Weekly Update 4/24/17 - 4/28/17

Hello, 2nd Grade Families! As we near the end of April, we also near the end of many units. Take a look below at what we're wrapping up in the classroom, and also to learn where we are headed for the final month or so (wow!) of school.

Reader's Workshop -- We love this time of year in Reader's Workshop. In class, we've been discussing how to share books with others. Your children have shared the ways in which they do this already -- through the reading of a Birthday Book, by lending books to friends, trading, or sharing plot summaries with one another. Everyone has had a chance to share a book they love and why, which we hope will expose everyone to new series and authors to enjoy in the coming weeks. Before starting our unit on poetry, we will spend a few weeks enjoying just-right books and reinforcing the good habits of a fluent reader.

Writer's Workshop -- Syncing up with Reader's Workshop, we will shift into writing poetry after our realistic fiction stories have been published. Last week was designated to editing and publishing the stories that we have all been working hard to finish, and we look forward to celebrating these stories soon. We are continuing to publish stories through this week, but will be sure to send home books temporarily so you can celebrate your young authors at home! However, we do ask that you return these books to the classroom so students can add them to end of year portfolios.

Word Study -- Last week, we completed a group activity during Word Study that focused on suffixes and how to appropriately add a suffix to a base word. Ask your children about the 1-1-1 Rule, the 1-2-1 Rule, and the 1-1-2 Rule. See if they can explain this spelling strategy to you! This week, we are beginning new sorts across the board. We will work with these sorts for two weeks, and will plan on having an assessment the first week of May.

Math -- We are working with BIG numbers in here, and you will see evidence of this on the End of Unit Assessment coming home at the end of this week. As always, we ask that you review the assessment with your children and return it, signed. Our next unit will focus on measurement, which will be a nice change of pace from story problems and place value.

Science -- We love the excitement everyone has around science! Our unit on matter is off to a good start and soon we'll be incorporating some experiments into our schedule. We are always so grateful to Mrs. Rudisill for welcoming us into the Middle School Science Lab and will post pictures of experiments that take place over the coming weeks. Thus far, we've learned about the three different types of matter and how they behave based on their molecule make up. Next up, we'll be learning about mixing matter and how matter can change states. All of this knowledge will be reinforced with a visit to Discovery Place on Tuesday, May 9th, where we'll participate in a class all about matter.

Social Studies -- Our study of communities lends itself well to conversation about Trinity and Charlotte, and we've discussed rural, urban and suburban communities. We'll soon take a look at maps, which will hopefully prepare your children for wherever summer takes them!

Lastly, take a look at what's in store through the end of April and for the beginning of May -- and as always, let us know if you have any questions or concerns. April showers bring May flowers...

Reminders for the Upcoming Weeks:

• Thursday, April 27th -- All TES to Beauty and the Beast at Pease Auditorium
• Wednesday, May 3rd -- NUTS Day to support Trinity OM Teams!
• Wednesday - Friday, May 10 - 12th -- Spring Book Fair
• Thursday, May 11th -- Spring Arts Festival
• Friday, May 12th -- Grandfriends Day!

Weekly Update 3/27/17 - 3/31/17

Welcome back, from what we hope was an exciting, restful, and rejuvenating Spring Break! We are grateful to have had the time to re-energize and are just beginning to wrap our heads around the fact that March is ending, April is beginning, and that we are on the home stretch of Second Grade. It's always wonderful to return from a break when you know so much excitement awaits you in the morning and we felt that in surplus yesterday as your children came through the doors.

We first want to share some exciting news that arrived via mail yesterday! After months of waiting for a response, we were starting to think nothing would arrive as a result of our persuasive letters on saving the rain forest. However, much to our surprise, a letter from Adelle Gillen with the U.S. Embassy Brasilia was found in our mailbox! The class was congratulated on their hard work, their beautifully written letters, their passion and concern, and ability to advocate for an important cause. We hope your children came home sharing this exciting news and next time you're in the building, you can check out the letter yourself as we have it posted on the inside of our classroom door. We are so proud of our writers! While on the subject, in Writer's, we've started work on our realistic fiction stories and the creative juices are running wild. Students have been led through the brainstorming process, created characters, and are focusing on developing a problem within their stories that will hold the attention of readers. We will continue this project through April.

