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An Introduction to Our
Class
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Welcome to Ms. Kreul's second grade class at Richards
School in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. Our curriculum includes
language arts (reading, writing, spelling, speaking,
listening, and thinking), science, social studies,
technology, and math. We also have art, music, phy ed,
French, and library. We work on many projects which
integrate the second grade curriculum.
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News from Our
Class
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- Reading
In reading
class, we use
Literature
Circles
- a new way to work on comprehension skills
while we read books. It is patterned on the way adults
read books with their friends in book clubs. Each of us
will have a role to do after we read a book or story,
such as the Discussion Director who thinks of
interesting questions to discuss and the Artful Artist
who draws a picture or sketch to match what was read.
After each person fills out their individual role sheet,
we get together in small groups to discuss the book or
story with everyone getting to lead one part of the
discussion using the role sheets.
 Along
with Literature Circles, we also read stories in our
Anthology and work on vocabulary and comprehension
skills. When working with trade books, we might read the
same book or different books as a whole class, in small
groups, or independently while we are learning and
practicing many important reading skills and strategies.
We are learning about how we can use our brains to make
connections as we read using the phrases "Text to World",
"Text to Self", or "Text to Text" connections.
We
have SSR nearly every day. It is a time when we can read
books of our choice. Some days we read independently,
other days we read with partners, and sometimes we have a
choice! Our teacher also reads lots of books to us during
the day. During snack time she reads a chapter book aloud
to us.
We
also use Reading Counts!, an independent reading program
from Scholastic, where we read good books that are just
right for us. This program helps us work on our
comprehension skills. First we read a book that is at our
ability level then use the classroom Mac to take a quiz
where we answer 10 comprehension questions about the
book. Our goal is to each read 30 books over the school
year so we will work on our goal during the year as our
reading skills grow and grow!
- Spelling
Spelling begins in second grade with a
practice unit where we learn how to do the various
spelling activities, such as Flip Folder, Partner Test,
and Hunt for Words. Then we begin weekly Spelling Units
where everyone studies the list words that are just right
for them. Additional activities we use to practice our
list words are Spelling Tic-Tac-Toe, Spelling Sentences,
Big Idea, Partner Study, and Games. During the second
semester, we add two of our own words. The words are
recycled from words which we had misspelled on unit tests
and need to learn and then chosen from our spelling
dictionaries. We work on spelling every time we use
writing skills during the day.
- Writing
We use our writing
skills every day. We
have Journal Time where we can write on topics of our
choice. Sometimes we share our Journal writing with a
partner or two. We have class writing projects, like
writing poetry or reports. We write frequently in math
for Math Messages where we explain in words how we solved
various math problems. We write in Science Logs as we
record our experiments and activities. In Social Studies
we write about the many topics we study. We also use
Technology to help us write when we are working on
integrated projects. We will each publish one or more
books in the Imagination Station during the school year.
When we write many times during the week, our writing
skills become better and better and writing is much
easier to do.
- Math
In math we
use "Everyday Math" activities. We discuss how we use
math in our everyday lives and found out that we use math
a lot! We play math games like Top-It, Name That Number,
Addition Bingo, Beat the Calculator, and Money Exchange.
We also work on counting coins , telling time on
different types of clocks, and using calendars. We count
in many different ways, practice math facts with Doubles
and Turn-Around facts, learn about geometry, and do many
other activities to develop and practice math skills.
- Science
During
science class
we have three FOSS units that we work on throughout the
year. The first unit is "Solids and Liquids", the second
is "Air and Weather", and the third is "New Plants". We
learn science words, do experiments independently, with a
partner, or with a team, and keep a Science Log where we
record information on the topic we are studying. We
observe and record weather information, such as sky
conditions, temperature, and precipitation during the
Opening activities each morning. We use the Internet each
morning to check other local weather conditions. This
year we will work on science Internet projects including
"Signs of Autumn, Signs of Spring" and "World Weather
Watch".
- Social
Studies
In social
studies we work with maps for many
purposes. We learned that maps are models of places on
Earth how map can help you to read maps. We looked at the
community in which we live and talked about community
helpers who make our community safe and clean. We have a
unit on rules and laws and why they are important to keep
everyone safe and make everthing fair. We study US
holidays as well as a Swedish celebration called St.
Lucia Day. We learn about goods and services and the
careers that go with them. We talk about US government
and it's three branches, voting, famous Americans,
American symbols, and more - all things that make the US
a very special country in which to live.
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Click the
Clipboard
for this week's homework assignments
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Click the
School
Sign for photos of
our classroom
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Click the
Books
for the web site of our Author of the Month -
Steven
Kellogg
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