Thank you all for all of the gifts, cards, stories, books, and love! I feel so grateful to be a part of such a wonderful community and I am going to miss your kiddos like crazy over the long break! I hope you all have a lovely break and I will see you in the new year!
Love, Robin Happy almost winter! I don’t know about you all, but I am loving this colder weather! I hope that everyone is having a good few weeks between Thanksgiving and Winter break. We have been having a really nice time in Core 2. We have been busy, but also enjoying our time together. In reading, we have continued to meet in book clubs every morning. The students choose a book to read in a group, and then have a variety of reading response graphic organizers to choose from when they are done. Next week we are going to add story boards as one of their reading response options. Kids tend to love story boards, so you may want to try doing them at home. Here is the graphic organizer that we are going to use, starting next week, in case you would like to try it at home: In writing with Patrick, students have been creating an All About writing piece.
We have been learning about and creating Mandalas the last few days. These are a really fun art activity that can also be tied into mindfulness. The students really enjoyed creating them, and the variety of final products was really interesting (check out our class door to see all of the different creations). In math we did a series of word problems that I used as a math assessment. It was awesome to see the progress that the students have made in both their strategies they are using, and their ability to explain their thinking. We have also been learning several different math games. The latest one is a card game named “Add It Up!” Feel free to have your student teach you the game so that you can play it with them at home! It is a great opportunity for students to practice 1, 2, or 3 digit addition. I hope that everyone has a great weekend! Robin Hi Everyone!
Report cards are coming up! I would like to encourage you to write a parent report card comment for your child. This will go on their report card, along with Patrick and I’s comments. Please email them to me by December 15th, and put your child’s name and the words “Parent Report Card Comments” in the subject. Parent Report Card Comments Due: December 15th, 2015 Reminders: · Write as if you are speaking to your child · 250 word limit (please stay under this limit!) · Celebrate growth · Include next semester goals for reading, writing, and math, and home-school (if you want) Example: (Written to the child, but this is an end of the year piece- this is 225 words!) ________, you have done some amazing work this year and we are so proud of you! Your creativity has really come through in your writing, your conversations, and even in the way you problem solve. You have grown tremendously in your self-confidence and willingness to take risks through the trying of new unexplored areas. We look forward to your journey as you continue to discover your passions and initiate your own learning and growth with those special areas in mind. We want you to continue pushing the envelope as you hone your writing in new ways: how about writing poetry? a short story? an editorial to a news column? You’ve handled the reading of news and business magazines with such aplomb that it would be great for you to read them on a more regular basis. We should make a more conscious effort to read some of literature’s greatest classics next year. You have shown consistency in your math knowledge and know you will continue to excel in your understanding of addition and subtraction. We invite you to offer more feedback and insight into your own learning as a second grader. You’ve mentioned that your best learning period was a unit study on architecture. We should brainstorm together on future unit study topics and how to broach all subject areas with your interests in mind. Work Journals! I wanted to put a few Work Journal related bits of info on your radar.
Option #1 Wednesday, December 9th @ 3:00-4:00pm-Robin’s Room We will be exploring measurement and data (the math unit for WJ #3) in detail. We will have a chance to look at several of the Georgia State tasks for this Work Journal period, along with studying the measurement/ data standards, learning new activities, and answering any questions that you may have. Option #2 and #3 Thursday or Friday, December 10 and 11, 3:15 to 4:15 A writing protocol is like a recipe that gets kids writing multiple sentences in one sitting. Students follow the steps and learn to write letters, timelines, and news articles. The protocols can be used multiple times and across multiple genres. You will also learn a few strategies to make writing easier at home. Hello Hello! I had such a great time at Exhibition the last two nights! I was beyond proud and impressed by the kids and by you all! I loved getting to hear the students share all of their hard work, and I was so impressed by the caliber of questions that the adults in the room were asking. Everywhere I looked parents and guests were engaged in what students were sharing! I can’t thank you enough for all of the support you give your kids, and the thoughtfulness that you brought to Exhibition. We will be getting back into a more regular routine over the next few days, along with some reflection and celebration of all of their hard work preparing and presenting at Exhibition. One thing we have added to our routine the last few weeks are math games! So far we have learned Pyramid 10 (a fun game that helps students practice making 10s) and by the end of the week, all students will have learned a game that we call “Place Value Party.” These would be great games to play at home as well if you feel that your student could use extra support in making tens or understanding place value. Place Value Party (this game is very similar to several dice games that you may have played with your student) All you need is a deck of cards and 2 white pieces of paper
**You could add a written element by having the student record the two numbers along with a greater than or less than sign I know that I said I would have the interviews that we did at the beginning of the year up a long time ago, but finding the time to edit them has been a bit hard. I will try to get them up soon, but in the mean time, Story Corp has actually begun a really great program that allows for younger kids to record on their app. I would love to encourage you to check this out, and think about doing some interviews of family members over Thanksgivign Break. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and a restful break!
