Weekly Newsletter 2017-2018

Week of 5/21/-5/25

5/28/2018

2G had a very special week celebrating two big accomplishments:
1. On Tuesday, we had extra recess to celebrate filling up our Community Cube Jar
and..
2. On Friday, we made corner bookmarks and had ice cream sundaes to celebrate our incredible reading in the Lincoln
Read-A-Thon!
Here is a picture of the bookmarks we created - so fun!

Literacy: Readers are working on publishing their biographies. We are all so proud and can't wait to share them with you at our end of the year share.
Writing Workshop: This week we focused on using our imagination in our opinion writing. Writers thought about what character they would like to be in their favorite books. We learned to describe why we chose certain people/animals as we wrote letters to friends and family.
Math: 3-D Shapes! Mathematicians can now describe a 3-dimensional shape by telling you about how many vertices, edges, and faces it has. On Friday, we had a ball using marshmallows and toothpicks to build our own models.
Science: Scientists started our soil unit by thinking about all of the things we already know about soil as well as what we would like to know. Some of our questions (we had many) were: "Is soil alive?", "How many creatures live in soil?", "Is soil always brown?", and "Is soil the same as, "dirt"?". On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to explore 5 different types of soil: Peat Moss, Oak Leaf, Sand, Potting Soil, and Wet Soil. 2Gers talked about the characteristics of soil and its living/non-living components. We are excited for our soil experiments next week.
Fundations: Students learned about words that end in, "-tch", and "-ch". We discovered that the words ending in, "-tch" usually have a consonant and short vowel before the ending
(cv-tch). Those that end in, "-ch" have a double vowel or "n", "r", or "l" before the ending (vv-ch, n-ch, l-ch, r-ch). Some of our favorites were: "pitch", "switch", "batch", "catch", "inch", "gulch", "beach", and "perch".
Enjoy your weekend!

Week of 5/14-5/18

5/20/2018

What an amazing week! We had an incredible Ghana presentation on Tuesday. During the program we learned more about traditions in the Ghanaian culture. All students got to either try carrying a large calabash on our heads or try on a baby carrier worn on the back. There was a big surprise at the end when we learned about Ghanaian leadership - a king and queen of 2G were chosen! We now have King Kyle and Queen Gabi helping to watch over our class. Please enjoy these additional highlights of our week:
Literacy: Readers are working so hard on their biography projects. You're sure to be blown away by the important information students have put together. In our Social Studies center, we continue to research Hopi life. We learned about games Hopi children might play - very similar to one of our favorites: kickball! In addition, we began learning about the process of making traditional baskets and pottery.
Fundations: 2Gers practiced using quotation marks. We learned that quotation marks hug the first and last words that someone says. This is helping us learn how to correctly add quotes to our opinion letters in Writing Workshop.
Writing Workshop: Writers focused on writing a letter to a special person that describes several favorite parts of a book. We are encouraged to think about our readers as we share our opinions. 2Gers are learning to tell about: 1. Favorite character(s) 2. Favorite parts 3. Quotes and 4. Favorite pictures.
Math: Let's regroup! Mathematicians are doing a great job solving 3-digit subtraction problems using expanded notation with regrouping. We use the term, "regroup" to emphasize the process of creating a new number by adding a ten or hundred. Have your mathematician show you how he/she would solve, 852 - 236.
Social Studies: Students learned about the significance of corn in the Hopi culture in a film entitled, "Corn is Life". It was so interesting to hear about the different types of desert corn that are planted on the mesas in Arizona and how their roots have to reach as far as 15 feet below the earth. 2Gers are excited to explore Kachina spirits that help to take care of the crops next week.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Week of 5/7-5/11

