We are non-fiction writers!

Kindness Counts!

The foundational guiding principal in our room is the golden rule.  We do unto others as we would have done unto us.  The golden rule provides the opportunity to practice this valuable skill daily.  I hope you are also enjoying the kindness calendar that went home as a focus for this month.  Our students also signed up for a collection share day.  This calendar went home this week as well.  

Our math focus is on subtraction.  We are working with and without the number line as a tool to help us subtract.  We are problem-solving, subtracting over decades and centuries as well as subtracting with single and multi-digit numbers.  This week we introduced an online tool called Dreambox.  We will use this interactive, individualized tool during our math and menu time.  As soon as I'm aware, I will let you know about at home use of this tool.

Word study groups are back in our routine.  We meet daily for 20 minutes to practice our word study skill and then reflect and quiz on Friday.

Our winter creative arts schedule started this week!  Our class was out cross country skiing on Tuesday, before the snow day!  Hopefully, it will be warm enough by Tuesday of this week that they can go out and cross country ski with our recent snowfall.  

We are writers!  Our class loves to write and they have a lot to feel proud about.  Our focus this week was on "how to" or procedural nonfiction writing.  During this unit, our students have learned to write non-fiction chapter, question/answer & procedural books.  During this upcoming week, we will focus on completing drafts, editing and revising.  

Our readers have reader's notebooks!  We are now recording book titles, authors and dates of the books we are reading.  We are also looking forward to writing about our reading in a variety of ways that will enhance our ability to think about and understand what we read.  

Flat Stanley!  Our current read aloud is Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.  This character will help us begin our study of maps and the United States.  This weekend your child brought home a note about the possibility of sending a copy of Flat Stanley to a friend or relative that lives in another state.  Please return this note this week so we can coordinate our mailing.  

The following is an overview from Mrs. Wheeler and Ms. Bedell about our unit called Changing Perspectives:

Our school has chosen the theme of “Changing Perspectives” to help our students gain a better understanding of differences and disabilities. We are collaborating with Sam Drazin, Executive Director of Changing Perspectives { www.cpne.org} and former teacher. He will be presenting to all our students in grade level meetings on Friday 1/18. Each week, Mrs. Wheeler and her intern Ms. Bedell will be incorporating their curriculum into their weekly class time with us. They will read a book with our class and discuss the importance of the uniqueness and value of each member of our school community. While we will be learning about various disabilities, our focus will be on recognizing each person’s strengths. To celebrate our learning, we will be organizing a disability awareness hands-on workshop. We will set up stations to simulate various disabilities and invite students to experience daily activities without being able to see, walk, hear, or use their fingers. In first and second grades, each student will create a booklet to demonstrate their learning.

Thank you for all you do,
Jen Belisle

Happy New Year!

Students entered our room with smiles and joy on Wednesday!  Our students are kind, wonderful people and it felt great to welcome the new year with their positive energy and thoughtfulness.  

Ms. Bryce, our student teacher from St. Michael's College has joined our classroom community.  She will teach with us every day until April vacation.  Ms. Bryce loves to teach and we are grateful for her journey with us.  

We will celebrate kindness in the month of January.  A Kindness Calendar will go home on Monday with a description of ideas and options to record attached. 

We experienced many cooperative tasks this week.  We made snowmen from a six-foot piece of construction paper.  We worked together learning coins and multi-digit subtraction strategies while reading the book Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst and we started writing question-answer books with new topics!

 


During Mrs. Wheeler's guidance time we held our first class meeting.  We discussed what makes our classroom a great place to learn and what each of us can do to continue to make that happen.  I'm proud of each member of our learning community, each person spoke their truth, were kind and willing to speak.  I shared with our students, and I'll say it again, I'm proud to be their teacher.  

Next week begins our winter schedule for creative arts.  Our hour-long cross country ski day for PE will be on Tuesdays.  Please make sure your child has all their outdoor gear for this experience. 


Thank you for all you do,
Jen Belisle 

Experiences Abound!

Our science focus is on weathering and erosion.  As a model of our earth changing both fast and slow, we used a rock tumbler with the aid of water, sand, and gravel.  Here are our pre and post pictures of our rocks.


During the month of December, our word study focus will be on high-frequency words.  Each student has an individualized list.  We will also be working on handwriting and fine motor skills with our variety of activities.

We are writing and reading nonfiction like experts.  This week our work was writing chapter books about a topic we are experts about.  Our students are writing at least four chapters.  They are writing fast and furiously to get their ideas down on paper.  We are learning about nonfiction through mentor authors like Gail Gibbons, who lives in Vermont and has written over 120 books.  

