I was so PROUD of the children this week.  We have been working on generating questions when we read.  Good readers ask questions before, during and after they read.  This better enables them to fully comprehend what they have read.  This week, we did a quick read activity where the children were asked to generate questions before they read, in the middle of the text, and after they read.  I couldn’t be more impressed with the questions that the children came up with.  This was a rather challenging task for the children when they were first asked to do this.

This week for a STEAM activity we combined some math and art skills to try to create some outlines shapes, by utilizing tangrams.  Tangrams are a set of shapes that together can be used to create a representation of a variety of shapes.  The children thought this would be an easy challenge, however, they were surprised at how challenging this was.

I am sure that you have heard about the read aloud book that our class, and school, has read, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.  The children absolutely loved this book.  In fact, I purchased the sequel, which we will begin reading shortly.  The wonderful thing about this book, is that the entire school has read the same book, and you can see the themes of this book running throughout our PBIS challenges and our classroom bulletin boards.  We were very fortunate to have Grace Lin, the author, visit the school this week.  The children were very excited!  Her presentation was inspiring; talking about where her inspiration came from, and sharing a “reader’s theatre” version of her writing.  Make sure you ask your second grader about her visit!  Order forms were also sent home to purchase her books.  I know that many of our classmates were very excited about that!  Her books have been in high demand from the library.

We have been working hard to build our understanding of place value.  The children have been practicing these skills in a number of ways.  One of these activities is Base Ten Exchange, and another is Target.  Both activities utilize the skills of exchanging tens for ones, or hundreds for tens.  We do this with base ten blocks.  The children have learned how to write base ten by using shorthand, and can practice these skills even without the blocks.  Having a solid understanding of place value will help the children when they start adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers.  We spent a lot of time playing these two games, and will continue to revisit them throughout the year.

This week’s STEAM activity involved some math practice.  This week in math, we were working on measurement.  We practiced measuring to the nearest unit (foot, inch, centimeter).  We also talked about how we can recognize and utilize objects that we could use to measure (i.e. a foot may be close to 12 inches).  Our STEAM activity this week was for children to create a robot with a purpose.  The children used a one inch template square to sketch/create their robots.  They first created a plan for creation, then utilized a template to draft their design.  Once their design was complete they measured their designs.  The children were also asked to have a purpose for their robot.  The children had some pretty interesting designs, and it was intriguing to hear why they wanted to create their robots.  We had designs to do homework, pick up trash outside, and spying robots.  I wish I had one to do my family’s laundry this week. 🙂

This week for STEM, we revisited the ideas of force, push, pull and gravity.  We even did a little bit of exploring of friction with different surfaces, as well.  The children made a flip-flop device that uses gravity to propel the device forward.  The children explored speed, by increasing the pitch of a ramp.  They also played with some different surfaces to see how the flip flop device responded to different levels of friction.  This children had a lot of fun with these devices.

This week, the children will also be taking NWEA assessments in both math and reading.  We will also be completing AIMsweb benchmarks in both reading and math.  The children have been working hard, and I am excited to see how their hard work is represented by these data points.

In Wonders, this week we will continue to work on present-tense verbs.  This week, we will be working on how verbs change when the subject of the sentence is singular or plural.  We will also continue to build and practice contractions.  We will also focus on basic comprehension elements, as well as a focus on sequence of events in a story.  We will start by breaking stories into three main parts, like we did with our writing, and then we will sequence some smaller details, as well.