5/12/2018

Happy Mother's Day! 2Gers had a ball making origami flowers to celebrate the amazing women in our lives. I hope you enjoy a beautiful Spring weekend with your families.
Please enjoy these highlights of this week's studies:
Literacy: Readers are doing an incredible job building their fluency skills in guided reading. Some of the books we loved reading in groups this week were: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Henry and Mudge and the Wild Goose Chase, Guppy Up, The House on East 88th Street, and Mr. Putter and Tabby Stir the Soup. We are also working on an, "I wonder" activity for our biography project. Students are asked to think about questions they'd ask the person they are studying if they had a chance to interview him or her.
Writing Workshop: Writers worked on a letter about their favorite parts of books. They are learning to use persuasive language to convince readers that we would love these books, as well. Students began using a checklist this week to help them focus on including: 1. A "Lead" in the beginning of their letters, 2. Transition Words - "also", "because", 3. A closing that restates their opinions, and 4. An overall organized piece. Way to go!
Fundations: Foundations friends learned about words that end in, "le" and "el". Some of our favorites were, "giggle", "tunnel", "able", "travel", "castle", and "circle".
Math: Inches, Feet, and Yards, oh my! Mathematicians learned how to use non standard (paper clips, blocks, dominos) and standard units (inches, feet, and yards) to measure this week. We learned how to line up our rulers edge to edge to get a more precise measurement. In addition, we began exploring the relationship between all three units. For example, "Mrs. Gomes measured a board that was 3 yards long. How many feet would that be? How many inches? Ask your mathematician to help you measure items at home!
Science: Scientists completed our study of motion. Please visit our bulletin board outside of our classroom to see samples of their amazing lab reports. We are looking forward to beginning our study of soil and planting next week.
Social Studies: Did you know the Hopi pueblo homes had a secret, underground room called a "kiva"? We had so much fun learning more about Hopi homes and beliefs. We especially loved a tradition in proposing marriage that involved homemade piki bread. Have your 2Ger tell you all about it. Students are very curious about the Sipapu, a hole in the floor of the Grand Canyon where the Hopi believed the first humans crawled through to enter the "fourth world" - our current world. We are having such rich discussions and I'm so proud of all researchers!
Enjoy your weekend.

Week of 4/30-5/4

5/6/2018

Happy May! Students had a wonderful week. We began our Hopi unit and had so much fun learning about pueblo homes and symbols. One of our favorite facts was learning that homes made of adobe stay cooler in the heat and stay warm at night - no heaters or air conditioners! Ask your 2Ger to tell you about the Hopi symbol for "friendship". Please enjoy these additional highlights of our studies:
Math: Mathematicians explored polygons and their characteristics. 2Gers learned about the "congruent" and "similar" shapes. We learned that the big difference was that "congruent" shapes have to be the SAME SIZE and they can fit perfectly on top of one another. Students also worked with reflections and symmetry. We began our study by using mirrors to look at shape reflections in different positions. This gave us a better understanding of how symmetrical designs work. Please take a look at our own creative symmetry pictures on the bulletin board outside of our classroom!
Literacy: Readers knocked my socks off with their dedication to delving into reading for our all school Read-A-Thon this week. Students were logging minutes from D.E.A.R. time, to read alouds, to buddy reading, to reading groups throughout the day. Readers are working on reading with intonation - paying attention to different types of punctuation in our guided reading books. Ask your 2Ger to read to you "like a storyteller" and make the characters come to life! Students are doing an incredible job putting together their research to write their own biographies. We are so exited to share all that we've learned with you at our end of the year celebration.
Fundations: 2Gers learned about words that have a silent first letter this week: words that begin with, "kn", "gn", and "wr". Some of our favorite words for each group were: "know", "kneel", "gnat", "gnaw", "wrist", and "wren".
Writing Workshop: Writers are working on their second letter in our Opinion Writing Unit. In these letters we focus on telling a reader about a favorite part in a book we love. Students are learning to describe these parts with lots of details. We are practicing using the sentence starter, "For example..." to help provide specific reasons why certain parts are our favorites. You may hear your 2Ger use the term, "juicy words". This is the term we use to describe adjectives that add more depth to our letters. Some of this week's top "juicy words" were, "adventurous", "mischievous", " unusual", and "bold".
Read Alouds: During the last few months of school, we read several chapter books aloud to students during snack time each day. As we are growing as readers, we are learning to pay close attention to the wonderful language in stories that may not necessarily include a great number of pictures. This week we finished the book, The Miniature World of Marvin & James, by Elise Broach. This was a wonderful story about a young boy and his adoring friend, a beetle. We began reading, Dory Fantasmagory, The Real True Friend, by Abby Hanlon. If you haven't yet met the infamous Dory, ask your 2Ger to tell you about her. She has quickly become a fan favorite! The underlying message in her story about being proud of who you are is heartwarming.
Enjoy your weekend.

