Mrs. Wood’s Classroom Blog

Opening: Due to our testing schedule this week, we did not do a traditional opening. Instead, we discussesd the week’s testing schedule and talked about the test itself. The ITBS (Iowa Test) simply tests where students already know — it helps us teachers to know what the students still need to learn. If they do their best, they will be just fine.

Music

ITBS Test – Reading: Students took the reading portion of the test today. They looked at pictures to determine what was going on in them and filled in the correct answer on some sentences and they read short stories and answered multiple choice questions for those. Students who were absent for this portion will make it up with Mrs. Bandyk, more than likely after Spring Break.

Lunch – Due to the stormy, rainy conditions, we had indoor recess today at lunch.

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We did a strategy preview activity today. Our focus for this week’s story, Jalapeno Bagels, is following directions. Today’s activity had us reading a short recipe about how to make Dog Fruit Salad (fruit salad shaped like a dog’s face ). After reading through the recipe, students had to rewrite the recipe and we put it into shorter and simpler language. This helps them to see that following specific directions are important because if we miss a step, we may not make the recipe the correct way.

Working with Words – We looked at our new word wall words for this week: or, boy, skate, car and many. We said the words and put them into a sentence, we clapped out the words, we cheered the words and finally, we “block lettered” the words. We do this so they can really see the shape of the letters (it helps with handwriting).

Read Aloud/SSR

Recess – Due to the rainy conditions, we had afternoon recess indoors as well.

Writing: For writing this week, students will be working on a peer response writing (writing in response to what someone else has written). In today’s lesson, we created a Criteria Chart which shows the students exactly what they need to do on their response to get a passing score. The peer response is something students will see on the MEAP so it is very important that they are familiar with them and what the response needs to contain in order to earn a passing score.

Math: Due to our weird schedule this morning, we moved math to this afternoon. We looked at lesson 9.9 on Capacity. We talked about how we can weigh objects using measures of capacity. We added to our Equivalency Chart and completed some capacity problems in our journals.

Homework: Home Link 9.9, Write Spelling Words 5x each

Opening: Students finished their DLR for this week.

Math: Students worked on finding the AREA of shapes. We talked about how AREA and PERIMETER are not the same, even when we are using the same shape. The perimeter measures the outside of something where the area measures the inside. We practiced making rectangle arrays on grid paper and finding the area by counting the squares inside. We also talked about how you can simply ADD UP the numbers from the array to find the area. They thought that was pretty cool

Physical Education

Social Studies: We read about St. Augustine today. On Tuesday we took a look at how St. Augustine looked when the city was first founded as a colony. Today we looked at what a historical city St. Augustine really is because there are so many places to visit where people do crafts and other activities just like in the “olden days”.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We took a look at the vocabulary and focus area for the story we will read next week called Jalapeno Bagels. We also took a picture walk of the story to see what we thought was going to happen.

Working with Words – We took our spelling test on the “ain” words and practiced our word wall words.

Read Aloud/SSR

Recess

Writing: Students finished up the cross-text writing they worked on yesterday. Many of them needed some extra time to think about their writing and work on fixing it.

Homework: none

Reminder – No school for students tomorrow due to a Professional Development day for teachers. Have a great weekend!

Opening: Students worked on their DLR for Wednesday.

Math: We went right into lesson 9.6 today. Students continue to review measurement and the tools we would use to measure different things. We made a chart of thins we could measure and what tool we would use along with the UNIT of measure (inch, yard, meter, etc) that we would use. For example, we would not want to measure our rug with an inch ruler because it would take forever! We would want to use meters or a yard stick. If we were to measure the distance from Harrison Park School to Sparta Middle School (where Mrs. Wood’s daughter goes to school), we would use an odometer and measure in miles.

Interventions: Students finished their books for this week. All groups completed the worksheets and finished their stories. The Tadpoles group finished their second set of word cards. We will do a 3rd set when we return from Spring Break and then the students will get to keep the word cards at home for extra practice.

Library

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – Students worked on the cross-text piece for the ITT. It asks them to compare the 2 stories they read in the ITT and answer a question. In this case, the question was “Spiders use their silk in amazing ways. Do you agree or disagree?” We reviewed how we set up a Cross-Text writing and what it should look like to make sure they answer the whole thing. They have to first answer the question, then provide details from the first story, then provide details from the second story before they write one or two reasons why the stories are alike. Finally they should restate their original position (I agree/I disagree) and back it up with one more example from the stories.

Working with Words – We practiced our word wall words for the week.

Art

Writing: Students continued working on their cross-text and some who needed a little more time also worked on the writing prompt from yesterday.

