Happy Holidays!

We've made it through one semester of second grade!  In the amount of time we've been together, we've logged 200 read alouds on our Shelfari!  These are only the ones that we can log, not even things that we've read from our textbooks that aren't available on Shelfari.  We've grown a lot...all of our reading, writing, and thinking is paying off.  Have a great break, but don't forget to keep exercising your reading muscles all break!  Come back ready to read strong for our mClass testing!

Have a wonderful holiday and a wonderful break!

Mrs. Leitze

Parent Moment...Holiday Break Screen Time

As our holiday break approaches, I was thinking about all of the things I that Nick will want to do while we're home over break.  Lately his favorite thing has been trying to watch seemingly endless hours of Bob the Builder!  When I got this article from our pediatrician today, it reminded me that we need to limit these things, especially when we're home more of the day.  The article says that children over the age of 2 should be limited to no more than 2 hours of screen time per day (while recommending NO screen time for younger children).  In our house we'll be keeping this in mind and trying to spend plenty of time doing things other than watching TV this break!  I just wanted to share this with all of you.  As always, please make sure there is time set aside every day for your child to read, either with you or another adult, or by him/herself.

Guest Blog by Jamie

Today we learned about commas and quotation marks.  We also learned about details in drawings.  The most exciting thing that we learned was in math.  We learned how to regroup.  In writing we learned how to tell some of the story.

Polar Express Fun

We began our day with a viewing of The Polar Express movie and a "train" ride around the school.  After art, lunch, and recess, we had some time to make ornaments with Mrs. Beaty's class.  Finally, we listened to The Polar Express story with the link from the blog.  Then we used our compare and contrast skills to work on a Venn Diagram for the book and the movie.  We really paid attention to a lot of the details!  One of the highlights of the day was to share a chocolate drink and have cookies with our other second grade friends.  Mrs. Leitze gave everyone a bell at the end of the day to remember this time on the Polar Express.

May it continue to ring for you as it does for me and all who truly believe.
Mrs. Leitze

Guest Blog by Addie

We have been working on The Polar Express!  We had a great day!  We had hot cocoa and cookies.  It was a great day today!

Polar Express!

We spent our day on the Polar Express in second grade today.  A guest blogger will fill you in later on all of our happenings.

If you don't know this story, this week The Polar Express is the featured online story at Barnes and Noble.  Use this link to see the story and hear it read by the author, Chris Van Allsburg.  This is a wonderful story that your whole family will enjoy!

Our Day - Guest Blog by Grace

Today we learned about that two stories can be alike like Strega Nona and The Magic Porridge Pot.  The sign is called a Venn Diagram.  We compared and some things were the same.  Both had two main characters and they both had something to do with magic pots.  Both villages were filled with food, but one had pasta and one had porridge.

Happy Thanksgiving!

On the eve of Thanksgiving, second grade was still bustling with learning today!  We worked on getting a few things finished up and worked on pre-graphing skills with a mystery picture early this morning.  During all of Reading Workshop, we practiced our Readers' Theater play.  It was a great way to practice fluency, have fun reading, and work together.  The best part was presenting our play to Mrs. Beaty's class and then later to Mrs. Love's class and Mr. Brown.  They all loved our VERY dramatic presentation!  We worked on some writing skills with some punctuation and capitalization work, and subtracted numbers using the hundreds chart.  We got to watch Mayflower Voyagers with the Peanuts characters.  While we were watching, we discovered that all of the things that happened in our play really happened to the Pilgrims and that the people we played in the play were real people!  (Imagine that!  Don't you hate it when you are learning and don't even know it?!)  Some students even made connections to the Thanksgiving themed books we read in reading groups!  Whew!  It was a busy day full of learning!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Rest up, Leitze Learners!  We have a lot of learning to do after break before Winter Break!

Terrific Tuesday 11/15

What a day!  We started off having a great time having breakfast with our grandparents.  We read and worked in writing on using conventional capitalization.  We're such big second graders that we even took notes in our Writer's Notebooks!  This afternoon, we got to have the Dance Kaleidoscope group teach us about dance.  It was so cool!  If your family would be interested in seeing them on Friday, Cowan has ticket vouchers available for you courtesy of Emens and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Just let us know and we will send them home.  The performance is at 7:30 on Friday.

I almost forgot...homework is 6-5 (adding tens like we did the tens and ones yesterday).  According to the students, it's easy peasy!

Monday, Monday

We worked a lot today on our non-fiction life cycle reading, working on conventional writing to make it readable to others, and on adding using a hundreds chart.

