This week, we went further into our investigation about communication building relationships. Grade 2 got together for a Skype chat with Dr. Chris who works at a deaf university in Maryland, USA. We first examined the map to see where she was and just how far that is from Singapore! Then we talked about the time difference, because it was our Wednesday morning, but Dr. Chris' Tuesday evening! Dr. Chris is not deaf but her husband is deaf. We met him as well, and they both answered some very interesting questions the students had prepared. They even showed us how they communicate using sign language. We came back to the classroom to reflect on that wonderful learning experience and then practiced the alphabet using sign language. Next week we will be writing letters to Dr. Chris and her husband to say a big THANK YOU! Before our Skype call with Dr. Chris, we had watched and discussed some video clips about Helen Keller and Koko the gorilla. They both used non-verbal communication to build different types of relationships. Students reflected on these ideas using a See-Think-Wonder routine. Work on Writing was introduced in Daily 5 and students began independently working on their own writing. We made 'Heart Maps', full of words and pictures we love, to help give us ideas when we don't know what to write about. Students also began writing their own recount, either of an experience they had or a retelling of The Gruffalo story. We have been working so hard on using capitals, full stops and sequencing/time order words. This was just another practice and a chance to put all the pieces together on their own. Next week, we will identify parts of our writing that were fantastic, as well as some areas we need to work on. Students continue to increase their stamina during Read to Self, and they are becoming very independent readers who are striving to read for longer amounts of time. This allows me the opportunity to read with individual students or groups of students each day. We will continue introducing different reading strategies to help with comprehension, accuracy, fluency and to expand our vocabulary! Thanks to those students who brought in their homework from last week. We are adding many new and interesting words to our wall! In math, we were consolidating our understanding of place value, writing and reading number words, even and odd and writing numbers in expanded form. Students participated in a 'write the room' activity which got them up, moving and on the hunt for different numbers. Next week, we will begin to focus on various addition and subtraction strategies. We had two sessions in the tech lab this week! Mr. Gallagher introduced online portfolios to Grade 2 and helped the students get started, adding their picture and a little bit in the 'About Me' section. We also had time to practice logging into Mathletics and choosing different activities. I will continue to monitor and adjust student levels throughout the year. Elections for our Grade 2.1 student council representatives will take place next Thursday on the 17th. Any student who is interested has been asked to prepare a small 'speech' to explain why he or she should be elected. Some of the expectations include: - model and promote the Learner Profile - model and promote the 4 Be's - meet during lunch/recess every other week - come to meetings prepared We will be going on a field trip on 23 September to the Botanic Gardens. A letter with more information was emailed home on Thursday, and a copy is placed on this blog under 'Parent Info'. Please remember to help your child log onto the classroom blog in order to access homework each week. Student take home folders have been working well, as this is our first week with our new system. It's helpful to keep everything in one place. I look through them each day, so I am able to collect any papers, lunch orders, book orders or money brought back to school. However, I have noticed many students did not take out or cut up their words this week. As a reminder, students will have one copy of words that stay at school each week. They have a second copy that goes home on a Monday, and these words are for home. They can stay at home and be cut up, sorted and practiced throughout the week. One last reminder: Scholastic book orders have gone home. Some are still in the student take home folders, so make sure to check. They need to be returned by Tuesday the 15th of September. Thanks for your support and have a relaxing long weekend. Ms. Luttrell
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Wow, what a busy week! In literacy, we have been practicing different comprehension strategies to help us remember stories. Students finished retelling 'The Little Red Hen' on paper and have added transition/time order words to help tell the story in order. We spent several days investigating the form of recounts. What is a recount? Why do we use time order words? After identifying different time order words in their books and several reading passages, students came to the conclusion that time order words help "put a story in order", "make it interesting", "add more detail" and "tell when things happen". We will continue to focus on recounts next week, as we are paying particular attention to word choice - identifying (and using) interesting words as well as transition/time order words. Next week we will also introduce our third piece of Daily 5: Work on writing. Students are now bringing home a separate copy of their words for Words Their Way. We found that words were falling out of baggies or not being brought back to school each day when taken home. To avoid this confusion, students will cut up their new set of words on Monday and keep these at school. A second