Gr2 Week of 1/24/19
Dear Families,
We hope that you are all doing well. We have been very busy here in second grade! Last week we had a wonderful trip to the Brooklyn Historical Society in DUMBO, where we learned about how Brooklyn’s waterfront was used throughout history. In class, we are starting to learn about New York’s unique geographical features, which have shaped our city into the metropolis it is today. Over the next couple of weeks, our students will be exploring features of maps. The kids will develop their own maps of our classrooms, and soon, New York City.
In Math Workshop, we are well into the data portion of our Measurement and Data unit. We learned about line plots and bar graphs as a way to organize data. Now we will be learning how to collect, categorize, and record data. Students are working in partnerships to create a question to ask their classmates and teachers in order to find out more about our classes. Once they gather their results, the partnerships need 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 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 will make either a bar graph or line plot graph. We can’t wait to share some pictures of their work!
We are continuing our nonfiction study in Reading Workshop by comparing the information found in more than one book on the same topic. We are noticing that by reading more than one book, we get different (and sometimes conflicting) perspectives, and we can develop a deeper and more complete understanding of our topics.
In Writing Workshop, we have been learning about a new genre of writing: Lab Reports! This unit is integrated with our Science unit on Changing Landforms. We started by exploring the question “How do waves change a sand dune?”. We made a model of a sand dune using sand in a tray. Then we experimented by making waves in the tray and recording what happened to the sand. This week, we will investigate how we can create a barrier to protect the sand dunes from the waves. Your children have been thinking about what materials they would like to use. Some kids have suggested using rocks or sticks as a barrier. If your child would like to bring in supplies to experiment with, please send in materials by this Thursday, January 24th. Thank you!
Here are some important dates to keep remember:
-January 29: 201’s trip to Makerspace
-January 30: 202’s trip to Makerspace
-February 5: Lunar New Year- No School
Have a great week!
Ms. Mathis and Ms. Anne