In Math, we learned how to add numbers using the hundreds chart.  We start at one number, move down the number of tens, and then move to the right the number of ones.  Then voila! we end up at the answer.  We figured out that it doesn't matter which number we start with either, we get the same answer!  Homework is Math practice page 6-4.

Friday 11/11/11

Happy 11/11/11 and Veteran's Day!

We had a wonderful time celebrating our writing with Mrs. McNiff's 5th graders!  They brought their Diary of a ... books and shared them with us.  We got to hear great stories, give and receive feedback, and share a trail mix snack.

This was a busy, trying week.  Rest up, Leitze Learners, and get ready for next week.  We'll be starting on some new things, like a new writing unit, and finishing up some things we've been working on, like mental addition and life cycles.

Writing Celebration Tomorrow!

We're so excited for our writing celebration tomorrow!  We'll be sharing our books with Mrs. McNiff's class and they'll be sharing some of their books with us.  We'll even be giving and getting some written feedback on our writing.

In Math, we worked on more strategies for adding tens and ones.  For homework, students are doing #9-17.

If you're going to the Chuck E Cheese fundraiser, it's from 3-9 tonight.

Wednesday 11/9

We've had some challenges using our school manners and listening in the past couple of weeks, but especially this week.  We've been working hard on listening and following directions and not talking when others are talking.  This has taken a lot of energy this week.  Please reiterate this message to your children at home.

In math, we talked about strategies for adding ones mentally.  We talked about counting on (ex. 18+4 count on 19, 20, 21, 22), about making groups of ten (ex. 18+4= 18+2= 20+ 2 more = 22), and about adding the ones and then the tens (ex. 8+4=12 and 12+10= 22).  I have encouraged the kids to use the strategies that make it the easiest for them to work on mental math and not to worry about the other strategies.  Homework is the practice side of sheet 6-2.

Manic Monday

What a busy day!  We had a lot to get done today!  We are really enjoying getting started on another science unit!  These Leitze Learners really love science!

Tonight's homework is a 2 sided sheet for math practice.  One side is called Pieces of Gold and the other is Which Key?  Students are to do both sides.

Have a great evening and don't forget to read!

Week of 11/7

Here's the link for our newsletter this week.

Tuesday 10/25

We worked on patterns in hundreds charts today.  Students are to complete #3-7 for their homework.  They do not have to do #8-10.

We have also had a lot of trouble with self-control this week.  Students should try to get outside and get some of their energy out tonight before getting to bed at a good time to be ready for tomorrow.

Monday 10/24

We have #6, 7, and 8 on the Math lesson sheet (10-4) for homework tonight.

Also, Mrs. Wright has asked me to remind you that tomorrow is the last day to turn in the pie push order forms from Market Day.

News for the Week of 10/24

Here's the link to our newsletter for this week.

Reminders-
**No school Thursday or Friday.
**Halloween Party on Monday afternoon
**Bring, don't wear your costume!
*Treats- Austin and Aidan
*Drinks/Cups- Addie
*Plates/Napkins Lydia
*Come help with costumes (noon-ish)- Dylan's mom
*Come help set up party (1ish)- Grace's mom

It's a great week...to be a Blackhawk!

We're Still Here! and Authors Write for a Reason

I apologize for the lack of posts this week.  It's been a busy week for me -- my family is moving this week.  I will try to be back to daily posting next week.  When I get a chance, I'm going to post some pictures of the charts and work we did this week on Author's Purpose.  We talked all about the reasons that authors write different books.  Today, we read our own books and did a think sheet about what we were thinking about the author's purpose.  Some of us are really getting the hang of thinking about this!  It helps us to know how to read a book by understanding WHY the author is writing it.  We read books differently if they're just for fun or if we're reading to learn something.  As you read at home with your child, see if you can figure out what you think the author's purpose might be.

Report Cards are Coming!

Report cards are coming home tonight.  Please look for the gold colored paper in your child's folder, sign the bottom, and send it back tomorrow.

The other homework is math practice 10-2.  Have a great night!

Week of 10/17

Here's this week's newsletter.

We did it!

We read them, funny and serious, happy and sad,
fiction and non-fiction, and boy, we are glad!
We set a goal for one hundred books that aloud we'd read
and in 9 weeks, we did!  It feels great to succeed!

Fire Safety 2

Now we know a lot about fire safety!

Fire Safety Week

We made a wordle of all of the things that we knew about fire safety.

Homework for tonight is to talk about and practice your fire safety plan.

