December update

Welcome to the Room 6 December Update:

This is a busy time of year- in and out of school!  Here is a quick peek at we have been doing:

First, this is the last month of our Student Teacher’s practicum with us!  Riley Fallon has been a true asset to our classroom; the students and I will miss her greatly but she is well on her way to having a class of her own. December 23 is her last day.

In math we are just completing a unit on Time and Fractions.  Students should be able to tell time to the 5 minutes, as well as know facts such as the number of days in a week, weeks in a year, etc. At home they can continue to notice and use these time skills!  In fractions they know halves, thirds and fourths.  

We are reading up a storm, and talking about our Schema (what we already know about a topic or idea) and Making Connections with literature.  We are making text-to-text connections, particularly when we read multiple books in a series.  We will also be covering Retelling this month, so children will be able to tell you the problem and solution, characters, setting and the author’s purpose.  Raz Kids helps reinforce these comprehension skills!

Students just finished their Personal Narrative, Small Moment stories.  They worked very hard to find the “seed” special moment in their lives and expand to help their reader see, feel, and hear what they experienced at that time.  They added detail, thoughts and feelings, and dialog.  We learned how to create a good “lead” and use different types of endings.  They are currently reading them to the class and a copy will go home. The original is hanging in our room.

Finally in Science we just completed our unit on Weather. Ask your child to give you a weather report as a Meteorologist would!  We are moving on to the study of Maps.  Vacations are a great opportunity to use maps to find new places or to get around at a mall or park.  

I am going to try attaching a slide show to this blog so you can see the fun we had making the bread that children brought home for Thanksgiving.  Enjoy!

Fondly, your teachers:  Ms. Niles, Mrs. Bastarache, and Ms. Fallon

November 2015

Happy November Room 6 Families!

It was a pleasure meeting with everyone for conferences throughout the month of October. Can you believe we have already completed our second month of school?!

The students in Room 6 have been very busy these past few weeks. In reading we are working with students on developing their fluency, comprehension, and accuracy skills. We encourage students to read outloud to family members, pets, or even stuffed animals at home to continue practicing their reading.

Personal Narratives are still the focus in writing and students are exploring adding detail to their small moment stories. Students should continue to add possible writing topics in their “Tiny Topics Notebook” when they encounter a small moment in their day that they might want to write about.

In math we are well on our way to completing our second math unit involving place value. We have begun our “Math Shuffle” this past week where students work in groups with peers from each of the second grade classrooms to further develop their math skills.

In science we have been exploring the concepts of weather. The students have even constructed their own weather vanes and pinwheels to explore air. Thankfully the weather has been cooperating, allowing us to take our learning outside of the classroom to observe the wind and clouds. Check out an awesome “Water Cycle” song on our blog (and I bet your child can even teach you the dance moves to go along with it!)

The second grade meteorologists had so much fun on our Blue Hills Weather Observatory field trip on Friday. Thank you to Debbie Bell, Cathy Caulfield, and Dee Wilson for chaperoning the trip! First, the students took a tour of the observatory and were able to explore the different weather tools that we have been learning about in class. Each student was also able to build their own kites which we will be testing out this week (fingers crossed for a windy day!) On our hike down the hill, students learned about different types of trees and how to figure out the age of a pine tree! The students asked such great questions throughout the field trip and it was a great opportunity to expand our learning outside of the classroom!

We also had a busy week inside the classroom as well. Thank you to those who sent in vegetables for our Veggie Skeleton activity on Thursday! It was so great to see how much the students LOVE to eat veggies and it was a great way to celebrate Halloween. Our class also did a great job harvesting the vegetables in the Happy Hollow Garden for Harvest Day.

We look forward to more exciting learning opportunities to come over the next few weeks and as always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns please do not hesitate to email us at any time!

Room 6 Teachers,

Ms. Niles, Ms. Basterache, & Ms. Fallon

Cardboard Challenge

Hello Room 6 Families!

This past Thursday, October 1, our Room 6 Engineers were hard at work creating games for the Cardboard Challenge. Thank you to everyone who donated cardboard for us to use, we greatly appreciate it!! Our planning for the challenge started early in the week where students brainstormed with a partner things they could potentially create. On the day of the challenge students watched a video about a boy named Caine who began this worldwide cardboard challenge. If you have a chance, definitely check out this inspirational video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U

The students then broke off into groups of 2-4 and were given time to sketch a design of their arcade game. Once they were finished with the initial design it was time to get to work! All of the students worked incredibly hard on constructing their designs and it was amazing to see their designs come to life! The class set goals for themselves throughout the challenge such as: be creative, be kind and inclusive to group members, and use recyclables to build a structure. At the end of the day it was evident that the students were able to successfully reach all of the goals that they set for themselves. Each group shared their structure with the class and were given an opportunity to play each other's arcade games as well as play them with their 4th grade buddies on Friday. Below are some pictures of the students at work!

