Stop and give yourself a pat on the back, round of applause, a deep breath...because you did it! We have made it to the end of second grade. This has been one of the toughest years to navigate as parents, students, and teachers. Even with all of the changes, me going on maternity leave, going from full distance learning to a hybrid model, you have stayed diligent in working with me to help your child succeed. Our students are resilient, strong, and adaptable and how they have responded gracefully to schooling through a pandemic has impressed me so much! I want to take this last week of school to celebrate the positive things your children have accomplished and celebrate students who have worked hard and never gave up no matter what, because that is what this year is all about. Since we have finished out Language Arts units, we have been using the last two weeks of school to complete our projects and focus on the arts. Last week, we did a study on Opera, provided by the Palm Springs Opera Guild, here in our local valley. The Palm Springs Opera Guild shares the magic of Opera with the students from our district annually but because of COVID, the education was provided virtually this year. Click here to learn more about the Palm Springs Opera Guild and the services they have to offer our students and our community: palmspringsoperaguild.org/education This last week of school, we will be focusing on a study provided by the McCallum Theater, titled Aesops Bops. Students will learn about David Gonzalez, a storyteller, and how he adds magic, singing, and music to bring his stories to life. Through these online series, the McCallum Theater wants all families, students, and teachers to experience high-quality dance, music, and theater. To learn more about the online education program, click here: www.mccallumtheatre.com/online-series In Math, we are finishing up Unit 8, which is all about measurement, data, and multi-digit computation. Students will focus on place value, three-digit computation, collecting and analyzing data, and conducting surveys. The unit provides a review of place value and three-digit computation, then focus on data collection and analysis. Students are introduced to a project in which we make cardboard ramps of different kinds to investigate some of the factors that cause marbles to roll farther and faster. After an initial exploration, we conduct formal experiments to test several different variables. In the process, we generate data by measuring marble roll distances multiple times, pool our data, and enter it on line plots to better see, understand, and analyze how manipulating the different variables affects the outcomes. The unit concludes with student-conducted surveys in which students generate questions on topics of their choosing, gather, organize, and analyze the data and share their findings with others. This unit lines up with our Science standards in design and engineering. The last day of school will be virtual for all students (Friday). Students will login at 8:40 and we will be on until the early afternoon. This will be when we are having our end-of-the-year luau, which is our party for students who have completed their work. The rest of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) will remain on their same respective schedules. Final report cards are being sent home this week! Final assignments will be graded on Tuesday, June 1st for inclusion into the report card, then they will be sent home on Thursday for all group B, in-person students. Group A in-person and Group C distance learners will have their report cards mailed home. Remember to send me your child's fun facts if you want them to be a part of the student quiz game on Kahoot, as well as contact information if you want your child to be on the summer contact information sheet. Also, ALL LIBRARY BOOKS NEED TO BE TURNED IN THIS WEEK! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me through Class Dojo. Thanks for all you do!
0 Comments
I am SO excited to be back in the classroom after being on maternity leave! It has been an amazing experience to see your child's face, whether in-person or on Zoom. If you have any questions about the new hybrid schedule or the weekly independent-work chart, don't hesitate to ask. I am here to help!
Since I have returned, we have already been busy working on a lot of new concepts and reviewing others. In Language Arts, we have finished Unit 5 and are now working on Unit 6 until the end of the year. The unit is titled, "How on Earth?" and the big idea is, "What keeps our world working?" Every week, children will complete a mini-project that is related to the essential question. Students will continue to practice writing weekly, with focus on organization, word choice, and ideas. This unit is focused mainly on the writing process of informative/explanatory writing, including pre-write/modeling, draft/revise, proofread/edit, publish/evaluate, and research. In writing, they will focus on effective expression in evidence, research, and opinions from Myths, with a focus on plant-life and growth in Science. The student outcomes are to ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of key details in text, recount stories and determine their message, and describe the structure or a story. Language Development includes adjectives and including commas in a series, as well as continuing vocabulary acquisition and foundational skills in phonics/word study and fluency. Week 1 - What do myths help us understand? Week 2 - How do we use energy? Week 3 - Why is teamwork important? Week 4 - How can we use money? Week 5 - Where can your imagination take you? In Math, we are currently working on Unit 7, which covers measurement, fractions, and multi-digit computation. This unit addresses metric measurement, fractions, and multi-digit addition and subtraction, set in the context of army ants, picnic ants, and imaginary ants who enjoy toys as much as second graders do. In module 1, students discover that the average length of a worker army ant is 1 centimeter, make army ants rulers, similar to the inchworm rulers they made in unit 4 and use their new rulers (or rulers at home) to measure in metric units. In module 2, an amusing children's book about ants serves as a springboard for investigating division and fractions. Modules 3 and 4 feature a new set of story problems that revolve around a toy store for ants. After next week, we will be moving onto Unit 8 to end the school year. More information about that unit to come on next month's blog post! We are ending our April Number Corner, which focused on fractions and data collection and will be moving on to our May Number Corner, which focuses on adding and subtracting 10 and 100 from any 3-digit number, using number grids and lines as models to support students' thinking. The calendar collector highlights measurement and data collection as students measure and compare heights of children in different grade levels. During the daily rectangle activities, students learn how to label rectangles with their dimensions, and begin to develop intuitions about the connection between the dimensions of rectangle and its area. Quick facts, a timed routine designed to help all the students master their addition facts to 20, continues this month. During the last week of May, there will be a final Number Corner Checkup to assess many of the skills and concepts that have been addressed over the past several months. Over the last 5 weeks of school, students will be working on their "My Body Project", as well as a second-grade memory book. The body project will be due on Friday, May 21st! Check back next month for another blog post. Until then, you can reach me through Class Dojo. :) Happy wishes to all, Mrs. Patel |
Welcome to room 207!See the "About" section of this website to learn all about Mrs. Patel! Archives
May 2021
Categories |
Learning with Mrs. Patel
safety.courtesy.