sheet of words will go home (in their new Take Home Folders) and these can be cut up and sorted at home for the week. These words do not need to come back to school. Take home folders will go home Monday for the first time. I ask that the students bring the folder to school each day, as this is a great place to keep their Home Reading log book, and I can check this easily. One side of the folder is for things that need to stay at home, and the other side will be for things that need to come back to school (such as the Home Reading log book or book orders, etc.). This is a new routine so please help your child remember to put their Take Home folder back in their bag each day to bring to school. In math, we started the week investigating patterns. Students found that there were 11 ways to make 10 using only two numbers, and 21 ways to make 20 using only two numbers. They started discussing the patterns they noticed and predicted that there would be 31 ways to make 30 using only two numbers. I've encouraged the students to try to prove this at home. Does the pattern continue? We also spent some time exploring the concept of odd and even numbers, as many students could tell which were odd and even, but they didn't understand why or couldn't explain their thinking. After using some manipulatives and 10's frames, we came to understand that even numbers can always be broken into groups of the same number - there is never anything left over. Odd numbers always have something left over. Ask your child if zero is an even or odd number. This might spark an interesting discussion. From there, we moved onto ordering two and three digit numbers. Some students continued to focus on the 'ones place', as we had when looking at even/odd numbers. We checked our numbers and realized we need to look at the whole number, starting either in the hundreds or the tens place. Some students found different methods to help, such as covering up the hundreds place and focusing on the tens place, if the hundreds were the same in two numbers. Sometimes it can be tricky to distinguish which is larger - 376 or 354. Ask your child about ordering larger numbers at home, as this can always be good practice. At the end of the week, we dove deeper into place value and will continue to work on place value, standard and expanded form next week, as this understanding is foundational for concepts later in the year. It's important to understand what each digit represents in a number. For example, the 3 in 354 represents 3 hundreds. The 5 represents 5 groups of 10 and the 4 represents 4 units/ones. We used the computers again this week in the lab, and Mr. Gallagher helped students learn how to create a Google document. We practiced adding a title and making it centered. We also changed the font, size and some students practiced adding a table. We then started typing about different types of communication - both non-verbal and verbal. During our unit of inquiry, students brainstormed various relationships and realised we have more relationships than just family and friends. They decided we have relationships with pets, with school friends, teachers, teammates, and other people in the community and world, such as shop owners and waiters at restaurants. Students collaged pictures from magazines in the various categories. We also continued our discussions about the different types of communication but made connections to various relationships. Students began working on a piece where they needed to think about all of the different relationships they have and how they communicate with these people. It was interesting to see that one student might communicate with his dad differently than another student, depending on where Dad is living. Skype and email might be the form of communication every day, rather than speaking face to face. Next week, we will continue exploring different types of communication, particularly non-verbal. We will also begin discussing communication in relation to culture. In the next two weeks, if any parents would like to come share a story or discuss verbal/non-verbal communication in relation to their culture, this would be a great opportunity for students. Please send me an email! I have been and will continue to complete individual assessments with students in both math and reading over the next few weeks. I have placed all students on their RazKids level from the end of last year if they are returning students. As I read with students, I will be able to gain a better understanding of their reading level and will adjust RazKids accordingly. Please be patient, as I only assess a few students each day. Log-in cards have gone home. They have been stapled inside of students' Home Reading log. Feel free to keep it stapled or take it out and keep it somewhere safe at home. Students have an additional card at school in their cubby. The log-in card has information for gmail, RazKids and Mathletics. Just like RazKids, I will adjust the various levels on Mathletics as the year progresses. Sometimes students will have homework and specific tasks that pop up when they log into Mathletics. These must be completed first, before being able to do Live Mathletics or something of their choice. Please help your child log into the blog each week for the homework. From our discussions in class, it seems as though not everyone is doing this yet. Homework is posted each week under 'Home Learning'. This week was full of math exploration, looking at patterns and making connections. We continued with Daily 5, Read to Self and Word Work, and introduced Words Their Way. Students are becoming used to our classroom routines, even though we continue to tweak a few things, especially our morning routine.