In Reader's, the class has been enjoying Book Clubs. Students are split into several reading groups, where they are focused on a particular series so that they can discuss character traits, problems and resolutions, patterns, and other commonalities between texts. This has given workshop a more social aspect and we can tell that everyone is enjoying the opportunity to talk about their reading with friends!

In Math, a new unit is underway and you will begin seeing material dealing with tens and hundreds being sent home. Numbers are getting larger, but we are encouraging students to continue using problem solving strategies they have learned as they begin working with larger numbers. Lately, our focus has been on finding the difference or distance between a particular number and 100. We are using the 100s Chart to do so, as well as coins.

This week, we're beginning new sorts in Word Study and per usual, the brunt of this work will be done in class until before our next assessment. Other subjects like Science and Social Studies will be coming back into play now that our work with the Coral Reef has finished. As scientists, we'll begin studying matter, which always creates some excitement in the building -- especially once we get going with experiments! Stay tuned for updates and pictures. In Social Studies, we'll begin taking a look at maps, and then begin looking at communities, which students already know much about simply by being at Trinity!

We will jump back into our routine of visiting and hosting InReach this Thursday, and a continued "thanks" to Jennifer Bankhead for all the coordinating she has done to make sure our drivers are set. And thank you to so many of you who donate the gift of time and presence to be with us on Thursdays! That should cover it for now, and please take note of the following reminders as we slide into April:

• Wednesday, April 5th -- NUTS Day and 1/2 day for students. 
• Tuesday, April 11th -- Field Trip to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Stay tuned for more details!
• Friday, April 14th -- No School; Good Friday. 

Weekly Update 2/28/17 - 3/3/17

A short but sweet update for you regarding what is happening in the classroom -- it's been busy!

Writer's Workshop/Storypath -- We are in the home stretch of publishing! Having spent the majority of this new year researching, drafting and editing our Coral Reef Research Books, it is almost time to publish and celebrate. Students have continued to learn additional features of non-fiction texts and have been given the opportunity to add these pieces to their writing, which many of you will see this week. This has been an extensive project and we are excited to celebrate. Next up, we will begin a unit on realistic fiction which will be a wonderful change of pace and opportunity to exercise our imaginations.

Reader's Workshop -- Lately, in Reader's, we have been focused in on three main topics. 1) Making our reading more fluent, 2) identifying literary language, and 3) keeping track of our reading as stories grow longer. Students have worked with partners to practice these skills and we've also done several shared readings as a class to practice fluency strategies. We will continue practicing these skills as we enjoy some "just right reading" during the next two weeks, and we students will also be working alongside their reading partners to establish and meet individual goals.

Math -- This week we have been working on conducting surveys and we recently visited other Trinity classrooms to collect data. Students had to brainstorm in teams how to conduct a survey and accurately record information, and soon will be creating a representation for this data. We will wrap up this unit just before conferences and look forward the latest assessment at this point.

Important reminders for the upcoming weeks:

• Wednesday, March 1st: Ash Wednesday Chapel Service, 8:00AM
• Friday, March 3rd: Under the Sea Museum 1:00 - 2:00. Please join us to celebrate the hard work we've been doing in Writer's and Storypath! Students will be eager to share their books, as well as the beautiful window paintings outside our classroom.
• Wednesday, March 8th: 8th Grade vs. Faculty Basketball Game. 2:30
• Thursday and Friday, March 9-10: Student Led Conferences. Don't forget to sign up for a time via Good News! 

We'd also like to say a HUGE thank you to the many parent volunteers who took time to join us for the painting of the Coral Reef. We could truly not have done it without your help and so appreciate your gift of time and presence. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Weekly Update 1/30/17 - 2/3/17

Hello, Second Grade Families! Time for a few class updates as we're making a couple shifts within our units of study.

