Week #20 January 21-24, 2020

What a full week!  A full class of students, full of learning and full of fun!  We started more specific work with US geography, we celebrated our learning of tricky consonant pairs in phonics, we worked hard to publish, publish, publish our non-fiction books, we read our chapter books with a focus on the characters, and we confidently tackled 2 digit subtraction.  Along with all that, we managed to ski, sing, cook, and of course, be brave & kind.

For US geography, we began with an alphabetical list of the states, pronunciation of each state, their abbreviations, and we made political maps.  Next week, we will make physical maps, look at National Parks and learn the "Fifty Nifty" song.  Here we are with our collaborative puzzle making:

Yay, we got to ski in PE!  Mr. "Snowy" Day was quite excited, and so were we as we finally got to enjoy this annual favorite.  I was fortunate to capture the picture below as they swooshed by our classroom.

We enjoyed Farm-to-School with Kayli this week as we learned about squash.  Here are a few quotes to summarize our thoughts on the experience and the recipe we made:

"Every time I'm about to try something new I think, 

'What if it's the best thing I've ever tasted?'.  I don't want to miss out on it."  --Sora

"I give it a great big smiley face!" --Ian

"I wanna make a whole bowl of it!"  --Lukas

Other things to ask your child about this week:

• "Kindness" picture books:  All for Me and None for All, Paulie Pastrami, All Are Welcome
• Completing the district-wide math assessment
• How consonants can mimic or disguise their sounds.  IE:  --ge (sounds like [j] in "camouflage"), and gh (sounds like [g] in "spaghetti", [f] in "laugh" or is silent in "light")

We are collecting photocopy paper boxes for our upcoming US State Parade.  Each student in grade 2 will need their own box (lid included).  If you have access to any, please save them, and send them in to school the week of February 3.  Thank you!

Enjoy the weekend!
Mrs. Hock

Week #19 January 13-17, 2020

We are wrapping up our literacy work with non-fiction.  We completed our reading sessions and became experts on a topic as we read paired books about one subject.  We were able to compare information and grow our knowledge.  Below is a picture of our display sharing our favorite fact about our topic. 
We are almost finished our "expert" books for our non-fiction writing.  This week we revised our work to include answers to questions readers might ask.  We also read other text written by other authors on our topic to include more details (examples, descriptions and comparisons).  We'll publish next week!
Our phonics work is also related to non-fiction as we take inspiration from animal facts.  We were inspired to find letters "camouflaging" their sounds in words.  For example:  hard & soft g or c, and kn-knowledge/wr-writers/gn-gnat.

We were fortunate to have students from SBHS' Student Justice Union deliver a presentation in honor of MLK Jr. Day.  They shared information with us about Amelia Boynton Robinson and how she "kept her eye on the prize".  We reflected on how we persevere to be proud of our goals.

Other things to ask your child about this week:

• A lesson with Ms. Amblo and Ms. Kirsty about feelings
• "Kindness" picture books: Strictly No Elephants, I Walk With Vanessa, Nerdy Birdy, Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed
• Are our rectangles < half, half, or > half red?
• Asking math questions about Mr. Fletcher's real life situations:  Whoppers, Oreos and Pringles
• Writing Flat Stanley letters to our family and friends

Enjoy the 3-day weekend!

Mrs. Hock

Week #18 January 6-10, 2020

This week we enjoyed another Maker Time session with volunteers Vicki, Shane and Aili.  We learned about capillary action, or the movement of water. We watched demonstrations of key vocabulary, we tinkered with colored water and various tools, and we created a make-n-take based on our new knowledge.  Thank you for this enriching experience!

This week we learned a lot of skills as Phonics Professors to help us as readers, writers and spellers.  We took inspiration from mountain goats (persevering), Darwin's bark spiders (working methodically beginning to end), leaf cutter ants (cutting words into parts), chickadees (looking for signals) and squirrels (removing endings) to teach us how to tackle challenging, multi-syllabic words.  Here are some sample words we used:  abdomen, blossoming, dinner/diner, and tentacle. We also edited our work for accurate spelling, use of capitals, punctuation and sentence completion.