It was a pleasure to get to share this experience with the students and I hope they enjoyed this exciting, fun, and creative process!!

Sincerely,

Ms. Niles, Ms. Basterache, and Ms. Fallon

First Friday Letter!

September 19, 2015

Dear Parents,

This is our first Friday Letter.  We created it as a class, by working with our table groups on a topic.  We used this graphic organizer to help us think of ideas.  Here is a paragraph written by each table group:  

This week in school we started reading conferences.  We go to the back table and talk with Ms. Fallon or Ms. Niles.  They help us decide if it’s a “just right book”.  It was fun because we read fun books and sometimes we got to move to the next level!

We also took a test called the GRADE. The whole class took the test. The last couple of pages were reading stories and answering questions.  We felt confident, happy, focused, and a little nervous.  We used stamina!

We also learned a LOT of vocabulary words.  We wrote them on the white board and then moved them to the Vocabulary Wall.  It is very satisfying.  Two examples are paragraph and compassion.  

In math we learned doubles and doubles plus one!  We played a doubles game on the rug.  We filled out doubles sheets and used arrays to help us.  We have new Journals from Everyday Math.  We also corrected our math homework.  We feel excited!

One group had the topic of getting to know friends in our class.  We can find friends outside at recess too.  Today at lunch we had mix it up Friday and sat with new friends.  In class we went around and asked people what they like to do and answered questions. Getting to know things about people makes people feel good.

On Friday we had Skills Lab.  We went on Lexia and some people almost finished a level.  On Thursday we went to the gym and played games with Mr. O’Connor.  

We hope you like our first Friday letter.  Every two weeks we will write one.  Next time we will write our own!

Love,

The Students in Room 6

August 2015

Welcome Second Grade Families!

I hope you are having a fantastic summer and are getting ready for the year ahead.  I know I am!! This is a place for us to share what is going on in the classroom, and provide resources for your students to continue their learning at home.  If there is anything at all that you would like me to include here for reference or reflection, please don’t hesitate to ask.  My email address is deborah_niles@wayland.k12.ma.us.

I have included our Welcome Letter and Supply List to the left of this post... in case you cannot locate the one that your child brought home in June (which seems like so long ago!)  I will be updating our Specials for the week as soon as our new schedule comes out… so you know when your child should wear sneakers for Physical Education and when to bring Library books back :)

I look forward to meeting all of you at our fall conferences.  Meanwhile email me with any questions.  Enjoy the rest of your summer!!

End of Year!

The storm before the calm…

The end of a school year is such a busy, crazy, exciting, and emotional time.  We have created our classroom “community”, worked together, played together, and learned SO much. I love all my new friends, and although it is tough to say goodbye, I know we will all go off to our  summer adventures and to a new class next year with wonderful memories to cherish.  

Here are some important dates to remember:

June 8 (Monday): Picnic 5-7pm

June 10 (Wed): Field Day- please contact our Physical Education teachers to volunteer: Shelley_Fraser@wayland.k12.ma.us, or daniel_oconnor@wayland.k12.ma.us.  Make sure your child wears sunscreen, brings a water bottle with their name on it, and try to find a yellow shirt to wear- that’s our 2nd grade color!

June 11 (Thursday): 8:15-9:00- Open House!  Come and see many examples of your child’s fantastic work this year.  We will have a short presentation at 8:40.

June 19: Move along day

June 22: (Monday)- Last Day of School! Contact room parents to volunteer to bring pizza to school for a special lunch in the classroom.

Thank you so much for all of your support this year. It certainly "takes a village", and this is a pretty special village for sure!!

Class News- May 2015

May 10 - Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers!!

There is no more important- or more challenging- role on earth!

It is with tremendous joy and sadness that we say goodbye to our student teacher, Laura Evers. She has been with us for almost 4 months, but it seems like yesterday that she was getting to know our names, and our routines.  She was able to connect with each and every student, and make quite an impact on our classroom with her perseverence and her big heart.

She will, however, be able to join us for two upcoming events you will see elsewhere on this blog:

• Our field trip to the North End on May 22, and
• Our Open House on June 11! (8:15-9 am)

Here is what we have been working on in Room 6:

Butterflies! We received larva in our classroom a week ago, and they have already grown and crawled to the top of the cups to make their chrysalids.  Students love seeing this right before their eyes. Oh the wonders of nature!

