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Classroom Snapshot for Grades 2/3

The letter below is a sample of a monthly email communication by 2/3 class teachers to the parents of their students. This is a detailed account of the academic lessons that happened in the classroom, including upcoming events and acknowledgements to parents who so graciously assisted in the classroom, on field trips or with daily logistics.

News From the Miraculous Mice

Dear families,

Phew! The past few weeks have been abuzz with action as we prepared for our two fabulous field trips, have been getting ready for conferences, and tried to play catch up from the school we missed the week before. It's been a busy time and we really appreciate everyone's flexibility and support. We are especially grateful for how respectful you all have been of our time in the morning. It's important that we all start our day together as this is when we go over the schedule and check in with each other. Thanks for putting in the effort to get your Miraculous Mouse to school on time. We look forward to meeting with you during the Fall conferences later this week. Until then, be well.

Regards,
Your teachers

Mathematics

The second graders began a unit on the number system called Coins, Coupons, and Combinations through TERC Investigations. We are learning about how numbers are made from other numbers-20 can be made from 10 and 10, or from four 5's or from ten 2's. Being able to take numbers apart and put them back together flexibly is the basis for developing good number sense. Each student made a Book of Ten book and wrote down various ways ten can be broken up using Unifex cubes. We also introduced "The Magic Number Nine" where any number with at least two digits turns into the number nine and challenged our reasoning skills by figuring out math riddles in what we call "Digits in Disguise."

The third graders began the unit by playing Up and Down the Number Line. Each student was given a secret number that was taped to his/her back. In silence, students were instructed to line up in order from smallest to largest. It was interesting to see the non-verbal communication skills and strategies, which emerged. This activity began the unit on Place Value and Number Sense. The students also learned how to play The Place Value Game and participated in a lengthy discussion around odd and even numbers. This week the students were each given a Place Value packet that they will be working on over the next couple of weeks. Questions to ask your mathematician: What makes a number odd or even? What are your thoughts about zero; do you think it is odd or even? Take a look at the numbers around you the next time you go shopping or are reading the newspaper. Ask your child to point out the number in the tens, hundreds, or the millionths place. Remember, math is everywhere!

Readers' Workshop

What do reading and spelling have to do with each other? Well, by strengthening your spelling strategies, you become a better reader and by reading more words and learning how to identify spelling patterns within words, you become a stronger reader. This past week the students went on a hunt for long A words. They are now beginning to identify some of the patterns they found. The students are also starting to notice some of the connections they are making to their reading. Making connections to your reading is an important reading strategy. Being able to identify with a character or seeing how one book reminds you of another helps to stretch your reading muscle. From Dick and Jane to Dante, no matter how experienced you are as a reader, by making connections you are thinking about your reading and when you are thinking about your reading, your reading muscle grows.

Writers' Workshop

Ducks in the bathtub! Geese getting arrested for disturbing the peace! These adventures and more have been part of our recent discussions about the important animals in our lives. As part of our study of memoir (writing about true stories from our lives), the students were encouraged to think about memorable animal experiences that they've had. The above experiences were written about in Jean Craighead George's hilarious memoir, "The Tarantula in My Purse: And 172 Other Wild Pets." These funny stories helped to inspire us as we thought about our own wild animal stories. Want to help your young writer to develop their writing voice? Help them to brainstorm some experiences they've had. Relive the experience together by asking some probing questions like, "And then what happened?" or "Why do you think they did that?"

Science

Did you know that poison oak can be used to remove warts? Would you ever have believed that there were so many different kinds of igneous rocks in our own backyard? These discoveries and more were made on our trip to Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve last week. The students were all incredible hikers, geologists, botanists, and zoologists. Even while braving the hot sun and the LONG hike, they remained engaged and enthusiastic.

Some questions to ask your scientist: What happened during the volcano demonstration in class? Why do you think this happened? To try one of the experiments at home all you need is a 2-liter bottle of diet cola and a package of mint Mentos. Drop a few of the Mentos into the bottle and sit back and enjoy the fun. (We recommend that you do this experiment outside.)

This Wednesday we will begin our Integrated Art program with Kerry and Room 1. Every Wednesday morning for the next six weeks the students will work with their CORE (California, Oakland, Rocks, and Earth) teams to delve more deeply into these fascinating subjects. They will be studying rocks and earth on Room 4, California and Oakland history in Room 1, and creating a sculpture based on Oakland's past, present and future in the art room. Be sure to ask your child each Wednesday about the fun projects they are doing.

Inside Out

Last week's Inside Out lesson was focused on gender, the variety of ways to express one's gender identity as well as the ways we can learn to support those who express themselves in ways that are different from our own. While reading the book Jesse's Dream Skirt, we discussed our ideas of what we thought might happen and why when Jesse decided to wear a skirt to school. We asked ourselves, "How do I feel about Jesse wanting to wear a skirt to school?" and "What would I do if I were Jesse's friend?" Not only were the students incredibly respectful and open to this discussion, many of the students shared that they too, had had similar experiences. Many of us could identify with the feeling of wanting to do something but being afraid people would laugh or feeling that you wanted to express yourself in a way that wasn't about being a boy or a girl, but being unsure of how others would react. We decided that the most important thing is to be yourself and for us all to learn how to accept one another.

This week in Inside Out we finished decorating our cool-off tree. Each leaf suggests a different idea for cooling off. Hmmm... but what do you do when you're done cooling off and are ready to resolve the problem? Well, you try to find a win/win solution! As part of our Positive Discipline approach, the students are introduced to certain steps of the peacemaking process. This week we discussed ways to brainstorm solutions so that everybody wins.

Social Studies

The artists in our community continue to amaze us. Once again, we were blown away by the touching vibrancy of the altars at the Oakland Museum's Laughing Bones/Weeping Hearts presentation of ofrendas for El Día de Los Muertos. Many of the children noticed the some of the common themes throughout many of the altars (candles, bread, dishes of water, skeletons, etc.) and many of us found inspiration for our own memory boxes or ofrendas that we are making in class.

This week's album of the week is Niyaz, from Iran. If you have any information/books/foods, etc. on Iran or about Persian culture that you would like to share with the class, please let us know. Next week we will be listening to music from Guatemala.

Many Thanks

Special thanks goes out to our field trip drivers and chaperones. We could not have gone on these fantastic adventures without your help. Thanks as well to other families for donating the lights, hand towels and salt. The lights certainly help to set the mood in our room and the salt will be used in a fun science project coming up soon.

Volunteering Opportunities

Could not make it to one of the field trips? Well, there are many other ways to help out in Room 4. Many of you indicated on your pink volunteering opportunities sheet that you might be willing to assist during a regularly scheduled class time. Feel the need to brush up on your times tables? Want to see Writers' Workshop in action? Take a look at our weekly schedule. We could especially use your help during third grade math, as well as during Library, Readers' Workshop, or Writers' Workshop. Please let us know if you are available to join us during one of these times.

In our efforts to go green and to reduce our classroom waste, we would like to do a cloth napkin decorating activity. We would use these for birthday and holiday celebrations. For this project we will need a parent who would be willing to sew cloth squares that the kids could decorate. They will need to be about 16" x 16" and should me made out of some sturdy light colored material. Are there any takers?

Dates to Remember