Highlights of the Week

Our book display was full of exciting, new nonfiction texts to explore.

We had a wide variety of nonfiction books at many reading levels to choose from during reading workshop.

Each student has a mini clock in their math tool kit for hands on practice with telling time.

Mrs. Singer (mom to Mrs. Pols!) visited Tuesday for a Hanukkah story and a fun round of dreidel!

Small groups worked to read nonfiction and record facts from their text.

Celebrating "matches" made during a game of clock concentration.

Exploring nonfiction texts and working on a book response.  One goal this week was to learn to identify various text features in nonfiction (captions, headings, glossaries, etc).

This duo partnered up for their nonfiction investigations.

Recording facts about bones

We have some talented dreidel spinners in our class.

Clock Concentration 

This group decided to make their own clock cards for the math game.

Part of our work on time this week was thinking about what happens in our lives in a 24 hour day.

We explored AM and PM.

We made an anchor chart that helps us remember features we may see frequently in nonfiction texts.

This chart helps us get familiar with features we commonly find in informational books.  We'll be writing our own books like this  very soon!

Highlights of the Week

We tried a "Thinking Routine" with this fabulous book, Ivan, the Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla .Before reading we accessed background knowledge about gorillas, during reading we recorded our thoughts about how Ivan was feeling, and after reading we noted our changes in thinking about gorillas.

I surprised the kids with their own copy of the newest Flat Stanley chapter book, courtesy of the author and my good friend, Kate Egan!

On Friday the kids arrived to a new seating formation.  They were so excited with the change and bustled in smiling and happy to join new seatmates.  These children are flexible and cheerful humans !

We had an illustrating session on Friday to add detailed drawings to our realistic fiction series.

We put work into the covers too!

On Friday we did another thinking routine with a story about Noah Webster and how he tried to change the strange spelling in America many years ago.  He wanted to get rid of silent letters.  The kids thought he had some awfully good ideas!

During grammar work we practiced editing a sample letter for capitalization and comma use.  Our editing skills are improving!

Students work hard to "write down the page" with details and "across many pages."  

One of our student authors let us use her introduction to help us focus on how a writer can use strategies to really pull you into their story.

Highlights of the Week

We are still reading picture books like crazy.  Over 500 read in the last 3 weeks!

We use "What's My Rule" machines to practice following patterns, identifying patterns and number relationships and being able to do functions back and forth (addition/subtraction).

Students are using their "Quick Words" all the time now to find correct spellings to use as they write.

We are learning to identify character traits in literature and be able to describe a character after thinking about how they act, speak and think.

Students are using this planning sheet to plot out each new adventure in their realistic fiction series.

One of our goals in writing is to write "down the page" across a lot of pages.  This helps encourage writers to elaborate on their topics with details and dialogue and action.

The kids are having a ball creating adventures in their realistic fiction series.  They remember this unit from grade one and are building on prior learning with their new writing techniques.

In conjunction with our learning in reading workshop, we are thinking about the main character in our series and deciding what type of person he/she is before writing.

This young writer has all his tools out during writing workshop to help him reach his writing goals.

We spent two days learning a new strategy called "Going Up and Back Through 10."  Using 10 as a "friendly number" helps students make use of their mental math strategies to solve problems in their heads.  They impressed me with their mental manipulation of numbers!

Highlights of the Week

Ms. Luchies has challenged WCS to read 4,000 picture books for National Picture Book Month.  We have already read over 300 picture books in 2-P!  Students log their books every day during DEAR time.

On Monday we had our Author's Celebration with Mrs. Vise's class.

We shared our stories.

We shared snack and smiles and friendship too!

On Friday we kicked off our new writing unit on realistic fiction.  Students planned out the supporting characters in their series.

In Guidance with Mrs. Reny we worked on gratitude!

Illustrating covers for our small moment books.

We worked on reading with compassion this week - thinking of how books can change us and our thinking.

Students continue to practice identifying genre and how they know a book fits in a particular category.

In small reading groups we often practice various comprehension skills, such as figuring out a character's inside and outside traits.

Most days at the end of math we make time for Rocket Math, an individualized fact fluency program to help students master their facts.  We are plugging away with addition facts and each child moves at their own pace.  Students practice both orally and in writing each day.