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

Readers Grow Like Beanstalks
Week #5 September 24-28, 2018

We enjoy reading and discovering books in our classroom library!  We officially began our first unit of reading entitled:  "Second Grade Reading Growth Spurt".  Research shows that second grade is an amazing period of growth for readers.  We are learning that now that we know how to read, we will grow stronger as readers and make many more decisions about our reading.  We learned to think about HOW we read texts, to give ourselves an introduction to books, and to read for meaning with a partner.  Did you hear that we read common text (There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly) in different ways?  We read the words as a song, as a reporter, as a sad person, and some of our peers used Italian and British accents!  Other objectives of this unit will include:  making sure our reading makes sense, and increasing our stamina.

Not only are we readers, we are writers as well.  We have many stories to tell!  Our objectives this week were related to how to get ideas for writing stories and how to plan our stories.  We know our best stories come from our own heart so we created "Heart Maps" of people, places and big feelings for topics and ideas for our narrative writing.  We also used inspiration from Stella Tells a Story to plan and organize our topic before we even begin writing.

Other things to ask your child about this week:
*google slides and google classroom
*Battling Bugs and Find the Difference math games
*the similarities and differences between 3 math models:  number racks, bead strings, number lines
*morning meeting activities:  Coseeki, Down by the Banks, Tossed Salad, Is There Another Way?
*Whole-school assembly led by 4th grade about Cooperation

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Hock

Welcome Chromebooks!
Week #4 September 17-21, 2018

We have our own chromebooks!  We are fortunate in SBSD to have 1:1 devices for students in grades 2-12.  Our beautiful, new chromebooks are not only touchscreen, but can also act like an ipad and fold on to themselves.  This week we learned all about the features of our devices by: completing a scavenger hunt, typing our own usernames & passwords, and bookmarking sites we'll use frequently.  We also altered personal settings and navigated parts of the keyboard.  Next week we'll learn about our google classroom and explore google slides.  Thank you for returning your child's "Chromebook Responsibility Agreement".

We completed our amazing author study of Peter H. Reynolds.  We read So Few of Me, Rose's Garden and The North Star.  We have thoroughly enjoyed his messages of hope, perseverance and appreciating one's own talents, and also his illustrations.  Our own art projects inspired by his work are equally inspiring!  We look forward to sharing them with you at Open House on October 4.  Look for the large 2nd grade display in our hallway.  Here are a few samples of our flowers and stars from this week as well as an image of us painting the background for our mural:

 

Other topics to ask your child about this week:

*Guidance with Mrs. Wheeler

*"Hot Blue Dude" and "I have, who has..."

*Math Menu (see the letter on green paper about Math Menu that went home in red folders today)

*Writing 2 true stories (Mrs. Hock wrote about when a horse fell on her and when she played hide 'n go seek in the neighborhood when she was in 2nd grade)

*Whole-school assembly about M for Mindful

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Hock

Meet Kate DiCamillo and Harry Bliss

Free event September 23, 2018 2:00!  Come meet these amazing children's book phenoms who have collaborated on a new picture book called Good Rosie!--Kate DiCamillo and Harry Bliss (a parent of an SB alum).  Use this link to register and find information about the event which includes a book signing.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-kate-dicamillo-harry-bliss-tickets-48896424522