Gr2 Blog “New Amsterdam Day”
Dear Families,
We have some exciting news to share. We have set a date for our annual 2nd Grade New Amsterdam Day! This is an end of unit celebration in which the students will transport back in time to become colonial school children. Each class will have stations set up in which we will make butter, make our own ink to write with using a quill and hornbook, play with some paper dolls and colonial houses, create a hand-designed Delft tile, and have a colonial treat! Our students can even dress like colonial children! The date of the celebration is the morning of January 19th, 2018. A sign-up document is linked below. We appreciate any donation that you can offer us. We will also be looking for 2-3 volunteers to come and help during the festivities. Be on the lookout for a separate email about that.
Here is a brief overview of our week:
In Writer’s Workshop we have completed our nonfiction books and are in the final stage of self-assessment and reflection. As we self-assess our work we will be thinking about the aspects of our books that we felt were really great and also areas that we would like to improve on next time. Towards the end of the week we will begin a new nonfiction unit on biographies. A letter will be going home by Friday with the name of a person that your child has chosen to research. It is imperative that your child bring in a library book on that person to complete their next project. The teachers are unable to print research for students. Thank you in advance for your support!
In Reader’s Workshop, students will begin reading books with their new reading partners. We have discussed what reading partnerships look and sound like in the classroom. We will be practicing how to talk (and keep talking!) about books this week and will begin a shared text to read together. We have begun reading a chapter book as a class called Jake Drake, Bully Buster, and are talking with our partners about our ideas. We have learned many things about the main character and other supporting characters so far. Our classes have many predictions and connections and we can’t wait to read on!
In Math Workshop, our students are continuing to work on their survey projects. Each partnership created a question to ask their classmates and teachers in order to find out more about our classes. Once they gathered their results, the partnerships needed to sit and think about how to organize all that information, which can be a daunting task depending on the number of different answers they may have received. The students are now working with their partners to create a poster showing all of their gathered information in a way that can be easily and quickly understood by others. They will do this by first deciding how to present the information. Most kids are making either a bar graph or line plot graph. We can’t wait to share some pictures of their work!
Have a great week.
Sincerely,
Ms. Mathis and Ms. Anne
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