Time Together
Week #11 November 5-9
This week we enjoyed a variety of school activities together.  We began theme-work as researchers starting non-fiction reading and writing units as well as a study of Landforms and Bodies of Water. We worked together to pay attention to details, wonder, ask questions, anticipate key words and use text features to grow new knowledge.  We created paper or google posters of our topics with partners and began our individual research mini project on a specific Landform or Body of Water.  Next week, we'll make a model and an info-book with information we gathered from our research.

Our sharing during morning meeting this month connects with our non-fiction academic work.  Students wrote 3 sentences about themselves; 2 fact and 1 fiction.  We share one student's 3 sentences each morning to discover their fiction sentence.  This has been a fun way to get to know more about each other.  These were Mrs. Hock's 3 sentences:
1. I was born in New Jersey.
2. I love winter.
3. My favorite food is raspberries.

We had a delicious Harvest Feast.  Here are some pictures of that special event.

 Miss Meg visited this week for a lesson about kale with Farm-to-School.  Kale is a power food with vitamins A, C and K.  We tried kale smoothie that we made from bananas, blueberries, cider, ginger and kale.  It was fantastic, and fabulous way to eat such healthy foods.

Please look for a parent conference confirmation note that was sent home in the red Take Home folders today.  It is a bright orange half sheet of paper.

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*Adding multiples of 10 and 2 digit numbers on the open number line
*Writing thank you notes
*Using Info Bits
*Our new November calendar Number Corner topics:  measuring length, telling time, doubles facts and rows & columns

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Hock

Our class is featured in a tweet by RMCS Library on Twitter.  Thank you Mrs. Springer!

RMCS Library (@LibraryRmcs)

Mrs. Hockenbury's class working together to decode the clues needed to find one student's library card hidden among 20,000 books. Well done! pic.twitter.com/d5e2HYCscF

Celebrations
Week #10 October 29-November 2
Well, we began the week celebrating our R. M. C behavior and we ended the week celebrating first grade's work at assembly and enjoying time with Henry's grandmother, Mrs. Clark.  In between, we celebrated our first finished writing piece with an Author's Tea and Halloween with a Harvest Party.

Here are a few pictures of the crafts we made to celebrate our hard work as a class.  Students chose to make a critter corner bookmark or a friendship bracelet and then were able to spend a small amount of time on their chromebooks visiting www.abcya.com.

We finished our first writing unit about narratives by enjoying an Author's Tea; a nice connection to National Author's Day on November 2.  As authors sat in our "comfy chair" and read their narratives out loud, the audience enjoyed some Sleepytime tea with biscuits.  The narratives were drafted over several weeks and were published recently by having the students dictate their work into their googledoc, and by also working with a 5th grader who helped them type their stories.  Authors then added a few illustrations and a cover.  These will be shared with you at parent conferences later this month.

H-day was great fun as the students appreciated time in the afternoon to have a blast together.  Thank you to our room parents, and all families, for organizing and donating goodies for this event.  It all went very smoothly and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  First, teams of students created the largest tower they could using toothpicks and gummy pumpkins.  All the adults were impressed with how well the teams worked!  Next, the students turned Mrs. Hockenbury into Mrs. Hocken-mummy!  See the video and picture evidence below.  Lastly, we happily ate pumpkin bread, fruit and cheese & crackers while sipping lemonade or cider. We'll take away good memories for sure!

Parent conferences are scheduled for later this month.  Please look for, complete and return your parent conference form from your children's Take Home folder.  As a staff, we'll meet early next week to coordinate conferences for siblings in our school.  I'm looking forward to meeting with families to share our fall information and set goals for our next block of learning time.

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*101 and Out
*Reading other forms of text "grow knowledge" and thinking to ourselves I'm noticing, I'm learning and I'm wondering.
*Quick write about our paper pumpkins
*3rd grade UNICEF presentation
*Stuart Little
*A visit from Mrs. Clark, Henry's grandmother

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Hock

A Week Full of Good Things
Week #9 October 22-26, 2018

Science was a highlight this week as we concluded our investigation of Matter.  We finished our station work related to reversible and irreversible changes.  For our culminating activity, we changed 4 different examples of matter by making a solution of them and then changing this new solution's temperature.  After spending time in the chemical reaction chamber, our solution became new matter.  Do you have a guess for what we made?  We mixed milk, sugar, cream and vanilla, and viola...ice cream!  Delicious!

Welcome back to Mrs. Rito!  We were very excited to see Mrs. Rito in music class this week.  We wrote her letters to give her on her first day with us.  She already has us preparing for our evening Winter Music Program on December 12.

Our school pictures arrived!  Here's an out-take from our class photo. 

Our classroom technology projection system was installed recently.  We are lucky!  An enormous touchscreen monitor is now mounted and ready for use.  There are only 3 of these new devices in the district.  We can now easily project from Mrs. Hock's laptop, our chromebooks, and teacher & student masters, as well as generate & save documents right on the monitor.  It is a gigantic android.

We filled our Marky Mark bin AGAIN!  We voted on our celebration and Monday we'll spend a little time enjoying our top choices.  We work as a class on many things being R. M. C. S, and we enjoy having fun!

A note from our guidance educators:
Our school counselors, Carol Wheeler and Meaghan Rice are hosting a number of parent coffees this year. They will be here at school on Tuesday mornings, 8:05-8:45, and we hope you will join us for the first one, scheduled for November 6th . As parents, you play the primary role in promoting healthy relationships and preventing child abuse, and it serves our children well when the adults use similar vocabulary and approaches. There will be a short presentation by Lori Howe from Prevent Child Abuse Vermont about the contents of the Healthy Relationships Project we teach at RMCS. We’ll also have time for conversation to help us plan the contents of future get togethers. Young children are welcome, as this is very informal and relaxed time to learn together. Special take home bonus: there will be a free mindfulness tool for your family to add to your home peace corner.