Week of 4/9-4/13

4/15/2018

Happy April Vacation! We had another amazing week of learning together in 2G. We were so excited to bring home our Adinkra cloths we made in Social Studies to share with you. 2Gers learned about this meaningful Ghanaian cloth that is composed of patterns of special stamps. We got to choose symbols that were most important to us and use them to create our own versions! Please enjoy these additional highlights of our studies:
Literacy: I am absolutely blown away by the research that students are doing in their biography unit. We are all learning to paraphrase and to think about the "main idea" of each page in our non-fiction texts. Our next step in our project is putting all of the facts we found together to write our own biographies! We look forward to sharing these with you at our end of the year celebration.
Fundations: 2G learned all about synonyms this week. We played a synonym matching game and discovered that sometimes there are several synonyms for one word. Can you think of more than one synonym for, "small"? "cold"?
Math: Mathematicians worked on story problems that require us to use a picture, list, or pattern to solve them. In addition, we learned about polygons! We hunted for polygons and discovered that polygons are shapes that are closed, have straight edges, do not have any crossovers. Ask your mathematician to hunt for polygons at home.
Writing Workshop: Writers wrote wonderful acrostic poems this week. We used the letters in our names to begin each line of our poems, and described things about ourselves. We got to practice with Mrs. Gomes's name and for the letter, "s" we came up with, "She loves 2G". They know me so well!
Scholastic News: Our Scholastic Newspaper was all about "Wacky Foods". Students learned about fruits and veggies that are often discarded/wasted because they do not look like the "regular" versions we see in stores. We had a powerful discussion about how these fruits and veggies taste the same and in some cases are even more flavorful! We learned about many of the factors that can give a fruit or vegetable a different shape: growing against a fence, or having a root or rock in it's way, thus needing to grow around it. Ask your 2Ger to tell you more about why we concluded that these foods are not so "wacky" after all.
Science: Scientists conducted an experiment to answer the question, "Does Height Affect Friction?". We used two wooden tracks set at two different heights and marbles. Scientists discovered that height DOES affect speed. The higher, the faster and the lower, the slower!
Enjoy your week.

Week of 4/2-4/6

4/7/2018

Happy April! We had an amazing week in 2G. On Monday we celebrated filling up our community cube jar with a Sports Party. We had the whole big gym to ourselves and we got to do lots of different activities. Some of our sports stations were: soccer, blob tag, scooters, gymnastics, hula hoops, basketball, and bowling. Mrs. Gomes is so impressed with all of our hard work. We are filling up our jar so quickly again! Please enjoy these additional highlights of our studies:
Literacy: Researchers are doing a wonderful job reading their biographies and hunting for facts. We are all learning to paraphrase, putting true information into our own words. In our "Math center" we worked cooperatively to create posters highlighting our four problem solving strategies: expanded notation, base 10 blocks, decomposing, and open number line.
Read Aloud: In connection with our biography study, Mrs. Gomes read three inspirational stories to us during snack time: Of Thee I Sing, A Letter To My Daughters, by Barack Obama, Listen to the Wind, by Greg Mortenson, and Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa, by Veronica Chambers.
Fundations: We studied compound words this week. 2Gers were very proud to see how well they spelled and identified larger words. We know so much about what they are made up of. Some of our favorites are: "into", "without", "classroom", "eyeball", "workshop", and "cupcake".
Math: Mathematicians worked on using pictures and organized lists to solve story problems this week. Mrs. Gomes is so proud of the many ways students are showing flexibility in our thinking. We love starting the day with our morning math problems that require us to use mental math and teamwork.
Science: We had a "ball" in science! After exploring the characteristics of given balls last week we got to create our own. We used clay, tin foil, and masking tape to try to create our own solid and hollow balls. It was tricky to make them smooth enough to roll. After experimenting with our own creations we discovered that...characteristics matter! It is so important to learn about the ways that our materials are similar and different, as well as what affects their movement.
Social Studies: 2Gers learned to play, "Oware" from Ghana. This game is very similar to Mancala. We loved hearing about the origin of the game and the meaning behind its name.
Exciting News: We have a new student joining our 2G family! We can't wait to welcome our new friend on Monday. :)
Enjoy your weekend.