Students will receive mail next week.  We read Flat Stanley to start our unit about United States Geography.  In the book, Flat Stanley travels by mail to visit his friend.  Since we will be mailing a Flat Stanley to a family member or friend out of state, we practiced writing both letters and envelopes by mailing a Flat Stanley to ourselves.  I hope they enjoy getting "snail mail".  Please note that there is a notice about this Flat Stanley project in this week's Home/School folder.  Thank you for your help in this endeavor!

Other things to ask your child about this week:

• Welcoming our 2 new students:  Fatuma and Faiza
• Reading non-fiction book sets
• Our first lesson on personal safety with Ms. Amblo and Ms. Kirsty.
• "Kindness" picture books:  The Kindness Book by Ellie & Bella, The Monster Who Lost His Mean, Do Unto Otters, Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler and The Good Egg
• Energizers during mindfulness
• Beginning subtraction using the open number line

Enjoy the weekend!

Mrs. Hock

Week #17 January 2-3, 2020

Welcome back and Happy New Year!  This shortened week allowed us to return to routines gently as we all adjusted to the full-day school schedule again.  We spent time in all subjects having choices of work and a range of activities to complete.  Here are some highlights:

• We made Word Pattern Wheels and created lists of rhyming words.
• We chose from several math options to review important topics related to place value, mental addition, odd/even, addition & subtraction facts, and word problems.
• We participated in 2 energizers during mindfulness--Aroostasha, Boom Chicka Boom
• We enjoyed independent reading and free writing.
• We attended a whole-school assembly hosted by the student PBiS leadership team that included RMCS trivia.

One of our favorite tasks was to complete a "Snowman Challenge".  Table groups accepted the creativity and kindness challenge of making a snowman together with 6 feet of white paper.  Here are a few photos of our work.

We also began an independent challenge entitled "ONE WORD".  This is based on the work of Jon Gordon:  http://getoneword.com/  Students are challenged to have "one word" that will help them have their best year.  Today, we looked at samples from students and adults of all ages, we read One Word for Kids, and we spent time privately brainstorming to look in our hearts for possible words.  Next week, we'll pick our words (or rather the words pick us), and we will list action steps for how we'll use our words to be our best.  I have shared the steps I used in finding my word, and will share it once we all have our own words to reveal.  What's your word?

Enjoy the weekend!

Mrs. Hock

Week #16 December 16-20, 2019
We will remember many things about this week.  Here are a few highlights:

Our winter concert Tuesday evening was an exciting event!  Everyone did their best and had fun.  Thank you for attending the concert, and for being part of this special night.  Thank you to Mrs. Rito and Ms. Wood for their hard work teaching us and preparing us to perform so well.  Here is an outtake of my attempts to capture a class photo of us dressed in our finest.

To balance all the excitement surrounding our concert (and several December birthdays), we also enjoyed moments of calm as we continued to write and read our non-fiction books, channeled our creativity with card making, and watched a nature documentary.  We still completed a lot of focused work in math and science, and helped to take care of each other.  Students came home today with backpacks full of completed work and a small white bag of treasures.  They filled their white bag with items to help them have calm, mindful moments during this vacation.  The items include:  a shell, a rock, a gem, sticky notes for quick positive messages, weaving, word finds, zones of regulation tips and a pencil buddy.  A few students even labeled their bag "peace" or "happy" or top secret". 

