Monday, December 17th, 2012

Today has been such a nice, refreshing way to get back to some feeling of normal. I have so enjoyed being with my "kiddos" again today. Thank you for sharing them with me!

This week's IA: PE
IA after break: Art

Reader's Workshop
We had the great opportunity to learn from our 6th graders last week. A group from Ms. Lisa's Crew came in and modeled what a Literature Discussion group looks like. We were all able to sit and listen as they discussed a question they had about the book, Jumanji. The big things we noticed about the discussion were that they stayed focused and didn't talk about anything but the book and they didn't talk over each other. They took turns and listened respectfully. We also noticed that they came prepared with their thoughts written down. Because of this modeling, we are now better able to talk about our thinking about the books we read. Thank you Ms. Lisa's 6th graders!

Writer's Workshop
On Friday, Ross Swirling, the lead singer and lyric writer for my husband's band, was our guest speaker. He taught us about why writing is important, why he writes, the process he uses to write poems and songs, and all about revising and editing in the "real world" of punk rock music. :) The kids had a blast learning from Ross and we have so many tips we can apply to our writing, especially as we learn to write poetry.

On Wednesday, many of you came in to share your child's published writing. I saw many smiles and heard many laughs as we shared our persuasive letters. This shows how much voice we had in our letters. Thanks so everyone who was able to make it. I will send home copies of the childrens' letters. Their originals will go in their portfolios.

Monday, December 10, 2012

I apologize for net getting this out yesterday. 

This week's IA: Music

Next week's IA: PE

Reader's Workshop

We are still reading and thinking about Chris VanAllsburg books. While we read, we are paying attention to words that are unfamiliar to us. Yesterday, we learned three new vocabulary words from the book, Jumanji. These words were monsoon, stampede, and slouch. We wrote these words in our reading journals, decided if they were nouns, verbs, or adjectives, wrote a definition of each, and drew a picture to go with the words. I am encouraging students to look for these words everywhere; in books, outside, on tv or the computer, and listen for or use these in their daily speaking and writing. It would be great if families could encourage this at home as well. Vocabulary can be a huge roadblock for students when it comes to comprehending what they are reading. 

Writer's Workshop

We have finished up publishing our persuasive letters. We are very much looking forward to sharing these with you on Wednesday at 11:00. Hopefully many of you can make it in for this time. Let me know if you have any questions. 

Math

Addition and subtraction are two big areas of math in second grade. I've been working with students to become "Fact Power Superheroes." They know that this means they need to memorize their addition facts. Currently, we are learning different strategies for adding two-digit and three-digit numbers. This can be tricky, especially if students aren't proficient with basic addition facts. One way to help with this, is to practice with flash cards at home. Students should have fact triangles at home that were in one of their Home Links. 

Expedition

We have finally completed compiling and graphing the data we collected at the Starlighting. This year, for the first time, students used a program on the computers to create these graphs! We will be going to the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce to present our graphs and findings to the Executive Board sometime in January. I will also post these graphs on Kidblog so you can see and comment on them. It would be great if you would share these graphs with extended family and friends so students have a large audience for their work. 

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

Can it really be December already?

This week's IA: Art
Next week's IA: Music

*Please remember that we have field work to the Denver Art Museum this Wednesday. Students need to be here no later than 8:30 on Wednesday. All students need a water bottle, snack, and sack lunch in their backpacks for this field work. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Reader's Workshop
Readers use many strategies to make sense of what they're reading. Just a few of these strategies are; asking questions, determining importance, and inferring. We are currently doing a Chris VanAllsburg author study to practice all of these things. He is one of my favorite authors. His books are so thought provoking and lead to such rich discussions. You may be familiar with some of his books. The Polar Express and Jumanji are just two of his many titles. I would encourage families to check out some of his other books as well.

Since we're having all these wonderful conversations about what we read, we've decided to start blogging about our thinking. Be sure to check out our Kidblog site and see what we're thinking!
http://kidblog.org/MsHannis2012-2013Crew/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fkidblog.org%2FMsHannis2012-2013Crew%2Fwp-admin%2Findex.php&reauth=1

Students respond to a question during reading group

Writer's Workshop
We are using the genre of persuasive letters to learn about the craft of writing right now. Currently, we are revising our letters to make sure they are organized in a way that makes them easy to follow. We're also looking at the voice in our letters. We want to make sure it sounds like we are having a conversation with our readers. Be sure to look for these things when we share our letters with you.

Math
One of the skills we are practicing in math right now is measurement. I am reminding students how important it is to make sure the ruler is in the correct position before measuring. It is a common mistake for students to place their ruler at the end, rather than at the zero mark. Talk to your child about why it is important to measure correctly.

