Homework for Spring Break

Dear Families,

         It is surprising how quickly spring has crept up on us.  With Spring Break comes a much-needed sabbatical for our students, and allows for me to make the final preparations for my solo teaching. 

         While Spring Break is a time for rest and enjoying the sun (hopefully), we do have a few assignments for our students over this next week.

1.   We will be sending home a reading log.  Students need to find time every day to read (either on their own, with a sibling, or being read to by an adult).

2.   Students also need to write in their journals every day.  They can either write about their day, or can creatively write.  What matters is that they engage with the written words.

I will see you all in April.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Erickson

makerspacelearningplace.blogspot.com

educommonplacebook.blogspot.com

Field Trip

Today our class had the opportunity to take a trip to the Cooley Art Galler at Reed College.  

At the gallery we were able to see an exhibit of Civil War Era sketches on loan from Boston College.

We were lucky enough to have the curator Gregory MacNaughton guide our class through the gallery, providing historical context as well as draw our attention to the artistic qualities of the sketches.

Toward the end of the time Mr. MacNaughton led the students through an exercise on sketching from sight (as opposed to memory).  He told the students that back in that era a large emphasis was placed in school on learning to draw. 

In the end all the students got to practice drawing and see pieces of art that have lasted over a century (made by people who were students just like them at one time, and who used only paper and pencil).  

I would also like to thank the parents who were able to drive us there and share the experience with the students.  It would not have happened without you.

New Student (Roan)

This week a new second grader joined our ranks.  His name is Roan, and he has moved here all the way from New York (he also did quite a bit of traveling during this past year).

We are excited to have him finish out the year here at Buckman.

Swimming [on Friday, March 22nd]

We have swimming this week!

One big change is that swimming will be on Friday (March 22nd) at 1:40pm.

This change is due to our class having the opportunity to watch the 4th grade performance during our normal swim time.

Be sure to bring your swimsuit and goggles.

Late Opening

Today (Wednesday, March 20th) is a Late Opening.  That means classes will start at 10:35 am.

Name Quilt

At the very beginning of the year, our classroom made the fist steps toward creating a classroom quilt.  Sticking with our yearlong bird motif, each student created a patch for the quilt with their name.

Yesterday (3/18/13), Maureen Orr Eldred came in to showcase our classroom's quilt top.

Not only did we get to see the quilt top, but Maureen had our class design the bottom of the quilt.  It will truly be a classroom unity quilt.

Owl Poster

With the Buckman Auction finally finished (and with it, our wonderful poster), I felt it important to post the collection of our classroom's contribution to our wonderful school.  Here is a picture of the poster that Curtis created (it was framed and everything).  

Curtis did so much for our class, from bringing in two professional artists (to assist our project), to creating our poster (printing it and framing it), to finally donating the space for the auction itself.  

From our class, "THANK YOU CURTIS!"

New Additions to the Classroom

This morning a plethora of earth worms, pill bugs, and red worms arrived all the way from North Carolina. Above is our new worm/compost habitat that will eventually be the foundation for student terrariums. Along with the bugs came some colorful additions to our future terrariums 

WORMS & COMPOST

Below are some pictures of our compost investigation:

Hard at work!

With spring on it's way, we begin taking on the role of  scientists, exploring our natural world.

WORMS (Part One)!

Today we kick off our invertebrate unit with a special guest speaker (Riley Peck).  Mr. Peck came to talk to our class about compost and worms.  He even brought in samples: 

 (soil, worms, and compost)

Hopefully by tomorrow we will be getting our own worms for the classroom and supplies to create terrariums.

The future home of our worms.

Riparian Habitats

Yesterday (Monday, March 11th) we were lucky enough to have Lynn Vanderkamp of Clean Rivers Education (a program offered by the Eviromental Services Department) come in to teach us about Riparian Habitats.  Lynn has been in our classroom before to teach us about the water cycle (which will all culminate into a field trip to the Willamette River Watershed in Sellwood). 

Lynn's fantastic lesson was on the five elements of a habitat (food, water, shelter, space, and oxygen. We got to play a Habitat Bingo game using the Pacific Northwest animals that live in and near rivers and streams.

Lynn also brought in some pelts and skulls of local animals.

Goodbye

Friday, March 8th will be Jordan's last day in our class.  She will be heading down to sunny California to finish out her year.  While she will be greatly missed, we are excited for her to start this new chapter.

