Happy Holidays!

Happy Holiday from the Pom-bitos!

It has been a wonderful first half of the year. We are sorry for not blogging as much as we would have liked to, but as you all know, life can get busy and time slips away so easily. We will do our best to put blogging back on the top of our to-do list in the new year!

We are extremely proud of each of our fantastic second graders for their wonderful performance of December in Our Town. They spent months learning songs and choreography, spent countless hours practicing, and for many, stepped out of their comfort zones to speak on stage. They were amazing!

And we'd like to say a special thank you to Ms. Kia for her time and effort in getting our props and costumes ready for our production. We would not have been able to do it without you!

Happy Birthday Ms. Pomeroy!

We have spent the day celebrating Ms. Pomeroy! Tomorrow is a big birthday for her and we have enjoyed showing her how much we love and appreciate her. 

Here she is showing off the Venus Flytrap that our friend G brought as a gift for her:

Science never tasted so good!!!!

Today we had a taste test in science....with dirt!!!! 

No, not real dirt, dessert dirt. We made dirt cups for students to observe. Right away they started describing it with their taste buds, but we quickly reminded them to think like scientists to make their observations. That's right, we made them stare at it for a long time before they could eat it (muaaaaa haaaaa haaaaa). Our students are so in the routine of science practices, that they quickly began to create a list of things we know and what we want to know. Our observations included things like, some parts look moist and some look rough, why is it brown, is all soil brown, is sand a kind of soil, I noticed there are layers, etc. Our little scientists surprised us with all of their questions and observations! 

Today, we looked at three different soil samples, however we did not eat these! Students were asked to make observations with their senses of sight and touch and record them in their soil journals. Tomorrow we will learn the names of the soils and understand each type, and where soil comes from. Do you know the three types of soil? 

Congrats A!

Congratulations to our friend A! A takes Taekwondo at the same school as my nieces, and I was excited to come watch him test for his orange belt this morning. A showed his strength and perseverance, and I am SO proud of him!

Way to go A!

It's Time for writing, in Writer's Workshop!

We have been working on our writing since the very first day of school! We are working on writing quality, personal narratives, that zoom in on one moment. 

Here is the list of lessons we've had so far on how to make our writing GRAB our reader's attention and how to go back and revise an edit our writing, using ARMS & CUPS. We've also added that personal narratives should end with a wrap-up summary and a feeling. We've used the works of Patricia Polacco to model these wonderful personal narrative qualities. On Friday, we looked at A Chair For My Mother by Vera B. Williams. This author writes a small moment narrative and uses a memory within her writing, almost like a flashback. Writers, will you try your hand at writing within a memory this week just like Vera? :)

Awake Reading

At this very moment, I am sitting with our amazingly, awesome 2nd graders. They have just moved me to tears and I had to share. 

We have been reading Patricia Polacco's Thank You, Mr. Falker. I am blown away by the thinking our class does while reading. They are deep thinkers and take care to reflect on both their words and feelings. So I challenge you to do some "Awake Reading" with your child this week. Here's what we've discussed so far:

Ask your child questions and discuss their mental images. I promise you won't regret it. 

Then leave us a comment to tell us what you read and how it went (don't forget to leave your name)!

Combination Clubs and Math Fluency

This week our class began Combination Clubs! As stated in the introduction letter, addition facts will be sent home on "flash cards." Each student will begin with set number one (combinations of ten, plus one, plus two). The cards should be cut out and practiced at home throughout the week. Some time during the week, a parent volunteer will quiz your child on these facts. It should take no longer than 3-4 seconds to answer each expression. When your child masters the set of facts, a new set will be sent home to add to their cards. 

You may be asking yourself "but I thought Chets focused on conceptual math, rather than algorithms and rote memorization?" And you would be right....sort of. In the primary grades, it is extremely important for students to develop a strong understand of what is actually happening when adding to and taking away from a quantity. As we move through 2nd grade, our focus is still very much conceptual. However, we begin to discuss some higher order thinking. In order to do this, we need students to become automatic in basic addition and subtraction facts. "If this fluent retrieval does not develop then the development of higher-order mathematics skills — such as multiple-digit addition and subtraction, long division, and fractions — may be severely impaired." (from the Scholastic Research Foundation Paper Research Foundation & Evidence of Effectiveness for FASTT Math). 

