Ecosystem in Second Grade

Mr Eid came to second grade and talked to us about Ecosystems.  He showed us an ecosystem is n a bottle.  We learned that in an ecosystem all organic life depend on each other.  We are so grateful to Mr Eid!

There was a live fish in the bottle!

November news

Second Grade News:

The past few weeks we have begun to see the connection between living things in ecosystems.  Our science unit is titled: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems.  We now have focused on how living things depend on each other to continue through their life cycles.  Understanding that plants depend on water and light to grow and plants depend on animals for pollination (or to move their seeds around) are key concepts throughout this unit.

Our Readers Workshop and Writing Workshop units have been integrated with our science unit.  We have focused on reading and comprehending non-fiction text.  We are experts in identifying features and the purpose of those features in non-fiction texts.  We also are researching non-fiction topics of interests and writing non-fiction pieces.  These will be published in the next couple of weeks.  

In math, we are learning so many new strategies to help us add and subtract.  It is great to have multiple ways to solve problems and key to be able to explain how we solved those problems.  We are reading and solving many story problems learning target words to guide us in how to solve the word problem.  

Thinking about gratitude has been a special focus this week.  This is our character trait of the month which connects perfectly to the upcoming holiday, Thanksgiving.  Second graders read a lovely book titled Gratitude Soup where the character learns to appreciate people and experiences versus material objects.  The girl in the story creates a 'soup' filled with her ideas of things she is grateful for.  This week we are going to make 'gratitude granola' sharing what we are most grateful for in our lives.  We have also written letters of appreciation to those people that may be often forgotten and have not had the recognition they deserve!  The homework this week is to create a poster expressing gratitude!   

Too much fun in Second Grade!!

First of all, WELCOME BACK Ms FRAZIER!!  We are all so happy that you have joined us in second grade.  It is so hard to leave such a small baby at home, but we are happy you are here.  

We have finished our wonderful unit on community.  We learned so much about all the different kinds of communities that we are part of. 

This past week we have started a new science unit titled:  Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems.  We will focus on these essential questions:

What are plants and what are the different structures and functions of the plant parts?

What are seeds and how are seeds dispersed?

How do plants grow?

What are the basic requirements that plants need to grow?

How do different conditions affect plant growth?

What is an ecosystem?

How do living things interact in ecosystems?

How do plants depend on animals for seed dispersion?

How can we make an ecosystem?

What is a habitat?  What are examples of habitats in Jordan?

Our reading and writing unit are connected to our science unit.  Both will focus on Non-fiction texts.  

For math, we have begun a unit on addition and subtraction.  We will build on using multiple strategies to add and subtract.  We will focus on how to explain our thinking verbally, through pictures, through numbers and really 'talk' about problem solving strategies.  

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us.

Learning Commons

This week, second graders got a chance to have a sneak peek at the new Learning Commons!  It was amazing - so bright and colourful.  It is almost finished.  Finally, our second graders will have the chance to take out books.  They are able to take two per week.  

Here are some pictures of our new Learning Commons.

Dear Parents,

We hope that you and your family have had a wonderful holiday together.  It is now time to get back into the swing of things in 2nd grade!

We will continue where we left off in all of our units.

In Writer’s Workshop we will continue talking about all of the components of a good retell. Writer’s need to have a strong beginning, middle, and end. A good retell has important details, characters, and has the correct sequence of events. Before the break, 2nd grade retold “The Spiffiest Giant” in our own words. We used pictures cards to help us put the story in the correct order. 2LB even did a wonderful assembly on Empathy by telling the story. We all loved it! This week we will be taking a story that we’ve worked on in class to technology where Mrs. Dajani will be helping the students put it into a program called Story Jumper. Here is the link to the website if you would like to take a look: http://www.storyjumper.com/

In Reader’s Workshop, we have been finishing up DRA reading tests. We have almost completed all tests and will be finishing this week.

Students have adjusted well to the routines of the workshop and have practiced independent reading, reading with a buddy, and guided reading. The main focus has been on retelling a story and students have been using transition words in their retell to help guide them along during their retell. 

In math, we have completed many number sense lessons that have given our students the chance to get their hands on math manipulatives and have some fun. We’ve worked with number lines, hundreds charts, dice, counters, base ten blocks, and much more. This week will be focusing on skip counting and adding 10 or 100 to any given number.

In social studies we will continue to look at our community here at ACS and around Amman. We will discuss problems that we have in our community and ways we can fix these problems. We have already taken a look at a big problem that the students noticed in our community.  That problem is trash being thrown into the streets. We will have a class debate on whether or not there should be a fine for littering. It will be lots of fun and will get everyone thinking and talking about how to make our community a better place.

Halloween is just around the corner! In 2^nd grade, we do not do a class party.  The only dressing up for school will be at the school wide Halloween party, Spooktacular on the 31^st. We hope to see everyone there in his or her awesome costumes. 

Thank you for your continuous support,

The Grade 2 Team 

The Week in Second Grade

In Second Grade this week, we have been building on the idea of community.  We have identified what things we do to help our class community.

