Happy Nevada Day and Happy Halloween

                                                                                               October 26, 2015

Dear Parents,

As you know Halloween is a holiday that gets celebrated at Oasis Academy!  I am super excited to have elements of Halloween throughout my lessons for the coming week and of course to enjoy the students in their costumes.  As far as costumes students may wear them to school on Thursday, October 29th, but they may not wear masks that are bloody/gory. Our party is being organized by Mrs. Sheldon will be on Thursday as well.  It will run from 2:30 PM until 4:00 PM.  Since Thursday will be so exciting, we are trying to keep our Halloween Party simple--crafts and snacks. 

Speaking of snacks...I'm noticing lots of snacks coming to school but they are not getting eaten.  Please be sure to talk to your children about the types of snacks they like and will eat or why they are not eating the snack packed for them.  Students have snack recess at 9:35 AM and another "in class" snack time in the afternoon.  Last week our snack bin looked like this by Thursday afterschool.  I will keep non-perishable foods in for this week.  In the past I have thrown away unclaimed cheese sticks and yogurts, I hate wasting food.

Math
Last week in Math we worked on subtracting up to 3-digit numbers using the same strategies that students used when adding (open number line, partial sum/difference, and branch addition/subtraction).  Students need to be exposed to many different strategies.  These strategies become the tools they can call on to solve equations.  Students have really done a great job practicing them all.  Now they are using the strategy they like the best to solve equations. 

Cutting and counting Box Tops

After the math assessment on Thursday, students got some practice with some real life math.  Students spent time cutting, counting, and bagging Box Tops.  During the 1st quarter of school Room 17 brought in 520 Box Tops.  Way to go!!  Remember to cut out Box Tops and send them to school.  It is a source of income for Oasis Academy and Box Tops are on so many products!!

Here's the homework schedule for this week...

Monday	IXL - R.2 Interpret tally charts and tables
Tuesday	IXL - R.3 Interpret Bar Graphs
Wednesday	IXL- R.8 Interpret Pictographs
Thursday	NO Homework!  Due to Nevada Day and Halloween!

Language
In language we are still working with adjectives.  Our work with this part of speech should be done this week and we will move onto adverbs.

Writing
The writers from Room 17 are working on an opinion piece on Halloween.  Last week we learned about opinions using OREO, O=state your Opinion, R=give Reasons, E=Explain your reasons, and O=restate your Opinion.  Students filled out a "Flee Map" as a pre-writing step and have completed their rough drafts.

Projects
In projects we are continuing our work with matter.  Last week we explored properties of solids.  These properties included shape, color, flexibility, and texture,  Students will be using their filled out charts and chrome books to write observations about the properties of solids.  Students also learned about molecules and how they look in solids, gases, and liquids.
It was wonderful to meet with many of you on Friday and I look forward to meeting with everyone else this coming week!!  Parent Teacher Conference time is a powerful opportunity for us to come together to focus on your child!!  I appreciate your timeliness in coming to your conference and your input during the conference.  

As I close this week's blog, I hope that you all enjoy Halloween and Nevada Day!!

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield

Welcome to the 2nd Quarter

                                                                                                              October 19, 2015

Dear Second Grade Families,

The first quarter is complete and we are onto the second quarter.  This year is flying by. 

Before I write about last week, I want to mention some important events happening this week.  First of all, this coming week is Book Fair Week.  Our class will be visiting the Book Fair on Monday afternoon from 12:45 -1:00 PM.  This is an opportunity for students to check out the Book Fair.  During this time they will have the chance to browse, make a "wish list", and make a purchase if they have money.  

Related to Book Fair Week will be Monster Hair Day on Thursday.  I can't wait to see what kind of crazy designs students come up with!!

Thursday, October 22nd from 6-8 PM will be Family Night for the Book Fair.  Besides visiting the Book Fair,  your family mark a bookmark, play Monster Bean Bag Toss, and enjoy a Monster Treat to eat.  It promises to be a very exciting night!  I hope you can attend!!