Storypath and Writer's Workshop are still heavily intertwined, and your children have now started the drafting process for their coral reef research books. Because we collected so much research, we have been focusing on how to take this research and reorganize it into meaningful paragraphs, and this is also giving students the opportunity to see where they might need need to do a bit more research. Students have been using both books and the iPads to collect information on their animals, and we've been pleased to see so many checking out books on the coral reef during our recent visits to ImaginOn! In the coming weeks, we'll be covering skills such as topic sentences, pronouns, juicy words, transition sentences and words, among a few other skills. It's a hefty project to undertake, but the result will be a collection of hard work and interesting information that your children will be excited to share with you come March!

In Reader's Workshop, we're transitioned from non-fiction to fluency work, which is a critical part of growing as readers. We are encouraging students to think and notice how they read, and also how an author might be encouraging them to read through their use of dialogue, tone, and literary language. We've recently learned about how to "scoop" our words, dialogue tags, and appropriate pace. As we continue this fluency work in class, it's important that your children are reading out loud at home so please encourage them to do so nightly.

Unit 3 of Math will wrap up this week and we'll take an End of Unit Assessment that will come home to be reviewed, signed and returned. Students are now working with 1s, 10s, and 100s and have begun encountering Story Problems that have unknown change in them, which can often be tricky. Next up will be Unit 4:, and we will send home more information on how to support your children as it becomes necessary.

In Word Study, we've been working as a class on contractions and there will be assessment this Friday.

We were fortunate enough last week to have a schedule packed with exciting events! As you know and celebrated well, The Jungle Book was an absolute hit! Many thanks to you all for coming to support and celebrate the hard work of Second Grade, and we could not be more proud of the effort and energy given to this performance. It was a true success! We were lucky enough to host our friends from InReach that morning for our dress rehearsal, and then had the opportunity the following day to play the roll of audience as they performed a puppet show, "Barnyard News," for us. The play celebrated differences, and aligned so perfectly with John Sharon's messages from the Freedom Fete event. See below for a few pictures from our time with InReach last Thursday!

We will visit InReach this Thursday, February 2nd, and are looking forward to getting back in the groove with Service Learning. Thanks, in advance, to our volunteer parent drivers!

Other reminders for the upcoming weeks: 

• On Friday, February 3rd we will go to our final play at the Children's Theater. We will be seeing Junie B. Jones is Not a Crook," which is sure to be a hit! The show is at 9:30 at ImaginOn and we will go with both Kindergarten and First Grade.
• Next Tuesday, February 7th is our field trip to the Concord Mills Aquarium. This will be our first time taking a trip here, and we're looking forward to seeing what it has to offer. Thank you to our parent drivers! 
• Tuesday and Wednesday, February 14-15th will be our designated times to paint the coral reef on our hallway windows. If you have not seen it in previous years, you're in for a treat! Stay tuned for information about how you can volunteer to help. 
• Friday, February 17 is a 1/2 day, and the following Monday, February 20th there will be no school. Enjoy a long weekend! 

That about covers it for now and we will let you know of any other happenings as they are brought to our attention. Routine has officially set back in, and we hope the same is true in your households! 

Enrichment Updates

See below for a few updates from our enrichment classes! We will share classroom updates next week.

Art: We are halfway through the school year and these students have earned the privilege to use hot glue guns. Even with our supervision they quickly learned that the glue was, well, actually HOT. With this tool they are able to use an infinite number of materials in their sculptures and this delightful benefit is worth the sore fingers. Soon they will get their hands in clay. They are busy painting, drawing on big  paper with friends, and caring for supplies and each other. Second graders are prolific artists and love to talk about their work. Ask your child what they have created. Students are excited about using the Artsonia app to store images of their work in their digital portfolios.