Hello Core 2 families,
I wanted to touch base about Exhibition which is coming up on November 16th and 17th from 5-6:30. Exhibition is a chance for each student to share their learning with the community, and we are excited to be sharing our Insect Project! Each student will be giving tours in class of our project for 40 minutes (either from 5-5:40 or 5:40-6:20). The main things that they will be sharing during the tour are:
We are very excited to get a chance to share our learning from this project! The students came to this project with so much curiosity about the world of insects and I have loved watching them explore the natural world around them! They have worked hard and persevered in creating some truly amazing work that they are excited to share with you! Please sign your student up for one 40 minute time slot. The other 40 minutes can be spent exploring all of the other beautiful work being done on campus. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d48a8a729abfe3-exhibition Thanks, and please reach out with any questions that you have! Robin Hello! I loved getting to spend the morning at the Madrona Marsh with so many of you! I tried to spend some time with each group and I think I got to 3 out of 4 docent groups. I was so impressed with how many different plants, animals and insects we saw! It is always so fun to get to spend time out in the world with you and your kiddos! We have been hard at work the last two weeks! We did half of our MAP testing on Monday/ Tuesday and we will be finishing up on Thurs/ Fri. It has gone smoothly so far, and I have high hopes for Thursday/ Friday. In math we have been studying different types of graphs (pictographs, bar graphs, tally mark chart) and also symmetry. These are math ideas that have come up naturally in the process of pursuing our interests around insects. We have been graphing our scientific experiment data in order to visually show the information we gathered. Graphs are a great way to bring math into other subject areas. Easy ways to use/ build graphs at home:
We have been studying symmetry because insects are symmetrical. We have been creating symmetrical insects using tracing paper. If you are ever wondering an easy way to get a non-drawing kid excited about art- try tracing paper! We have been talking a lot about insect adaptations lately. This would be a great topic to chat with your kiddo about at home! The basic definition for adaptaion that we have been working with is “a physical feature or behavior that helps an animal survive.” Most students understand camouflage, which is an adaptation, but we have been branching out to talk about other physical features like stingers, along with behaviors such as migration. It would be a great thing to study further at home, as there are so many cool examples all around you! On the Madrona Marsh field trip we saw countless examples of plants/ animals/ and insects using adaptations to help them survive. The students are hard at work on their insect storybook. At this point they will be working on it both in writing with Patrick and also with me. I have been giving them editing feedback using an editing checklist. I know I have talked about this in the past, but I wanted to mention it again, as it is extremely useful! The basic idea is that you give (or create with your child) a checklist of things that they need to check when they are finished with a writing piece. You can make it specific to them, or just modify the one I have attached below. I have actually been creating specific ones for each kid on a post it, in order to meet their diverse needs, but you could create one and have the child use it after any writing assignment that needs editing. We have also been working on singing the song “All you need is love” by the Beatles, so they may be asking to hear that at home J
Announcements: Pizza Day New Dates!!! Mon, Oct 26 & Tues, Oct 27 Pizza Day has been changed to Monday, 10/26 & Tuesday, 10/27 to avoid the long pizza lines at Costco for Halloween. Spirit Day--"Creative Costume" Day Thurs, Oct 29 & Fri, Oct 30 Our next Spirit Day is coming up in a few weeks. We invite students to wear their school appropriate Halloween costumes on October 29th/30th. Make up PEC 2 meeting: If you missed PEC 2, the make up meeting is this Thursday and Friday at 3:15 in my room. It is mandatory for those of you that missed PEC 2. If anyone is needing guidance in math and has not made it to any math workshops this year, you are welcome to come as well. It was so awesome getting a chance to spend time with all of you at PEC 2! Working together with you to ensure that your kiddos get an awesome education is one of the many things that I love about this job. I hope that those of you that came to the Core 2 Math found it helpful and that you had plenty of time to connect during the Core 2 meet up! We have been doing a lot of insect experiments this week to learn about the ants that we have on campus. Below you will find the simple graphic organizer for leading students through the scientific method while doing an experiment. Feel free to use this at home to conduct simple experiments: Students have also begun writing their insect storybook in writers workshop with Patrick. Creating the insect storybook will take until Exhibition (mid-November) at which point students will have a chance to show it off! Right now they are finishing up the planning stage and moving into writing the first few pages of the book.
