Central Idea: Cultural perspectives influence self-expression.

An inquiry into our appreciation of the aesthetic.

Key Concepts: Perspective, Connection, Reflection

Lines of Inquiry:

• Our unique and individual cultures
• Ways diverse cultures express themselves artistically
• Relationship between diversity and culture

We have begun a new planner/unit of inquiry.  This planner is about here we come from,  how we view others and the world around us, and our appreciation for the arts (literature, art work, games, music, etc).

As part of our inquiry, students are asked to find out more about themselves, there family, and their community and to share what they have learned through author Box projects this month.  This week, students will create or design a family coat of arms to tell about their families. Below are a few links that may help you.

*Here is a fun game to create your own Coat of Arms using a web-based program.

Create a Coat of Arms

*For a list of pictures, symbols, and colors with the meaning of each, click here: The Meaning of Coats of Arms

Other news:

1st Grade Pet Food Drive

1st grade is still holding a Pet food and Supply Drive.  Please send in pet food and supplies that will be donated to the SPCA.

Make-A-Wish Coin Drive

We are also hosting a coin drive for 2 weeks.  a senior at MVHS is working on a Make-A-Wish project.  She is raising money to grant a wish for a child who has a life threatening condition.  for 2 weeks, we are collecting donations to help her meet this goal.  I have a personal connection as one of my children has had cancer and was granted a wish through the Make-a-Wish Foundation.  This was a very important part of her treatment and recovery.  We are grateful that she is a survivor and healthy today after almost 5 years of being cancer free.  So, please send in spare change that will help another child benefit from this program.

Student Teacher

We will be having a student teacher from Southern New Hampshire University join us in January.  More information and introductions will be coming soon.

Report Cards & Portfolio Share

Report cards will be issued to students this Friday, December 7, 2012.  If you would like an individual conference to go over your child’s progress, please e-mail me or call the school.  Thank you.

We will be having a Portfolio share Night next Wednesday from 5:00-6:30.  This will be an informal gathering where your child will be able to share his or her portfolio contents from the first trimester with you.  Students have been very busy and making a lot of progress. You do not have to be here right at 5:00, but plan on about 15-30 minutes to review the contents. I will be circulating to answer any questions that you might have.

Math Web-Based Programs

Recently, a letter went home with information about 2 web-based programs for your child to access from home and from school. Students now have the option of completing an assignment on Ten Marks or the math worksheet in their homework packet.  Please feel free to contact me regarding these if you have any questions or concerns.  I welcome any feedback that you might have. A “report card” from Ten Marks will be going home tomorrow.  you may access any of the information directly on your child’s account as well.

Here is a copy of the letter that went home: A note from your teacher_11_28_12

Spelling

We are continuing with the open Court phonics and spelling program.  Students are focusing on understanding the importance of syllables in words.  By breaking a word into the syllables, it is easier to spell longer words. We are also learning about suffixes (ending that get added to a word to change the meaning or how it is used like -ed, -es, -ing). The vowel sound that we practiced this week is the long o spelled, o, oa_, o_e, _ow, and _oe. Students need to be considering these different spellings of long vowel sounds to improve their spelling.

We just had a spelling assessment and everyone made wonderful progress.  I was very proud of how well everyone did! These will be in your child’s portfolio under the writing section.

Reading and Writing

We are working on story elements in a fiction story; beginning, middle, end, problem, solution, characters, setting, and important events. We are charting the information from stories on a graphic organizer that we read.  We are also using a graphic organizer to plan our stories to make sure that we have all of the important story elements before writing our own fictional story.  The boys and girls are really enjoying writing these stories.  I hope to get some posted on their blogs soon

 Reminders:

PTA is presenting the Polar Express on Friday, December 7th at the school for families to enjoy!

As part of our “How We Organize Ourselves” planner, students planned a system to collect food for local food.  We sorted all the food and were able to donate a total of 139 canned food items and 50 box/dry food items to the Boscawen church pantry.  Wow!!! that is 189 items total!!.  They were creating over 140 Thanksgiving Day food boxes for local families and were very appreciative of our efforts.  Some of the food will go directly to the pantry which is located next to the church and is open week days 11-12 and 3-6. They also have a clothes closet upstairs in the church and medical supplies that they lend out for people in need.  They are always accepting donations if you find yourself cleaning out and don’t know what to do with some things.

Thank you to all of the families and individuals that helped us make this donation!  We appreciate you!

Today we had another special visitor who was from the United States Armed Forces. One of our student’s dad is a chief in the Army.  He came to share about what his job is with the students.  There were some really good questions about weather, travel, and duties. Some of the things that we learned are: he has been in the army for 27 years, army people can travel all over the world, weapons are stored in a safe,  a battle can be 11 minutes or several days, Veteran’s Day is to honor people who are serving and who have served in the service, the are different levels of training, army people have to do push-ups when they train, people take risks when they are in the army, you need special gear when you are in a sandstorm (helmet, goggles), a veteran is someone who has served in the military for at least Marines.

We appreciate all that he does for our country and all of the other men and women who also serve our country. We made postcards and wrote letters of appreciation to veterans to show appreciation and thank them for serving our country.

Today was a pretty typical day in 2nd grade…lots of learning and having fun!

Reading: Good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading.  We have been practicing this reading strategy with non-fiction books and using sticky notes to mark where we had the questions.  This week, we appropriately read a book about hurricanes.  Thought they are fun and interesting to learn about, they can be very dangerous and many people on the East Coast were not as lucky as we were. Students are also practicing this strategy in reading groups and independently.  Students have been learning about how the world works through the book they read in reading group.  Non-fiction topics have included rocks and mineral, soil, planets, storms, and weather words.  Ask your child what book he or she has been reading.  When reading at home, ask your child what questions he or she has during reading.  This strategy will help him or her become more actively engaged in reading.

