Week 2 in Second Grade

                                                                                                           August 31, 2015

Dear Second Grade Families,

I can't believe we will enter our 3rd week of school tomorrow!!  It's been an exciting 2 weeks and I believe we are getting settled into a rountine.   

I have been working hard to get the volunteer schedule together.  I am very thankful to have so many parents that are willing to share their time and talents with our class.  Some of you will be working within our class and some of you are willing to do things at home.  Remember if you would like to work within the class you need to a background check.  Please see Julie or Susi in the office to pick up the necessary paperwork.  If you have previously completed the background check you are good to go.  I am  thankful for all the help!  Between this week and next week I will be setting up my volunteen schedule for those parents who wanted to volunteer in class, specifically those parents who wanted to help out with math facts or P.E.  Volunteers will start on September 14th.  Thanks so much in advance for your eagerness to help our class!!

Math
This week in Math we worked on a very difficult but important skill--renaming tens and ones.  I must say, I am very proud of how hard students worked to understand this concept.  We used manipulatives and drew pictures to help us work on this skill.  Here's an example...
If the number is 56, it can be renamed the following ways.
5 tens and 6 ones
4 tens and 16 ones
3 tens and 26 ones
2 tens and 36 ones
1 tens and 46 ones
or  56 ones
We will continue to review this skill as it will be very important for mental math.
Other skills we worked on were reading and writing 2-digit numbers.


Here is the homework for the week...

Monday  IXL A.6 Even or Odd:  Counting Objects
Tuesday  IXL A.7 Even or Odd
Wednesday  IXL M.1 Place Value Models Tens and Ones
Thursday  No Weekend Homework (Enjoy the long weekend with your family!!)

Language
We continued to study nouns this week.  Our focus was with common and proper nouns.  Students are learning that proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing.  All proper nouns are capitalized. This is a review of a first grade standard, but will lead to the 2nd grade standards that relate to nouns.

Writing
In writing we are continuing a work on our riddles about ourselves.  We were able to take our prewriting (circle map and tree map) and write a rough draft.  Students needed to pick 6 to 9 ideas from their tree map and turn it into a clue.  This writing assignment is really coming together, I can hardly wait to see the finished product.

Projects
Our work with our Tribes Project has continued.  We focused on the Tribes Agreements of Mutual Respect, No Put Downs, and Appreciations.  For each agreement we have made an artifact for the class so that we will remember the agreement throughout the year.

We finally got on our Chromebooks.  It is very exciting for 2nd graders, since each 2nd grader is issued their own Chromebook.  This week students used their Chromebook to take a Birthday Survey.  We will be looking at the results this coming week.  Every week we will be using the Chromebooks more and more.  The students of Room 17 have been so patient as we have started this journey.  It is so amazing to see students gain proficiency with this technology as the year progresses.

This weekend we celebrate Labor Day Weekend.  I hope that you and your family enjoy the extra day!

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield

Here is the Reading information from Mrs. Loop...

Hello Second Grade Families,

I am so lucky to be able to work with your wonderful child again this year!  I look forward to starting my day with them every morning for reading class and I am so impressed with how focused and ready to learn they are when they arrive in my classroom.  They have all matured so much over the summer!  I have completed all of my beginning of the year assessments on my second grade students so I am ready to begin reading groups this week!  It helps to have already taught most of this class last year so my assessments on most of them from the end of the year are still accurate.  Last week we reviewed how to do “read to self”, “read to someone” and “work on writing” which are three of the Daily 5 components that the students will participate in during our reading class.  This week I will begin on Monday with introducing “Listen to Reading” and the different listening options that the students will have on the chromebooks.  I will plan on sharing some sites with you later this week that your child may want to visit at home for listening to reading.  I am looking forward to beginning reading groups this week and beginning individual and small group reading instruction.  Students will be bringing home assigned books in a red folder.  Please have them read their book aloud to you nightly.  Spend no more than 20 minutes a night having your child read their assigned book aloud.  The books should be a good fit for your child.

Below are some pictures I took of the kids practicing “reading to someone”.  Check out the variety of places that they choose to read in the classroom!

 

Have a wonderful week that I hope include lots of reading!

~Katy Loop

Here Come the Second Grade Stars!!

                                                                                                          August 24, 2015

Silly Second Graders on the first day of school.

Dear Parents,

The first week of school was spectacular!!  I feel so fortunate to have such an amazing class with wonderful parents!!  Our focus for the first week has been working on routines and getting to know one another.  

Here's glimpse into our week...

Math
In Math  we have be working on counting by ones and tens recording 2-digit numbers up to 100.  We are also reading and writing 2-digit numbers up to 100.  In addition to these two concepts we also worked on identifying numbers that were 1 less, 1 more, 10 less, and 10 more than a given number.

We will start our IXL math homework this week.  I know most of you worked with this program over the summer.  Just a reminder that your child's user name is first name last name 233 or first name last name initial 233 or first name 233.  All passwords have been changed to ab15.  If you have any questions about IXL don't hesitate to send me an email.  I can be reached at  abloomfield@oasisacademyfallon.us .  Here is the IXL homework for the week.

