A Trip to the Firehouse

Here is the newsletter for A Trip to the Firehouse.  Please have your students study their spelling words.  Our test will be Friday January 10th, 2014.  I have posted the words to spellingcity.com so your child can practice. 

The IRI is next week.  Please have your child practice timed reading.  Average second graders read 77 words correct per minute in the winter which is a 3 on the IRI.  Students who score between 52-76 score a 2 on the IRI and students who score 51 or below will score a 1 on the IRI.  Please practice with your child.  I have sent home a weekly homework fluency passage.  We are also practicing in class.  A fun way to practice is sticky reading.  Students have a sticky note and they read for 1 minute, place their sticky note on the last word they read.  Then they start back at the beginning and read again this time trying to pass their sticky note. 

Planet Posters

Students gathered information from a nonfiction text about a planet. We had 9 groups of students each assigned to one of the planets or dwarf planet in our solar system. They created a bubble map to help them organize facts about their planet. Students were asked to include how many moons and rings their planet had as well as 3 additional interesting facts specific to their planet. Students then created a poster to teach their classmates about their planet. Student then participated in teaching each other about all the planets. It was a fun learning project where students were teaching each other.

SPACE Art Project

In science we are studying the solar system.  Students have been working in small groups to research about a planet.  They have been gathering information from a non-fiction text and creating a bubble map to organize their facts.  They created a poster to teach their peers about their assigned planet. On Friday we usually have time for art. We connected our science standards to art this past week. The students had a wonderful time creating a sphere with chalk to represent a planet. I was quite impressed with our final masterpieces. 

Around the Pond: Who's Been Here?

We have been reading the story Around the Pond: Who's Been Here. We will have our Spelling Test on Wednesday November 20th.  We will be doing our Weekly Skills Test on Thursday.  Please have your child study their spelling words.  Also make sure your child has an understanding on the comprehension strategy and skills found on this weeks Newsletter.  We will be testing on double consonants, categorize and classify, high frequency words, multiple meaning words and exclaimations.  Click to download the newsletter here. Around the Pond Newsletter  Students can also study their spelling words by using www.spellingcity.com/sforbush In class this week we did an m & m activity to help us understand multiple meaning words.  

HALLOWEEN

Our class worked hard to earn table points to earn a Halloween party.  Table points is a behavior management system I use in my classroom.  It promotes and rewards good behavior. In turn, we have a classroom environment that is condusive to learning which contributes to successful learning. Here are some pictures from our class party! Thanks to our room mom who helped at our party. Don't Eat Frank was a hit with the kids. We played a few Halloween Minute-to-Win-it games. 

STAR LAB

We had a lot of fun in the Star Lab. Mrs. Nedrow taught us all about differnt constellations.   We also learned a little about the solar system.  In our reading story Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, Henry's family goes camping and enjoys star gazing! So we brought the stars to the classroom to experience star gazing too. We appreciate Mrs. Nedrow for taking the time away from her classroom to do the star lab with us. We will be studying the solar system in science class for the next month.

Building a Car

I was so excited about our cars that students made and brought to school.  Students were able to use problem solving skills, creativity, and innovation in this STEM activity.  Pictures will be posted soon from race day! Thanks you for your support in this valuable yet fun project.