Homework: Home Link 9.6 and Handwriting

Opening: Students worked on DLR for Tuesday.

Assembly: Today’s assembly focused on celebrating and recognizing those students who participated in Reach for the Stars, the March reading program. Our students collected over $1,000 in pledges for reading! Great job students. Each student who participated got their picture taken and earned a special prize.

Social Studies: We continued reading about St. Augustine today. We looked at how and why the community was first founded — the king of Spain wanted a colony set up there to help protect the goods they traded with other colonies here. They chose St. Augustine because of its nice harbors to protect the ships from the rough waters of the ocean.

Interventions: All groups continued working on their books for the week. The Tadpoles group continued working on the Dolch word-phrase cards. Some of them are a bit tricky!

Math: We worked on Lesson 9.5 today. We discussed how we can measure longer distances. Using inches, feet and yards are okay for shorter distances but if we wanted to measure the distance from Harrison Park to Mrs. Wood’s house, we would not want to use yards (it would take forever to figure that out! ). We would want to use miles or kilometers. We wrote these names down, and their corresponding measures, on our Equivalent chart so the students can refer to them over time. We also reviewed perimeter.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading - We continued with the ITT today. Some students did not finish the test and will finish it tomorrow.

Working with Words – Students and I worked on “Sailboat” Spelling! We took each of our spelling words, which all follow the “ain” pattern and put them in sailboat shapes. This just helps reinforce spelling a little at a time and using the patterns we know (plus the kids like them!).

Read Aloud/SSR

Recess

Writing: We worked on our Writing Prompt today. The theme is “Pride” and the students could write about a time they were proud of themselves, of someone else or when someone was proud of them. On the MEAP, the students have to complete these in 1 sitting so I decided to see how that went with the kids. The students who chose to use their time wisely did very well and many of them wrote a lot (it was a topic I think many of them could really grasp onto). I am excited to take a look at them and score them.

Homework: Math Journal pg. 224 and Reading Comprehension

*Parents – a note also went home with your child today about Donor’s Choose. I recently submitted a grant to this organization and we were VERY lucky to get our grant funded. The permission slip just asks your permission for your child to be photographed using the materials so they can be sent to the organization so that the donor’s who provided our funding can see their donation being put to good use. I would really appreciate if you can sign those permission slips and return them ASAP. Thank you so much!

Opening: Students worked on DLR for Monday.

Music

Interventions: Today the Frog and Froglet groups worked on the vocabulary, using context clues and a glossary for their stories. The Tadpoles group worked on reviewing their Dolch phrase cards. I gave them the 2nd set today and we’ll begin working on them tomorrow.

Math: We worked on Lesson 9.4 which deals with perimeter. Perimeter is the distance around something. We took the perimeter of our thumb, our wrist, our ankle and our neck (with the help of a partner). We then practiced measuring perimeter around some shapes. We do this by measuring each side and then adding up the lengths of all sides to get the perimeter.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Thinking Maps Demonstration – we were very lucky to have Ms. B, the Thinking Maps trainer, do a demonstration lesson on thinking maps in our class. She taught us the brace map which we use for analogies and relationships. It was a fun lesson and the students did a really good job with it.

Guided Reading – Students worked on the ITT test for Theme 4 today.  We will finish the book part of the test tomorrow.

Working with Words - Students chanted, clapped and cheered their new word wall words for the week.

Recess

Writing – Using our new knowledge of Thinking Maps, and thinking about the writing we will be doing this week, we created a thinking map to help us focus on our writing prompt we will be doing this week. I did not tell them what the topic was, but we talked about what we know goes INTO a well-written writing prompt and used a frame of reference for it. The students did a great job of recalling what needs to be in a piece of writing (lead, details, voice, etc).

Homework: Home Link 9.4, Spelling Words 5x each

Opening: Students worked on DLR for Thursday.

Math: We worked on lesson 9.3 where we continue to work on measurement. We looked at how to discover the half measurement of inches on a ruler (each inch has 16 tick marks so 8 tick marks makes half). We then measured using centimeters and inches to the nearest HALF. Our book had a lot of pictures of items for us to measure.

Physical Education

Social Studies: We took a look at the new chapter we will be reading about. We’re going to read about how the Spanish built a community in St. Augustine, Florida. We’ll be learning about its geography, natural resources and how people lived there in the past.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We did some MEAP prep activities today focusing on  phonics and letter sounds.

*Special Activity – we did a special Draw-Write-Now activity during word work today. The students make a picture (we make it all together) and then we write about the picture. They then have the chance to illustrate the rest of the picture. You’ll see these on display for conferences.

Recess

Writing: Students continued to work on their voice papers. Some students were able to finish their papers and I helped them type them up. These are also on display in the hallway for you to enjoy at conferences.

