IMPORTANT: Field Trip Information

AUDUBON NATURE SANCTUARY
October 13, 2016
11:00-2:30

Food

If you marked your child is bringing their lunch from home, ALL containers must be DISPOSABLE! That makes it much easier for travel purposes. 

Clothing

We will be doing a lot of walking, so please have your child wear comfortable clothing and tennis shoes! He/She may also want to tie a jacket around their waist because it is going to be cold!

Volunteers

First, thank you so much for taking the time to come with us! We had several volunteers sign up. Unfortunately, we do not have room for siblings. If this changes your availability and you can no longer come, please let me know! Just a reminder that parents/guardians cannot ride the bus! Parents may meet in the parking lot of school and carpool together, or drive separately. YOUR CHILD MUST RIDE THE BUS!

We're all very excited! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me on remind, or by email klister@cpsk12.org

IMPORTANT

Hello!

Just a few important reminders:

• PICTURE DAY is tomorrow! Please send money or your online order if you choose to order pictures :)
• FIELD TRIP Permission Slips were due today. I will take them tomorrow as well, but please get them to me ASAP!
• We begin TIGER READING BUDDIES on Friday. Make sure to ask your child about their experience!

Thanks!

Another way to stay updated!

Parents/Guardians,

I just wanted to write a quick post to encourage everyone to stay connected with our class on Twitter! You can find our twitter page by searching for @msklister. It is a protected twitter so you will have to request to follow it. By using Twitter, I am able to post real-time updates when they occur and you can see what we are doing each day. My plan is to use Twitter to keep you updated with the day-to-day and use the blog to communicate weekly!

CLICK HERE FOR TWITTER LINK

With that being said, here are a few pictures from this week!

Congratulations to Finley for being our Citizen of the Month for September! Finley was selected by his classmates for consistently showing us what it means to be a respectful, responsible, kind, positive, and problem-solving learner!

Students sharing what they read or wrote during Daily 5!

Claire and Shep perfecting their quick write. We wrote strong leads using the prompt, "Write about your best holiday ever!"

Group 3 reading group works on the iPad using an app to help put together sentences.

A big thank you to each one of you for all your help and support in your child's education. We are having an amazing year and I feel so blessed to have each one of your children in my class!

2nd grade update!

Hello everyone! My apologies I haven't posted recently.

Here's your second grade update (and a few important announcements)...

Math

We are finishing up our unit on things that come in pairs, odd and even numbers, and doubles review. We will be moving on to working with equal groups. We will work on this starting Friday, and moving into next week, finishing with a test at the end of next week. See below for each lessons focus:

4-1: Repeated Addition (ie. 3+3+3+3=___)

4-2: Building Arrays (ie. representing addition in rows and columns)

4-3: More practice with repeated addition

4-4: Draw a picture and write a number sentence (this is more practice with word problems in which students will have to work with repeated addition)

Reading

Our Daily 5 stations are up and running! We are SO EXCITED!

In shared reading, we are working on word strategies (this week) and reading to find information (next week). Next week we will focus on taking notes while reading, and looking for important information vs. less important information. 

Writing

I have review everyone's first writing piece and am looking to see where we fall across the board to guide our instruction. In the mean time, our lessons will focus on explicitly recognizing what each part of our writing needs to have, and what it looks like. This week we will focus on leads (question and sound, also known as "hooks") and work on writing powerful beginnings into next week.

Social Studies

2nd grade's Social Studies focus is communities/neighborhoods. We are focusing on identifying how our community is different from other people's communities, and also on making maps. We have taken some time to look at map keys and tommorrow, the students will be trying to make a map of our school! Next week we will start a project about a different country where they will research and provide information on their country (within guidelines set). They will then have time to present these as well! I am planning on the research project to take at least 5-7 days to complete. I cannot wait to see what they create!

Important Second Grade Information!

Looking into the coming weeks, we have a lot of wonderful things happening! To begin with, you should've received 3 permission slips for various things.

1. Fellows (Graduate Studies) permission/consent form
2. Tiger Reading Buddies consent form
3. Field Trip permission slip AND lunch choice slip

1. To begin with, thank you all for letting me use your child's work for my graduate studies.

2. Tiger Reading Buddies start next week (Friday). Your child will be paired with a Mizzou junior (in the education program) with which they will meet with once every week to receive individualized literacy instruction. This will be in addition to meeting with me. I participated in this program in college and I am so excited to share it with my students! They are over the moon excited and cannot wait!