Communities: Our study of communities began before vacation with interviews of people in our lives, to see what their job is and how they contribute to our community.  Thank you all for helping your child with this assignment- they were fascinating! We all chose a community worker to create… they are hanging in our hallway with clues to see if you can guess who we are! You can see them during our Open House next month.

Now we are learning about how people provide either goods or services to their community, and how producers and consumers keep our economy humming. Next we will be starting to build a miniature community right in our classroom!

Math: Our unit on 3-digit addition and subtraction has come to a close- and I told the children I was so impressed with the degree of effort they put into this.  I was also amazed with how well they were able to apply what they learned on our assessment.  Bravo!  Now we are on to data and measurement, to end our year.

Poetry: We are reading, writing and truly enjoying poetry.  It can be fun, creative, funny, inspiring, imaginative, playful… just like these children!  Watch for poetry books in the local library and bookstores, and you will find a new genre that your family can all enjoy.

Finally, thanks to everyone who sent a Flat Stanley to travel around the world.  The stories, pictures and adventures have been wonderful to share.  I am so honored that your friends and family would take the time to take these little “people” around their neighborhoods, and write such interesting letters, for your child to share with us.  Please thank them for me. Better yet- ask they to follow your child’s education through our Happy Hollow website and this blog!

It has truly been a pleasure to get to know each and every one of your children this year. We have created a classroom community in which we can take risks, learn, make mistakes, laugh, and grow in so many ways.  This may be my last update until the end of the year, so feel free to contact me for any reason.  Thank you!!!

Deborah Niles

March 15, 2015

March 15 - Spring News for Families

Yes, we are almost there… five days to go! I say this as I look out at more snow coming down.  I think even the children want it to stop!

I first want to congratulate Annabelle Roberts for creating Difference Day.. what may now be an annual tradition at Happy Hollow. She encouraged the school to come last Friday wearing something to show how different we all are. Something to celebrate! She is also taking up a collection for an anti-bullying organization, so send in your contribution!

We have other community service projects to acknowledge: Abby and her brother sold bracelets to raise money to help elephants through the “Hope Elephant” organization in Maine, and Jake and his friends are raising awareness and reminding people to recycle, through their collection of recycled works of art.  Bravo to them and all who support them!

These projects now only empower children to make a difference in the world, but also work on academic skills as students learn to write a script and deliver it in front of the school, communicate with the principal and peers, research their cause, and reflect on their impact.

Here is a summary of what’s happening in other areas of school life over the past month:

Math: We completed our study of 2-digit addition and subtraction.  We used the data from our formal and informal assessments to create a plan for our next unit of RTI, a cross-grade time where we help students in small group intervention, and enrich students who are ready for it.   Meanwhile we are taking a break for our Geometry unit, studying attributes of shapes, polygons, dividing rectangles into rows and columns, and using arrays to add multiple numbers. We will soon be on to 3-digit addition and subtraction!  Get ready!

Reading, Writing and Social Studies:

We have begun our second grade research project, the study of The Continents of the World, which is a wonderful, interdisciplinary unit that touches all of these areas.  The children are so excited! We began with a study of text features in non-fiction (or “informational”) text.  Then we used these to learn and practice research skills.  Next we looked at the world, learned a little about each continent, and asked students to pick their “top 3”.  Finally we created teams to read, write and present the most interesting facts about their continents.  You can support them at home with encyclopedias, online resources (supervised of course), and/or trips to the local library.

Speaking of the world, I hope your child’s Flat Stanley has found an interesting place to visit!  When they come back, please help your child practice their presentation at home.  It should be 3-5 minutes… if their friend or family member wrote a letter that is too difficult for them to read, they can summarize and show the pictures.  If you need help deciding where to send him/her, please let me know.  Thank you!

Other news:

• We have a new, exciting piece of furniture in our room- a Growlight!  We will begin planting seeds indoors this week, to eventually plant outside in our gardens, once they are moved.  If you want to find out more, please click on the HH Gardens Link above.  Let me know if you want to get involved- the children LOVE it! (Don’t tell them how good it is for them!)
• Also, our student teacher, Mrs. Evers, is doing a fine job- we are so lucky to have her!  She is working one-on-one with students, assessing their skills, and even teaching lessons already.  Some of you may meet her at your conference.  

Finally, I am thrilled to be able to show you your child’s progress this year, in our Spring Conferences.  If you need a reminder, please use the doodle link here: http://doodle.com/yieeesmc3gtbg9b5dymgn4z8/admin#table. Please come with any questions you have.  This is truly a partnership and I am enjoying every minute of it!

Thank you, parents, for all of your support.

Deborah Niles

Room 6 Winter News

February 9, 2015

Well- It looks like we are breaking the record for the most snow in a one-month period… But we’ve done it in only 16 days!! I have a question on this month’s Homework Calendar about it… you can access the calendar using the link to the left of this post. It will go home tomorrow.

