Hi Families,
To those of you who came out to Family Night, thank you! It is so great having you all in the classroom, working with your students, and letting them show you their magnificent work. Tonight we wrote family narratives. The students are working on personal narratives in writers workshop, so I thought it would be fun to collaborate as a family about a great memory you all share. I will display the narratives and illustrations after break. If over break you would like to write a family narrative and bring it in when we get back to school that would be really fun!
Christine gave her 2011-2012 school year update tonight. Next year Bill and Patrick will be co-teaching 4th & 5th grade. It will resemble the middle school model where Patrick will teach humanities and Bill will teach math and science. Kim will be your 3rd grade teacher next year.
School sites: There is a survey that will be available at the front desk about school sites. If you would like to let Christine and the board your opinion on sites please fill out a survey ASAP. The 3 options are to stay here, go to Adams where we will share a site, or move to Scripps Ranch. Please see the survey for more information. There is still no difinitive date for when we will know which site we will use but we have to renew our lease here by May 1st. So at that point if there is no news, we will be here next year. Christine informed us that she has a meeting with the district tomorrow morning and will send out more information as she gets it.
Have a great Spring Break!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
March 28th Update
Hi Readers,
This week the 2nd graders are working on antonyms. We've been having fun mixing grammar & spelling in the past few weeks.
quiet/loud asleep/awake left/right backward/forward absent/present
In math this week we will begin multiplication. The first week of multiplication will be understanding that multiplication is just repeated addition. When the students understand the concept of multiplication we will move on and focus on the 2s, 5s, and 10s multiplication facts.
This Thursday night is FAMILY NIGHT! Please come to IA at 5:30pm. We will spend the first hour in the classroom and then from 6:30-7:30 Christine will talk about the future of IA and the changes planned for next year.
There will be no school the following Friday & then it is Spring Break! Enjoy a week off with your students and we will see you back at school on Monday, April 11th.
This week the 2nd graders are working on antonyms. We've been having fun mixing grammar & spelling in the past few weeks.
quiet/loud asleep/awake left/right backward/forward absent/present
In math this week we will begin multiplication. The first week of multiplication will be understanding that multiplication is just repeated addition. When the students understand the concept of multiplication we will move on and focus on the 2s, 5s, and 10s multiplication facts.
This Thursday night is FAMILY NIGHT! Please come to IA at 5:30pm. We will spend the first hour in the classroom and then from 6:30-7:30 Christine will talk about the future of IA and the changes planned for next year.
There will be no school the following Friday & then it is Spring Break! Enjoy a week off with your students and we will see you back at school on Monday, April 11th.
Monday, March 21, 2011
March 21st
Dear Readers,
This week the class is moving from plane shapes onto solid figures. We have been going on scavenger hunts in the classroom and around the school for solid figures such as cones, spheres, pyramids, etc. This is a fun activity that you can also do at home or around town with your children. It is important that they use the correct terminology...a cube is not a square. The class spent a lot of time correcting themselves on terminology use today.
In writing we are beginning a writer's workshop all about personal narratives. Today the students discussed what personal narratives are; a story told from beginning to end about an event that happened to me. Then we discussed how many events from our lives that we remember have strong emotions tied to them. The students brainstormed emotions and came up with a great long list. Then they thought about events in their lives that they remember vividly and matched emotions they felt to the event. Tomorrow we will make a list of characters in the story, the setting, and the events that occurred. From there we will turn these memories into personal narratives. I am very excited to hear what your students have to say about themselves!
In science we are patiently waiting for Swimmy and Tad to grow their legs and grow into frogs. This week I am ordering caterpillars that we will be able to observe as they grow and morph into butterflies. The life cycle is such a fascinating topic for the students.
Word of the Week: synonyms
This week the class is focusing on synonyms and next week the focus will be antonyms. Although these are our spelling words for the week, this does not mean these are the only synonyms we are discussing in class. Please feel free to bring up lots of synonyms as you talk with your students throughout the week!
big - large small - tiny happy - joyful mad - angry many - lots
I know I must sound like a broken record but PLEASE send your child to school with their Go Home Folder. Also, many students are running out of pages in their writing journals. Please send a new spiral notebook to school with your student this week.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Our March birthday celebration will happen this Thursday the 24th.
Thursday, March 31st is Family Night at IA. There will be no school the following Friday and school will resume again on Monday, April 11th after Spring Break.
Please fill out an order form if your student would like a YEARBOOK for the 2010-2011 school year. The school will receive money back for every yearbook purchased before the end of the month. If you need another order form let me know!
