Dear Grade 2/3 Families,
This week was awesome! Learners are really internalizing our morning routine with little to no redirecting. Ask your learner about any new Greetings or Activities they learned at Morning Meeting. In addition, here is more of what unfolded this week:
In Grade 2
Math Workshop: Last week Second Graders worked with fact families as a way to connect addition to subtraction. Children worked with numbers at their level to make sure each learner was comfortable with the concept. Then children were challenged to work on the same concept with larger numbers. We used a race car game and Kakooma as games to build our adding skills as well. This week, we will focus on using doubles and tens to add two and three numbers.
Readers and Writers Workshop: Children were able to do some storytelling last week. Learners paired up to tell stories, which will of course lead to children writing better stories. We also focused on choosing just right books. I am now starting to see more children independently choose books at their level. This week we will talk about what to do when we encounter difficult words in our reading. We will come up with a list of strategies that can be used to help children solve these word problems independently. In writing we will write about our passions and about where we come from.
In Grade 3
Math Workshop:
This week, we warmed up by adding 10 to a number and talked about the pattern we noticed (that the number in the ones place stays the same, while the number in the tens place continues to go up by one. We also talked about what we see every time we add 10 to a number that has a 9 in the tens place.) One learner actually said: “Oh my gosh-- I always knew that happened, but I never really--like--realized it.” Learners are becoming more comfortable rotating through math stations independently. Rotating stations included Strategy Work (expanded form, subtraction w/ regrouping or making 10s and 100s as an easier way to add or subtract rather than “count by 1s” or “counting up”), Kakooma on Computer (practice, play, or contest), O’ No’ 99 (subtraction mental math), Math Stars, Number Squares, and Teacher Conference.
Learners also completed exit slips showing me how comfortable they are using EF as a viable problem-solving strategy for multi-digit addition/subtraction problems. The goal is for everyone to show they can add and subtract numbers up to 1,000 using Expanded Form, reasoning about number, and/or any other strategy they know that they’ve shared with the class.
Kakooma from the www.gregtangmath.com website was introduced and we are happy to hear that it’s caught on like wildfire! We encourage you to explore the games, strategies, and resources on this website. Lastly, we played the game Closest To Zero-- keep an eye out for it in next week’s homework packet. You will need 1 die from home in order to play.
Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop:
In Readers’ Workshop, most feel comfortable choosing “good fit books”, Ms. G spent time with learners on Monday for RW talking about how readers stop to think about what they’re reading. She modeled by “thinking aloud” using a mentor text. The rest of the week, we revisited what strategic readers do and filled out a reflection sheet noting at least 3 reading goals we have for ourselves. We chose one each day to focus on as teachers continued to conference with each reader about what they are self-selecting as Good Fit text. For Read Aloud, we continue reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Dicamillo. Overheard comments about the book include, “At first this book was boring, but it’s getting really good.” and “Edward is kind of a snobby rabbit-- but I still like him.” and “I wonder if my stuffed animals have a brain and feelings-- I know they don’t. But it’s fun to pretend they do.” Ask your child to fill you in on what’s going on in the book-- and where we left off! We had recess and had to stop-- there was a collective “Nooooooooooooooooooo!” Hahahahahaha….
In Writers’ Workshop, we used several mentor texts (Salt Hands and When The Relatives Came to Visit) to introduce writing about “small moments” Ask your learner what a small moment is and how describing it in a “stretched out” way makes it more interesting for the reader to read. Writers gathered so many small moments from their lives! They starred at least 3, then chose one to take through the writing process. Small moments ranged from “The First Time I Found Quartz” to “The Time I Face-planted”! We can’t wait to hear the authors share as they finish.
In our 2/3 learning community
IB Unit Inquiry: This week we focused on the word “perspective”. Through the book Seven Blind Mice children saw that there are many ways to look at things, and acknowledged the importance of being able to see things from other people’s perspective in order to broaden their view of a situation. Children looked at a drawing closely and shared what they saw. Some people saw an old woman, others saw a young woman, or a cliff, a tree, a beaver, and an eagle. It was pretty rad when learners began seeing visuals that they couldn’t see before just by listening carefully to how another child was describing their view! Children worked to transfer that knowledge to what they know about their developing understanding of other cultures and how those other cultures can connect to their own.
