We are Word Solvers!

Hello Families-

We have had a wonderful week here in room 17. This week, we have built up our word decoding tool box. As research tells us, second graders cannot simply "sound out words", mostly because there are so many words that cannot be "sounded" out! We have gathered many strategies and are now practicing using them flexibly and fluidly in our reading. Some of our favorite strategies include:
- breaking words into parts (ie. cat-er-pill-ar)
- looking at letter groups and saying their sounds (ie. ph/o/n for phone)
- looking for little words inside a word (ie. win inside window)
- thinking about what words might make sense in a sentence
Ask your child about their favorite strategy!

This week in science, we learned that there are so many ways to be a scientist! We know that scientists observe, take notes, draw pictures, ask questions, and so much more. We learned about a few different career paths that involve science and drew ourselves as these scientists. Take a peek at our work!

Next week, the second grade is responsible for the whole school assembly. Our class will be leading the greeting, activities and songs. Our assembly is from 8:20-8:40am-ish. We hope to see families there!

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
- Battling Bugs
- What's the Difference?
- Ways that writers plan their writing
- Word study routines
- Words scientists use
- Whole School Recess


Have a wonderful weekend!
Kelly

Making Our Kindness Mark

Hello Families-

We've had a wonderful week here at RMCS. This week, we have completed our Peter Reynold's author study. This week, we read both Rose's Garden and The North Star. These books both have the moral of spreading kindness and your individuality is your strength. We've been using this author to build our community, and to make our school more beautiful. If you take a peek in the RMCS 2nd grade hallway, you'll see some of our own flowers and stars on top of our dots. Take a peek at some of our beauties:

This week in reading, our mantra has been "Second Grade Readers Grow like Beanstalks", as our reading minds have been exploding with reading growth. We've learned a few ways that students can become even stronger readers include setting goals for our reading volume, scooping up words into phrases, and keeping tabs on our comprehension by stopping, thinking and retelling parts of the story. We have also been keeping track of our thinking by jotting our big ideas on sticky notes. Our books are becoming furry with post-its!

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
- Creating our growth mindset books and privacy folders
- Looking at combinations of ten and twenty
- Solving missing addend problems
- Learning about a.m. and p.m.
- Logging on to our chromebooks

Have a wonderful weekend!
Kelly

International Dot Day!

Hi Families-

We've had a wonderful week of learning here in room 17. We have been building our classroom community and reading many books that teach us about caring for one another. One of our most impactful activities we did this week was thinking about the power of our words. We read the book One, which discusses how unkind words make us feel smaller, and kind words help build us up. Then we tried it out with an apple. To one apple, we said only mean things like "You look yucky!" and "Your color is gross". To the second apple, we said only friendly and kind things such as "You look delicious!" and "You are red, round and yummy!". When we cut these apples apart, we found something amazing! The apple we had said mean things to was all bruised and brown on the inside while the apple we said nice things to was all fresh and white on the inside! What a powerful lesson about hurt feelings on the inside!

Another one of our favorites was Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen. In this book, our class learned why it is important to listen and some strategies to help us problem solve if when we miss a direction. We did some role playing and have decided on three strategies to help us with missed directions: ask a friend, watch what others are doing and check the board for any directions.

On Monday, our class got to participate in our first Farm to School lesson. This week, Ms. Meg and her interns taught us about tomatoes, and how long things grow in the garden. We then got to prepare and taste test our very own salsa! Yum yum!

On Friday, the second grade took a trip to Oakledge Park to celebrate International Dot Day! Please check back once all of our picture forms are completed for a picture tour of our special day!

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
- Math Menu
- Our class number line
- Century Day
- I'm Here
- Going Places

Have a wonderful weekend!
Kelly

Creating a Growth Mindset!

Hello Families,

We have had a busy week of learning in room 17. We are well on our way to establishing our routines for learning. We have a very curious group of learners! This week, we began our study of mindset by coloring some posters with "Growth Mindset" slogans on them. Growth mindset is the idea that people who think they can get better at things if they try will succeed vs. a fixed mindset which is the thought that you are either innately good or bad at something. We are encouraging our students to value hard work and perseverance! If you are interested in growth mindset, check out the pink flier in your child's Friday Folder.

During the month of September, we will be assessing our skills in reading, writing and math. We will be keeping the majority of your child's written work in school in a working portfolio. It is helpful to them and to me to revisit their work so that we can continuously look at their progress. It will be fun sharing it at a variety of times during the course of the year. All of their work will come home at some point. Thank you for understanding the value of keeping a working portfolio.

The second grade is also participating in a Peter Reynolds author's study. We have read The Dot, Ish, and Sky Color. We chose Peter Reynolds because of his positive messages and he supports our work with growth mindset. The world has recognized his fabulous work and celebrates his messages on September 15th as International Dot Day. The second grade will be celebrating the community that we've built over the past two weeks by going to Oakledge Park and participating in International Dot Day on Friday, September 14th. Look for a notice coming home on Monday with more information. Here is some of our Peter Reynolds work!

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
- Our Number Corner Collection of 60 minutes a day
- Picture Day!
- Choosing the best place to read
- Book shopping
- Our R = Respectful assembly
- Community Games: What time is it Mr. Fox?  Turtle Tag 

Have a wonderful weekend!
Kelly