Welcome to the second week of second grade. We will continue our work on building community, strengthening self-confidence, building resiliency and developing routines, procedures and rules. Last week we shared our most important hopes and dreams for the school year, and this week we focus on creating rules that will allow everyone to pursue their hopes and dreams.
We will also introduce Academic Choice Time, where the Magical Minds begin to practice the art of making good choices, and presenting their work. While sharing their work, the Magical Minds will reflect on presentation skills as well as how to be an awesome audience member.
Below are further details on our current investigations in specific areas of study:
Inquiry
Geology Rocks!:
We begin the first week of our unit on rocks focusing on a skill every child can be successful at – observing (the first step in the scientific method). An exciting part of this week’s investigation is the chance to pick a pet rock, whose name and personality will be dependent on our observations. We will create scientific illustrations of our rocks, paying attention to little details. Our drawings will be labeled with words from our observations, and we will begin to build our vocabulary as we learn how to describe rocks.
Math
Estimations:
Through a process called Guided Discovery, the Magical Minds have been exposed to several math manipulatives in the classroom: pattern blocks, place value blocks and unifix cubes. This week they will have a chance to build with these materials, estimating how many blocks they’ve used and then counting to check their prediction. At the heart of this week’s math instruction is basic number sense; “do you really think you used a million blocks?” What does 100 blocks look like, can we build something with 1,000 cubes?
Reading
Quiet Time:
As we ease into sustained periods of independent reading, the Magical Minds are discovering the options available to them in our classroom library.
Writing
Family Tree and Handwriting:
On Thursday we start to learn about each other’s families and ancestry. This project will culminate in a beautiful family tree, written in the children’s best handwriting.
Current Events:(in reversed alphabetical order)
Check the Magical Calendar for upcoming presenters
Current Events are presentations on events and things that are new to you. This week the teachers are sharing, modeling what a quality Current Event looks like. There will be more information on this to come, but for now you can take a look at last year’s webpage for inspiration and clarification.
We will also introduce Academic Choice Time, where the Magical Minds begin to practice the art of making good choices, and presenting their work. While sharing their work, the Magical Minds will reflect on presentation skills as well as how to be an awesome audience member.
Below are further details on our current investigations in specific areas of study:
Inquiry
Geology Rocks!:
We begin the first week of our unit on rocks focusing on a skill every child can be successful at – observing (the first step in the scientific method). An exciting part of this week’s investigation is the chance to pick a pet rock, whose name and personality will be dependent on our observations. We will create scientific illustrations of our rocks, paying attention to little details. Our drawings will be labeled with words from our observations, and we will begin to build our vocabulary as we learn how to describe rocks.
Math
Estimations:
Through a process called Guided Discovery, the Magical Minds have been exposed to several math manipulatives in the classroom: pattern blocks, place value blocks and unifix cubes. This week they will have a chance to build with these materials, estimating how many blocks they’ve used and then counting to check their prediction. At the heart of this week’s math instruction is basic number sense; “do you really think you used a million blocks?” What does 100 blocks look like, can we build something with 1,000 cubes?
Reading
Quiet Time:
As we ease into sustained periods of independent reading, the Magical Minds are discovering the options available to them in our classroom library.
Writing
Family Tree and Handwriting:
On Thursday we start to learn about each other’s families and ancestry. This project will culminate in a beautiful family tree, written in the children’s best handwriting.
Current Events:(in reversed alphabetical order)
Check the Magical Calendar for upcoming presenters
Current Events are presentations on events and things that are new to you. This week the teachers are sharing, modeling what a quality Current Event looks like. There will be more information on this to come, but for now you can take a look at last year’s webpage for inspiration and clarification.