Friday

We had a great day today! We learned about Fairy penguins and how they use sweaters to keep the oil from oil spills off of them. We also identified more Nonfiction Conventions within the Scholastic News. In math, we did some work with the 5's multiplication tables. In word work we had a test on our spelling words and then we did catch up work jobs. We ended reading with a game about Fact and Opinion and then another team building exercise called, "Excuse Me, What are you Doing?"  It was very fun!
Have a fabulous weekend!

Thursday

We had the STAR reading test today.  At this point, I think we are done with assessments for the mid year.  Students did a great job on this test in the computer lab.  In math, we worked more with 5 tables for multiplication. In word work, we did an activity called Making Words. Work jobs happened this afternoon and we ended our day with a short movie about birds in our backyard.

Football gear tomorrow!

Wednesday

After a late start, we did some multiplication with the fives tables. Students seem to grasp this concept nicely.  Using the 100s chart helped them see the patterns. In word work, we worked with white boards and wrote words that have the long i using y and also igh words.  This afternoon, we typed our rough drafts. We also learned about bird watching from Mrs. Guay.

Monday

Happy Monday!  We finished up our research today about our birds. Mrs. Marino showed us how to research on line. Students are very excited about the research.  We had a spelling test that we missed on Friday and I introduced the new words for the week: funny, happy, sky, try, and right. Students wrote sentences for these words on their own. This afternoon, we did work jobs, read about birds and did one more assessment.

Enjoy the snow!

Friday

We had a wonderful day today! It was fun doing research about the backyard bird that we chose! Some of us didn't get to go today but we will all finish up by Monday.  Mrs. Marino in the library taught us how to take notes. Mrs. Guay helped us with all of the information that she has too.  We are loving learning about birds!

We also took a STAR assessment in the computer lab. I am very pleased with the outcome of this assessment. Students worked hard. We did our portfolios and had some catch up time too.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday

In math today Mrs. Jones came in to work with money.  We are still learning what the coins are and how much they are worth. Any help with this at home would be appreciated!  In writing, we worked on our rough drafts. We learned to reread our writing to make sure it makes sense and make it flow. It's coming along. During word work, we came up with words with the long o sound. There are lots of ways to make long o. We read a poem called Winter Dark in shared reading. We talked about metaphors and similes as this poem had metaphors in them. Mrs. Guay taught us more about birds this afternoon. We even heard some bird calls.

Tuesday

It was another busy day in 2F! In math, we are focusing on multiplication tables: twos, fives, and tens. We skip counted today by all of those numbers. We worked a lot today on the twos tables. Students are seeing the relationship between counting by twos and doubling the number. In writing this morning, we we turned our planning sheets about our areas of expertise to rough drafts. We learned to write introductions, facts with definitions, and conclusions. This was a bit tricky so we will keep working on it all week. During word work, I explained the new word work job for this week.  We also learned the words of the week: also, almost, goes, snow, and old - all long o words. This afternoon, we discussed the difference between fiction and nonfiction. We did a life-sized Venn Diagram comparing the components of both. To end our day, Mrs. Guay read to us about birds. We are learning a lot about birds we might see in our backyards!

Friday

We had a busy day today: lots of catch up work time since so many friends were out this week. We watched a movie about MLK Jr. and made a timeline with important events from his life. During word work, we had a test on this week's spelling words. This afternoon, we worked on Expert pieces and finished the brainstorming paper.   After that we learned about glossaries and found some books with glossaries.

Have a nice weekend!

Wednesday

This morning, we played a game called Back to Back in math. It was about students figuring out sums and addends.  Also, Mrs. Jones came in to teach us about money. We learned some fun facts!
In writing, we learned about dictionaries and all the things you can find in one!  Students had to look at their areas of expertise and figure out what terms they would need to define for the reader of their piece of writing about this topic. They had a ton of fun looking at the dictionary! In word work, I finally introduced this week's words. This afternoon, we read The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett and we talked about how it was the same and different from Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Students did work jobs while some read about Martin Luther King Jr. Finally, our nonfiction convention of the day was Sidebar.

Tuesday

Today we only had 3 friends out sick. We are hoping for a full boat tomorrow.  We miss our friends who've been out. There is a lot of sickness going around. We are washing our hands like crazy!

In math this morning, we did our Chapter Review for the first chapter on multiplication and division. I may spend a little more time on word problems tomorrow after Mrs. Jones comes into our class.
During word work, we worked in partners and completed a Cloze activity where we filled in ee and ea words into a story.  In writing, we listed facts about our areas of expertise. Tomorrow we will think of definitions to enhance our topics.

After indoor recess, we read a poem called In Winter I'm Rounder.  It was a funny poem about how "big" we get after we put on our winter clothes - something we can all relate to!  We did some work jobs and then did our scavenger hunt looking for books with bullets in them.

Monday

  It was very quiet in our room. We reviewed multiplication and division word problems and did some in our math journals. In computers, Mrs. Pond came to us and showed us some apps on the iPads!  It was so fun.  We highlighted words from our word wall on the list that we keep in our table folders.  This afternoon, we worked on Storybird and read about Martin Luther King, Jr in small reading groups.

Homework went home today.

Friday

We made it outside today for recess! We also did a fun digital storytelling activity with a website called Storybird.  In math, we worked on problem solving with multiplication and division. We had some catch up time and a spelling test. Finally, we read Scholastic News.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday

We learned division today!  Students learned how division means equal sharing as well as repeated subtraction.  That was our morning and in the afternoon, we learned about captions and read a fun book called The Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett.  Tomorrow will probably outdoor recess so send your children with snowpants and boots please!

Wednesday

Even though it was cold outside, students were able to get out for outdoor recess at noon.   Yipee! It makes a big difference when kiddos can get some movement.

In math, Mrs. Jones came in to do an activity building number sense. We are still getting those cobwebs out from a week and a half off! In writing, we wrote about what we are experts about... this was fun! I'm still learning more about each of my students. This afternoon, we had work jobs and are beginning to focus on Nonfiction Text Features.  Today's focus was Table of Contents.

Tuesday

We have settled nicely into our routine today. In math, we looked at multiplication as "Groups of", repeated addition and a multiplication problem.  Students love this.  They feel very grown up! Tomorrow we tackle division!

In writing, we took some Super Sentences that we wrote and revised them to be like one of the ways we know we can start our writing: action, dialogue, setting, shocking statement or a question. This was tricky, but we are learning how to begin our writing with good leads.  In word work, we learned about ways to make the long a sound in words. We did a word sort with words that have a and magic e, ai, ay, or other patterns that make the long a sound.

This afternoon in work jobs, we learned a new way to Read to Someone involving checking for understanding. Some students worked on this while other met in reading groups. We ended our day reading another Jan Brett book called The Umbrella.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! We had high energy today which surprised me based on earlier wake up times.  We began our morning with Morning Meeting because everyone had LOTS to share!  We also played a game Find Someone Who... depending on what we did over the vacation. We learned about people who ice skated, went sledding, and had parties at their houses.

In math, we began talking about multiplication in terms of equal groups. We are thinking of multiplication right now as repeated addition.  In computer lab, we took a virtual tour of MLK's house.  Then we compared it to our houses.  During Writing Workshop, we wrote about one thing that happened to us over the holiday break.  In word work, I introduced the 5 new words for the week: rain, say, today, way, and wait.

This afternoon, I read the first Jan Brett book called Gingerbread Friends. Students will be using this book for their Write about Reading job during the week. We also are finding as many words out of Happy New Year as we can for work jobs.

It was a busy day!  Homework came home today. Please send back the December reading calendar as soon as possible, thanks!