·         Word Study has kept our second graders on their toes lately!  We have been focusing on recognizing vowel teams in words (like “oa” in “goat”), listening for consonant clusters at the beginning of a word (like “st” in “stop”) and listening for consonant clusters at the end of a word (like “mp” in “jump”). 

·         During Writer’s Workshop, students had a week to finish publishing their personal narratives.  We focused on having a neatly written and illustrated final copy.  We finished learning about personal narratives by having a celebration!  Second Grader’s came to Camp Read S’more on Friday last week.  The students shared their personal narratives with children from other classrooms.  Children were also able to set up their tents and have some reading time around the room during that time.  Thank you to the parents who sent in supplies for our s’more trail mix snacks!

·         This week during Writer’s Workshop, children have started to work on planning the characters, setting, problem and solution, and repeating lines for their own fairytale story.  We were able to use what we learned from our study in Reader’s Workshop and apply the fairytale elements to our own writing. 

·         Our study of fairytale and folktale elements in Reader’s Workshop came to an end last week!  We dove into different fairytale and folktale stories to discover magic and repeating lines in books.  We also learned about the different tellings/perspectives that are found in different fairytale and folktale books.  We looked at The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to find out how the same story can be told from a different perspective!  We also looked at the different cultural tellings of fairytales or folktales.  Children compared Cinderella to Yeh Shen, Cindy Ellen, and The Rough Faced Girl.  Students found many exciting things that were the same and different. 

·         This week in Reader’s Workshop, we started a new unit on non-fiction books (books that tell us true facts or real information).  We started by talking about what makes a non-fiction book different from a fiction book and then sorting books in our classroom into fiction and non-fiction piles!  The children were great at finding non-fiction books and telling one another an example that makes it non-fiction.  We also focused on learning a few text features that are found in non-fiction books (glossary, index, table of contents, close-up, caption…).  Students also have had a chance to explore non-fiction books on their own and practice reading a few at their just right reading level!

·         In Social Studies, we have also been spending more time focusing on the history of our community.  We have found examples of what Walled Lake was like many years ago by looking at different jobs that were held, what schools were like, and what the community looked like!   Thank you for supporting learning at home by completing the Venn Diagram of how schools are the same and different now and in the past! 

·         Lately, just at the mention of science, we hear cheers!  Children have loved exploring air and weather this unit. Children also have been re-enforced with the information on moon phases and different tools to collect rain (rain gauge), tell the temperature (thermometer) and discover wind speed (anemometer and wind vanes).  Children loved exploring wind with bubbles this week in science.  We talked about how wind can change direction and cause a flow of air movement that the bubbles can travel along!  The children LOVED being outside to explore with bubbles!  This would be an easy activity to do at home too! 

·         We had HUGE amounts of learning in math last week when teams of children measured to make GIANT body parts that we pieced together to make a classroom giant.  After we measured how tall our classroom giant was, we compared them with the other second grade classrooms!  The children continued to practice using measurement by measuring to the nearest inch/centimeter and nearest half inch/centimeter.  Children also learned about perimeter and area this week by creating robots on a square inch grid.  In addition, children explored capacity and weight!   We also had our benchmark and Unit 9 math test where children were able to showcase their math knowledge!

    Tomorrow we are having our classroom museum.  Please send in your historical artifact on Tuesday, April 15th!  We can't wait to see all the interesting artifacts.