Parent Teacher Conferences will start on Friday, October 23rd and continue into the following week.  This will be a very busy and exciting week, I am looking forward to meeting with you to discuss your child's academic and social progress.  If you have not signed up for a conference please do so!!  You should have received an email from a web site called Sign up Genius to sign up for a conference.  If you have not received the link please contact me so that I can resend and you can get scheduled.

Now here's what we did last week...

Math
In Math, we continued to work on adding and subtracting within 1,000 without renaming.  Students have been using 3 different strategies (open number line, partial sum, partial difference, and branch addition and subtraction.  Students have really gotten quite proficient using the different strategies.  I realize that we are spending a good deal of time on this standard, but the foundation that we are working on is very important to build. 

Students also learned some new games to play during Math With Someone.  I am so happy to finally have all 3 elements of the Math Daily 3 up and running.  

Here is our homework for next week.

Monday          IXL  K.3 Fact Families
Tuesday         IXL  E. 15 Balance the Equation
Wednesday    IXL  L.2 Add & Subtract--Ways to Make a Number Up to 20
Thursday        No homework due to assessment

Measuring their Growing Creature

Projects
The scientists of Room 17 were busy exploring more about matter.  This week we put the Scientific Method into practice as we are exploring which liquid will make our "growing creature" grow the biggest.  We have water as the control group because that is the liquid used in the directions.  Students are trying to grow their creatures in Gatorade, cooking oil, salt water, Sprite, and vinegar.  We are measuring them daily and charting their growth.

Language
We continued to work with adjectives this week.  Our work with adjectives should wind up this week.

Writing
Our "Absolutely True" stories are done.  I will be putting them up on the bulletin board outside Room 17 this week.  We finished up the week started to think about a Halloween writing piece.  This time our writing is taking on more of opinion flair.  As this piece develops students will be giving 3 to 5 reasons they like Halloween.  Each reason will need to be supported with evidence.

Mrs. Linda Boyden

Last week the Nevada Library Association had a conference at the Fallon Convention Center.  One of their speakers was children's author and illustrator, Linda Boyden.  Mrs. Mackendon gave her blessing to bring the 2nd grade students to the Convention Center to hear Mrs. Boyden.  We were hoping she would be sharing her stories, but her talk was more focused to her adult audience.  Our students were amazing--so quiet, respectful, courteous, and patient!!  Because Mrs. Boyden's talk was for adults we left (very quietly) part way through the session.  After her presentation, Mrs. Boyden took the time to come to Oasis Academy for a visit.  She talked about her writing and illustrations and read several of her books to us!  It was a very special visit!!

Enjoy your week and I look forward to meeting with you all very soon!!

Anne Bloomfield

Here's an exciting challenge from Mrs. Loop...

Reading and Pizza, it sounds like a win, win situation to me!!


Hello Second Grade Families,

Welcome to the first week of the second quarter!  I am planning on challenging your children to read during their independent time.  This week your child will be bringing home a reading log that they will be asked to keep track of their independent reading on.  They will need to write the title of the books that they read, the author of the book, and the pages they read.  I am asking that assigned books are not logged as I would like to encourage students to be reading books of their choice as well as assigned books.  When your child logs 20 books that they have read on their own they can present their completed reading log to me for a pizza certificate from Pizza Barn.  I will be keeping track of the number of books read by each student and I will be interested to see how many students choose to read 100 or more books by the end of the school year.  This is all voluntary but I hope to see all of my students participate in this fun challenge that will help them to become lifelong readers.

Happy reading!

Katy Loop

Last Week of the First Quarter

Fall Foilage in Lamoille Canyon, Nevada.

                                                                                                               October 12, 2015

Dear Second Grade Parents,

Here we are in Week 9 (our last week of the first quarter), I can't believe how fast this first quarter has gone.  It seems like just yesterday we were enjoying our first day of second grade!  