Homework: none

*Reminder – No school tomorrow for Good Friday.

It was so nice to see all of you tonight at conferences. Thank you for taking the time and effort to be an active part of your child’s education.

Opening: Students worked on DLR for Wednesday.

Math: We worked on Lesson 9.2 today which continues to look at measurement. We made a measurement chart to help us see how different things can be equal to each other, for example there are 12 inches in 1 foot. This chart will help the students as they use different standards of measurement to help with conversions. We measured two objects using inches and converting them to feet.

Interventions: We finished our stories from this week. All groups finished the cause/effect activities and had the chance to read their books once more. Cause/effect is a tough area and can be confusing but don’t worry. We will continue to focus on this strategy throughout the rest of the year (and they will see it in the upper grades too!)

Library: Students got to select books for RIF today.

SSR

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading - We read the phonics reader Brent Skunk Sings and looked for samples of voice in the book. This was a fun lesson because the students really tried hard to find the voice. Sometimes it just takes one little word to add some “sparkle” to the writing.

Working with Words – We reviewed some vocabulary and spelling strategies we have been using during this Theme.

Art

Writing: Students continued to work on their voice writings. I am impressed. Most of them are really getting the hang of what we are looking for them to do. We should be ready to begin the publishing process tomorrow.

Homework: Home Link 9.2, Handwriting

Opening: For bell work this morning, students worked on coloring their folders for conferences. Not that they really needed to be colored but because they just look cuter when they are colored and the kids love it!

Assembly: We had our anti-bullying assembly this morning and discussed appropriate recess behavior. All people (including adults) sometimes get upset and mad with each other and we make poor choices because of that. As long as we can reflect and think about our choices, it is okay to make these mistakes. It is how we learn and how we grow to be better people. Mrs. Shenefield read “The Recess Queen” to all of the students which emphasizes fairness and being kind to everyone.

Social Studies: We took the chapter quiz on the Native American lessons we have been learning about. We were supposed to do this last week but did not since I was out sick. They seemed to do quite well and we’ll soon know

Math: We began unit 9 today which covers measurement. Students had to guess how many students they thought would fit across our classroom floor (turns out about 8 1/2 students fit from one end to the other). We learned about standard units (inches, centimeters) and non-standard units (using students to measure, using a paperclip, etc.). We are going to be working with yards and meters to do some measuring over the next few lessons.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We took the test on the story The Great Ball Game and also a test on Cause and Effect which we have been talking about for the last two weeks.

Working with Words – we did a rhyming activity. Students used _0ke and _oak to decide what word would go where.

Read Aloud/SSR

Recess

Writing: We continued to work on our voice writing pieces. Today we revisited yesterday’s lesson and today the students began writing, using two inanimate objects and having them talk to each other. I had the chance to sit with several students and most of them are really grasping this idea of using voice. I’m excited to see the final products

Homework: Reading Comprehension, Homelink 9.1

Opening: Due to the absolute craziness that was last week, we did not do a traditional opening today. Students and I discussed what they did last week while I was out, talked about some things coming up this week and got ready for music.

Music

Interventions: We are looking at new stories this week. Since its only a 4 day week, we’ll finish these stories on Wednesday. We are reviewing cause/effect which was the strategy focus in our anthology stories last week. Each group previewed vocabulary and did a picture walk today.

Math: There was a big mess up with our Unit 8 math assessment last week so today we took the test again. The students were really good natured about it and I think they may have even done better this week. We had enough time to also go over the answers (after I had collected the tests of course) before the end of this time. The goals for this unit are all developing so please don’t be upset if your child didn’t do “great”. Fractions are a hard concept and they are just meant as an introduction in 2nd grade.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We completed a 4-square organizer today. We reviewed the vocabulary words we used in this story and then read the story, The Great Ball Game, altogether. Then students worked in pairs to complete the organizer using their assigned word.

Working with Words – We introduced our new word wall words for this week and chanted, clapped, cheered and wrote them.

Read Aloud/SSR

Recess

Writing: We are working on a voice lesson this week. Students are going to practice giving an inanimate object a personality and having it have a conversation with another inanimate object. Today we set up the writing piece by talking about what two things might talk to each other and assigning their personalities…tomorrow we’ll begin writing the stories.

Homework: none

Hello families,

I am so sorry I am not at school. I have a slight case of strep throat and mononucleosis. I am home bound until Monday, per doctor’s orders. Therefore the Daily Hop will not be posted until I am back in the classroom and can see what the students accomplished while I have been out.

Please remember to send your conference notes in if you haven’t already so we can reschedule if you can’t keep your original appointment. Thank you