To help with organization, students will bring home a 'Take Home' folder, probably starting on Wednesday. This folder should go back and forth between and home and school each day. This folder will have two sides: 'Keep at Home' and 'Return to School'. The 'Keep at Home' side may have work your child has finished at school or notes from school, which may stay at home. 'Return to School' will have things that need to be brought back to school, such as permission slips and other forms. There will also be a place for the children to keep their Home Reader so that I can easily look through this occasionally. Hopefully having everything in one place will help the students be responsible and keep track of things that need to be brought back to school. Please let me know if you have any questions. At the end of the day on Friday, we discussed the various activities and learning engagements throughout the week. Here are some of their thoughts: "We did the Fun Run. I thought that it was fun!" - Tudor "I was running and in the middle I was getting tired and exhausted. I had fun!" - Marin "Today we learned about sorting the words." - Joe "It was fun in the Fun Run, but I was a little tired and half exhausted, but I kept running!" - Advay "When I was running, I got tired but then I saw my cousin there, and she marked my card. I was also exhausted." - Lizzie "When I was running, my body hurt but I was still running. I had 8 tally marks." - Alik "I learned that mosquitos are the most dangerous animal on Earth. I learned it from the Dangerous Animal book." - Odemar "We found out 21 ways to make 20 with 2 numbers." - Carmella (when adding) "I liked when we were at the Fun Run and I liked it when I did my first one, because that was when I was not at all sweaty. Then after 11 rounds I started to get very sweaty and have a headache, but I still kept on running until it was over." - Emilia "We did Daily 5, but we read a couple books. We did it for 15 minutes." - Marin "I learned how to Read to Self quietly" - Advay "I like when we do Daily 5, because I like to read. I learned about sharks when I was reading. I learned that they didn't have bones." - Carmella "I liked in the Fun Run that my father was supporting my brother. He would stay there and hold a spot for my brother, so he didn't need to stop. My brother has 14 and I have 16." - James This week has been full of different inquiry activities. Students participated in a non-verbal task as an introduction into our first unit: Who We Are. Students were asked to build a house or some sort of structure, working together with their table group. However, students could not speak!Afterwards, students reflect on how they felt, explaining why they felt that way, and offered a suggestion for how they might change the activity if they did it again. "Instead of talking we would sing. We would make a park instead of a house." "I felt happy, because I was excited to make it. If I did this activity again, I would let them talk." "I felt frustrated, because of when I made the floor. I would put the glue on the tape next time." "I felt weird, because how could we make a house with all the sticks?" "I felt sad, because it's hard to make it." "I felt happy, because I never build with sticks. If I did this activity again, we can speak." "I felt frustrated, because it kept coming off! I was angry too. I was angry at the lollypop sticks! I would use more materials and I would use more sticky tape!!!!" "I was happy, because we were using teamwork to make something." On Wednesday, students worked together to try the activity again, but this time they were allowed to talk to each other. When we reflected on the task, some students said: "I felt happy, because we can talk now and I know now which part of the house to do." "I felt happy, because we were working as a big team." "I felt frustrated, because it was hard to fix it together, because I was using glue. I thought if I used sticky tape it would have worked." "I felt mad, because it was a sticky situation and it was breaking apart." "I felt annoyed, because everybody was talking." In the end, we came to the conclusion that sometimes talking is helpful, but sometimes it is not. Sometimes not talking is helpful, but sometimes it is not. Students also explained that if you are talking, it needs to be about the job or task being completed, otherwise it's not helpful. Students also completed a Words Their Way spelling assessment and will be starting spelling next week. More information to come. Home reading books went home on Friday. Students have a Home Reading Journal in which they can keep track of their nightly reading. Parents or students can write a comment about the book, and I will be checking these periodically. Students are free to exchange home reading books as they wish throughout the week from a specific selection of 'just right books', but are encouraged to do so at least once or twice per week. We will soon have some zippered bags with which the students will use to bring their books and papers home. We spent some time learning a few of the parts of Daily 5. Ask your child what they need to do during 'Read to Self' each day. We practiced the routines and are working on building our stamina. Students also made bookmarks to help them pick 'good fit books' based on their purpose, interest, comprehension and knowledge of the words. We have also been working hard at retelling stories - both orally and acting them out. Students worked together in groups to retell 'The Little Red Hen' and did a fantastic job of telling the story in order, adding extra detail and using expression. In math, students explored shape manipulatives, and used them to cover other larger shapes in different ways. We also explored the relationship between the 100s chart and number line. We will be investigating more into numbers and developing a strong number sense, including place value, in the coming weeks. I wish you all a fun and relaxing weekend. Ms. Luttrell
We have just finished our first week of Grade 2. Everyone has spent time learning routines and getting to know each other. I have been very impressed with how kind students are to one another and how helpful everyone has been.
Welcome to Grade 2.1! My name is Meghan Luttrell, and I have been teaching for 7 years. I am originally from Portland, Oregon, but have spent the past five years teaching Grade 1 in Germany. After five years in Frankfurt, I was ready for a change. When I'm not teaching, I can be found cooking, reading, traveling, working out at Crossfit, cycling and most importantly, eating! I can't wait to meet my students and look forward to a fantastic year together.
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AuthorWe are 7 and 8 year old students who live in Singapore. Our teacher, Ms. Luttrell, will be helping us write blog posts throughout the year! Archives
June 2016
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