Holiday Party

We had a great time celebrating the holiday this week!  Many thanks to all of you who donated supplies and helped at the party.  The children had a wonderful time.

I am humbled by the gifts, cards and notes the children shared with me.  Each child in our classroom is such a gift a to me, and I am so blessed to be their teacher.

 

 

 

Enjoy some time with family and friends this holiday season… from my family to yours…

Merry Christmas! See you in 2018 🙂

 

Enjoy the video from the party below!   The photo booth was a hit!

 

 

 

Math Update

Here is a copy of the current parent letter for math.   We are exploring two digit addition.  Our second graders will be learning  methods of adding numbers together that may look different from how you and I learned.   Please take a few moments to look over the letter below :):

 

Math Update

Our second graders are exploring different ways to write numbers and also thinking about numbers using 100’s, 10’s and 1’s.   Place value and number sense concepts will prepare our students for two digit addition in the upcoming weeks.  Here is a copy of the most recent parent letter:

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Reading Counts

Today your child will be coming home with a Reading Counts book ( similar to WEB reading last year if you were at Georgetown).  Each child has selected a good fit book within their independent reading level to take home and read and they are SO EXCITED!!!  Reading Counts is a reading incentive program (separate from our curriculum) that promotes reading habits and also rewards children for their efforts.    Please see the following link for more informationREADING COUNTS.  Here is how we use Reading Counts at Georgetown.

1.  Each child’s independent reading level is determined through teacher assessments.  Levels will be similar to last year (within a level or two).

2.  Each child is given a goal number of points to achieve during the semester based on their reading level.  Each book has an assigned point value which can be found on the inside cover of the book.

3.  Students select a book at their reading level and read it at home and/or at school.  Books are labeled with reading levels A – Z on the spine of the book. 

4.  When children are finished with the book they sign up to take a RC comprehension quiz on the computer/ipad for that particular book here at school.

5.  If the quiz is passed ( 8/10 questions answered correctly), then another book is checked out.  If the quiz is not passed,  students take the book home again and reread or select a new book from the library.

6. At the end of the semester (mid Jan),  students who have met their goal receive a prize and a ticket into our end of the year BIG prize drawing.  Last year it was an Ipad Mini and Target gift cards….YEAH!

Please see your child’s book bag today for more specific information.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Mrs. Kuieck

Writer’s Celebration!

Today we celebrated our writing with Ms. Yankee’s class.  Our second graders have worked hard to be  mindful writers, by adding details to their seed stories, using show not tell, adding a strong lead/ending and using dialogue.  They were able to move through the writing process, even revising and editing their pieces!   After our share time, we set up a story museum and had a chance to read many of our classroom friend’s stories.

The highlight of our celebration was having a “toast”.   Our little writers had an opportunity to share a toast/ say kind words to other friends in the classroom for everyone to hear.  This was absolutely adorable to hear!   Keep up the great work writers!

Math Update

We have a classroom full of detectives!!!  Our second graders are learning how to solve word problems using strategies that encourage them to think through questions, draw pictures, write equations and check their answers.    This will be our focus for the next few weeks :).  We will investigate add to, take from, collective, missing/extra information, comparison and two step word problems.  Below find the most recent parent letter.

WalkAThon

It was a hot SuperHero WalkAThon Day!!!!  Thanks to all of the volunteers that helped make this such a fun day for our kiddos.  We love our school!  All WalkAThon donations are due TOMORROW.

 

Reading Update

Our second grade readers have been doing an amazing job of building reading stamina.  Stamina is being able to “stick” with a task for a long period of time.  This week they we are getting close to be real readers for 20 minutes.. YAY!   We have learned that a real reader gets started quickly, stays quiet, chooses their own space,  keeps their eyes on their books, does their reading assignment,  leaves thinking tracks about their reading and stays in the one place.

This week we have also learned how to put the pieces of the reading puzzle together by thinking about the book before we read and during our reading.   Focusing  on the characters of a fiction text along with the problem and the solution to the story helps us “put it all together”.   Keep up the great reading at home!

Writing Update

After rehearsing our stories to ourselves, with a partner and with sketches, we were finally able to let our pencils tell the story today.   We focused on using our story teller’s voice and using feelings, thoughts and details.

Being able to move through the Writing Process (brainstorming, drafting, revising and editing) independently will be our focus for September, using visuals and strategies to keep our Writer’s Workshop moving along.   This allows time for children to practice skills in their own writing and for  me to conference with small groups of children about specific concepts and set goals for their writing.   Look at these cute writers!

 

First Math Update!

Our second grade mathematicians have been working hard to build their math strategies.  We are learning about math facts through the use of math mountains.  Next week we will learn additional strategies to help us when we add or subtract.   Below please find a parent letter for more details.


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As children are introduced to strategies and new topics/instruction, they have an opportunity to practice using games, hands on activities, math journal work, partner practice and fact fluency through each of their work sites.  Our learners visit all of the work sites each day and have done a FABULOUS job getting to work quickly and quietly.