Students are using non-fiction books and non-fiction web-based resources for their inquiry into ways the natural world changes.

Writing: We have been writing personal narratives for the past 2 months and everyone has chosen the one they are most proud of, rewritten it and reflected on it for their portfolios.   These stories were also assessed using a 4-point rubric that connects to our learning goals and state standards.  A copy of the scored rubric went home either this week or last week.  I have also conferenced with each child individually to go over their writing progress and what to work on for their next piece. Your child is writing every day-ask him or her what stories he or she has been working on. The most common area that for improvement is adding description to actions, feelings, and thoughts.

Math: We are currently in working on the third Every Day Math unit.  This unit focuses on telling time, counting money, and place-value while continuing on mastering addition and subtraction facts. Today we worked on a partner shopping challenge that was a lot of fun.  Students had to choose items to purchase with $1.00 and then figure out how much change to get back.  Then, they had to figure out what coins to use to purchase other items when they did not have the exact amount.  This was a little more challenging, but students worked hard and had fun.  We have been putting a lot of emphasis on making thinking visible-showing how we figured t out.  This can be a difficult skill to master.  Please encourage your child to explain why he or she solved a math problem a certain way or to prove to you the answer is correct.

IB: We have been working on How The World Works Unit for the past several weeks.  Students have been inquiring about the changes in our natural world such as the rock cycle, soil, the water cycle, and extreme weather systems.  We have been spending a lot of time exploring our own back yards for evidence of change and building fairy houses to help us understand how people adapt to these changes in our natural environment.  This has been amazing and students are making extraordinary connections daily! We started a challenge today to research changes in the natural environment and present the information the rest of the class.

IB Learner Profile: Risk-Taker

Some of my favorite quotes from this week:

“I was having so much writing, I wrote 3 stories!”

“Roses are red, violets are blue. You’re the best teacher, and I love you.”

“Do you think the fairies stayed in our houses during the storm?”

What went well today was writing, because I got so much written and I was real proud of myself.”

My favorite part of the day was checking on the fairy houses because I wanted to know if it made it and what I needed to add to it.

IB Attitude: Confidence

“I slept with my dog last night.”

“The meadow fairy left me a note!”

“Can I research about my topic at home?”

“Oh my goodness!  This storm is amazing!”

I’m always looking for new and interesting links for learning.

Here is a new one I found this weekend.  It has lots of  information and activities for the outdoors, weather, night’s sky and more.  Enjoy! The Old Farmer’s Almanac For Kids

For more links about rocks, soil, weather, the phases of the moon, and early settlers go to How the World Works Wiki.

Yes, we are building fairy houses-or other mystical creature that might live in the woods!  The students are SO excited for this project!  Their task is to build a fairy home that will support and protect the fairy from the natural changes in our NH environment.

Students will also be writing about them and the process of building.

Today, students found a suitable place to build and are considering the natural resources that are available to them to build.  Then, they wrote about why they chose their place and what materials they have used to help the fairies adapt to the natural changes in our environment.

Mrs. Pike’s 2nd grade class has been learning about systems and has decided to have a Thanksgiving Day Food Drive.  We will be collecting food to create baskets/boxes for local families in need to enjoy for the holidays.

Please donate non-perishable food items to the school.  There will be boxes at the classroom doors and in the office.

We will be collecting food from now until November 15th, 2012.

Food ideas:

• Canned vegetables: corn, green beans, potato, yams, carrots, etc.
• Canned fruits: pears, cranberry sauce, applesauce, etc
• Instant potatoes
• Canned gravy
• canned pumpkin
• pudding and Jell-o boxes
• Canned ham

*If you are able and would like to donate a turkey, please contact Mrs. Pike at the school at 753-6512. Thank you.

Today we learned more about the rock cycle and began inquiring about the changes in our natural world.  Students took digital pictures of the changes they saw outside.

Here are a few of their pictures:

PIC #1

PIC #2

PIC #3

PIC #4

We are beginning a new unit about change in our environment.  We began our inquiry by thinking like scientists.  First, we ventured out into our natural world to observe rocks, water, and soil.  We looked at how thinks were formed, what they looked, how they felt, and collected data on our findings. We collected rock samples to work with later.  Back in the classroom, students worked in groups observing the rocks closely with magnifying glasses and discussing what they noticed.  Then, they agreed on a way to group them based on the rocks’ properties.  After each group had grouped their rocks and recorded their data, we heard from each group how they chose to classify their rocks.  Rocks were grouped by shape, size, weight, and color.  After, students could go back and regroup their rocks in another way.  Most groups thought that color was most helpful in the end.

We have been reading some books about rocks and also watched a short video.  Students learned that rocks are made up of minerals and that some are harder than others.  The hardness scale rates how hard a rock is from 1-10. Rocks are also classified based on their properties.  There are sedimentary rocks, igneous rocks, and metamorphic rocks.  These rocks can change from one type to another over long periods of time.

Here are a few links to learn more about the rock cycle:

How Rocks Change-The Rock Cycle.

The_Rock_Cycle (8 minute video)

The_Rock_Cycle (2:40 minute video clip)

Rocks-Chapter 4 (Intermediate text)

Here are 2 photographs.  Can you tell where they are from and what kind of rocks they are?

Move the cursor over each picture to find the answer.

After exploring more about rocks, what have you found most interesting?

The class voted and decided on creating a system to collect food and help out people who are homeless or having a difficult time financially.  Today they decided to collect food for Thanksgiving baskets/boxes for local families.  We have a list of jobs and people needed to make our system work well.  Next, we will be working on getting the word out.

Look for information coming home about the food drive.