Typing Pal

We have begun to use the online typing program, Typing Pal.  The program introduces the 7 Keys to Success, which include focusing on accuracy initially and the correct posture while typing.  Next, the program introduces the 'home row' and children begin to practice adding a new letter and finger position with each exercise.
We would like to keep the use of this program entirely within the classroom at this point so we can monitor the students carefully.
The 2nd graders are all inspired to become accurate and efficient typists - unlike their teacher who only uses 4 fingers!

Social Studies

Today we began our year long social studies unit on Denver.  Initially we read the book Where Do I Live? by Neil Chesanow.  The book begins by stating that we live in our bedroom, then expands to home, neighborhood, town, city, state, country, continent etc.

The students were excited to hear that they will be studying the city of Denver.  In groups, we began by talking about what we already knew about Denver, then started to form questions about what we would like to learn about Denver during the year.

Questions included:
How was Denver named?
What was the first school in Denver?
How long did the capitol building take to build?
Why is the Brown Palace called the Brown Palace?
Why did they build Elich Gardens?
How big is the Broncos stadium?
What was Denver's first neighborhood?

Friday Folders

Every week, your child will bring home a blue Friday Folder.  In the folder will be work that has been completed that week at school.  Please spend some time over the weekend going through the work with your child, and ask them to explain what they learned and practiced.  At the end of each Math in Focus and Journeys chapter we will send the pages from the entire chapter home.  Please don't be alarmed if they are not all completed.  I do not always assign every child, every page to complete.  I also use different resources to teach and practice some skills.  However, your child is free to work on any of these pages for extra homework if they wish.  I may also request that a child does this if I feel that extra practice would be beneficial.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Addition with Regouping

We began our addition unit this week.  To help understand the concept of regrouping the students played Race to 100!  In this game, students use a HTO place value chart.  They throw a dice to collect ones, then regroup each time the number of ones surpasses 10.  The second graders loved the game. Ask them to teach it to you this week!

Our Class Puzzle

We had great fun this morning putting together our class puzzle.  The students worked well together as a team and completed it in record time!  The 2nd graders learned that we are all unique and individual but that we fit together as a community.

First Week of School

 We had a wonderful first week of school.  We spent a lot of time learning about each other and building our classroom community.  We read a number of different books that focus on positive character traits and the beginning of school.  The children all enjoyed looking at each others' t-shirt and guessing who they belong to.   Thank you so much for helping your child to remember his/her homework on the first day back!!  

We have followed Responsive Classroom guidelines to create our 2nd Grade Class Rules.  The children discussed the purpose of school, created 'Hopes and Goals' that they would like to achieve this year, and discussed how rules will help us attain these.  The children then worked in groups to brainstorm possible rules.  They came up with 24!  We decided that was too many to remember, so we grouped them to create a more manageable 4.

Now that your child has had time to get settled in the classroom, we will be starting our beginning-of-the-year reading assessments.  Some of our assessments are completed in a whole class setting and some are administered one-on-one.  These assessments are done at the beginning of every year so that we can identify your child’s reading strengths and guide classroom instruction.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Assessment results will be shared with you during parent-teacher conferences in October.

Next week, your child will bring home his/her first homework assignment.  Homework will be sent out every Monday and will be due on Friday.  Starting the following week, the children will be required to record the number of minutes they spend reading, and the number of minutes they spend practicing math facts.  We encourage the children to do a little bit each night, rather than doing all the required minutes on the same day.  Research has shown that this is far more effective.  Reading minutes are those minutes the children read a ‘just right book’ to themselves or aloud to someone else.  Math facts practice can be done orally, on paper, or on the computer.

We will be celebrating birthdays in class this year and would like to invite you to join us for your child’s birthday.  In accordance with the decision of the Nutrition Committee, we ask that snacks are not brought in for birthday celebrations.  Instead, we would love for you to bring in one of your child’s favorite books to read to the class.  Please also feel free to bring in photos to share.  The class will sing and present a special book to the birthday child.  Please email me in the week prior to your child’s birthday so we can set up a mutually convenient time.

 I hope as many of you as possible will be able to attend Back to School Night.  It will begin at 6:30pm on Tuesday, September 13 and we will meet initially in the Anschutz Commons.  This evening will be an opportunity for you to meet the entire 2nd grade team, learn about our curriculum, see the classroom, and ask any questions you may have.  If you are unable to attend, I will post the powerpoint on the grade level webpage.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions after looking it through.

Future communication will be via the grade level push page, which will have information that pertains to the entire grade level.  If you are not signed up for notifications you may do so by emailing Ruth Segal at rsegal@graland.org  More specific information and photographs about what is happening in our room can be found here on our class blog (jhall2016.blogspot.com). There will be a link to our classroom blog from our grade level push page.

Finally, Ashley and I have really enjoyed getting to know your child this week and we are looking forward to a great year.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact me by email jhall@graland.org or by phone 303-398-3669.

Thanks so much for your help and support in making this first week such a positive start to the year.