In reading, we have begun to read non-fiction books about insects in our book clubs. These are self selected groups of kids that all have a shared interest in reading a particular book together. It is awesome watching students support each other and learn from each other! Both Tuesday and Wednesday will be homeschool days, as Student Led Conferences will be happening in the classroom. Have a great week! Dear Core 2 Parents,
We have had another lovely week in Core 2! We are finishing up our interview project, and diving into our insect project! We are beginning to talk about what questions we have about insects. Students have already generated really interesting questions that will be used to drive our inquiry into the world of insects. We went on an insect walk around campus to see what insects we are sharing our space with. We found quite a few ants, ant eggs, queen ants, flies, beetles, and butterflies. We then took photos and notes on what they looked like, how they moved, and where we found them. We have begun to explore the question “what makes an insect and insect?” and also the naming of the key insect body parts (head, thorax, abdomen, legs, and antennae). Students seem very excited about this project already, and I have a good feeling about the work that we will be doing! In math we have continued to focus on word problems and number talks. This week we have begun to work on the skills needed to listen and build on other people’s mathematical thinking. This can be really challenging for students, and definitely takes some time to build. I will be offering a workshop at PEC 2 on “Core 2 Math.” I will be talking a bit about what math looks like in class, along with how to use Georgia State and ST math at home. We will also chat about how to get kids thinking and talking about math in a way that is engaging and productive. I would love to see all of you there, and would highly recommend this workshop to anyone that is having a hard time getting math off the ground at home. One of our big final products for the insect project is an insect storybook. Each student will create a fictional story with an insect as the main character. This will be created with Patrick in writing and with me during project time. Students have begun the process of choosing the insect that they will be focusing on for their storybook. I will let you know more about how you can support them at home, once they have chosen their main insect. I will have a project overview ready next week that will have a list of home extensions for our new project. We will also have a chance to chat during PEC and we will be brainstorming home extension ideas at that time as well. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Robin Happy Wednesday Core 2!
