Ready, Set, Read!

Make a picture slideshow

Our First Unit of Study in Reader's Workshop reviews expectations for the workshop and teaches strategies for reading with stamina, fluency and meaning. This week we reviewed how to choose a Just Right book and the students were interviewed and photographed with their Just Right book using the iPad. They told me many different strategies that they used to choose a book that was just right for them. Some of these included, looking at the font and pictures to see if it looks just right, reading two or three pages and seeing if they have less than five tricky words per page, choosing a familiar book that is part of a series that they have read before, like Frog and Toad or Franklin books. Most importantly they asked themselves if it felt just right and if they were able to understand what they were reading. Some of the readers were really excited to discover that books that felt too challenging last year were now Just Right books. What a great feeling!

In Writer's Workshop we have begun writing personal narratives about events from our lives. We have reviewed that a story must have three parts and that the most important part is the middle. The writers have been challenging themselves to make sure that they have details in the middle and that they create a picture in their reader's mind. We end the workshop with Author's Share where the students read their writing pieces and receive constructive feedback from their peers. It is amazing to hear the thoughtful compliments and suggestions that they are able to give each other.

So far in our study of African Animals the class has been to two out of the four habitat workshops. Students are returning to class with new information each afternoon. We have a lot of naturalists and animal lovers and they are truly enjoying this in depth look at animals. During our time in the tech lab this week we went onto our school research data base KidInfo Bits and were able to listen and read about an African animal of our choice. We are going to be typing up the fascinating facts that we learned and creating a mural to display our new found knowledge and artistic representations of these incredible animals.

The highlight of the week was on Wednesday, when we got to explore the brand new iPads as a class. The students are so technologically savvy and they were able to teach me a thing or two as we explored applications for literacy, math and science. I can't wait to use these amazing tools throughout the year! Enjoy the slide show of our exploration!

We are completing our first unit in Fundations, our phonics based spelling program. For more information on the concepts that we are learning about during this time, visit the Synergy Parent Wiki on our team web page. You can click on the link for Grade 2 Fundations and get a list of words to practice at home with your child as well as an explanation of the spelling concept that we are covering.

Happy Fall!