Reading Strategy Celebration

This picture collage made with Smilebox

We celebrated the end of our October Unit of Study in Readers Workshop by sharing all of the reading strategies that we've learned with our Kindergarten friends from Miss Davison's room. We shared the books that we created highlighting the strategies that we use the most and then shared a just right book with them. We hope that they learned some new strategies that will help them to read LONG and STRONG!

Next week we will begin a new unit of study in Readers Workshop where we will learn about Character Traits in the books that we read.

In Math we have been learning about lots of different kinds of ants. We have been practicing taking notes and highlighting the most important information in a piece of informational text. We then created spreadsheets to organize the information that we read about. Next week, we will use our new found knowledge to create addition and subtraction story problems for our fellow mathematicians to solve. The focus will be on showing our problem solving with numbers, pictures and words because strong mathematicians use multiple representations to show their thinking.

In Number Corner we have been practicing many mathematical skills that we use every day in the world that we live in. For example, telling time to the nearest five minutes, finding multiple ways to combine coins to show a certain amount of money and finding patterns in the monthly calendar and days in school hundreds chart. These are simple things that you can reinforce when you see them occur in daily life. Your young mathematician may be surprised at how many ways we use math in a single day!

Celebrating the Harvest!

This picture collage generated with Smilebox

On Tuesday the students at Allen Brook School celebrated the harvest season by contributing to a delicious Stone Soup. It was a perfect day to enjoy our creation as we ate together huddled by the hearth in the garden. Our class also read one of the many versions of the book, Stone Soup, and were reminded of the story's timeless message of generosity and kindness.

This week during out theme time the Synergy students split into five different groups and began a five week journey around the United States. The focus of this unit is to learn about mapping skills, geography and the different characteristics that make each region of our country so unique. In each of the workshops the students are locating and labeling the different states, learning about how to use a compass rose to describe location and are learning interesting facts about that region. To culminate the week, each child is creating a post card with an interesting fact from that region. I can't wait to learn from them each week as they become experts on America!

We have also begun a new unit in Math. In Unit 2 we will be learning about ants and using the insects to investigate the basic operations of addition and subtraction. The students will be combining what they learn about ants with their problem solving skills to create story problems about them. The students will then get a chance to solve each other's story problems practicing representing their problem solving with pictures, numbers and words to show their strategies. This unit gives students a chance to review and extend their understanding of the basic operations before heading into learning about strategies for "the basic facts" in Unit 3.

In Fundations we are learning about five sounds that break the rules of closed syllables because they do not always have a short vowel sound. (ild, ind, ost, old, olt). We are also beginning to practice the trick words for Level 2. These words came home to practice with the Unit 3 introduction letter in the Friday folder. Also, a reminder that you can find the current unit (and past unit) words on the Parent Information Wiki on the Synergy Site.

If you have not already signed up for your parent teacher conference please use the link on the right hand side of the page to secure your time. If none of the times work for your schedule, please contact me and I would be happy to arrange an alternate time that is more convenient.

Fire Safety Week

This free collage generated with Smilebox

This past week was fire prevention week at school. All of the second graders have a lot of knowledge about how to keep themselves safe in the event of a fire. At the end of the week we had the opportunity to have two of Williston's own brave firefighters come into Synergy to show us their gear, answer our questions and we even got an up close look at one of their engines. Enjoy the photo collage of their visit above.

This week we said good bye to the continent of Africa as we concluded our study of African Animals. The students had a great time traveling from workshop to workshop and learned a lot about the four main habitats of the animals. They created a lift the flap book and researched one animal during our technology time. Our travels will continue next week as we dive into a new theme unit on mapping. The workshops will focus on the five different regions of the United States. Each week your child will be heading to a new region of our country. Off we go!

Time flies and it is already time to sign up for our fall conferences. We tried to provide a few different choices of days and times to work with your schedules. If you look on the Important Dates sidebar to the right you will see the link that will bring you to the wiki where you can sign up. If none of the times work for you please let me know and we can work something else out.

See you soon!

Life Is Full Of Small Moments

Free collage customized with Smilebox

This week in Writers Workshop we began a new unit of study. This month we will be learning how to zoom in on a small moment in time and stretch it out across a story. We have been getting inspired by reading several examples of small moment stories by famous authors like Donald Crews. We have also been helping each other to understand what a small moment is by using the analogy of a watermelon and a seed. A watermelon (or big idea) story might be one about a camping trip. The seed (or small moment) might be roasting the perfect marshmallow over a crackling fire. The young authors are creating some beautiful pieces and are beginning to understand how to create a strong picture in their readers mind by using details.

In Readers Workshop this week we began to meet in our guided reading groups. In these groups we read lots of different genres, do word work and learn comprehension skills that help us to understand what we are reading. The students also have their own reading journals where they respond to their reading. In our new unit of study we are learning about the different strategies that strong readers use to figure out tricky words. So far, we have learned that readers get their mind ready by looking at the front and back cover, they slide through the whole tricky word from beginning to end, they try different pronunciations and they use all that they know about the story. At the end of readers workshop the readers share about how they used the strategy to figure out a tricky word in their independent reading.

In math we continued to look at patterns that grow in a predictable way. We practiced discussing our mathematical observations with our dyad partners using structured math talk. The dyads are an incredible way for everyone to have their math ideas heard. Through these dyads we have realized that when it comes to patterns there may not be just one way of thinking about how they change. The dyad partners have been doing an amazing job of respecting the ideas of their fellow mathematicians and are coming up with some impressive conjectures about growing patterns.

Lastly, this week we got the opportunity to join together with Miss Kate's class of first graders for our first Four Winds Science Workshop of the year. After learning about leaf eating insects and how they are connected to the web of life, we looked closely at patterns that these animals create in the leaves that they eat. We also got an opportunity to search for some examples of these leaves on the ground at Allen Brook School. We look forward to learning more about the earth's many ecosystems throughout the year in Four Winds.

The slide show above is from our Writing Celebration with Ms. Roger's class last week. Please enjoy the photos.

Happy Fall!

Folktale Fanatics!

To accompany our study of African animals, we have been reading an assortment of African Folktales and the second graders are loving this new found genre. The fun thing about folktales from Africa is that they usually tell about how something came to be in a fun way. Anansi stories from West Africa seem to be the favorite amongst the class. Anansi is a trickster who gets people and animals to do things for him by being cunning and clever. Anansi is a fantastic way for us to segue into our next unit of study in reader's workshop where we will be learning about character traits. Check out our Shelfari widget to the left to see some of the other books that we've read aloud in class.

On Friday, we celebrated the end of our first unit of study in writing by sharing our published pieces with the students in Ms. Rogers class. The students loved listening to each other's writing and showing off their first published pieces. In our next unit of study in writing we will be zooming in on small moments and stretching the moment into a story. We will use examples of small moment stories from authors like Donald Crews, Audrey Penn and Ezra Jack Keats to inspire us.

This week we will also be beginning our guided reading groups. In these groups we practice reading skills and focus on comprehension strategies through discussion and writing. Your child will be bringing these books home to read once we have read them through once together. By rereading them at home they are building fluency and working on reading it smoothly with expression.