September 21 - 25

It is hard to believe we have finished our third week of school. The students are starting to settle into our routine nicely. I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful cooler weather. I know I am. :-) Here is a little peek at what we did this week.

Writing- This week we read The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli. This is a wonderful book when talking about writing from your heart. The little girl in the book wanted to write a story but could not decide what to write about. She learned that the best kind of stories come from your heart. We also talked about where writers get their ideas from. We looked at two master writers Jane Yolen who wrote Owl Moon and Angela Johnson who wrote The Leaving Morning. I read the first couple pages of each book and we talked about where these authors got their ideas from. We learned that these stories were meaningful and important to these authors because they wrote from their heart. We will use these two stories as a resource and mentor text when we write our own stories (narratives). As an extension to the books, I asked each student to think of happy, sad, scared times in their life. They filled out a graphic organizer to help them write down these times to help them begin to brainstorm possible narrative topics.

Reading- We are improving our reading stamina each day. This week we talked about what our reading workshop will look like. First I will teach a mini-lesson, then students will have independent silent reading to practice that skill, and then there will be some time for students to share. We also talked about some problems that may come up during independent reading like what happens if you have to use the bathroom or a friend is making noise and distracting you. Another thing we talked about is how to distinguish between a book that is too hard, just right or too easy and the three finger rule. A just right book is a book that you can read at a smooth pace,  the reading sounds like you are talking, and you can understand what you are reading. A book is too hard if the reading is choppy, hard to understand, the reader stopped many times to figure out unknown words and does not make sense.

Math- We continued unit 1 this week. We learned how to compare addition and subtraction, read stories about separating and read stories about comparing. We will work on some problem solving next week and then take our unit 1 test. We will then begin unit 2 towards the middle of next week. Also this week students took a placement test to help me learn some more information about them as math students.

Social Studies- On Monday we watched a Brainpop video on community helpers. We learned that there are many types of community helpers. The students were very eager and excited to share what types of community workers you all are! We also read a Scholastic News magazine about Johnny Appleseed.

Spelling- We started spelling this week. On Thursday the students took a pretest on the AG word family. After the pretest students marked which words they got wrong on the pretest. Then on Friday they used any of the words they got wrong on their pretest to put on their own individualized spelling list. Some of their words also came from a list of AG words the students thought of as a class. All students spelling lists came home today. They are all individualized and no two students have the same exact list. The students should study their spelling list which is on notebook paper and be prepared for their spelling test on Wednesday. Please feel free to email with any questions you may have.

Don't forget:

1. A healthy snack for your child each day.
2. School Pictures are Monday September 28th at 10:30.
3. Check your child's take home folder each day.
4. On September 29th at 9:10 we will have a class breakfast. All parents are invited!

Mrs. Salmonsen

September 15th - 18th

We got right down to business this week. We have started learning many new things in reading, writing, math and social studies. I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather this week. It was so nice out, I could not resist taking the kiddos outside for a few minutes at the end of the day a couple days. Here are some of the things we worked on this week.

Writing- We started the week talking about things that we love. We made heart maps to go along with what we love. Students came up with so many things they love including family, pets, friends, school, sports etc. We also did a writing survey which helped me learn a little bit about themselves as  writers. Questions on the survey included: what is the best thing about writing, what is hard for you as a writer, what do you like to write, what have you written in the past, and then one thing they wanted me to know about themselves as a writer. This was very informative to me as we progress through our writing this year.

Reading- In reading we talked about our goals this year as a reader. Students answered the question  As A Reader I Want To….. and they listed their goal. They also drew a picture of themselves in their favorite reading spot. We spent some time talking about what we like about reading, what we don't like, what kinds of books we like to read and where we like to read. We also looked around our class library and found out where many of the books in the library are located. We talked about what reading workshop will look like in our classroom and we spent some time reading independently. We will work on our reading stamina throughout the year.

Math- Unit 1 is underway. This unit is all about understanding addition and subtraction. We played an addition game with a partner, learned how to write addition number sentences, read stories about joining two parts together as well as learned how to write subtraction number sentences. Math homework came home on Friday and is due back to school next Friday September 25th. If students finish their math before Friday, they may hand it in earlier.

Social Studies- We continued our talk about communities. We talked about the laws in a community and what happens when you break that law. We compared laws of a community to our classroom and school rules and if we break those rules there is a consequence. I read a few pages from Community A To Z.  We also watched a Brainpop video on schools in a community. On Friday we read a Scholastic News article titled Monkey Manners. Ask your child what kinds of manners monkeys have. They also went on a text feature hunt throughout the article to locate headings, captions, and titles.

Also this week we took our second spelling inventory. This was to test the students on the second set of second grade priority words. On Tuesday Darnell Douglas, our school guidance counselor, came in and did a lesson with the students on starting a new school year and what things we may be afraid of and what things we have overcome and are not afraid of anymore. It sure was a busy but productive week.

Don't forget:

1. A healthy snack for your child each day
2. Fall Family Picnic is this Sunday from 4-6.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs. Salmonsen

1st Week- September 8-11

We had a great first week of school! :-) The students all seemed excited and eager to start a new year. It was so nice to meet all of you at Open House on Thursday evening. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. :-)

This week we kept busy learning about each other and the routines of the classroom. Here are some of the activities we did this week: Some of the books we read were First Day Jitters and Manners at School.  We came up with ideas for our classroom rules and made a chart to display them. We played a kooshball game using the smart board where students answered different questions about themselves. We played addition bingo and Around the World using subtraction flashcards. We read a Scholastic News magazine about what it means to be a good citizen. Students learned about what a good citizen is and what they can do to be a good citizen in school and at home. We sure were busy!

Next week we will begin to get more into our academic lessons. In writing we will start by learning about what a narrative is. We will read some narratives and students will begin to brainstorm ideas for their own narrative topic. We will also begin our reading workshop by talking about what kind of readers they are, what they like to read, and how to pick just right books. In math we will start unit one- Understanding Addition and Subtraction. And we will continue to talk about citizens and communities for social studies.

We are off to a great start! Don't forget there is no school Monday September 14th. Have a wonderful weekend! :-)

Mrs. Salmonsen