Goal: 100 books

Have you noticed our book shelf on the left?  It's quite full!  We have been adding all of our read alouds to it since the first day of school.  We're trying for 100 books by the end of the week (the end of the first 9 weeks).  We're currently at 85.  Think we can make it?

Publishing Celebration #2

We are authors!

First, we read our favorite page into the writers' circle.  After that, we met in small groups and shared our whole stories with our friends.

Addie, Alec, and Dylan enjoy listening to each other read.

Caleb, Austin, and Noah share their books.

Aidan, Caleb, and Chase read together at the coffee table.

Grace and Sami share their books at the couch.

Emma and Ayden listen as Jamie reads "The Haunted Room of Scar

Next, all of our authors laid their work out on their desks for the museum share part of our celebration.  Don't you like how Aidan labeled his Author's pencil?

During the museum share, all of the students got to walk around and see everyone else's work.  Even Mr. Brown stopped in to see all of our hard work.

We love to end our celebrations with a treat.  Look at these chocolate chip cookies that Mrs. Leitze made!

We loved our fancy napkins, too!

 After our treats were done, we sent our books to Mrs. Beaty's room for her students to read.  They went in a tub just like our classroom library tubs.  We labeled the tub "Second Grade Authors".  We hope they'll send us some books they publish to read, too!

Fancying Up Writing

Our chart about how we can "Fancy Up" our writing.

Jamie worked more on her words by learning ways to use dialogue in a story.

Jamie also added a back cover to her story.

Tyler's book had an unfortunate meeting with some water, so he worked on a new, neater copy.

Noah added to his words and his pictures.

Alec added to his words.

Addie added a back cover to her book, too.

Dylan added a cover with "Mac Pro" to his computer book.

Morning Word Work

Most mornings, we start our day with Word Work.  When we do Word Work, we use different materials to practice our phonics and spelling skills.  Take a look at some of the choices Leitze Learners like to make for Word Work.

Austin likes to use the dry erase boards and markers for his practice.  He loves to work under a desk.

Lydia and Tyler use Play-Doh and mechanical pencils on desks.  Alec prefers to use markers.

Sami and Grace are comfy on the couch with markers.

Writers Pick Work to Publish

 From our first writing unit, we know that writers pick pieces to work on more to make them great when they are getting ready to publish.  At the end of writer's workshop last week, we gathered and checked out all of the illustration study pieces we'd written.  It was hard work, but we each chose a piece to work on for publishing.

 

These writers are thinking hard about which pieces they are going to fix and fancy up for publishing.

Austin's How to Get Fired book

Austin worked hard during our illustration study on this book.  I love how he explained that he didn't include background in the pictures because he really wanted his reader to notice what the people were doing.

How to Get Fired (the original cover)

1. Be Mean.  Paint Chairs.  2. Be annoying.

3. Be nosy.  Step 4. Be a wierdo.

Austin revised his original cover and added some color and some detail.

Great job, Austin!

News for the Week of 10/10

There's a lot going on in 2nd grade!  Take a look at our newsletter to see!

Writing Wednesday 10/5

As we are approaching our publishing deadline of Friday, many students are needing more time to get their books finished.  I am not giving other homework tonight, just giving students time for this writing work.  PLEASE do not feel like you need to help your child correct spelling or grammar mistakes.  We'll get to that, but right now, they should be finishing and fixing what they see in their work.  I am NOT expecting perfection in spelling and written English in these books, but I am looking for a story that makes sense and thoughtful illustrations (in light of the HUGE amount of time we have spent on studying illustrations this month).

Comparing numbers

Our homework tonight is from #7-16 on the math lesson sheet.  After you've finished your homework, Leitze Learners, you can use this link to play this game with comparing numbers.

Homework 10/3

Today we worked on reading and writing numbers to 100.  Students learned that we can put together any tens number with any ones number to make a two-digit number and that we connect them with a hyphen(-).  For example that 64 is sixty-four.

The homework for tonight is to do the inside of the lesson paper (5-2) #1-18.  Students do not have to do the back for homework.

Magnificent Monday 10/3

How time flies!  I can't believe we're already in the 8th week of school!  Here's our newsletter for this week.

We're still looking for volunteers for family fun night.  Please let me know if you can help.

Breakfast, Lunch, the Menu, Oh My!

Here's a link to the menu in case you lose your paper copy.

Second grade is still in need of volunteers for the Family Fun Night on October 21.  We second grade teachers would hate to have to beg for parents to cover the 5 shifts!  Please let us know if you could help.  Thanks in advance!

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Leitze

Hey, Check this Out!

