating.) I know that birthday celebrations are very important to students, and I want to help make your child’s birthday a special experience. If you feel strongly about sending a treat to school for your child’s birthday, please send a non-food item. Students with summer birthdays can celebrate on their half-birthday or at another time during the school year. Thank you, in advance for your support with this policy. Healthy snack & water bottle Please send your child to school each day with a healthy snack and a sport water bottle with a spill-proof lid. Gym shoes Please send your child to school wearing gym shoes as the children have PE each day. If this is not possible, please send an extra pair of gym shoes to leave in the locker. |
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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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