Over the weekend, could you please help your child by taking pictures of your local community and the services that are available?  Please email the photos to your teacher and we will print them off.  Next week, we would like to make posters of the services in our local community.  We will also focus on wants verses needs of a community.

Welcome to Ms Sweis who joined second grade this week while covering Ms Frazier's maternity leave.  Ms Sweis has been with second grade before when Mrs LeBlanc had her baby.  It has been great to have Ms Sweis join us and we know that 2F will be well looked after!

In Math next week, we will be expanding numbers.  For example: 357 is 300 + 50 + 7.  This helps students with their place value understanding and is crucial for the development of addition and subtraction with place value.  If I have a problem like: 357 + 232.  I know that 357 is 300 + 50 + 7 and 232 is 200 + 30 + 2.  I can add the hundreds 300 + 200 = 500.  I can add the tens 50 + 30 = 80 and I can the ones 7 + 2 = 9.  I can then add 500 + 80 + 9 and my answer is 589.  

In Reader's and Writer's workshop, we are learning to 'retell' stories.  We have learned that stories have a beginning, middle and end.  Stories have characters and are set in certain places.  We are using who, what, where, when, how and why to help us retell stories.  

We are learning and having fun in second grade!  Have a great weekend.  Remember to take photos!  Also, please have your child wear YELLOW on Sunday.  We are celebrating Peace One Day and having a whole school photo taken.

Newsletter #1

The first two weeks of school are done, and boy, what a first few weeks, and my, have we been busy!  First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of photos this week.  We are so focused right now on routines and building a positive classroom community.  Photos will be a regular feature of our blog as soon as we are smooth sailing in second grade.

We can not let this week go by without paying our deepest respect and sympathies to Mrs El Hadeed and her family who have been part of the ACS community for 20 years.  It is with our broken hearts that we said farewell to her husband, Mr Hadeed who died suddenly earlier this week.  Our wonderful second graders wrote her notes, expressing their sympathy and love.  Today, we received an email from her thanking our lovely students in second grade:

My Dear Second Grade Students,

     I want to thank you for the beautiful letters that you wrote for me. They are truly the most beautiful letters that anyone could ever receive, and they will always be treasured by myself and my family. Your kind words, sympathy and beautiful pictures are giving me comfort and peace in my heart. I can feel your hugs through these wonderful messages. I look forward to being back at school with all of you and getting those hugs in person.

                                                     With Love, Mrs. Hadeed

                                                                       

 Despite our heart ache this week, second graders "kept on swimming" and engaged in some fabulous learning about communities.  We learned how we are part of different communities and the different roles that people have within their community.  

2F had a skype date with Ms Frazier and asked her lots of questions about her new baby boy, Wesley Nolan Berg, who was born on August 19th.  This tied in nicely with our study of unit because the students are learning to 'interview' members of our community to find out about their role and how they contribute to society.  Thank you for your support and willingness to be interviewed this week at home.  Soon, the students will be interviewing someone within our school community.

Today, second grade had a whole second grade meeting and it was lovely to hear our students talk about second grade being a community and a 'family' where we look after each other and are safe at all times.  We ended our meeting with a 'Jump Jam', an aerobic dance that we just love!

In Reader's Workshop, we have been learning how to retell a story.  They students have learned that a retell must have a beginning, middle and end.  They must identify the characters and their traits.  They must also identify the setting.  When they are retelling a story, the use of transition words are very important.  Words like, then, next, before, after that, in the end and finally are all very helpful when retelling a story in sequence.

In Math, we have been learning how to use the independent activities.  We have also started out first Math unit of study, "Number Sense".  We will be looking lots at place value and how place value strategies help us become more efficient mathematicians.

The second grade team would to thank you all so much for your support and kindness during these tough times. Things can only get better and we are going to have an amazing year filled with wonder, learning and fun.

Be sure to subscribe to Mr Gaylord's blog.  Here is the link:  http://acs-esprincipal.blogspot.com/ 

I will also add it to our favourites.  

We hope we see you Saturday at the PTG Welcome Back Picnic!

Eid is approaching fast!  Let's help people in the local Jordanian community by providing them with rice.  Let's be the first Grade in ACS to hand in a bag from EVERY student and teacher.  We can do it!

Second Grade has begun!

Here we are, 2nd graders.  We've just completed one full week of school.  We have been working hard and playing nicely with our new friends and old friends.  We can tell that second grade is going to be a lot of fun.  

Check this blog out once a fortnight for updates with what is going on in Second Grade.  Also, please feel free to leave a comment behind.  It is always nice to see comments from students, parents and family members.

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year!

Welcome to Second Grade!  We are your teachers and this is your blog.  Here you will find lots of information about what is happening in Grade 2. Please check this blog weekly.  We will keep you up to date with what is happening in our classroom and in our school.  We hope you find this blog a useful tool for communication.  Please feel free to leave a comment or feedback.  We strive for excellence at all times and can only get better with the help of others.

We look forward to working with you this year.
Your Second Grade team,
Ms. Ripley
Ms. Frazier
Mrs. LeBlanc
Mrs. El Hadeed