Not only are we authors ourselves, and learning about authors, we also experienced a webinar this week with Jacqueline Woodson! We read her book titled, The Day You Begin.  We also pulled out books she mentioned that she's written titled Each Kindness and The Other Side.

I look forward to seeing you at the concert, this Wednesday, December 12th.  Children arrive at 6:15 in our classroom, the concert will start at 6:30 pm.  

Thank you for all you do,
Jen Belisle

Learning in Action!

 Our second graders enjoy spending time in our afternoons reading!  We are reading fiction and nonfiction books right now.  I'm so proud of their sustained reading time, effort and growth.

 
Here we are engaged in a science task about the water and landforms. This week we focused on water, wind, and weather.  We will use this knowledge to help understand weather and erosion. 

Our St. Michael's interns Mr. Foley, Ms. Lauren and Ms. Megan each taught a math lesson focused on comparing problems.  We are learning multi-digit subtraction in class using multiple strategies.  We are practicing subtraction into the previous decade using an open number line as well as decomposition.  I'm proud of their ability to work thoughtfully, practice skills in games like 6 rolls, and express their math thinking in a verbal and written format. 

We are writing our first nonfiction book!  We created expert and interest lists.  We created our own dictionaries.  We have started our brainstorms and created the chapter topics for our books. 

Mrs. Wheeler visited us twice this week.  She taught us about care for babies as well as a lesson about personal space.  I appreciate Mrs. Wheeler's team teaching with our students.

It was fun to celebrate with the whole school watching Frosty the Snowman on Friday.

December is a busy month, please enjoy it.  I look forward to seeing you all on the night of December 12th for our winter concert. 

Thank you for all you do,
Jen Belisle

                    Immersion in Non-Fiction!

This week, our first full week in November, we began our nonfiction studies!
We are:

• reading nonfiction books during reader's workshop
• researching landforms and bodies of water using info bits on the RMCS webpage
• reading about types of landforms and bodies of water with a variety of literature
• recording our learning with a variety of tools ie: research papers, labeled drawings, bulleted lists, and definitions.
• sharing nonfiction and fiction facts about ourselves in our morning meeting with a question/answer format to figure out which of the statements are fact or fiction.  

During this upcoming week, we will publish this work with postcards, google slides, models, info books and posters.  

This week we enjoyed visitors:

• Miss Megan taught us about the benefits of kale and we enjoyed a dino kale smoothie.  Our students recorded the recipe to bring home.
• We appreciated time to eat together with family and friends at our harvest feast.
• Mrs. Wheeler joined us for our weekly guidance lesson; our focus was about defining public and private then how that relates to our bodies.
• Miss Lauren, Miss Megan and Mr. Foley have been with us one day a week during math time.  They are juniors at St. Michael's College.  

During math time this week we:

• learned to add single and double digits using strategies including the hundreds chart and an open number line.
• practiced our open number line with a spillover strategy into the new decade with addition equations like 38+7.
• introduced string problems with single and double-digit numbers.  
• practiced skills in our students books, our Do The Math packets and our math menus.  All of these items you probably have seen come home in their folders.
• practiced reading time to the hour and half hour on multiple timepieces.

Please look for an email with your conference time.  Let me know if you received it and if it works for you and your family with a quick reply to the email.  

Thank you for all you do,

Jen Belisle

A Week to Celebrate!

Here we are making ghost, pumpkin & Frankenstein slime!

This is such a fun time of year!  Thank you to all of you for supporting our fun on Halloween this week.

Friday we celebrated National Author's Day with our narrative writing celebration!  Here we are reading our stories:

 

  

   

 

We learned about six different patterns in leaves and what types of animals use leaves for food based on the observable patterns with our Hands-On Nature teachers: Mrs. Knoth and Mrs. Almassalkhi!

We completed our read aloud titled The Elevator Family.  

We spend about 30 minutes during the week on a program called Typing Quest.  This program helps us to become strong, accurate, efficient typists.  This skill will assist in all areas of composition as well as research to begin the list.  

Our math focus is about adding 10's and 1's to any number.  We are moving around the hundred chart as well as an open number line to problem solve.  We taught the break apart strategy and how to use landmark numbers when adding two and single digit numbers.  

Ask your child about their word study skill each week & the title(s) of books they enjoy reading at school.  

Please send back the green note about conferences.  If you prefer a time outside of those listed, please let me know.  

Thank you!
Jen Belisle