Important Dates and Reminders:
This week was awesome! Learners are really internalizing our morning routine with little to no redirecting. Ask your learner about any new Greetings or Activities they learned at Morning Meeting. In addition, here is more of what unfolded this week:
In Grade 2
Math Workshop: Last week Second Graders worked with fact families as a way to connect addition to subtraction. Children worked with numbers at their level to make sure each learner was comfortable with the concept. Then children were challenged to work on the same concept with larger numbers. We used a race car game and Kakooma as games to build our adding skills as well. This week, we will focus on using doubles and tens to add two and three numbers.
Readers and Writers Workshop: Children were able to do some storytelling last week. Learners paired up to tell stories, which will of course lead to children writing better stories. We also focused on choosing just right books. I am now starting to see more children independently choose books at their level. This week we will talk about what to do when we encounter difficult words in our reading. We will come up with a list of strategies that can be used to help children solve these word problems independently. In writing we will write about our passions and about where we come from.
In Grade 3
Math Workshop:
This week, we warmed up by adding 10 to a number and talked about the pattern we noticed (that the number in the ones place stays the same, while the number in the tens place continues to go up by one. We also talked about what we see every time we add 10 to a number that has a 9 in the tens place.) One learner actually said: “Oh my gosh-- I always knew that happened, but I never really--like--realized it.” Learners are becoming more comfortable rotating through math stations independently. Rotating stations included Strategy Work (expanded form, subtraction w/ regrouping or making 10s and 100s as an easier way to add or subtract rather than “count by 1s” or “counting up”), Kakooma on Computer (practice, play, or contest), O’ No’ 99 (subtraction mental math), Math Stars, Number Squares, and Teacher Conference.
Learners also completed exit slips showing me how comfortable they are using EF as a viable problem-solving strategy for multi-digit addition/subtraction problems. The goal is for everyone to show they can add and subtract numbers up to 1,000 using Expanded Form, reasoning about number, and/or any other strategy they know that they’ve shared with the class.
Kakooma from the www.gregtangmath.com website was introduced and we are happy to hear that it’s caught on like wildfire! We encourage you to explore the games, strategies, and resources on this website. Lastly, we played the game Closest To Zero-- keep an eye out for it in next week’s homework packet. You will need 1 die from home in order to play.
Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop:
In Readers’ Workshop, most feel comfortable choosing “good fit books”, Ms. G spent time with learners on Monday for RW talking about how readers stop to think about what they’re reading. She modeled by “thinking aloud” using a mentor text. The rest of the week, we revisited what strategic readers do and filled out a reflection sheet noting at least 3 reading goals we have for ourselves. We chose one each day to focus on as teachers continued to conference with each reader about what they are self-selecting as Good Fit text. For Read Aloud, we continue reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Dicamillo. Overheard comments about the book include, “At first this book was boring, but it’s getting really good.” and “Edward is kind of a snobby rabbit-- but I still like him.” and “I wonder if my stuffed animals have a brain and feelings-- I know they don’t. But it’s fun to pretend they do.” Ask your child to fill you in on what’s going on in the book-- and where we left off! We had recess and had to stop-- there was a collective “Nooooooooooooooooooo!” Hahahahahaha….
In Writers’ Workshop, we used several mentor texts (Salt Hands and When The Relatives Came to Visit) to introduce writing about “small moments” Ask your learner what a small moment is and how describing it in a “stretched out” way makes it more interesting for the reader to read. Writers gathered so many small moments from their lives! They starred at least 3, then chose one to take through the writing process. Small moments ranged from “The First Time I Found Quartz” to “The Time I Face-planted”! We can’t wait to hear the authors share as they finish.
In our 2/3 learning community
IB Unit Inquiry: This week we focused on the word “perspective”. Through the book Seven Blind Mice children saw that there are many ways to look at things, and acknowledged the importance of being able to see things from other people’s perspective in order to broaden their view of a situation. Children looked at a drawing closely and shared what they saw. Some people saw an old woman, others saw a young woman, or a cliff, a tree, a beaver, and an eagle. It was pretty rad when learners began seeing visuals that they couldn’t see before just by listening carefully to how another child was describing their view! Children worked to transfer that knowledge to what they know about their developing understanding of other cultures and how those other cultures can connect to their own.
Important Dates and Reminders:
- No School (Rosh Hashanah): Monday, October 3rd
- Pizza Wednesday: Wednesday, October 5th
- Goal Setting Conferences (noon dismissal): Thursday and Friday, October 6th and 7th (sign up has been shared)
- No School (Yom Kippur): Wednesday, October 12th
- Bon Fire: October 21st