Week 2 Reading Blog from Mrs. Jackson

September 1, 2014

Welcome September! It is amazing to think that we are heading into the fall.  I saw many of  your children at the Labor Day Parade today and it reminded me of how lucky we all are to live in such a small-knit community.  Of course, my girls were hesitant to go to the parade, but they decided they loved it when they hauled home bags of candy!  Isn’t that what parades are about for little kids?

Your second graders really worked hard this week.  We worked on improving our Independent Reading and Writing time.  After practicing reaching writing expectations for 2nd grade, I was very impressed with the writing that all of our 2nd graders produced. 

Many students wrote about pets, sports, friends, family and adventures.  We are working on developing from being 1st grade writers into 2nd grade writers.  Some things that have changed in 2nd grade include longer, more elaborate pieces, the use of sketches without color vs. colored drawings and writing in normal notebooks vs. on larger K-1st grade paper with bigger spaces for writing, dotted lines and a large space for drawing.  

Having taught 3rd grade, I am excited to raise our 2nd grade writing to the next level.  I have been looking closely at the errors made by our 2nd graders and have  many things in store that I know will improve their skills.    Writing is one of my biggest passions and I feel very positive and excited about the growth we will make this year.  

During the beginning of last week, I chose books to fill each child’s book basket for Independent Reading.  On Thursday, after demonstrating effective independent reading, we focused on making good book choices on our own and picked out books to read this coming week during our Independent Reading time.  

This week we are going to begin our Word Work program (focusing on Spelling skills), continue improving our Independent Writing time and on learning the skills for 2nd grade Read to Someone.

It has been a great 2 weeks.  I look forward to another great week ahead.

Reminder-Volunteer Request

We really need 2-3 more volunteers to help during our reading block from 10:15-11:20.  These volunteers will make it possible for me to track sight word and fluency progress as well as to help small groups improve their Spelling through weekly guided Word Work.  These volunteers will begin next week when we will also begin our small Guided Reading groups.

Please let me know if you can help.  Thank you to the  parents who have already volunteered!  

Have a wonderful afternoon with your families!

Happy Labor Day

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 settled into a rountine.  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.  Thanks so much in advance for your eagerness to help!!

This past week was our first week of homework using the IXL Program.  It has been a real learning curve for me!!  Thank you for your patience as we worked through some issues with log in information.  I'm hoping next week will be smooth sailing.  Remember that your child should be spending 15 minutes per night on the assigned objective.  We have been using the program with our Chrome Books in class everyday so your child should be getting to be an expert on the log in procedure.

Speaking of IXL, here are the assignment objectives for homework this week...

Tuesday  C.3  Number Words Up to 100.
Wednesday  M.2  Place Value Models
Thursday  C.4 Number Words Up to 1,000

I wanted to let you know that I assign the objectives based on my lesson plans for math at the beginning of the week.  There are times that I have to slow down or speed up based on how the students are working through the the objectives.  That is why the objective that your child writes down in their planner can sometimes differ from the assigned objective in the Blog.  If your child writes down a different objective that is because we got further or in some cases not as far in my planned lessons.  While the objectives for homework are listed in the Blog please use what your child writes in their planner as the homework for any given night.

I am entering uncharted waters for me with this Blog.  Kim Sorensen and myself recorded some math videos last week.  The math videos will be targeting concepts that we are working on in class that are difficult.  Kim and myself recognize that the way we are presenting some math concepts in class are very different from the way we learned the same concept.  This can be a real challenge when you are trying to work with your child.  Our first 2 videos are on renaming numbers, we are hoping to expand on these videos to support you as you support your child.  I am hoping that I am successful in attaching the videos.

I hope that you are having a great long weekend!

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield

Information from Mrs. Jackson the Reading Teacher!!

Hello 2nd Grade Parents,

My name is Kristen Jackson. I have the tremendous pleasure this year of being your child's Reading teacher. Last week I tried to get a better feel for your child as a reader and writer.  This way, I can make sure to make sure that I am instructing your child at his/her level in Reading.  

Throughout the week, your children were all given a Spelling Assessment so that I could look at the Spelling patterns that each individual child was familiar with and those that he/she needed more support with.  In the next few weeks, students will be grouped into Word Work groups to help them to learn the Spelling patterns that they need.  Ideally, if I get the volunteers that I need, they will be working in small groups once a week on this "Spelling" Word Work. 

Some of your children were also given individual Reading Assessments by me.  With this new information as well as information from Mrs. Loop here at Oasis, I have been able to sort students into smaller groups and look forward to working with these small groups within the next two weeks. 

