Spelling & Word Study

Our first spelling lists came home today!  Our words, which are different for every student, are taken from one of two high frequency word assessments, so each is very individualized and targeted towards only words which students struggle spelling.  Tests are Friday.  Any missed words go back on our list next week, so we should really get these second grade words down!

The individualized spelling tests are different from last year, so here' s a quick breakdown:

• Lists go home Monday, and are tested on Friday.  Short weeks vary, but often we will not have spelling lists or tests on a short week.
• We still do word study during the week, but study spelling patterns (for example, long a spelling patterns) to aid students in attempting to spell new words.  Students are not "tested" on typical spelling pattern words, but are expected to apply these rules in writing when possible.
• Students are expected to spell high frequency words correctly in writing by the end of the year, but only to apply common spelling strategies for unknown words.  So, for example, if a student writes "amayzing" in their writing rather than "amazing" I would find that acceptable: they applied a long a spelling pattern that could be appropriate, and the word has all sounds represented.
• High Frequency words are not only used more often, but also tend to have irregular spelling, which is why we are focusing on those for home lists.  There will be little, if any, spelling practice on these words at school, outside of Writing Workshop, during which spelling is one of many writing focuses.

We are well on our way to becoming great spellers in second grade!  Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who have been helping to assess students who did well on their first 100 words and are ready for their second list.  

Big Cheese

We kicked off our first Big Cheese of the year!  Take a look at our Big Cheese sharing her book with the class on Tuesday.  On Monday, she shared her poster with us, on Wednesday, she shared two objects, and on Friday, she will bring in her favorite snack to share with us!  We are so excited to start Big Cheese!

Our Big Cheese did a great job of reading her favorite book, and Anansi tale, to our class!

Wonderful Weather

We are learning all about weather in science!  We began our weather study this week by activating our prior knowledge about weather in a quickwrite.  We shared our ideas and were able to gain an understanding of what we already know about weather.

Next, we explored some wonderful fiction books about weather.  Often, fictional stories are great places to begin our learning, as they often include facts!  We read A Boat Ride with Lillian Two Blossom, a story by Patricia Polacco, and discussed both weather myths and weather misconceptions.

Our Big Idea for weather in second grade is: The sun, air, and water work together to create our weather.  This will be along unit which will culminate in a project focusing on conserving water and other resources, including a look at bottled water (you may know, one of my "favorite" topics!)

I am so impressed by what we already know about weather, and can't wait to see how much this class learns in the next few weeks!

Our Writing Goals

We are kicking of four Writing Workshop after meeting with Miss Miller one on one and looking at writing samples together.  We decided what our Writing Goal is- what we need to work on in our writing- and put our name next to that goal on our Writing Goals Chart.  As you can see, we all have something we can work on to improve our writing.  This visual reminder will help us keep on track working towards our Writing Goals.

Currently, we are working on writing basics, such
as using finger spaces, capital letters, and periods.
Some of us are ready to look at our spelling using
our individual word walls, which we keep in our
Writing folders.

What is your writing goal?

We have some wonderful writers in our class, and I can't wait to show off their work at our first Publishing Celebration, after we complete our Small Moments writing projects.   Stay tuned for more information about that!

Hundred Grid Clues

Today we practiced using our Hundred Grids in class to solve addition and subtraction problems.  We realized that when you add or subtract one, you move to the left or the right.  When you add or subtract ten, you move up or down the column.

We used these rules to play Hundred Grid Clues together.  This would be an easy game to play with each other at home too!

We took turns giving clues one the hundred grid.

Hundred grid clue prompts.

Math Fact Practice

This week in math we began focusing on learning addition facts.  As second graders, we are responsible for mastering our basic addition facts (up through 20).  This means that we should be able to answer them within 3 seconds.  The goal is to have them memorized have a trick to figure them out very quickly.  

To make mastering these facts more interesting, we have been learning games to help us practice.  Ask your child to teach you how to play Domino Pull, Plus One/Plus Two Go Fish, Beat the Calculator, or Plus One/Plus Two Concentration at home!

This week we are focusing only on our plus one, plus two facts.  Check out our class in action!

Domino Pull is a game where students flip over a domino from a pile.
If they flip over a plus one or plus two fact, they get to keep it,
and write the addition sentence on their board.

Writing addition sentences is another important skill this
game practices.

Students loved playing this- and it helped us learn our facts.

Week 2

Week two of second grade was a wonderful week!  We have been doing some important learning about Hoffman Trail's Core Virtues- Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Compassion, Self-Discipline, Perseverance, and Giving.  See more about our core virtues here: http://hte.hilliardschools.org/virtues/.

Another focus of our week was familiarizing ourselves with rubrics, which we can use throughout the year to rate our own work.  Using a rubric sets students up for success by letting them know what is expected of them.  We practiced creating and using rubrics to assess our second grade behaviors during different times in our day.

This week we also learned all about Morning Jobs- work stations students begin when they arrive at school.  Morning Jobs allow students to practice second grade skills while making the transition from "social" time to "school" time.  Take a look at some Morning Jobs in action.

One of our morning jobs when students arrive is spelling.  At this center,
students spell our their words with scrabble tiles, and then add up the
values of the tiles to find a value for the word.

At this morning job station, students make as many
words as they can.