3. We are taking a field trip in October to the state park next to Field Elementary to spend our afternoon talking about birds! This is a fan favorite in 2nd grade! If you would like to come as a volunteer, you will have to drive yourself, and you need to let me know! Thanks :)

As always if you need to contact me, my email is klister@cpsk12.org, or you can contact me on Remind!

This week in 2nd grade...

Hello! Week 5 ahead...

Reading:

We will begin station rotations for Daily 5 this week, in the hopes of having it completely up and running by the end of the week! In our shared reading time, we will be focusing on making sense of what we read. The first area of study we will focus on is making predictions before reading. The next few weeks will follow up with different strategies we can use.

Writing

We are still working on Narrative writing and following Lucy Calkins. Our focus for most of this week will be revising with intent, and making sure our writing makes sense. We will also fill in with a "sparkle" words lesson to talk about how good writers choose a variety of words, and that these words can invoke emotions, or make a reader think a certain way.

Math

We are still focusing on Subtraction strategies, and this week we will add a few more to our book. We will also have our first rotation of ST math (more on that to come!)
Monday- 3.3: Using addition to help solve subtraction problems within 10.
Tuesday- ST Math
Wednesday- 3.4: Using addition to help solve subtraction problems within 18.
Thursday- 3.5 : Making 10 to subtract (Review coming home tonight)
Friday- Review/Test Topic 3
* As stated, the review will go home Thursday night and we will test on Friday! Then we move onto our first place value unit, Beads and Shoes, Making Twos!

Science

We are taking a break from science to begin learning about Geography

Social Studies:

We will focus on Geography this week, running for the next 2 weeks with lots of fun activities planned.

It's going to be a great week in 2nd grade!

Information about... Birthday Treats!

With birthdays coming up right around the corner, I felt now would be a good time to clarify about birthday treats!

NUT-FREE
We are a nut-free classroom. This means that products containing nuts or manufactured with nuts (of any kind) are not allowed in our room. Birthday treats must follow suit. Please check the ingredients list before bringing treats.

STORE BOUGHT
Per the parent/student handbook, treats must be store bought. These are requested because the nutrition labels help us to ensure the safety of our students with allergies.

PRESENTS/GIFTS/BALLOONS/ETC
I ask that you refrain from bringing in presents/balloons/gifts for your student on their birthday. We will celebrate together with treats.

COMMUNICATION
Please communicate with me before bringing treats so we can set up a good time in our busy daily schedule!

Thank you so much for your understanding. Please contact me if you have any questions!
Katie

Math Update Week 3

Hello all!

We are tackling Topic 2 this week, which covers addition strategies. A test will be held early next week!

Here is an overview, with a few practice problems for kids to do over the long weekend if you choose!

Topic 2.1:
Adding 0, 1, and 2 onto numbers.

1.  3+0=
2.  4+2= 
3.  7+1=
4. Owen has 6 pencils. He picks up 2 more. How many pencils does he have now?

Topic 2.2:

Doubles: Adding the same number together.

1. 7+7=
2. 2+2=
3. 5+5=
4. Heather has 9 animals. She doubles the amount of animals she has. How many does she have now?
5. Is 8+10 a double? Why or why not, explain!

Topic 2.3 

Near Doubles: Two numbers added together that are one away from each other. (Hint: use doubles to help you!)

1. 7+6=
2. 5+6=
3. 2+3=
4. Ashley has 9 skittles. She eats 8 more. How many did she eat?

Topic 2.4

Addition problems are the same forward and backward.

1. Is 2+5 the same as 5+2? What is the answer?
2. 6+9 and 9+6 =?

Topic 2.5

Number Strings! Remember our look fors: ways to make 10, doubles, or near doubles. Find those first and you're set!

1. 8+2+6=
2. 4+9+4=
3. 3+2+5=

Topic 2.6

Making 10 to add. What are all the combinations we can make to add 10? Remember, we can break numbers into nice numbers and make a number string with a 10's fact!

1. 8+4=? (Hint: break 4 apart into 2+2, and you will have a 10's fact!)
2. 6+9=?

Students now have 3 solid strategies they can use when solving problems to help them get to their answer! We have been practicing relying on these in class! 

• Doubles
• Near Doubles
• Make a 10

Thanks for taking the time to read this!