Expedition
To learn further about our case study big ideas about community, we will be doing some field work at the Denver Art Museum. We will look at how different artists interpreted community through their art.

Monday, November 26th, 2012

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and some relaxing time away from the normal routine. I think my family is all healthy now, after a week of lying low.

This week's IA: PE
Next week's IA: Art

*Please remember that we DO have library tomorrow and all library books are due back. Students will be able to check out new books, if both of their old ones have been turned back in.

Reader's Workshop
To coincide with our persuasive letter study in writing, we are reading many persuasive texts. While reading these, we are concentrating on the questions we have before, during, and after reading. We're also being metacognitive about the details we notice. We're deciding if the details we notice are important, or unimportant but interesting. Another thing we think about while reading is how we infer what the author means. This is when we use our background knowledge and combine that with clues from the text to figure out what is really meant, but not always said.

Writer's Workshop

This week, we will begin to assess our persuasive letter using a rubric that will help us look closely at the organization and voice in our letters. These are two traits that all writers use in their writing. Once we've assessed our letters, we'll work to make these traits better before we revise, edit, and publish.

Math
The unit we just started has us working on different types of number stories. You might remember these as "word problems." I don't know about you, but I totally hated these growing up! I hope that by showing the kids the different types of problems there are and by teaching them how to use the various diagrams, they won't grow up despising these as much as I did.

Expedition
We are currently working as statisticians to compile, analyze, and graph the data we collected at the Starlighting event. Once we're done with this step, we'll take our findings to the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce. Thank you, everyone, for bringing your children out on a Saturday to do school work!

I'm sure you saw the maps we created to show you how to find our booth.

Susan, from the Chamber of Commerce, spoke to us about what data they would like us to collect.

 Field Work!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Good afternoon!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! 

This week's IA: Art

Next week's IA: Music

We have so much exciting learning going on right now.

Reader's Workshop

One of the comprehension strategies we are working on right now is determining importance. We know that readers need to be able to decide what details are important and what details are unimportant but interesting. We practice this skill while we read persuasive books and while we read articles about the Starlighting. While your child is reading at night, as him to tell you what details he thinks are important in the book he's reading. 

Writer's Workshop

This week, we are beginning a new genre study. We will be learning about and writing persuasive letters. Just in time for the holidays :) We're learning how to apply what we learned when writing personal narratives, to our persuasive letters. For example, we know that writers write about what is important to them. So, our letters will be written about a topic that is important to us. Also, we know that writers stick to one topic. Our letters will be very entertaining and we can't wait to share them with you!

Math

This unit, we are reviewing skills around money and time. These are both very important skills for second grade. Please encourage your child to help you with simple time and money problems at home. Maybe ask her to tell you when the clock shows what time to eat dinner, or get ready for bed, or leave for school. Of course, this would be better practice done on an analog clock :)

Expedition

Our second case study has been launched. To continue our in depth study of community, we will be learning about how the Castle Rock Star and Starlighting define community. On Saturday, your child will be collecting data about community by interviewing the people who attend the Starlighting. We are going to work with the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce to help generate questions for our interview. Then, once we have conducted the interviews, we will compile the data and then share it with the Chamber. We are very excited for this fieldwork. In addition to gathering data, we will be teaching the community about the history and importance of the Star and Starlighting ceremony. 

To gain more background information, we participated in a Gallery Walk. This consisted of reading various newspaper articles about the Star and Starlighting. Some of the articles date back to the 1930's and 1940's. 

Monday, November 5, 2012

Good afternoon!

Whew! What a week we had last week. Thank you all so much with your help and support with our Halloween Party and Student Led Conferences. Here are some pictures of our little ghouls from Halloween:

This week's IA: PE
Next week's IA: Art

Reader's Workshop
We are beginning a new genre study in Writer's Workshop, therefore our focus for Reader's Workshop will also shift. This week and next, we are thinking about questions that we have before, during, and after reading. While your child is reading, discuss the questions he or she has. This will push his or her thinking deeper. We will also be using these questions to infer the author's message while we read. Today, we read the book, Two Bad Ants, by Chris Van Allsberg, to practice this skill. What a great discussion we had!

Writer's Workshop
Today we began our new genre study. We will be learning more about the craft of writing through learning about persuasive letters. I'll update more about this genre, the further we get into it.

Math
A lot of the focus for this week will be around money. One thing we will be learning how to do is count up to make change. Please have your child practice counting combinations of coins and bills at home. This will help with automaticity of coin recognition.