Parents- I hope you and your children are enjoying the day.  I’m thinking about activities we can do in June when we are still in school! :)  Going out to the garden perhaps?  Enjoying spring veggies?  If you want to get in on the fun with the children, please let me know.  We have a great Garden Team forming!

Please continue to read the letter on the back of the reading log (also available using the tab above) for weekly project dates and homework reminders.

Here are some of the things that have been happening in Room 6.  (I asked the children to give me ideas last Friday, since we did not create Friday letters last week.  You will definitely see them this week…

Math

We just completed our unit on 2-digit Addition and Subtraction.  Our next unit is on Geometry.  Meanwhile we are taking the GMade tests this coming week, which will give us a lot of information about your child’s progress this year!  Students can practice at home using Computer Lab Links or Everyday Math Online.  Use the HH webpage to access these.

Reading

We are studying different authors to see how our Schema for a topic, genre, and even a series helps us to comprehend new texts.  What is your child’s favorite author?  Ask them about the author visit we had last week from David Biedrzycki.

During reading time we also continue with our Words Their Way Spelling program.  I am sending their weekly words home.  There is no formal spelling homework, but if you want to do a quick check to see if they know them, that always helps!

Writing

Children have written incredible Opinion Letters.  In this unit they have learned how to write an introduction, support their opinion with specific reasons, use evidence from the text, and write a conclusion at the end of the letter.  They also continue to practice editing skills.  Pretty impressive!  

Science

Thank you to those who have volunteered in the classroom this year!! Your time and support mean so much to me and to the students! We are wrapping up our study of Changes in States of Matter.  I will be posting links where they can get more information.  As always, use of the internet should be monitored by an adult.  Our LARK guidelines are posted on this site.

Spring Conferences are around the corner!  I will be sending out an email for you to sign up.

Finally, I cannot tell you how much I enjoy this work.  I see students working so hard, and I get to see the smiles of pride that comes with accomplishment. I see them making friendships and working out the issues that go with them. I see them build curiosity about the world around them.  I remind them that they are our future, and we discuss what is important in the world to come.  It is a truly rewarding experience each and every day.  Thank you for your support at home and as always, let me know your questions, concerns, and ideas.  It truly takes a village!

First Post of 2015

January 10, 2015

Happy New Year!!!

We have completed our first week of the new year, and it seems like we never left!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday and break with your family and friends.  I had a delightful “staycation”, and I was able to spend time with my now 24-year old twins, who make me very happy and proud :)

Since this was not a “Friday Letter” week, I will give you a summary of some the things we are doing in second grade:

• In math we are studying addition and subtraction up to 100.  Ask your child about some of the strategies we are using (ie. number lines, base 10 blocks and symbols for these, using vertical pencil-and-paper methods, adding ones and tens, etc.)
• In reading we are focusing on the elements of a fiction story, in order to better understand and enjoy our literature.  These elements include:  characters, the setting, problems and solutions, and retelling using “Beginning, Middle and End”. We also talk about how characters change and develop throughout the story.
• We are writing about our Opinions of the stories we read.  We state reasons, and then back up these reasons using “evidence from the text”.  I hope you enjoyed the letters that came home in December- the students worked very hard on these!!
• We are just wrapping up a unit on Map Skills.  You will see a booklet coming home that children started in class, and we have completed the most important lessons.  Encourage them to complete the other lessons- it is a great way to have them practice “reading and following directions”... an essential skill in school!!!!
• This coming week we will be starting a unit on ‘Changes in States of Matter’... a very engaging science unit that involves lots of experiments.  We could use parent volunteers for this… so please email me if you can help!!!
• Finally we are using a few different themes to help children with their social skills, self control, and good citizenship.  Ask them about Superflex and the things we talk about in Open Circle.  Our Guidance Counselor, Beth Santomenna, has been teaching lessons every week that help with this curriculum.  

Volunteer Opportunities:

1. Please continue to sign up for Math Stations.  It is so much more effective with one more adult in the room… you don’t have to been “good in Math” or feel under pressure.  The students and I will be glad to help you!!
2. Science material preparation.  This takes a good deal of time for me alone, so I would LOVE to have your help.  You can come in before school, after school, or even when students are at a Special.  Please consider giving ½ - 1 hour per week.  I will need someone for the next 2-3 weeks.  Thank you!!!

As you know I am in the thick of preparing report cards.  There is much data and a relatively new system.  I will do my best to reflect your child’s progress in every area of their school life, and I hope you will let me know if you have any questions.  This is truly a partnership and I am thrilled to be working with you to educate and inspire these wonderful children!!