Thank you for reading,
Jenn
This week the class is moving from plane shapes onto solid figures. We have been going on scavenger hunts in the classroom and around the school for solid figures such as cones, spheres, pyramids, etc. This is a fun activity that you can also do at home or around town with your children. It is important that they use the correct terminology...a cube is not a square. The class spent a lot of time correcting themselves on terminology use today.
In writing we are beginning a writer's workshop all about personal narratives. Today the students discussed what personal narratives are; a story told from beginning to end about an event that happened to me. Then we discussed how many events from our lives that we remember have strong emotions tied to them. The students brainstormed emotions and came up with a great long list. Then they thought about events in their lives that they remember vividly and matched emotions they felt to the event. Tomorrow we will make a list of characters in the story, the setting, and the events that occurred. From there we will turn these memories into personal narratives. I am very excited to hear what your students have to say about themselves!
In science we are patiently waiting for Swimmy and Tad to grow their legs and grow into frogs. This week I am ordering caterpillars that we will be able to observe as they grow and morph into butterflies. The life cycle is such a fascinating topic for the students.
Word of the Week: synonyms
This week the class is focusing on synonyms and next week the focus will be antonyms. Although these are our spelling words for the week, this does not mean these are the only synonyms we are discussing in class. Please feel free to bring up lots of synonyms as you talk with your students throughout the week!
big - large small - tiny happy - joyful mad - angry many - lots
I know I must sound like a broken record but PLEASE send your child to school with their Go Home Folder. Also, many students are running out of pages in their writing journals. Please send a new spiral notebook to school with your student this week.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Our March birthday celebration will happen this Thursday the 24th.
Thursday, March 31st is Family Night at IA. There will be no school the following Friday and school will resume again on Monday, April 11th after Spring Break.
Please fill out an order form if your student would like a YEARBOOK for the 2010-2011 school year. The school will receive money back for every yearbook purchased before the end of the month. If you need another order form let me know!
Thank you for reading,
Jenn
Monday, March 14, 2011
March Update
Hi Families & Friends,
Last Friday Reyna came in to do another wonderful architecture lesson with the class. She taught the students about ancient Greece and the Parthenon. The students learned about how the Greeks would build grand structures that were open and would use columns as the support systems instead of walls. The class learned about the three types of columns that the Greek architects used; doric, ionic, and corinthean. Each student was then assigned to create two columns of their own that will eventually support our class Parthenon.
Last Friday Reyna came in to do another wonderful architecture lesson with the class. She taught the students about ancient Greece and the Parthenon. The students learned about how the Greeks would build grand structures that were open and would use columns as the support systems instead of walls. The class learned about the three types of columns that the Greek architects used; doric, ionic, and corinthean. Each student was then assigned to create two columns of their own that will eventually support our class Parthenon.
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| Ethan & Issac displaying their Ionic columns |
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| Greek Columns |
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| The Parthenon in Greece |
This week the class is learning about suffixes. We are concentrating on the suffix -ly and the suffix -ful. Have your children tell you about words that have these suffixes. At morning meeting this morning, the students were coming up with words that had both -ly and -ful in one word. They were also finding words that had our prefixes from last week and the suffixes from this week. For example unfriendly, beautifully, unuseful, and many other words were thrown out.
This weeks spelling words are:
nicely, friendly, quickly, softly, bravely, careful, hopeful, colorful, thankful, and useful
Please practice these words at home with you children and work together to see how many words you can think of that have the suffixes -ly and -ful.
The class is in need of spiral notebooks. The students use their spiral notebooks everyday for writing and many students are out of pages (or will soon be out of pages). Please send a new spiral notebook to school with your student this week.
Also, many students no longer have their red, go home folder. If your child has lost theirs please replace it and send it to school with them tomorrow. I send home important notices, calendars, and work that your child has completed in these folders.
In math we are finishing up plane shapes this week and will be moving on to solid figures next week. The students are learning about congruency and lines of symmetry. They are also exploring the school to find shapes in every day objects. The students will also be working on their spatial visualization abilities. The will work on rotating, flipping, and sliding shapes that will help develop their spatial reasoning.
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| Using plane shapes to create other shapes and objects. |
We have an intern from Junior Achievement that will be coming into our class on Wednesdays. She will be working with the students on our classroom economy project and helping them relate what we do in the classroom to the real world. These lessons are designed to provide practical information about businesses and the many occupations found in those businesses in a typical city. There are five lessons and each lesson is about 30 to 45 minutes. I am really looking forward to her time with us & will update you on the lessons as they happen.