Week of 3/26-3/29

3/30/2018

I am so proud of 2G! Every day this week we engaged in "Number Talk" sessions for morning work. Mrs. Gomes displayed a math problem/scenario on the projection screen for students to think about. 2Gers worked in pairs to not only solve the problems, but to talk about their problem solving strategies, as well. A few of our favorites were:
"15 + 19 + 23 + 11 + 17 + 26 = ____ " and "There are 4 heads in this group. There are 8 eyes in this group. There are 10 fingers in this group. There are 3 tails in this group. There are 14 feet in this group. Who could be in this group?". Please enjoy these additional highlights of our studies:
Science: Scientists studied the characteristics of different kinds of ball this week. We learned that the characteristics of given materials can affect the way that they move when they are pushed or pulled. We worked with: whiffle balls, golf balls, steel balls, tennis balls, ping pong balls, and rubber balls. Students were encouraged to stretch their brains and think about many different descriptions for each ball. We had so much fun experimenting with them and weighing them on scales. Many scientists predicted the rubber ball would be the heaviest and we were so surprised to find out that the tennis ball weighed the most!
Writing Workshop: Writers completed their beautiful spring poetry this week. 2Gers used our five senses to bring our poems to life. We can't wait to share these with you.
Literacy: Go, Biographers! Students got to choose a special person whom they would like to study for their biography projects. Then the research began! 2Gers learned how to identify an "important fact" about their person and put given information into their own words. We are using Post-its to take notes and then we place them on our graphic organizer posters. Students are so excited to learn more each day and we can't wait to write our own versions of biographies in a few weeks!
Fundations: 2Gers worked on the r-controlled vowels, "ir", "er", and "ur" this week. These can be so tricky because they all sound the same. Some of our favorite words we learned are: "nurse", "brother", "first", and "thirsty".
Read Aloud: Mrs. Gomes read us the book entitled, Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum. In relation to our biography unit we learned about Walter Diemer - the founder of bubble gum! Ask your 2Ger to tell you why bubble gum is pink.
Math: Mathematicians began learning about regrouping. We are using expanded notation to focus on place value with subtraction problems. Second grade emphasizes the use of the term, "regrouping" as opposed to "carrying and borrowing" to help students identify the change that occurs with the ones, tens, and hundreds. We can't wait to build on our skills next week.
Enjoy your weekend!

Week of 3/19-3/23

3/23/2018

Way to go, 2G! Students did an amazing job working together and filled up our Community Cube Jar! The class voted on have a Sports party to celebrate their teamwork. More details to come! Please enjoy these additional highlights of our week.
Literacy: Readers began a biography unit. 2Gers learned about the elements of a biography and we are all fascinated to learn so much from our non-fiction texts. A favorite part thus far has been learning about Abraham Lincoln and Amelia Earhart as babies and children. Students are exploring biographies in Guided Reading Groups with Mrs. Gomes and we look forward to choosing our own special person to research next week!
Writing Workshop: Writers began spring poetry. To help organize our thoughts and add more depth to our expression, we focused on using our five senses. Wait until you see what 2G writers wrote about things we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell in spring!
Math: Mathematicians learned to solve subtraction problems using expanded notation this week. Here is an example of our new strategy:

568 = 500 + 60 + 8
- 235 = 200 + 30 + 5
333 300 + 30 + 3 = 333

We are also working on connecting story problems to our 3-digit addition and subtraction problems. Ask your mathematician to create one for you! Another wonderful element of our math studies is promoting our conceptual understanding through more open ended problems. Students are provided with small pieces of information and they are given the opportunity to stretch their brains and think, rethink, and think some more! I am so impressed with the mathematical reasoning 2Gers are using each day.
Science: Scientists had a ball exploring gravity this week. Students dropped objects of different weights from the same height. They discovered that the force of gravity pulls all objects toward the earth at the same rate. We dropped Mrs. Gomes's snow boot and a marble and it was quite a surprise that they landed at the same time! As we experiment in our motion unit we continue to work on our lab reports where we record our materials, hypothesis, procedures, and conclusions.
Social Studies: Students learned about the exquisite Kente Cloth made in Ghana. After being introduced the meanings of all colors and designs, 2Gers chose their own patterns to color.
Fundations: This week we learned about the r-controlled vowels, "ar" and "or". We discovered that these can be found in the beginning, middle, and endings of words. Some of our favorites are: "important", "storm"( related to our recent weather!), "shark", and "March".
Enjoy your weekend!