That being said, this Friday there will be a small shindig in honor of Jordan heading off on her next adventure.

"Don't Cry because it's over.  Smile because it happened." -Dr. Seuss 

Our Auction Project Pt. 2

Room 107

With all the finishing touches put made to our individual paintings, we are ready to head off to the second phase of our project.  I will be taking the paintings and individually scanning them on an archival grade flat-bed scanner so that we have a digital file we can keep for use later in the classroom.  Then we will be taking them to a photo shoot where we will take pictures to be used to make a framed poster that will be going to auction along with the paintings.

We were also able to get an individual picture of each student with their own, so feel free to email me and I can send it your way.

Our Auction Project

With the auction creeping up on us, we were fortunate enough to have two phenomenal artists come in and help us with our project. We are now in the final stages of wrapping up our classroom's contribution (paintings of 14 different owl species! All of which are acrylic on canvas).  In the end we will have a total of thirty 6''x6'' owl portraits.

With only two or three owls waiting to be completed, we are almost ready for the auction. Next stop is scanning all of the paintings individually. 

Book Recommendations

I've started a new page for book recommendations.  Once upon a time (not that long ago), I received my BA in English.  Being an avid reader all of my life, I have never been able to get enough books, there just isn't enough time in the day.  Luckily my love for children's and young adult literature has stayed with me throughout the years, and I am now in a job that capitalizes on my love of books.

Throughout my time on this blog I will be compiling book recommendations, ranging from what we are reading in the classroom, books I have already read, books I am currently reading.  It is my goal to branch out and grab recommendations from students, peers, and other teachers in order to present a wide range of interest and scope.

Not only will I be posting recommendations and updates regularly to this site, but I will be creating a complete compendium  of titles over on my Book Recommendations page.

First up is:

Catwings 
Ursula K. Le Guine (Author); S. D. Schindler (Illustrator)  

(Age Range: 4 and up)

This is the first book in a series by the prolific writer Ursula K. Le Guine (winner of five Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards). With gorgeous illustrations and simple yet rich prose, this book is a fantastic read aloud (my students were enthralled). There are four books total (the whole series comes in at around 200 pages total) and all are worth a read aloud (or for an independent reader). 

Amazon.com description: Mrs. Jane Tabby cannot explain why all four of her kittens were born with wings. But when life on the city streets becomes too dangerous, it is clear that her dream for her children might some day come true. They can fly away from the city slums of their birth. And one day, they do. But not even their mother could have foreseen the hazards of country living.

Online Math Supplements

Below is a collection of online math games and resources.  They are a fun way to engage your child while still supporting them as mathematical learners.  For more on the mathematical learning targets for second grade [link].  These links can also be found under the pages tab, in the right column of this blog.  Just click the Online Math Supplements [link].

Sumdog [link]

An online resource where students can play interactive games to help build Math and Language Arts Skills. Sumdog's learning engine adapts its questions to each student's ability helping teachers deliver Common Core State Standards. Aimed at grades 1-8 [Covers number operations through to simple algebra].

Math Playground [link]

This is a collection of math games, sorted by topic and content. They were designed to correlate with Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.

Free Math Worksheets for Grade 2 [link]
A collection of online, randomly generated worksheets that provide additional calculation practice for many second grade math topics (aligned with the Common Core standards). Use them as you need!

Additional Math Resource List
Online math resource lists, divided by math topic and level

Online Reading Supplements

Below is a collection of different online resources to help young readers flourish.  These supplements are for any level of reader and are divided into different focuses to target different skills and strategies: Fluency; Comprehension; Phonics and Word Recognition.  These links can also be found under the pages tab, in the right column of this blog.  Just click the Online Reading Supplements [link].

Fluency:

      

Monroe County Public Library (link) 

This comprehensive list of predictable books is divided into eight categories such as circular stories, chain stories, and pattern stories.  A great resource for developing fluency in young children.







Speakaboos (link)

Speakaboos brings classic children’s entertainment into the digital world.  Treasured stories are given new life through celebrity performances,

 beautiful illustrations, and original music.

StoryPlace: The Children’s Digital Library (link)

This award-wining bilingual (Spanish and English) site includes a collection of online materials for elementary students including texts for reading along.

Comprehension:

Reading Rockets: Comprehension (link)

The National Education Association is a sponsored partner of this website, which includes articles for parents and teachers, lesson strategies, videos, and much more.