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*effects of wind, water and sun on land
*breathing with gems
*Zones of Regulation with Ms. Amblo
*Don't Say That Word! and rhyming as Phonics Professors
*Whole-school celebration to watch "Frosty"

Thank you for your support!
Mrs. Hock

Week #15 December 9-13, 2018

We are immersed in non-fiction!  We are writing our first non-fiction books.  We created lists in our "tiny topic notebooks" of subjects we already know a lot about (expert lists) and subjects we'd like to research (interest lists).  We brainstormed, created chapter titles and wrote our first drafts.  Lessons to support our drafting included the objectives of "squeezing our brain" and using labeled diagrams.  We also continued our non-fiction reading as we enjoyed our whole-class titles (Knights in Shining Armour, Tigers, Bats), our independent titles, and our reading group texts.  We are using text features and learning keywords as we grow our knowledge.

As our science unit comes to conclusion next week, our study of Earth Changes this week had us completing our model of weathering and erosion with the rock tumbler (see the pre/post picture of the rocks below), and learning about fast changes to the earth.  Next week, we'll investigate specifically the effects of wind and water on the earth.

We began coding in library this week to celebrate Hour of Code (December 9-15, 2019) in honor of Computer Science Education Week.  We will have 3 more lessons with Mrs. Springer.  We used block coding to solve puzzles on the code.org website.  Students have access to this at home.  Mrs. Springer gave each student their password; let me know if you need another copy.

Other things to ask your child about this week:

• PJ/Stuffy/Comfy Reading Day
• visuals for mindful breathing (infinity, hot beverage, snowflakes, flower & candle)
• solving extended math tasks
• Zoom
• making appreciation cards for our recess and lunch teachers
• zones of regulation with Ms. Amblo

Thank you for your continued contributions to the Food Drive and Penny Drive.

I look forward to seeing everyone at our winter concert next Tuesday at 6:30 pm at SBHS.

Enjoy the weekend!

Mrs. Hock

Week #14 December 2-6, 2019

Welcome to December!  We have a short, full month ahead.  Please read below to enjoy a few highlights from the week. 

Earth changes occur quickly or slowly.  We began a model to investigate erosion with our rock tumbler.  Here we are as a whole 2nd grade group looking at our rocks after the first step in our procedure.

Our word study changed this week.  We are using new curriculum materials and working as "Phonics Professors".  The objectives of our lessons this week included a review of first grade skills with a focus on silent e, long vowels, vowel teams and SNAP words.  For the next 2 weeks in December, we will also look at r-controlled vowels, spelling with correct patterns, using rhyming to spell and complete a winter assessment.

Have you heard that our President is now also our time keeper? Our "leader" wears an analog watch to report and update our schedule throughout the day.  This watch has an elastic band with clearly marked hands and the minutes labeled to assist in our time-telling skills.  So far our Presidents have been very responsible!

This week in math we finished a unit about adding 2-digit numbers.  The standard for 2nd grade is that students add with a place value strategy.  This means students use their understanding of the meaning of the digits, and their relationships, to put the quantities together.  Using the standard algorithm for addition is an expectation for 4th grade.  This strong conceptual foundation in 2nd grade will bring greater fluency and accuracy to the standard algorithm later in 4th grade.  In this unit, we:

1. added 10 and multiples of 10 using a 100 chart and showing our thinking on an open number line (54 + 20 = ____ ) .  
2. added single digit numbers by decomposing that number so we first add to the next decade and then add the leftover ones (54 + 8 = 54 + 6 + 2 = ____ ).  
3. added two 2-digit numbers by first adding the tens, then adding the ones (54 + 28 = 54 + 20 + 6 + 2 = _____ ).

Here is what that looks like in our work:

We also enjoyed Farm-to-School with Kayli this week to celebrate Hygge and create a feeling of coziness and comfort.  We steeped tea using 4 different herbs and enjoyed a Scandinavian winter tale.

Other things to ask your child about this week:

• Welcome Penny!  Our new student from Texas
• Publishing our class book
• Whole-school assembly hosted by 4th grade
• Creating a bar graph
• Asking Questions and Paying Attention to Detail to Grow Our Knowledge while reading non-fiction

Enjoy the winter wonderland this weekend!

Mrs. Hock