Week of 3/5-3/9

3/10/2018

What a wonderful week! 2Gers had so much fun learning together. On Tuesday, we had some special visitors come in to teach us about Japanese Calligraphy. We had a ball using calligraphy brushes and ink to write our names in Japanese Characters! We got to practice our writing in Katakana and Hiragana. Students were so proud of their work. Please enjoy these additional highlights of our studies:
Math: Mathematicians were such busy bees this week. Students have been practicing problem solving using place value in our Zearn laptop station. 2Gers learned a new game called, "Catch the monkeys/dinosaurs". In addition, mathematicians are learning to solve story problems that ask us to use logic, deductive reasoning, patterns, skip counting, and estimation.
Literacy: Readers are continuing to build their fluency in guided reading groups. We are working on determining the meanings of new words in both non-fiction and fiction texts. In Social Studies center, 2Gers have been doing Ghana research. Students are reading given passages about Ghanaian food, sports, clothing, land, and weather. We use the information in our reading to answer questions. Ask your reader to tell you about what they've learned!
Writing Workshop: We are poets and now...we know it! Writers have absolutely blown me away with their incredible language in their first poems. 2G is learning how to write color poetry, inspired by our surroundings. Students are learning to, "show, not tell". Please take a moment to read their beautiful poems that are handing on the bulletin board outside of our classroom door. Fun activity: Tell your poet your favorite color and create a poem together!
Social Studies: 2Gers learned about the daily routines of a 9 year old girl in Ghana in a video entitled, "Georgina Williams - A Day in the Life of a Ghanaian Child". We loved learning about her activities she does before, during, and after school. In addition, Mrs. Gomes read us a legend about the origin of Kente Cloth (we have a Kente Cloth from Ghana in our room!). This legend highlighted the importance of spiders in Ghanaian folklore.
Science: We love studying motion! This week, scientists continued our experiment with pushes and pulls. Mrs. Gomes gave us a challenge using sandpaper, tape, and tin foil with our tracks and balls. We had to find a way to make balls slow down and stop. On Friday, we discovered that we were working with the force called, "friction"! Scientists are writing a detailed lab report where they record their findings to help them with future experiments.
Fundations: Our class is learning about homophones. Students learned that these are words that sound the same, but are spelling differently and have different meanings. Some of our favorites are: "two, to, too, dear, deer, knew, new, hi, high, choose, chews, and aunt, ant".
I am so proud of our amazing second graders!
Enjoy your weekend.

Week of 2/26-3/2

3/2/2018

2G ended an amazing week with a celebration of Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day. Students learned many facts about Dr. Seuss, including how he got his pen name! We explored several different books and hunted for, wacky machines, rhyming, made up words, and zany characters. I read one of my favorite Dr. Suess books entitled, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day to the class. We all loved the story's message: We should be all be proud of being unique and we can do anything if we try our best. Please enjoy these additional highlights of our studies:
Math: Mathematicians have been learning how to use Expanded Notation to solve addition problems where numbers are stacked on top of one another. We teach this strategy to help students focus on place value and they will learn the traditional algorithm in third grade. Here is an example of one of our Expanded Notation problems:

325 = 300 + 20 + 5
+ 247 = 200 + 40 + 7
572 500 + 60 + 12

Literacy: Readers began a new study of poetry! We love reading poems by Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein. We listened to several poems about colors by Mary O'Neil in, Hailstones and Halibut Bones. 2Gers talked about the power of words in poetry and the fact that they can make us feel different ways. Students did an incredible job as they began to write their own color poems - we can't wait to share them with you!
Science: 2G is in Motion! Scientists began our study of how objects move. We had so much fun experimenting with cars, different types of balls, marbles, feathers, and magnetic balls and wands. 2Gers worked in groups to explore how these objects move. An additional focus of our unit is learning how to write a lab report where we record: 1. Our question 2. Our hypothesis 3. First experiment 4. Second experiment and 5. Our conclusion. Thus far we've come to two conclusions: 1. Motion is when an object moves after you push or pull it, and 2. All objects need a force (a push or pull) to make them move. We can't wait to explore friction next week!
Social Studies: 2Gers learned more about Ghanaian schools and food. Students found it very interesting that in some more rural areas of Ghana, children may carry their own desk or chair to school. In addition, we read about more traditional foods and methods of preparation. Ask your 2Ger to tell you about how Fufu is made.
Fundations: This week we focused on the suffixes, "er" and "est". We practiced creating words that compare two or more things. Some of our favorites were, "louder", "bigger", "heavier", "colder", "smallest", "funniest", and "happiest".
Enjoy your weekend.

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