We will spend a lot of time this year during Interactive Math to build fact automaticity. We will also be using a computer-based program called Reflex Math. However, we also need your help at home. Please take 5-10 minutes each evening working on these facts. The investment of time spent building fluent retrieval of facts will pay dividends as your child moves into higher-order mathematical thinking this year!

Routines, routines, and more routines

Hello friends and parents! Our classroom has been filled with our safari guides taking a not so "wild" walk into second grade with learning the habits and routines of our classroom and workshops. Why is this necessary? Why is it so time consuming? Routines and habits are the foundation for every classroom. It's imperative that we go over them within the first few weeks of school to establish a safe and positive learning atmosphere, while at the same time outlining for students our expectations for work habits and "what if" situations. Many things we've done are things that are already familiar to them, however, now that they are in second grade, we can scaffold a known routine. What do you think is the most important routine in our classroom, parents? Friends, what do you think is the most important routine in our class? 

It's a jungle in here...

Happy First Day!

We had the BEST first day of 2nd grade! Our class started off quickly learning new (yet very familiar) routines. We learned about our new classmates and teachers, wrote about the cool things we did this summer, explored how we can be scientists, learned a new math game, and (most importantly) got to play on the coveted BIG playground!

On top of all of that fantastic fun, we got to be explorers! Since our theme this year is "Creek Life: Take a Wall on the Wild Side," our school has been filled with animals. Real animals! Well, "real dead" animals (as some of our students phrased it). The Safari Club International has brought their Sensory Safari to CCE. We will get to visit all of their taxidermied animals throughout the school. 

Here are some pictures of today's adventures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boosterthon!

The "Lighning Pom-Bitos" have started our Boosterthon road trip on the "Highway USA"!  We are already up to $5 per lap pledged. Our team has a lofty goal of raising at least $80 per lap. If we can reach that goal, our team coaches (Ms. Pomeroy, Mrs. Sambito, & Ms. Murphy) will dye their hair CRAZY colors!!!!! 

You should have recieved your child's Pledge book which contains their personal log-in code for www.funrun.com.  This is where you will enter all pledges for your child. No money needs to be collected now- you'll get information about money collection after the run.  If you'd like to use social media to raise awareness for our fundraiser, follow the directions below:

How-To Helpers

For the past 2 weeks, our class has been writing how-to papers, also called functional or procedural writing. This writing enables the author to be the teacher by being very specific in their details for their readers. Here are a few thing our class has learned about how-to writing:
1. Pick a topic you are an expert at.
2. Plan your steps in order.
3. Think of a great beginning.
4. List your items that you need to do the task.
5. Use transition words (first, next, then, last/finally).
6. Draw a matching picture for each step.
7. Add labels to the pictures.
8. Write a great ending!!!!
Here is a great example from our friend Addison! Help your kids by asking them how to do things that they do everyday and having them explain it to you in words.

HENRY COLE!!!!

Today our children got to experience meeting an author/illustrator at school! Henry Cole presented his work and did demonstrations of how he illustrates to our kindergarten and first graders. Our students were SO inspired that upon our return from the assembly, they asked if we could begin writer's workshop early....ahhhhhhh every teacher's wish! All we want is for our children to love writing and illustrating stories they want to tell, and the inspiration that Henry Cole gave our students today makes our hearts soar! Thank you Mr. Cole, for the inspiration our kids needed and wanted!

Happy 100th Day!

Our sweet little kindergarteners are 100 days smarter! Check out some of our awesome 100-collections and our special 100th day hats ;)

Only 80 days more days to get ready for 1st grade!

Scrumptious Small Moment Writing

Our students have diligently been working on creating small moments; writing that is a one time, one place moment about themselves. Mrs. Sambito and I have tried to give them a visual by having them envision their writing like an Oreo cookie...a crunchy engaging beginning, a double stuffed detail middle, and a crispy ending that leaves us with a feeling. Here is the rubric we use and our Oreo cookie chart to help the kids concoct the most delicious small moments!

Welcome Ms. Murphy!!!

Our class is so lucky to have an intern this semester....we welcome Hannah Murphy, from FSCJ, into our classroom to work along side us and enter into the most rewarding profession there is! We hope she will learn a lot and love this job as much as we do:)