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.

Wow! What a great end to the week we had! I was so impressed with the children this Friday! We had a busy week, getting back into routines and back on schedule. Friday is typically a little busier, but boy, the kids were on target! During the week, we did a lot of reading of nonfiction text. We practiced identifying features of nonfiction text, and gathering information from them. We also talked about the author’s purpose for writing them. The focus of these readings was force and motion. We learned some definitions for force, friction, motion, push and pull, and gravity. We will continue with these concepts this week.

For our STEM challenge, the children learned about controls and variables. We have talked about these concepts in the past, but this week we gave them a name. We will start to use this vocabulary on a regular basis with our STEAM challenges and projects. For the first part of the STEM activity, children had to test how surfaces with varying amounts of friction changed the distance and speed at which a vehicle traveled. We talked about how the controls were the kind of vehicle used, and the force used to push the vehicle. Those should stay relatively the same. We had some interesting results! Second, we tested to see how raising the height from which a vehicle traveled down a ramp would change the speed and distance the vehicle traveled. This was a lot of fun!

We ended the day with a film that reviewed all of these concepts. It was a really great way to end the week!

 

On Friday, Mrs. Brown came and taught us a lesson on how to regulate our feelings.  She taught us a very catchy song (that has perpetually played in my head since then), and  a dance to help us remember.  The song teaches the children that their first job, when they feel a strong emotion, is to STOP.  Next, they practiced putting a name to the feeling that they had.  Last, they chose strategies to help them calm down.  I’m sure if you ask your second grader they would love to sing the song (and maybe even do a little dance for you).  Watch out though, it will be stuck in your head! 🙂