It's been awhile!

Hello 2F Families,
I sincerely apologize for my time away from this blog.  I thought updating once a week would be better, but to be honest, it hasn't for me!  Once a day works for me... it's in my mind, it's part of my reflection on the day.  So I will try to become more regular in my updates.

Did you know that you can follow this blog and get an automatic email every time I update this site?  If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the home page it says "Subscribe: Posts".  Click on this and put in your email address.  Each time I update the blog, you will get an email saying so. I do this for my youngest daughter's class and it works wonders.  Please let me know if you have difficulty with this.

Report cards went home today. Please review them. Let me know if you have questions or if you need clarification about anything. If you could sign the envelope and return it, that would be great.

On Monday, March 24th, we are going on a field trip to Capitol Center for the Arts in the morning. We will see a play about insects. In the spring (May) we will study about insects. This is a good kick-off to this unit, even if it's a bit early.

We are finishing up studying magnets. We've learned that some materials are attracted to magnets, and some materials are not. We've also learned that magnets come in all shapes and sizes. Also, that magnets have poles. This has been a fun, hands-on science unit where we've done experiments and kept a journal of our findings.   After this, we move into our study of weather.

In reading, we've focused a lot of our time on reading nonfiction. The Common Core is very strong in this area. We've read many biographies in reading groups and learned about lots of different people.  At this time, we are beginning to learn about metacognition and what goes on inside our heads when we read. Students are learning how to be more aware of their inner thoughts as they read. Today, we listened to a song and talked about our connections.  All the while, we always refer back to the text to find evidence. For example, I asked students to make connections but they needed to refer to the line in the song that gave them that connection.

Our informational reports about Arctic and Antarctic animals are finished.  Students loved this project! We are now moving into the genre of opinion writing. For this, we are focusing on writing letters to others about the books we are reading.  Currently, students needed to think of a memorable character and tell something about him/her in letter form. Again, they are referring back to the text to cite examples that back up their opinions about these characters.

Finally, in math, we have finished with multiplication and division and are moving into measurement. Students are learning about meters and centimeters. I am working with some in small groups trying to solidify the concepts of multiplication and division, based on the results of their tests. I will also be working on making addition and subtraction facts to 20 solid.  This is a must-have skill before leaving second grade.

Sorry for the lengthy post.  I will be better about updates!