Leitze Learners, look what I found to help you practice what we talked about in math!  It's a game to help you practice your tens and ones!  It's just like what we talked about in math today!  It would be great practice along with your homework.  Speaking of homework, it's a math worksheet on grouping tens and ones and writing the numbers in a place value chart.

Have a great night!

Wednesday 9/28

Homework tonight was just to read.

We've been working VERY hard on our reading at school.  One of the things we've been talking about it how if we're voracious readers, we're reading all the time.  All of this practice is what really helps us to improve on reading.  I just read this article tonight from author James Patterson.  He has many words of wisdom on how to get your child to be a fanatic reader.  He agrees that kids need to read voraciously!

Leitze Learners, that means that you need to eat words with your eyes all the time like Winston the Book Wolf!

Read!  Read!  Read!  and have a good night.

Tuesday 9/27

Welcome to our new student!  We're glad you're here.

We're reviewing for a math test tomorrow, so we're working on math facts.  Homework is to complete the fact and coloring page that was started during math centers.

Don't forget your library books!

Marvelous Monday

Tonight's homework is to read and to enjoy the sunshine :)

Don't forget gym shoes for tomorrow!

Week of 9/26

Here's this week's newsletter.

It's a great week to be a Blackhawk!

Wonderful Weekend

Just two quick notes:

-Family Fun Night for the PTO will be on the 21st of October.  We (the second grade) will be running a bean bag toss booth.  The teachers will be setting everything up after school.  We are in need of volunteers to staff the booth for 45 minute slots (between 6 and 8:45).  If you are willing to help out, please comment below or send me an email and I will get with you to schedule a time.

-Book order forms went home tonight.  If you'd like to order, I'd encourage you to do so online.  Our class code is on the front of the first form.  If you order that way, it's best for us.  Our class gets a $3 coupon to buy books for the classroom each time a parent makes an online order!  Our order has to be in by Friday the 30th to get the extra back to school bonuses offered in September, so please check the fliers and order soon if you're interested.

Hope all of you Leitze Learners and your families have a wonderful weekend!

Readers and writers learn from each other by studying books together.

 This "Science group", as they called themselves, started meeting last week.

 These readers started looking for books that were written by authors they already knew about.

 These readers were looking at different animal books.

The science group met again today and looked for forces and motion in all different books.

Way to apply your knowledge and work together, Leitze Learners!  We'll have to work in book club groups more this year!

Writers learn by trying to write and illustrate like published authors.

Not sure why this won't turn the right way, but Emma tried out her own version of The Trouble with Dogs...said Dad.

Sami tried out Smile!

A new version of Pete the Cat.  This Pete likes to roller skate.

Tyler was making his own version of a read aloud.

Dylan worked on his own version of The Zoo.

Writers create spreads.

Hannah creates a spread across the bottom of her pages.

Lydia spreads her work WAY across her pages!

Tyler's diagram of our room is spread across his pages.

Jamie's haunted house story is spread across her pages.

Terrific Thursday 9/22

Homework for tonight is the color lesson paper 3-5 #3-13.

We had some great community moments today.  I can tell that we're working on growing as friends in our room.  There was definitely more cooperation and kindness shown today.  Good job, Leitze Learners!

Wonderful Wednesday

We writers worked "weally" well Wednesday.  Check back later tonight/tomorrow for photos of what we were up to.

Homework is read 20 minutes and get outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Tuesday 9/20

We've really been immersing ourselves in reading and writing this week.  We've been looking at things that we learn right from the words in the story and those that we figure out from thinking about what we already know along with what we've learned from the text (drawing conclusions or inferring).

In our illustration study, we've looked at how illustrators craft pictures to show the reader just what they want them to see, and also how the illustrator uses color to help the reader feel a certain way.

In Math, we're talking more about how our addition facts help us to know subtraction facts.  Yesterday we worked on facts with sums up to 10 and today we'll build on with sums up to 18.

We've been so busy!

Homework tonight is Math 3-4 and bring library books for tomorrow.

Week of 9/19

Here's the link to this week's newsletter.  Check out everything that's going on in our room!

Monday night's homework- Math 3-3 and wear gym shoes

It's a great week to be a Blackhawk!

Our First Writing Celebration!

I've located my camera cord, and I hope to be able to share more photos on a more regular basis!

 After reading our favorite page to the whole class, we shared our entire stories to our table groups around the room.

 We toasted to our successes as writers with some tasty juice and walked around to see each others books on our desks, like a writing museum.

 It was fun to celebrate our writing work!

 Cheers to us!

Here's to the next books we'll write!