In any event, with the close of the first quarter, it's time to start scheduling Parent Teacher Conferences.  Our official Parent Teacher Conference is Friday, October 23rd but some of the conference times will drift into the following week.  An official sign up was sent out via email by Wednesday, October 7th.  Please be sure to respond promptly as you will be scheduled on "first come first serve basis".  I look forward to visiting with you all soon!

The Scholastic Book Fair will be at Oasis Academy during the week of October 19th.  We will go as a class on Monday, October 19th at 12:45 PM.  If students wish to purchase books, they may bring money for books anytime over the course of the week.  There will be a family night at some point during the week.  That information will come out via email soon.

Here's the happenings from Week 8 in a "nutshell"...

Math
In math we are students also started adding 2 digit numbers using an open number line.  This is an example of what the open number line strategy looks.

  
Part of the 2nd grade math standards include adding and subtracting within 1,000 using strategies base on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.  With that said, students practiced another strategy for adding called partial sums.  This strategy looks like this...
             3 6 2                         1.  Add the hundreds-- 300 + 400 = 700.
         +  4 2 7                         2.  Add the tens-- 60 + 20 = 80.
             300 + 400 = 7 0 0     3.  Add the ones-- 2 + 7 = 9.
                 60 + 20 =    8 0     4.  Add the partial sums--700 + 80 + 9 =789                          2 + 7 =      9           
                                    7 8 9
I realize that these strategies are very different from the traditional algorithm that we all learned but knowing these strategies helps to deepen the mathematical understanding of adding and subtracting.

Homework

Mon.  Worksheet--Partial Sum (2 digit numbers)
Tues.  Worksheet--Partial Sum (3 digit numbers)
Wed.  Worksheet--Branch Method, Open Number Line, Partial Sum
Thurs. Worksheet--Branch Method (subtraction)

Language
We finished up our work with irregular past tense verbs this week and started working with adjectives (words that describe nouns).  Students helped create an anchor chart as a resource for the room.  We are also identifying adjectives in sentences.  Our work with adjectives will continue into next week.

Writing 
The writers of Room 17 are completing their 2nd writing piece that has gone through the entire writing process.  Based on the read aloud book, Gooney Bird Greene, students are writing their very own "absolutely true" stories.  These narrative pieces have been very fun to hear while meeting to edit and revise.  they should be up on the outside bulletin boards to enjoy during parent conferences. 

Projects
Our work in Projects continues to focus on exploring matter.  Last week students added several pieces to their Matter Portfolio.  These pieces included a matter book which listed the important information about the behavior of solids, liquids, and gases and examples of each form of matter.  Students also completed a matter sort for their portfolio.  This week has really been about gaining information that will help students as they develop their projects.

With some much happening in the next couple of weeks, it will be very important to be tuned into the blog and emails.  I appreciate your attention to both!

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield

Here is some information from Mrs. Loop...

Hello Second Grade Families,

This is the final week of the first grading period which means this is the final week of report card assessments.  I have only been completing report card assessments on Thursdays of the last couple of weeks but this week I will be completing report card assessments during our class time throughout the week.  I will allow students to check out books from my class library so they will have a book to read at home nightly.  Have them read aloud their chosen book to you as some of their book choices may not be a perfect fit for them.  Remember to count 100 words of a good fit book and have your child practice reading them aloud in one minute.  This will help increase their fluency reading.  I am looking forward to getting back to our normal reading schedule next week.

Katy Loop

Welcome October

                                                                                                         October 5, 2015

Dear Second Grade Families,

What a strange weather week!!  I'm so happy that we had a little "fall" in the air with cooler temperatures and the lovely rain on Thursday.  With the cooler weather please remember to send your child to school with a light jacket or sweatshirt.

Picture day is this week!  An email was sent out last week with the picture order form if you would like to purchase pictures.  Room 17 will have pictures taken on Wednesday, October 7th at 10:30 AM.  If you would to purchase pictures, please send the form with the money on Wednesday.

Math 
Our work in math this week continued to focus on word problems.  During this week our focus was on comparison word problems.  Although you can use a number bond to solve this kind of problem, students were shown how to use a bar model to solve this kind of problem.