Also on Wednesdays, beginning next week, I am going to begin helping the students prepare for the CST or state test that the kiddos will be taking at the end of April. There is a math and language arts component to the test. If you would like to prepare at home I have some test release questions from past years that I can send home with you.
Have a wonderful week & thank you for reading!
Jenn
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
2nd Grade Update
Hi Families,
We have two new friends in our class. I want to welcome Isaac and David and their families. We are so excited that you are part of our community now and you both have so much to add to the class.
Last week was Dr. Seuss's birthday. In his honor we spent Wednesday reading and rhyming. The students came to school dressed in PJs or as their favorite Dr. Seuss character. We discussed rhyming words as we read many of his classics such as, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Oh, the Places You Will Go, and The Cat in the Hat. The students completed setting and character analyses based on their favorite Dr. Seuss book and also had fun doing crossword puzzles and word searches. If you or your child would like to learn more about Theodor Geisel, the library at UCSD is named after him and has a whole room dedicated to his literature. There are also gardens that have his statue which would be a fun place for a picnic.
This week's word are words that have the prefixes un- and re-. We have been discussing how prefixes change the meanings of the words they come before. Un- means not and re- means again.
redo, reread, retold, repair, rewind, undo, unruly, untold, unlock, unknown
As many of you know Tiny passed away this week. When I returned to school after the weekend his tail was bent and he was not able to swim properly. The students had a long discussion on Monday about what may have happened. Then on Monday at pick-up time he finally could survive no longer. On Tuesday morning we buried him and said our goodbyes. The students had another discussion about Tiny but this time about the frog life cycle and how dying, although it is sad, is a part of the life cycle.
This week in math we just finished our TIME unit. Please talk to your students at home about time and let me know if you feel they still need more work. I told the class that they can come to me and we can form a math club before or after school, or during free time if they ever feel like they need more help in a math area. We will be moving on to plane shapes tomorrow and from there move into solid figures such as cones, cylinders, pyramids, etc.
In LA the students are working on prefixes and suffixes. Each reading group also started a new book this week. Ask your student if they are reading Space Brat, Cam Jansen, or Mouse Tales. The students have also been taking more ownership of Morning Meeting. It has been fun to watch the students gain the courage to write the morning message and lead the class in finding the mistakes.
We have two new friends in our class. I want to welcome Isaac and David and their families. We are so excited that you are part of our community now and you both have so much to add to the class.
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| Reading The Cat in the Hat dressed as Sally |
Last week was Dr. Seuss's birthday. In his honor we spent Wednesday reading and rhyming. The students came to school dressed in PJs or as their favorite Dr. Seuss character. We discussed rhyming words as we read many of his classics such as, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Oh, the Places You Will Go, and The Cat in the Hat. The students completed setting and character analyses based on their favorite Dr. Seuss book and also had fun doing crossword puzzles and word searches. If you or your child would like to learn more about Theodor Geisel, the library at UCSD is named after him and has a whole room dedicated to his literature. There are also gardens that have his statue which would be a fun place for a picnic.  |
| One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish |
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| Thing 1 and Thing 2 |
This week's word are words that have the prefixes un- and re-. We have been discussing how prefixes change the meanings of the words they come before. Un- means not and re- means again.
redo, reread, retold, repair, rewind, undo, unruly, untold, unlock, unknown
As many of you know Tiny passed away this week. When I returned to school after the weekend his tail was bent and he was not able to swim properly. The students had a long discussion on Monday about what may have happened. Then on Monday at pick-up time he finally could survive no longer. On Tuesday morning we buried him and said our goodbyes. The students had another discussion about Tiny but this time about the frog life cycle and how dying, although it is sad, is a part of the life cycle.
This week in math we just finished our TIME unit. Please talk to your students at home about time and let me know if you feel they still need more work. I told the class that they can come to me and we can form a math club before or after school, or during free time if they ever feel like they need more help in a math area. We will be moving on to plane shapes tomorrow and from there move into solid figures such as cones, cylinders, pyramids, etc.
In LA the students are working on prefixes and suffixes. Each reading group also started a new book this week. Ask your student if they are reading Space Brat, Cam Jansen, or Mouse Tales. The students have also been taking more ownership of Morning Meeting. It has been fun to watch the students gain the courage to write the morning message and lead the class in finding the mistakes.
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