I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend! We are having a great (but hot!) week in Core 2. I wanted to remind everyone to send their kiddo(s) with a water bottle, especially on these super-hot days. We will be finishing up our interview project in the next few days. We are excited to have Dan (DVIA’s junior high humanities teacher) come and record our partner interviews tomorrow and Friday. Depending on how many we can get through, we may continue recording next week as well. I am excited to have students do their final interviews, get a chance to experience the recording process, and hopefully (fingers crossed) hear an actual podcast of their interviews! I will be in touch about what we will be doing with the final recordings. I am excited to say that I have noticed new friendships being created in both classes! The celebrations that we do at the end of the day have been full of new friend celebrations! We are starting Handwriting without Tears this week. Tuesday/ Friday cohort started yesterday, and Mon/ Thurs will start tomorrow. Students will be doing the first month or two with me in class. This will give me a chance to learn about each student’s grip and letter formation. Once I have info about each student, I will be sending some students home with their workbook to do at home during homeschooling. Other students will continue to do their handwriting in class so that I can keep an eye on their grip/ letter formation and make sure that they are progressing. I will reach out to parents as I have more information. I am noticing a lot of reversals in both cohorts (b’s and d’s, p’s and g’s etc). I had a parent recommend an interesting sounding app that addresses these reversals called “Letter Reflex.” It sounded interesting so you may want to check it out if you notice your kiddo making a lot of these reversals. You should have received an email from me regarding ST math: Dear Core 2 Parents, I wanted to send out info on ST Math, which is a great math program that you all have access to at home. I finished logging all Core 2 students into their new grade level today, so students can begin playing at home. If you would like to use this at home you will need to download the ST Math app onto a tablet device (if you don’t have the app already). At that point your kiddo has a password that they can input. If they cannot remember their password, don’t worry! We will practice it more next week and then they will have an easier time remembering it. For those of you who have kids that used ST Math last year, their password is the same. I would recommend that kids play for app. 20 minutes a day during their homeschooling. I know that there were a few hiccups over the weekend, but it should be working at home at this point. Students that are new to the program may take a week or two to learn their password. If they do not remember it at home, don’t worry! I will help them learn it at school and they will be able to log in at home soon! We will be starting up our next project soon! I am beyond excited to share with you what we will be creeping and crawling (hint hint) into! I hope to have a project plan and some home extension ideas for you very soon! Reminder: Our First Pizza Day! Thurs, 9/17 & Fri, 9/18: Please make sure to make a plan with your kiddo. If they are going to buy pizza at lunch they will still need snacks for morning and afternoon body break. If they are not going to get pizza, you may want to have a conversation with them about it, so that they are not disappointed during lunch time. Thanks! Hello Everyone! We have had a wonderful week full of getting to know each other and getting to know our classroom! I have watched as students form new friendships and start to come out of their shells. What an awesome bunch of kids!! We have spent some time each day working on our interview project, which has been a great way to get to know each other. Students were paired up with a classmate that they did not know very well and have done several activities with this new friend to get to know each other. We have also begun to learn about interviews, including an exploration of what makes a “good” interview question. We have begun exploring the difference between a question that elicits a one word answer, and a question that gets the interview subject talking and telling about themselves. It has been interesting, and requires a lot of critical thinking to develop these types of questions. An interesting (and easy!) home extension activity would be to listen to an interview together, and critique the questions that the interviewer is asking. In reading and writing we have been focused on building up two different response to literature routines. My goal is to have students comfortable with several response to literature options so that when they read a book on their own (during just right reading) or with a group (during book clubs) they will be able to complete a response to the book confidently on their own. One response to literature graphic organizer that we have been using is one in which the student has to draw and write what happened at the beginning/middle/end of a book. If you are wanting to try this at home (great work sample idea!) just google “beginning middle end graphic organizer” and you will find tons of different options. The other response to literature routine that we have been building is writing a character in the book a friendly letter. Here is a link to a friendly letter graphic organizer that I like: This is a fun way to learn about the parts of a letter, while also allowing them to demonstrate what they understood about a character in a book. We have been working on these 2 response to literature options in both writing and reading, so most students are starting to feel confident in them. In math we have continued doing number talks and word problems. I wanted to show you an example of word problems that we do in class: Students have learned how to use this type of paper, and are getting used to the idea that I am more interested in seeing “how” they think about the problem, rather than just the answer. I am going to try to get everyone enrolled in ST math this Thursday, Friday, and I will let you know more once that is complete (thank you for your patience!)
Announcements: Cordula and Mr. Mason (the art teachers) are looking for some supplies for their classroom. Here is a message from Cordula: We are looking for any white-ish paper that is larger than 8 1/2 x 11. Heavier weight paper than copy paper is preferred, that way students can paint and use water based media. Paper can be dropped off directly in the Innovation Station on the table near the white board. Have a beautiful long weekend! Robin |
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February 2017
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