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*Revising our narratives to try techniques for new beginnings and different endings
*Band-aid lesson
*Pathways to 100, Math Menu Teacher Station and adding multiples of 10
*Strategies to solve and think about the meaning of words
*Bubble gum brain and our personalized privacy shields
*Word Study groups

Have a wonderful weekend.
Mrs. Hock

Busy, Busy!
Week #8:  October 15-17, 2018
We may have had only 3 days together this week, but it was a busy few days!  Here are some highlights:

We enjoyed our first of four Hands On Nature lessons for the school year.  Thank you to Anna Clark, Erin Sutherland and Victoria Zaluski for teaching us about "Leaf Eaters and their Foes".  They held the attention of a captivated audience performing an informative puppet show.  Then, we investigated and classified leaves by evidence of different leaf eaters.  Lastly, we went outside to find our own evidence in leaves.   Here are a few pictures of our enjoyable time.

Not only were we scientists looking for evidence of Leaf Eaters, we were also scientists observing changes to matter once exposed to heat.  We also asked ourselves, "Is that change reversible or irreversible?".  Our matter that we tested this week included eggs and bread.  Next week we'll test chocolate and balloons as we attempt to change solids, liquids and gases in our own world.

Our unit 1 math assessment was sent home this week. You'll find a scoring  guide attached along with evidence of my initial corrections and your child's work to correct errors.  Before the assessment, students spent time choosing math work to review and refine their skills and understanding.  After the assessment, students were able to correct and practice content as needed.  This content in unit 1 (word problems within 20, odd/even numbers and addition/subtraction facts) will continue to appear in our independent work for review during Math Menu time.

Scholastic book orders were sent home Wednesday.  You are not required to purchase anything.  If you like to purchase any items, please complete the form(s) and return to me by Friday, October 26, 2018.  Please make checks payable to Rick Marcotte Central School.  Do NOT send cash.  If you prefer to order online, my class code is 121VT www.scholastic.com.  Thank you!

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*PebbleGo! with Mrs. Springer and Mrs. Hock
*Writing Thank You notes
*2nd grade craftivity afternoon
*"Believer"
*Counting beans

Enjoy the long weekend!
Mrs. Hock

"Let's do this!"
Week #7 October 8-12, 2018

What a fun week we had, and we love to learn!  "Let's do this!" became our theme this week as we tried new tasks, learned new information and completed our jobs as students.  One of our classmates said this on Monday morning and we hung on to it all week.  Here are some highlights:

Chromebooks:  We had an introduction to our typing program, Typing Quest, and eagerly began our steady work towards acquiring accurate, efficient keyboarding skills.  We also learned about Read/Write google tools to support our work in google docs as we type, dictate and listen to our own creative narratives.

Science:  We began our science unit on Matter to learn about solids, liquids and gases.  Next week, we'll test reversible and irreversible changes in matter.

Math:  We completed our Unit 1 math assessment that focused on addition and subtraction within 20, math fact strategies, odd/even numbers and beginning word problems.  Look for this assessment to come home soon with additional information.

Farm to School:  We learned about bees; what amazing creatures!  Here are some interesting facts we learned:

• Bees are responsible for pollinating 1/3 of the food we eat in the world.
• Bees are furry everywhere--even their eyeballs!
• Bees can smell in 2 different directions.
• Bees have an extra stomach for the purpose of carrying nectar.
• It takes 2 million flowers to make 1 jar of honey.

We were able to enjoy 2 foods thanks to Bees.  We sampled 2 different types of apples and honey with mindful eating. Here are some pictures of us enjoying the Blondies and Macintosh apples.

Finally, we made a pledge with Miss Meg:

I pledge to be:

The keeper of the bees;

To plant more natural plants and trees.

And to be kind and gentle

With my needs.

Fun Run:  We began Friday morning enjoying our whole-school fundraiser.  We cheered for grades K, 1 , 4 and 5 before we shared "the track" with grade 3.  What a fun way to enjoy our time together and work hard as a group!

Other things to ask your child about this week:

*Fire Safety session with SB Firefighters

*Using Fireflies as a mentor text to revise our writing to include precise words, comparisons, interesting font types and dialogue

*Guidance with Mrs. Wheeler using "the mat" to solve problems with peers

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Hock

Success All Around!
Week #6 October 1-5, 2018
We've had another fantastic week in room 14!  We were successful in many aspects of our 2nd grade world this week; so successful that we filled our Marky Mark bin for the third time and finished the week with a celebration.  We made slime!  Here's a picture of some students with a goofy face showing off their slime creation:

It was great to see so many families at Open House on Thursday evening.  The students were enthusiastic and independent as they shared their work with you.  They have been working hard, and it made me smile to see their pride as they showed the results of their efforts and toured our classroom.  Thank you for taking the time to visit our room.

Our 2nd grade assembly on Friday morning was also a success and we received great feedback from other teachers in our school.  The focus of our assembly was to share our Peter Reynolds author study and how it related to our R, M, C and S.  Each of the 60 second graders was able to participate in some aspect of this event.  Students chose to be a writer, reader, speaker, singer or leader to have a role in our assembly. 

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*Hyposthesizing, testing, observing and recording like a scientist with our ultra-violet beads
*Guidance lesson with Mrs. Wheeler about cooperation
*Math fact strategy sort
*Our second week of practicing word study routines
*Number Corner math about groups of 5 minutes and patterns in our calendar pieces (leaf types, leaf color, odd/even, orientation)

Enjoy the weekend!
Mrs. Hock