Comparison Word Problems
There are 12 cherries and 5 pears.  How many more cherries than pears are there?

C = cherry

P = pear

C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C
P	P	P	P	P

Equation:  12 -- 5 =   7                or                 5 +  7 = 12
Answer Sentence:  There are 7 more cherries than pears.

Another BIG part of our work in math was reviewing mental math.  This is another concept that will carry into next week.  In mental math we have been working on adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers without renaming.  If the problem is 34 + 25 = ?, students are breaking each 2-digit number into tens and ones.  So 34 + 25 = ? would look like 30 + 20 = 50 and 4 + 5 = 9.  This all comes together to show that 34 + 25 = 59.  Students are learning a branching method, which really helps students to build a deeper understanding of what it takes to add and subtract.  This is very important to lay the foundation for more difficult problems that students will encounter in the future.  
Here's what the "branching" method looks like...
                 Addition                                                             Subtraction
                 67  +  32  =                                                            67  --  32  =      
             60    7   30   2    Break down the tens and ones.   60   7   30   2        
         (60 + 30) + (7 + 2)  Combine tens and ones.         (60 -- 30) + (7 -- 2)                             
                  90  + 9 = 99                                                            30  +  5  =  35                                                                                                                           
It is very exciting to see students starting to develp the ability to break down numbers and quickly add them in their heads.  Again this is another concept that will be be practiced throughout the year. 

Homework for the week...
Mon.   Worksheet
Tues.  IXL G.2 Adding a Single and Double Digit Number

Wed.   Worksheet  Open Number Line

Thurs. Worksheet Open Number Line

Language
Our work with verbs continued this week.  The focus was looking at irregular past tense verb forms.  Irregular verbs are the verbs that you do not add "ed" to the end to form the past tense.  Here are some examples....

          Present                                       Past
          run                                               ran
          win                                               won
          buy                                              bought
          go                                                went
          hit                                                hit
Students are working on identifying and spelling the irregular past tense verbs.

Writing

Orally sharing "Absolutely True" stories.

In writing we have started a new narrative writing project.  Our writing is based on the book, Gooney Bird Greene, which has been a past read aloud.  In the book, Gooney Bird tells "absolutely true" stories about her life.  In this writing project students are sharing "absolutely true" stories about their lives.  So far we have completed a prewriting notetaker called a "quick sketch" to get our ideas down.  Students have also orally told their "absolutely true" stories to other students.

Projects

The Scientists of Room 17

Exploring matter

The students of Room 17 are now Scientists!!  We started our new project--Everything Matters.  During this project students will be learning the Scientific Method and exploring the 3 forms of matter--solid, liquid, and gas.  We started the project with students using their senses to explore various substances.  As good scientists, the students took notes (listed describing words) on each substance and made predictions about the identity of the substance.

What do you think is in the bag?

Busy Scientists taking notes.

Explore, explore, then explore some more!

We are coming to the end of the quarter, which I cannot believe!!  Students will be working on end of quarter assessments in all academic areas over the next 2 weeks.  By next week we will begin putting out the schedule to sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences which will begin Friday, October 23rd.

Wishing you all a fantastic week!!

Sincerely,

Anne Bloomfield

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

Hello Second Grade Families,

I am continuing report card assessments this week as the end of the grading period is fast approaching!  This means that once again your child will not be coming home with an assigned reading book to read over the weekend.  This of course does not mean that your child can take the weekend off from reading.  Please have them write down what they chose to read for their expected 20 minutes of reading over the weekend or email me what they read.  Hopefully you are finding your second grader choosing to read more during their free time.  Fluency is assessed every Wednesday so encourage your child to practice their reading fluency nightly.  Reading aloud 100 words in one minute is a challenge for many.  This week’s spelling words will be part of the “-ice” word family.  Please have your child tell you aloud how to spell them while you are driving in the car and have them practice writing them when you are home.

Happy Reading,

Katy Loop