Welcome Back! As I welcome the children to my class, I also welcome the parents. You are as much a part of our school family as they are! Second grade is, without question, my favorite grade to teach. I affectionately call it, "FCAT Boot Camp", and your children are my F-Kittens. We will be doing a lot of learning this year to prepare us for next year's FCAT test!
I am looking forward to another great year. This year, though, I promise that I will make it to the end of the year! For those of you who are new to our classroom family, I was unable to finish the school year last year because of the early birth of my twins, Hunter and Isabella. I was devastated that I was unable to say goodbye to the children, but the health and safety of my babies was of the upmost importance to me...and because I did exactly as the doctor prescribed, though they were born 11 weeks early, both are healthy and happy.
As we began our year together, we spent the first couple of days discussing behavior expectations in our classroom. We discussed and defined the four levels of behavior in the Raise Responsibility System - A (Anarchy), B (Bullying/Bothering), C (Cooperation), and D (Democracy). We shared literature to help us understand what each level would look like. We also discussed that we will be FISHing in our room this year. No, not going fishing, but practicing the FISH! Philosophy. There are four principles that make up the FISH! Philosophy. They are: Play, Make Their Day, Be There, and Choose Your Attitude. By practicing the FISH! Philosophy, we will be having fun in our day, we will work to make sure we make the day of at least one classmate, we will pay full attention to whomever is talking to us, and we will choose to have a great day every day...even if we wake up on the wrong side of the bed. I started days 2 and 3 of school asking who "chose their attitude" and all children have raised their hands on both days.
There is so much to do at the beginning of the school year. We will be taking our reading placement test, beginning of the year math assessment, and science pre-test within the first two weeks. We will continue to take assessments in these areas, along with social studies, throughout the year.
In reading, we will begin working in our FCAT practice books. This will be one of our Thursday reading activities. I will teach the children how to look at an FCAT question and understand what is being asked. It is not as easy as it seems! The first year I worked in this book I had to make sure I had the answer book to check and see if we were getting the right answers. We will also be working in literacy stations that cover the components of reading -- vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, phonics, and phonemic awareness. Children will be in a rotation for reading time working with a partner to complete the activities.
Our spelling lists will be phonics based. Children will be given 6 class words, but will be tested on 18 words. The 12 other words will follow the phonics rules we learn that week. Children will also each get 3 personal words for the week. These will come off a list kept in their Spelling folders in their desks. These words are commonly used words in our writing. We will also do spelling dictation. This will be the spelling grade. I DO NOT use spelling tests for a spelling grade -- they are a phonics grade. I use the dictation as a spelling grade, because it shows me whether or not the children can apply the spelling beyond the test.
We will be doing problem solving each morning before we begin our math time. I will be teaching the children how to read word problems and understand what they are supposed to do to solve them. For many children, word problems are a mystery. I plan to solve that mystery for them! During our math time I will not be teaching whole group math -- we will be doing small group learning. Children will be grouped with others who are working on the same math level as they are. I began this guided math format last year and was amazed at the results. After the children leave the table from working with me, they will be going into a rotation. The rotation will consist of seatwork (a math book page that helps children practice skills learned while with me in their group), math games, and glyph work / plotting points. Children will also be playing Math Facts in a Flash on the computer. This game will help them to strengthen their fact recall.
For science and social studies, we will be doing a chapter of each. We will work on a chapter of science and then move to a chapter in social studies.
We will be doing Thinking Maps in many of the curricular areas. Thinking Maps are a way for the children to organize their thoughts. We have worked with two different maps at this time -- the circle map and the bubble map. We will add a new Thinking Map to our repertoire each month. Our first class book was created with the circle map and the bubble map. They did a great job on them!
Please save the date of Open House - August 22. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss what we will be doing in our class this year.
Have a great month!
Mrs. DiSciascio |
