Analise and her winning poster!

Our Class Mission Statement

Week 3

Dear Parents,

        The third week of school flew by! Your children are already getting settled into their routines and are leading their own learning ! It is so wonderful to see such kind and caring students step up to help one another! In math this week we covered many skills. We learned all about pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. We learned their value and described how they looked. We played a fun game called collect 25 cents to reinforce our counting and trading of pennies for coins of larger amounts. We were also practicing our mental math with number talks. We are seeing how doubles and near doubles can help us find answers to number sentences. We played plus 1 or 2 bingo to help our counting up 1 or 2 from a number. Learning was fun for all!

         In writing we continued working on the first 25 days of writer’s workshop. We looked at three mentor texts to see how writer’s write. We learned how illustrations can sometimes show important information about a story that is not in the written text. The children are patterning a story like Mo Willems. They are trying things like speech bubbles, words written in different sizes to show emotion, using a photo as part of an illustration and playing around with different layouts of pictures and words. I love the creativity happening in my class!

          This was our first week of word study  to include our words their way spelling lists. We practiced how to sort and are learning ways we can practice our words! 

            In reading we have been practicing our station choices so that when we begin guided reading they know what is expected of them at each station. Next week we will take our first istation test. Some children will be tested with a DRA timed reading (1 on 1 with me if I need more information about a student.) Once this testing is complete, guided reading will begin.  Small, leveled books will be coming home for students to read the night that their guided reading group meets and be brought back the following day.

            In science we finished up our unit about scientists and their tools and began our second unit on classifying matter. We had an investigation where we observed matter in different states and wrote down our observations.

             In social studies we are discussing the characteristics of good citizens. We read a scholastic news together and talked about our rights and responsibilities as second graders. We wrote our class mission statement together on Monday. I allowed any student who wanted to create our class mission poster to do so. Six students rose to the task. We voted on which one would be made into a poster to be hung above our doorway. Congratulations to Analise. Her Mission Statement Poster was chosen to represent our class.  

If you could respond to this e-mail with just your child’s name and whether his/her picture can be posted on our blog, I can start taking pictures of the children. Example: John, yes you may post his picture on the blog. I still need to hear from nine parents whether I can post pictures. If you would rather I not, please let me know that as well.

Have a nice long, relaxing weekend with your families!

Mrs. Cervates and Mrs. Nelson Spread Kindness!

We tried to save SAM!

Week 2

Dear Parents,

     The second week of school went very smoothly! It was a full week, so by Friday we were a bit tired, but we still learned to do our best! In math we continued learning how to use our manipulatives and math tools to solve problems or answer questions. We played math games such as Make Ten and Guess my Number on a number line. We built numbers with place value blocks and snap cubes. It can be really fun learning new math skills and working with partners.

       In writing I modeled several journal writes to show the children how to write from left to right, make spaces between words and use our spelling dictionaries to find correct spelling. Our focus this week was on ideas. Do our ideas make sense, seem in a logical order and focus on one main idea at a time? We had lots of journal writing time. Each child chose a journal writing for me to score this weekend on an ideas rubric.

       In reading we learned how to choose just right books, how our library is set up, and the difference between fiction and nonfiction books. We have continued building our reading stamina. We are at ten minutes and our goal is 15 minutes.

      In social studies we learned that we choose our own weather. We can choose to be like Grumpy Cat or we can be like the Happy Animals from our book. We learned the difference between tattling and reporting and how to decide if we should talk to an adult. 

       In science we continued learning about scientists, the tools they use and that they question, predict, hypothesize, plan and interpret information. We had an activity where we needed to try to save Sammy! Sammy is a gummy worm whose boat capsized. His life preserver ended up under the boat. We had to work with a partner to formulate a plan. We could only touch the boat, Sammy, and his life preserver with paper clips. No hands allowed. We had lots of fun with this challenge! See our blog for pictures. I can only post pictures of children whose parents have given me permission. If you could respond to this e-mail with just your child’s name and whether his/her picture can be posted on our blog, I can start taking pictures of the children. Example: John, yes you may post his picture on the blog.

        We practiced our four safety drills on Friday! All went very well. We have a very responsible class! I’d like to thank Liam, Kaylee, Anabel and Aleena for bringing in wish list items!

Play Doh Creations with sticky notes from friends

Week 1

Dear Parents,

          It was so wonderful meeting most of you at meet the teacher. Some of you were able to come to our parent orientation on Thursday night to learn more about second grade. If you were unable to attend, you may find the information covered in a packet that went home in your child’s black Coyote Folder on Friday. Please take time to fill out the pages at the back and send them back to school next week. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me and I will answer your questions right away. This Coyote Folder comes home on Fridays with important flyers, our second grade newsletter and graded papers. Please take everything out and return the folder on Monday. The blue daily folder goes home each night and should also return each morning.

        In math this week we are learning about our daily routines, and IPS. IPS stands for intentional Problem solving. We have a problem each day that your child solves as many ways as they can. They then share with friends, then the strategies used are shared by students. Daily routines vary, but the main one we went over this week was time. We discussed the two types of clocks and their parts. We looked at our daily schedule and drew hands on clocks to match the times.

         In writing, we began our kick off to writing workshop where we created play doh creations, added to them, took things away, and compared this to the writing process. We learned that we write about things close to our heart and made some journal entries.

        In reading we started the kick off to reading workshop where we learned our gathering spot, how to turn and talk to a buddy, how to read to self and build stamina during guided reading. They are so proud to have increased their stamina from 20 seconds to 9 minutes already! We also listened to some wonderful books and had wonderful discussions to check for comprehension.

        In social studies we discussed our rules, classroom procedures, and began our review of the Leader in Me program.

       Science was kicked off by setting up our science notebook and learning about what scientists look like, what tools they use and what they do. It was a great first week of school! If you click on the blue link below you will be able to see our class blog. I post all my e-mails to you as well as pictures and videos of activities we do in our class. I posted some of the play doh creations from writing this week as I do not know as of yet who can have their picture taken. If you could respond to this e-mail with just your child’s name and whether his/her picture can be posted on our blog, I can start taking pictures of the children.Example: John, yes you may post his picture on the blog.

Have a great weekend!