Expedition
We are launching our new case study for our social studies expedition today. Our first case study was Dearfield, a community which did not last. To oppose this, we will be learning all about the community tradition of the Castle Rock Starlighting and what this ceremony has done for the community of Castle Rock. We will be doing a large portion of our fieldwork at the Starlighting ceremony on Saturday, November 17th. Please plan on having your child attend this event. I will send out more information very soon about times. For now, know that I will be asking each child to attend and staff our booth for 30 minutes during a two-hour time period. If you have questions, please let me know. Also, we need binoculars for some fieldwork, this Thursday. If you have a pair our crew can borrow, please let me know. The more sets we have, the more kids get to view our fieldwork. Thanks so much!

Monday, October 29th, 2012

Happy Monday!

I'll start with a few reminders (because I know I'm having trouble keeping track of everything!)

*Our Halloween parade and breakfast are Wednesday. The parade will begin at 9:00. This year it will be a little bit different than it has been in the past. The Kindergarten students will start the parade in our hallway. We will parade through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classrooms only. After the parade, we will have breakfast and an activity in our classroom. Students need to wear their costumes to school, but bring a change of clothes for the rest of the day. Please leave any weapons that are part of costumes at home. If you have any questions, let me know.

*Please note a change to the lunch menu for Wednesday: The only menu choice will be hamburger. 

*Our Crew will be climbing in PE the week of November 5th. We will need volunteers to belay for us, otherwise we won't be able to climb. The signups for the training and belaying are on SignUp Genius. Search using Doug's email. Doug.baker@dcsdk12.org 
Or, here are the links to both sign ups.
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F094DADAC229-belay3
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F094DADAC229-fall
Again, please let me know if you have any questions.

This week's IA: Music
Next week's IA: PE~ This is when we climb!!

This week we are busy preparing for our Student Led Conferences.

Here's what you can expect for your child's conference. Each conference is 30 minutes long. You will rotate through 3 stations. At one station, your child will share some learning with you at his or her desk. Here, you will hear about what kind of reader he or she is, be able to view his or her personal narrative, from the draft all the way through editing and publishing, as well as what he or she knows about himself or herself in math. Most likely, you will have time to hear part of his or her just right book. At a different station, your child will share about our Expedition. You will learn why we are studying Dearfield. Finally, you and your child will meet with me so I can share all the great things I know about your child. I'm very much looking forward to spending this time with you and for you to hear from your child about his or her learning. 

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Welcome back!

I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing break.

There is quite a bit of important information I need to share with you this week.

*Student Led Conferences are next Wednesday and Thursday. I emailed the invitation to sign up for a time over Fall Break. If you haven't signed up for a time yet, please do so. If you need the link again, please let me know. These conferences are very important for the students. They love to share with you how much they've learned.

*Our Halloween parade and breakfast are next Wednesday. The parade will begin at 9:00. This year it will be a little bit different than it has been in the past. The Kindergarten students will start the parade in our hallway. We will parade through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classrooms only. After the parade, we will have breakfast and an activity in our classroom. Students need to wear their costumes to school, but bring a change of clothes for the rest of the day. Please leave any weapons that are part of costumes at home. If you have any questions, let me know.

*Our Crew will be climbing in PE the week of November 5th. We will need volunteers to belay for us, otherwise we won't be able to climb. The signups for the training and belaying are on SignUp Genius. Search using Doug's email. Doug.baker@dcsdk12.org
Again, please let me know if you have any questions.

*A huge thank you to all of you for participating in Boot Camp! Because of your support, every classroom now has a sound system. Yea! The kids are loving having a microphone that projects their voices to everyone when they share. It's very cool.

This week's IA: Art
Next week's IA: Music

Reader's Workshop
This week, we are learning and thinking about our purpose and audience while we read. We've learned that there are three possible choices for audience while we read. We can read for ourselves, like when we dessert read. We can read for someone we know, like when we read a book that Ms. Hanni has chosen for us. Or, we can read for someone we don't know. This is when we read things like math problems and reading tests. Our thinking has to change for each audience. Talk with your child about his or her audience when he or she reads at home.

Writer's Workshop
We are diligently working to publish our personal narratives. Hopefully these will be done next week. Once they are all published, we will have a sharing celebration and invite parents in to celebrate our hard work as authors.

Math
We've been working really hard to develop fact power. This is when we know simple addition and subtraction facts. In class, we've been discussing different strategies we might use to help us solve addition and subtraction problems. Please spend some time practicing these facts with your child at home. They know have two sets of Fact Triangles to use at home for practice.

Expedition
We continue to deeper our understanding of our Social Studies Big Ideas through learning more about the community of Dearfield. Our field work before break was great! We learned so much by actually seeing the buildings that remain and listening to our expert speaker, George Junne, a professor from the University of Northern Colorado. He told me he was so impressed with the excitement our 2nd graders showed while we were there. He knew they were curious and was overjoyed to answer all their questions.