We also began our days with a Morning Message, using the names of students in our class to help us remember vowel patterns.  We will continue using these names to help us this week and we will also begin reviewing long and short vowels in multi-syllabic words. 

I read one book to our class each day, including one of my favorite books Me First, by Helen Lester.  Ask your second grader if they remember what happens to the pig who wants to always be first when he meets the Sand Witch. 

This week we will begin getting ready for our Daily Five routines.  Students will be learning different activities that they will be participating in while they are not working in a small Reading group with me.  This week we will work on Read to Self and Work on Writing.  We will also be remembering how  to Check for Understanding by asking ourselves, "Who" and "What" questions while we read.  Take the time this week during nightly reading to have your child stop and show you how to do this when they read.

Thank you so much for allowing me to teach your children.  I have so enjoyed them and am anxious to begin teaching them specific reading strategies in small groups.

Lastly, I would love to have your help during our Reading time.  WIth your help, I can closely monitor the progress of each child in the class.  I need at least 2 people to help work on Word Work with small groups of students as well as one volunteer to test and monitor student progress with Accuracy and another volunteer to test and monitor student progress with Fluency. 

VOLUNTEERS:

Needed:  4 volunteers

Once per Week

Time:  10:00-11:25 any day Monday-Thursday

Please let me know if you can help.  I would like to contact volunteers this week, so that they can begin working the first week of September. 

E-mail me at kjackson@oasisacademyfallon.us or text or call me at 503-569-8422 if you have this time open in your schedule and would like to help.

Homework:  Nightly 20 minutes of Reading.  (Shortly students will be bringing home assigned reading, but at this point, they can read any good fit book that they like.)

Thank you, I look forward to spending more time with your child this week!

Mrs. Jackson

Your child also began writing in his/her journal.  This week we wrote about what we liked most in 2nd grade.  We also created individual pages for our Second Grade Beginning of the Year book. 

A Fabulous First Week

Good Evening Second Grade Parents and Students,

     Our first week was FABULOUS!!  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.  
     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 4th.
     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 teacher younger students about them through a skit.
     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.
     We will start our math homework this week.  Below I will list the schedule for the week.  We will be working with the math program IXL.  I know most of you worked with this program over the summer with your child’s summer math work.  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.

Your child’s user name is their first name, last name, 233 (annebloomfield233).  Their password is lewis2014.  Here are the assignments for the week…

Monday--M.1

Tuesday--C.3

Wednesday--A.5

Thursday--(not on IXL) optional math riddle game--your child will bring home a math riddle to be played on a hundreds chart (which I will provide).

     In addition to math students are expected to read 20 minutes per night (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).  For now students may pick their own reading material to read for homework but shortly (possibly this week) Mrs. Jackson, our reading teacher will be assigning reading for each student.

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 during our silent reading time at 3:00 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.

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

Sincerely,

Anne Bloomfield

It's Here!!!

     The day we have all be waiting for is here--the first day of the 2014-15 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 2 weeks.  So many parents were willing to take on projects, not only in Room 5 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 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 an awesome week!!

     
     

Good Morning Second Grade Learners and Parents,

I can't believe that in another week all the students will be coming together for the 2014-15 school year!!  This will be a very busy week getting everything ready for the new year.  I am soooo excited!!

 I just wanted to remind you that Back to School Night will be this Thursday evening, August 14th at 6:00 pm.  Hopefully everyone will able to attend.  While I have met many parents during summer tutoring and during the amazing work days, I am looking forward to meeting you all!!

As you enjoy this last week of summer vacation, please remember that it's a good time to start adjusting wake up times, bed times and routines to prepare for the school year.  If your child attended Oasis last year they were dismissed at 2:00 pm.  Now that they are in second grade they will be dismissed at 4:00 pm.  This can be a bit of a learning curve for students (and teachers too)!  Working on getting into the school routine this week, will help the first week of school run smoothly for your child.

See you all soon,

Anne Bloomfield

Adjusted Supply List

Hello Parents,

I need to make an adjustment to the supply list.  Over the weekend it came to my attention that a few items on the supply list are items that Oasis has in abundance.  The supply list will adjusted in the following ways:  only send 1 box of Kleenex (instead of the the 2 listed on the orignal post) and under optional items I will be removing the hand sanitizer.  If you have already purchased those items send them in they will certainly be used eventually, and if you have not purchased those items your supply list just got shorter.

Sincerely,

Anne Bloomfield