Monday:  IXL B.1 Comparing Numbers Up to 100

Tuesday:  IXL A.5 Hundred's Chart

Wednesday:  IXL C.3 Writing Numbers Up to 100 in Words

Thursday:  IXL M.1 Place Value Models--Tens and Ones

I want to stress that your child does not need to work more than 15 minutes per night on the assigned objective.  If that amount of time is too frustrating for your child please contact me so that we can adjust the assignment.

Writing
We have also started our first writing assignment--a riddle about ourselves.  This assignment will take students through the entire writing process from prewriting to publishing.  I am expecting that our finished product will be bulletin board ready by about September 3rd.

Students sharing circle maps about themselves.

Practicing Attentive Listening

Language
In Language we reviewed nouns.  Students review the definition of a noun and listed examples of nouns.  After listing nouns, students got some practice writing sentences using some of the nouns in sentences.      

Projects
Our first project is also well underway.  The focus is learning the Tribes Agreements--Attentive Listening, Mutual Respect, Appreciations/No Put-Downs, and Right to Pass, well enough to teach younger students about them through a puppet show performance.

Project Time

Writing about Attentive Listening

P.E.
With 2nd grade, comes regular P.E. Time.  Students got to enjoy P.E. on Tuesday and Thursday this week.  P.E. always includes a warm up, activity, cool down, and reflection.  On Tuesday we did some work with hula hoops which was fun.  On Thursday, we had a parent volunteer join us.  Mrs. Dale led us through a series of movements that got our heart rate up!  We will be contacting via email the parents that wanted to help us with P.E. this week.

     

 

A few closing comments...

Our days are long at Oasis Academy and students get hungry. We have 2 snack times built into our day. Students can take out a snack at our 9:35 am recess. They may also munch on a snack while working at 2:40 pm. Please be sure to pack 2 snacks for your child. It's better for them to have an option not to snack then to be hungry.

Student Council is running a fund raiser to support some of the clubs at Oasis Academy. For a dollar per quarter (9 week period) students may wear any kind of socks with their uniform. Our uniform policy states that students will only wear white, navy blue, of black socks. Being able to wear "fancy socks" for the whole quarter for the cost of one dollar is a great value.

This blog entry has gotten rather lengthy--so much to say. I am looking forward to another wonderful week!!

Sincerely,

Anne Bloomfield

Here's some information from Mrs. Loop...

Hello Second Grade Families,
I am so excited to be with many of your children for a second year and to continue to help them grow as readers.  During the first week of school we began rotating classes for math and reading on Tuesday (the second day of school).  The kids took a developmental spelling assessment which will help me to determine spelling groups.  We also began building stamina for the Daily Five components "read to self" and "work on writing".  Students will begin to have a choice this week as to which activity they do first and we will practice building stamina with     "read to someone ".  I will also begin individual reading assessments so that I can place students into reading groups.  I hope to have reading groups up and running possibly by the first week in September.  Until reading groups are formed assigned books will not be sent home.  I would recommend that students spend 10-15 minutes each night reading books of their choice at home aloud to a family member to begin getting in the practice of having nightly reading homework.

I will be determining my volunteer schedule also.  If you are available to come into the classroom and help during 8:30-9:30 please send me an email and let me know what day you are available.  I will need volunteers for sight word review, spelling practice, and fluency practice.  These are all activities that will require volunteers to work in small groups or one on one with students.  My email is kloop@oasisacademyfallon.us
I am looking forward to a great year of reading with this class of second graders!

Happy reading,
Katy Loop

It's Time to Shine in 2nd Grade

                                                   August 17, 2015

Welcome to 2nd Grade!!
This year is going sparkle!!

Dear Parents,

The day we have all be waiting for is here--the first day of the 2015-16 school year!  I'd like to thank everyone that was able to come to Back to School Night last Thursday.  It was great to meet so many parents!  I would also like to express my thanks for all my helpers over the past week.  So many parents were willing to take on projects, not only in Room 17 but all around the school.  It was truly amazing to see the power of volunteers in action!

Our main focus of the first week of school will be working on the day to day routines that are so important to establish.  Time spent on routines early in the year make the rest of the year run very smoothly.  Even though we will be working hard on our routines our academic work will begin as well.  We will begin switching for reading with Mrs. Loop starting on Tuesday.  Our first writing assignment will also be started this week.  We will also begin our first project of the year, which will focus around the Tribes Agreements of Mutal Respect, Attentive Listening, Appreciations, No Put-Downs, and the Right to Pass.  It's going to be a busy week!!

Remember, it's a long day for 2nd graders!  Going to school until 4:00 PM is a big transition from last year!  When you take a longer school day and add on activities such as soccer, football, or dance; there is bound to be an adjustment period.  Please make sure that your child has a second snack for the afternoon.  They will definitely be tired, be sure to establish bedtimes that ensure that your child gets enough sleep.  

As we move into this new school year, Ms. Garcia and myself will not be sending home assigned math homework until Wednesday.  For both Wednesday and Thursday students will bring home a worksheet.  IXL homework will begin next week.  We will be teaching classroom routines and beginning some informal assessments.  We suggest that you practice your homework time routine on Monday and Tuesday evening by spending 20 minutes reading with or to your child.  It is our hope to ease your 2nd grader and your family into the new school year.

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield