Welcome to Kindergarten!

We have had a great first week in Kindergarten! We have learned routines and classroom/school/playground rules. We have started writing in our draftbooks, finding books we love, and exploring numbers and math manipulatives. Here are some pictures of your Kindergartners working hard!

Math

Last week, we learned two strategies for how to solve two digit subtraction equations.  This is a crucial skill in second grade and also something that simply takes practice to develop.  The children were amazing and worked so hard!   Here is an explanation of the methods that we will be using (you may want to keep handy for upcoming homework :))

Math Update!

This week, we started a new unit in math that includes counting money using pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars.  Each day our second graders were handling money, identifying coins, and adding them up.

It would be great to practice counting money at home by identifying the coins, identifying the values, separating into groups of similar coins and counting the total amounts (less than $2.00).  The more practice and handling of actual money will help children make a connection between coins and their values.

 

Here is a parent letter that describes our study of money:

 

Marshmallow Shapes

Our mathematicians have been learning different shapes. They are getting pretty good at recognizing and creating triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons. We recently introduced rectangular prisms and cubes. The kids learned that a prism is two of any shape that are connected. They had a great time being architects today with toothpicks and marshmallows to practice making shapes!

Sports Day and Updates!

We had a fun day in second grade today with all of our cute athletes! We had football, soccer, baseball, and cheerleading! Such a fun sports day! Here is what we have been up to!

Writer’s Workshop:

Screen Shot 2015-09-24 at 2.54.24 PM

Our second grade writers are learning to be purposeful writers who can problem solve and make mindful decisions. We have made great progress in just a few weeks! We are continually using the writing cycle:  Think of an idea, Rehearse/Plan, Write/Draft, Finish/Draft, Reread and Revise, Get Ready To Start a New Story.

Math:

Last week, we learned a strategy for helping us add partners that had teen totals. We can “make a ten” to help us add in a snap. An example is below.

Picture-1-1yj8f1o

First, we underline the bigger number. Then we draw circles for the smaller number. We will need to borrow one of the circles from the 5 to make the 9 into a 10. Since we borrowed one, the 5 becomes a 4. Most of us can do 10+4 a lot faster than 9+5! This strategy works well for some kids but may be too confusing for others. If your child finds it helpful, that’s wonderful! If not- no worries, we have many other strategies we can use. Keep practicing to find the one that works best for your second grader!

Reader’s Workshop:

Last week, we compared books to a puzzle. All of the different parts of our stories (characters, setting, problems, solutions, relationships…) fit together to make a bigger picture – like a puzzle! Sometimes it takes more than one time of reading the book to figure out how all the pieces fit together. When we reread a book, we can understand the story even better, and it might help answer questions that we had the first time reading it. Today we had some fourth graders come in and model “mindful partner talk”, and then they watched as we practiced with our partners.  This was a powerful way for our readers to grow in their reading conversations with one another and also set goals for how to improve their partner talk.

Math Workshop

Our second grade mathematicians have been working hard to build their math strategies.  We are learning about math facts through the use of math mountains.  Next week we will learn additional strategies to help us when we add or subtract.   Below please find a parent letter for more details.

Screen Shot 2015-09-18 at 4.11.22 PM

 

As children are introduced to strategies and new topics/instruction, they have an opportunity to practice using games, hands on activities, math journal work, math work on the computers, partner practice and fact fluency through each of their work stations.  Our learners visit all of the stations each day and have done a FABULOUS job getting to work quickly and quietly.   Look at these hard little workers!

Math Update!

Our second grade mathematicians are learning how to solve multi-digit subtraction problems.   Below please note the strategies that your child will be using to solve these equations.   These strategies are different from how you and I learned “back in the day”, but they do promote deeper understanding of the concepts.

Screen Shot 2014-01-22 at 9.01.32 AM