Faith Studies: We started the New Year reviewing our Faith Studies Covenant in second grade.  The covenant is a list of promises and guidelines we created at the beginning of the school year to guide our behavior during Faith Studies.  The guidelines include respecting others, listening to the teacher, and keeping our hands to ourselves.  I think the students took the conversation to heart, as both groups have been doing an excellent job in 2017.  We moved from the book of Joshua into the book of Judges during our Bible story time in January.  The students have learned that judges can be boys and girls, as we heard the story of Deborah and Barak.  Then  we heard the story of Gideon and the miracle of the fleece.  Ask your child about the “science experiment” we did during Faith Studies last week.  We also read the story, My Daddy, Martin Luther King Jr. this month, by Martin Luther King III.  Your students were very interested in this book and talking about the ways our world has changed since the Civil Rights movement, and the ways we can continue to help his dream today.  We will welcome Mrs. Williams to lead a hymn study next week and then we will continue with the book of Ruth.  Your students are a joy to teach and I enjoy seeing them each week.  

Grace and peace,

Rev. Lindsey Wells Peery

        

PE: We have been really focusing on our fitness this trimester. We are using our yoga mats on a regular basis, practicing yoga poses, pilates exercises, and strengthening our core. We are moving into a short unit on basic volleyball skills, focusing on proper positioning (“ready”, hand position, proper bump form) and movement. We will finish the trimester with an introduction to kickball.

Spanish: Second graders are working on unit 2 of level B in the Descubre program. In this unit, children are learning culture and exploring some places in Nicaragua. We have been using the student books every week, following and practicing short conversations about types of homes, such as casa (house), apartamento (apartment), and a few vocabulary words related to animal homes such as nido (nest), and telaraña (spiderweb).  Students are also studying clothing and foods at the market. We do quick reviews of the practice done in unit 1 about greeting and good byes. Children continue practicing some family members in the conversations such as abuelos (grandparents), and niños (children). Your child's online account is a great tool to repeat the dialogs, vocabulary words, reading, comprehension and pronunciation.

Wellness: This month, the 2nd graders will learn about the difference between tattling and telling/reporting. We will begin with a discussion around the difference between “child-sized” problems and “adult-sized” problems. We will then read a book called “Don’t Squeal Unless It’s a Big Deal” by Jeanie Franz Ransom. This book tells the story of a teacher teaching her students when it is important to tell or report to a teacher what is going on and when it is OK to try and solve the problem on your own first. The teacher in this book really focuses on the point that it is important to let an adult know what is going on when someone is hurt or in danger, hurting you, hurting a pet, or hurting something that does not belong to them. In addition, I will reinforce that if you try and solve the problem on your own first and the student that you asked to stop bothering you keeps bothering you over and over again then this becomes a situation where it is also important to tell an adult. The teacher in the book also discusses that sometimes it can be hard to learn the difference between tattling and telling and that is why it is important for adults to remind children of the difference as well as important for children to practice, practice, practice this new skill! Try talking to your children at home about the difference between tattling and telling.

Weekly Update 1/9/17 - 1/13/17

Happy New Year! 2017! We hope your families enjoyed the holiday break and were able to squeeze in as much as possible. It certainly flew by, but we treasure the time spent with family and friends and are excited to be back in the routine of school. It was so wonderful to be in the classroom last Wednesday morning as your children came through the doors -- full of stories from the break and eager to catch up with us and their friends. We've heard many stories about your family traditions and travels and hope to hear more stories as we settle back in.

Storypath has raised great excitement in our classroom! Last week, our class "took a trip" to the Great Barrier Reef to kick start our study of coral reefs and its inhabitants. Storypath will blend with Reader's Workshop and Writer's Workshop as students begin research on a specific animal alongside a classmate from the Austin/Gardner class. By learning how to read a non fiction text carefully, students will collect information on their given animal and work with their partner to record this information on a graphic organizer. Students will learn important skills like paraphrasing, note taking, and how to use nonfiction text features such as captions, labels, and diagrams. All of this work will transform into a research book that students will share with you during our Coral Reef Museum in March.

In Math, we continue working through Unit 3 of Investigations. Lately we have been focusing on the number 100 -- in particular, how to make it using multiples of five as well as with coins. Story Problems now include both addition and subtraction, and we are encouraging students to use number lines as a problem solving strategy. Please encourage your children at home to always, always show their work as it helps us understand their thought process! This is a life long skill that will serve all students well as math concepts grow more complex.