Phonics and Word Recognition

The Dolch Kit (link)

The Dolch Kit contains high-frequency word and phrase cards, as well as games and activities for practicing sight words.

Learn to Read (link)

Learn to Read includes stories that focus on onsets and rimes for primary grades.

ReadWriteThink (link)

This site provides a wide variety of phonics activities that involve word building as well as strategies for teaching onsets and rimes, high-frequency words, and context.

Links adapted from:

      Vacca, J. A. L., R. T. Vacca, M. K. Gove, L. C. Burkey, L. A. Lenhart, and C. A. McKeon. Reading and learning to read. 8th. 8th. Boston, MA: Allyn , 2012. Print.

Reading Comprehension Strategies

Below is a list of strategies that you can do with your child to help them develop and strengthen their reading comprehension.  For your benefit there is also a definition of reading comprehension and the Common Core State Standards that pertain to reading comprehension.  These strategies are just part of a comprehensive list of different reading strategies, found here [link].

Definition: “Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message.”

Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories and poetry, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.10 By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Strategies to build Comprehension: These strategies are meant to eventually be internalized by the student and used independently of adult prompting.  In the beginning, adult guidance and support are important to helping students feel successful in their endeavors:

• Asking Questions:  This common strategy is to have children answer questions about what is read.  Questions have traditionally been organized into three categories:
1. Literal Questions: Students answer by using information explicitly stated in the text.
2. Inferential Questions: Students answer by using their background knowledge along with information from the text.
3. Evaluative Questions: Students answer by making judgments about what they read.
• 
  
• Reciprocal Questioning (ReQuest): ReQuest encourages students to ask their own questions about the material being read.  Some Question Prompts for ReQuest are:
• What does __________ remind you of?
• Do you know someone like the character _________?
• Do you agree with what _________ did in the story?
• What do you think will happen next in the story?
• Why do you think the author chose ___________ as the setting?
• Can you think of a different way to describe the action in this part of the story?
• What do you picture in your mind when you read this part of the story?

Strategies adapted from:

      Vacca, J. A. L., R. T. Vacca, M. K. Gove, L. C. Burkey, L. A. Lenhart, and C. A. McKeon. Reading and learning to read. 8th. 8th. Boston, MA: Allyn , 2012. Print.

Reading Fluency Strategies

These strategies are just part of a comprehensive list of different reading strategies, found here [link].

Definition:The ability to read easily and well.  Fluency has three dimensions:

• Accuracy in word decoding: reader must be able to sound out words (using phonics and other word decoding strategies) in text with few errors.
• Automatic processing: This is when the reader uses as little mental effort as possible in the decoding of text, saving mental energy for comprehension.
•  Prosody or Prosodic reading: Prosody is a linguistic concept that refers to such features in oral language as intonation, pitch, stress, pauses, and the duration placed on specific syllables.

Common Core State Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

Strategies to build fluency (taken and adapted from Reading and Learning to Read [2012]):

• Repeated Readings: “Oral repeated readings provide additional sensory reinforcement for the reader, allowing him or her to focus on the prosodic elements of reading that are essential to phrasing.  Oral readings also ensure that the student is actually reading, not skimming or scanning the text” (Rasinski, 2003).

• Automated Reading: Listening while reading a text (simultaneous listening and reading [SLR]).  Procedure as follows:
• Student listen individually to recorded stories, simultaneously following along with the written text.  They read and listen repeatedly to the same story until they can read the story fluently.
• When students first begin this method, it may take as long as a month before they are able to read a fairly long story aloud fluently.  As they become more proficient with SLR, the time can be reduced by as much as half (Chomsky [1976]).
• 
  

Tips for parents:

• Exposure to Texts: Expose students to as much reading as possible, whether it be their independent reading, or Parent-Child reading time. 
• Reread familiar texts.  Read reading favorite books helps children become fluent. 
• Echo-Read:  Echo reading is a rereading strategy designed to help students develop expressive, fluent reading.  The parent reads a short segment of text (sentence or phrase), and the student echoes back the same sentence or phrase while following along in the text. 
• Use predictable books: To build fluency, parents should read books with children that have predictable, rhythmic patterns so the child can “hear” the sound of fluent reading as he or she reads the book aloud.

Strategies adapted from:

      Vacca, J. A. L., R. T. Vacca, M. K. Gove, L. C. Burkey, L. A. Lenhart, and C. A. McKeon. Reading and learning to read. 8th. 8th. Boston, MA: Allyn , 2012. Print.