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.
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.