In Word Study, we will be focusing on the use of adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs during the next few weeks. This will be an all-class sort and we will have an assessment following MLK weekend after several weeks of practice identifying, using, and naming these important parts of speech. This work will also work to strengthen students writing skills within Writer's Workshop.

Aside from academics, 2nd graders are hard at work for their production of The Jungle Book later this month. Over the next two weeks we will have several additional practices as a grade level to make sure we're in tip top shape for our performance!

And finally, we will hopefully be making a trip to ImaginOn this Thursday, January 12th, so please be sure you do not have any fines so that your children can check out some new books! Our partnership with InReach will pick back up later in the month, so please stay tuned for volunteer driving opportunities. Thank you in advance for your willingness to help!

Reminders for the Upcoming Month:

• Monday/Tuesday, January 16-17th -- MLK Holiday, school closed. 
• Wednesday/Thursday, January 18/19th -- All Trinity Builds. Materials are being collected at the front desk should you have any to donate. 
• Wednesday, January 25th at 2:30 -- The Jungle Book! Students will perform and we'll have a celebration afterwards. We hope you'll join us to celebrate their hard work! 

Stay warm out there -- and we hope to see you soon!

Weekly Update 12/12/16 - 12/16/16

The holiday spirit is alive and well within our classroom and hope the same is true within your homes! Noticing Books are full of stories about elves, Christmas trees, and visits with family, and we know there are more celebrations ahead. As we heard in Chapel last Friday, it is a season for joy and we hope you are each finding that amidst the hustle and bustle. 

This week will be no less busy, so take a look below at what we've got going on before break. 

Reader's -- Our "Nonfiction Nook" is in high demand! Now that we are off and running with nonfiction texts, the class has started to spend a portion of workshop reading non fiction as they search for "gems" to hold onto. The class has taken to this quite easily and is using Reader's Workshop as a time to learn and record new learnings in their Reader's Notebooks. We've discussed the different types of nonfiction books --- some that you pop in and pop out of, and others that are meant to be read in their entirety. This unit is equipping us for some research we will do when we return to school in January.

Writer's/Storypath -- Having published letters to you to share over Thanksgiving, we are using our skills as persuasive writers to advocate for the rainforest. Students are writing letters to various positions within local and national government, as well as to the government of Brazil. We've discussed the many gifts of the rainforest and why it's necessary to advocate that we stop mass destruction of this valuable land. We look forward to mailing these letters before the holidays! Please cross your fingers alongside of us that we get a response! 

Math -- You may have noticed our shift from geometry to numbers through recent homework assignments. The first investigation of Unit 3 has been focused on place value and learning to understand the two digits of a two digit number. We will continue to work on place value and will be using "strips and singles" to better understand the tens place and the ones place. We've learned several new games to help cement this understanding and are very pleased with everyone's work thus far. 

Word Study -- Because we are in the final stretch of school before break, we will be doing an all-class sort this week and into next week. We will be focusing on the "Bossy R" rule, which focuses on r-controlled vowel sounds (-ar, -or, -er). 

To keep things exciting, entertaining, and busy, we have a few additional things on the schedule this week and next. Mark your calendars!

• Thursday, December 15th -- Best Christmas Pageant at the Children's Theater 
• Friday, December 16th -- Holiday Celebration with InReach
• Monday, December 19th -- A visit from Mary Ottley, a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala. 
• Tuesday, December 20th -- Lessons and Carols at 2:00 in the gymnasium. We hope to see you there! 

And finally, please see the following message regarding All Trinity Builds, which will take place January 18th, 19th, and 20th. 

If you have any of the following materials, please send them in with your child or drop them in the ATB collection boxes located near the front desk: toilet paper tubes, paper towel rolls, PVC pipe, cans, milk cartons, old keys, oatmeal canisters, tennis racquet string, plastic cording, shoe boxes, gift wrap tubes, plastic clam shells, old silverware, coffee cans, milk jugs, pie pans, bells, old pots and pans, bamboo, dental floss, straws, or a vibraphone.

Thank you all for your constant support and let us know if you have any questions!