Sunday, September 28, 2014

HAPPY HOMECOMING WEEK!

This week will be a crazy week with Homecoming fun and MAPS testing!  The students are welcome to have fun dressing up this week! Here is a list of the Homecoming days, just remember no swim suits on Hawaiian Day.

On Friday, the kids are invited to a high school pep rally for homecoming and on Thursday, they will get to see the marching band playing and walking through our hallway!  How fun!  We will also dismiss 3 hours early on Friday for the Homecoming parade.

Our MAPs testing will be done on the ipads.  We will be testing reading, math and language arts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week.  Last week we finished the FAST testing which is very similar to the DIBEL's literacy testing that we have done in the past.

In Literacy, we have been working on the following reading strategies:  determining important information, determining the author's purpose for writing, and checking for understanding when we read.  We are going to be starting a new author study on Marc Brown.  Marc Brown is famous for writing all of the Arthur books!  We will also be working on the phonics skills of long a and inflectional endings such as adding es and s and ed and ing to words as well as contractions.

In math, we have been working on addition and subtraction strategies using dominoes and short cut strategies to help us learn our facts more quickly.

Science is still exciting, since we are anxiously awaiting the changes in our caterpillars and wax worms.  We have been doing a lot of observing and discussing the life cycle of our classroom friends!





 WRITING:  We have started working on writing in our special writing journals as well as using writing apps on our ipads.  The second graders have a lot of ideas to write about and sometimes could sit and write all afternoon!  The apps that we are using for writing are:  kidblog, my story, and scribble press!

Have a great week!  
Mrs. Tuchek

Monday, September 22, 2014

Hello Everyone!

Last Monday was International Dot Day!  Dot Day is about learning to celebrate our creative spirits!  It is based on the book, "The Dot," by Peter H. Reynolds.


"Her teacher smiled. "Just make a mark and see where it takes you."

Art class is over, but Vashti is sitting glued to her chair in front of a blank piece of paper. The words of her teacher are a gentle invitation to express herself. But Vashti can’t draw - she’s no artist. To prove her point, Vashti jabs at a blank sheet of paper to make an unremarkable and angry mark. "There!" she says. 

That one little dot marks the beginning of Vashti’s journey of surprise and self-discovery. That special moment is the core of Peter H. Reynolds’s delicate fable about the creative spirit in all of us."

We celebrated Dot Day by reading the book and coloring dots that we used with the colAR Mix app on our ipads.  This app made their colored dot turn into a 3-D animated dot.  It was amazing!











REMINDERS:

There will be a 3-hour early dismissal on Wednesday.

There will be a 3-hour early dismissal on Friday, October 3 for homecoming.


TESTING:

We will be doing literacy testing this week and MAPS testing will be the following weeks!


SPELLING:

Our spelling words are:  this,that, while, wheat, whip, whistle, whiskers, whatever, aunt, uncle 
 
Spelling Test will be on Friday!


Let me know if you have any questions about anything....
Please email me, call, or send a note!
Thanks!
Mrs.Tuchek 

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Hello Everyone!
Once again we had a busy week in second grade!  We have continued to work hard at practicing the routines of the Daily 5 and have now been able to do all of them including:  Read to Self, Work on Writing, Work on Words, and now Read to Someone and Listen to Reading.  YEY!  We will finally be able to do start the actual Daily 5 this week!
During our lessons for Read to Someone, we practiced being a good reading coach and reminding our partner of reading strategies to help them with difficult words or for checking for understanding! Here are some pictures of Read to Someone.  Look at how some of them have their coaching bookmarks in their hands, ready to jump in and coach their partners!















We are also starting our first unit in the LEAD 21 Literacy curriculum.  Unit 1's theme is about the roles we play at home, at school and in our community and how these roles may change as we get older.

We are finishing our unit 1 in math with a review of first grade skills.  We will have our math unit 1 assessment on Tuesday.   Last week, one of our math games was to build a building with base 10 blocks and then calculate the value of the buildings!  We had some "valuable" buildings!





EXCITING NEWS in 2A!!! Our caterpillars and wax worms have arrived!  We have been busy observing eating and eating!!!! They are very hungry! We are excited to watch the changes that they will be going through soon!




REMINDERS:
Please remember to send $27.00 with your child if they want milk for afternoon snack.  
If they do not want milk, please send me a note!  Thanks!

Please send $4.00 for the holiday party fund if you haven't already done so!  Thanks so much!

SPELLING TEST ON FRIDAY! Please try to practice the spelling words at home with your child! Here's the list in case you cannot find the one your child brought home.

Remember they have 6 words on their list that work on the spelling rule for the week which is silent k, they have two review words, and two tricky words each week.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SEND YOUR CHILD'S BEE FOLDER EVERYDAY TO SCHOOL!
I really appreciate this!


I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO A GREAT WEEK WITH YOUR 2ND GRADER!
Mrs. Tuchek

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Hello All!
We had another FABULOUS week in 2A!  We have been working on building stamina for the Daily 5 and have gone over 20 minutes!  The second graders are very PROUD of themselves and so am I!   So far, we have been practicing work on writing, word works, and read to self!  This week we are going to be adding listen to reading and read to someone!  Here are some examples of work from work on writing and word works!




 WORD WORKS





WRITING


In literacy, we have also been doing an author study on Kevin Henkes.  We have discussed and practiced various reading strategies using his books.  Here are a couple of 2A's favorites!  Ask them to tell you about these stories! "Check for understanding!"


Math will be exciting this week, since we will be starting math groups on Tuesday!  During math groups, the students will work on math journals and facts, work on math games, and work with the teacher.  These groups will be small groups so that everyone gets more teacher time with the math lessons!  

On Wednesday, we are hoping our Painted Lady caterpillars will be arriving in the mail!  We will have a lot of exciting news to post as they arrive!

A PEEK AT OUR WEEK:
Monday:  Art, please bring milk money if your child wants milk, if not please send a note telling me that your child does not want milk

Tuesday:  Tech time and PICTURE DAY!  Please make sure your child has their picture envelope with money for pictures or with it marked NO, we do not want school pictures!  Thanks!

Wednesday:  3-hour early dismissal and PE today!
Wear athletic shoes!

Thursday:  Music

Friday:  Library books are due and we have our SPELLING TEST!
HERE IS COPY OF OUR LIST FOR THIS WEEK, in case you would like to practice them at home.  The list should always be available in the BEE folders too.  The list will always have 6 words with the spelling rule, 2 reviews on consonant blends, and two tricky words.  



Our Ipads have finally arrived! 
 Please make sure you have done an apple id for your child so that we can start putting on the learning apps that we will be using in the classroom.  Thanks!

I hope you had a great weekend with your child!  I am looking forward to another fun week in 2A!

Mrs. Tuchek