3-12-21

Weekly News 3-12-21

Important Notes:

*Next week students can choose new library books on Tuesday!

*Conference sign ups went out today.  Students will have remote learning half days on March 25th and 26th. 

Our Work this Week:

*In spelling we worked on common long i spelling patterns (y and i-consonant-e). We sorted these words, did dictation with them, worked on rhyming, proofreading and using them in context.    Next week we will work on long o patterns. In grammar we worked on many skills including changing the y to ies when creating plural words, how to spell contractions, identifying past tense verbs, identifying nouns and joining sentences with “and.”

*During math we did more measuring with inches and centimeters.  This is a skill we will continue to practice.  Learning to line up the measuring tool at the beginning of the object being measured is a key skill!  We spent time doing the unit 4 assessment, the cumulative assessment of the big concepts to date and the mid-year assessment.  It is a big deal in second grade when we complete the first math journal and start the second.  I’m proud of our hard working mathematicians!

*In reading workshop we read nonfiction books, many of which tied in with our science work.  We looked at how an author organizes a text and also reviewed author’s purpose and the message with each book we read.  

*Writing workshop and science are still interwoven.  We completed the conclusion to our catapult experiment and then turned to learning about the force behind magnets. After building some background knowledge we started exploring.  Students used “donut” magnets with a collection of materials to see if magnets worked through each one.  They had a ball trying out a variety of ideas and even came up with their own.  They were able to make a pencil and a paper clip “float.”  They also learned how to make a magnet move another magnet when they weren’t touching each other.  We also tested whether or not a magnet could pull through water.  Toward the end of the week we designed a magnetic door lock!  Next week we will wrap up this unit with a culminating all about book tied to force and motion.

*Guidance  was our special this week.  We worked on conflict resolution, managing strong emotions with calm down steps, and staying on task with focus and self talk. 

Ms. Luchies came to help us vote on the Chickadee books!

Lots of experimenting with magnets this week!

Testing out different materials

Each student had their own set of materials and magnets to use.

We found that the magnets even worked through our desks!

We loved making the magnets float on a pencil!

Some of us came up with our own magnet ideas!

We read a book that gave us the idea to test out whether the magnet could pull through water.....it did!

WE kept track of our thinking on recording pages.

Friday's weather gave us spring fever!

Noodle tag is our new favorite!

We read about a woman who cares for wombats!

On Friday we grapples with making a magnetic door lock - tricky but fun!