10/24/16

Today in Room 210 we began our study of geometry.  We will look at the attributes of both 2-D and 3-D shapes.  The children have already been introduced to sophisticated mathematical vocabulary: faces, vertex, rectangular prism, triangular prism.  We had someone talk about how they knew that "tri" means three, and we listed the words we know that start with "tri" and have something to do with three: tricycle, tripod, triceratops.  The students will be detectives later this week looking for certain faces of shapes at home.

We continue to write our small moment, narrative stories in Writers' Workshop.  It is exciting to see those children ready to try certain "craft moves" introduced to them: similes, suspense, dialogue or detailed action.  We have been reading aloud 26 Fairmount Avenue, Tomie dePaola's memoir growing up in the 1930s.  We hope to be inspired by the small moment nature of each chapter.

In Open Circle, the word of the week is cooperation.  We have learned that it means "working together to get the job done," and not necessarily "follow directions."  An easy mistake to make when you might hear "Why won't you cooperate?"  We understand that we can get a lot more done in our classroom if we learn to cooperate.

Finally, the students are really engaged in our discussions about the election.  Today we learned the steps leading up to the election, beginning with a person announcing her/his intentions, all the way up to Inauguration Day.  The process takes about a year and a half, if not longer!  When asked who in the class would like to be president someday, about 2/3 of the group said they would and said it's because they want to help people and make he world a better place (yay, second graders!).  We may make some campaign videos so these students can share their platforms....

10/16/16

This week Second Graders began the "meat" of the math curriculum- showing their math thinking through solving story problems.  They were introduced to the steps they are expected to take in this process.

As the year progresses, the students will be expected to use a variety of strategies and tools to solve problems.  Some of your children may have been exposed to the traditional algorithm for calculations- stacking the numbers vertically.  We do not use this at school as it is too easy to follow the steps but not understand the concepts behind them.  Please ask your child to show you one of the ways he/she is practicing at school.

This week we will begin a discussion around the upcoming election.  We will talk about the role and responsibilities of the president and the steps leading up to an election.  For what I think are obvious reasons, we will not be focusing on the current candidates in the classroom.  If your child is interested, please talk about them at home.

Finally, in Friday's Open Circle lesson we talked about compliments and how good it feels to both receive and give them.  We learned that compliments must be true and are best when specific.  I asked he kids to be "compliment detectives" this weekend.  I hope they gave or noticed some compliments at home!

Settling In

Students in Room 210 are settling into the new routines and procedures nicely. We have had some good talks about how important it is to follow directions and keep our bodies safe- how can we possibly learn and have fun otherwise?!  In Open Circle, we talked about "non-negotiable rules." Please ask your child what he or she understood from that conversation.

We noted that there are also non-negotiable rules outside the classroom and even in "real life" for grown-ups, often called LAWS!

Now that we have mastered the basic components of maps, we will begin to look at maps of real places that connect to our lives directly: Arlington, Massachusetts, the United States, North America, and the world.  We will learn how to "zoom out" from our immediate surroundings.  From there, we will embark on our trip around the world.  For those of you who signed up to share about another part of the world, I will be contacting you soon to schedule your visit.  We hope to schedule for November and December.  For those of you who were not at Parent Night, or did not sign up yet, it is never too late!  We love to have visitors come and share about their experiences in other parts of the world.  Please let me know if you would like to participate.  

And speaking of visiting the classroom, through out the year we will host both "Math-Ins" and "Read-Ins."  Stay tuned for more information on these.  They are a wonderful way for your children to share a glimpse into their classroom experience.