Guess My Number and Catch up (not Ketchup)!

What a productive Monday friends! We started on work board and today was catch up day while student's met in reading groups! Well done! In math we learned a fun new game with Mr. Jarzembowski called Guess my number. Students had to use what they learned about place value, greater than and less than, and apply yes and no questions to try and guess their partners mystery number! Harder than it seems, but we all got the hang of it today! Nice work! In spelling we used what we learned about silent (ninja) e and sorted our spelling words. In writing workshop we carefully thought of one word to describe our weekend, and built a story around that word. Every student had a different word and every story was equally unique! Student writers shared at the end of writing workshop and we got to hear some pretty interesting and well crafted weekend stories (great hair cut story Niko!! Still laughing, out loud)! Many thanks to Mr. Jarzembowski for planning some great activities for our learning in 2W today! Job well done! Tomorrow we will remember the true story of the first Thanksgiving and honor our learning by preparing a feast of thanks in 2W! Without much preparation time, Ms. W. was able to take your brainstorming ideas and get the ingredients we will need and use to make delicious home baked bread (with butter) and creamy, yummy mashed potatoes! Can't wait to work on our feast tomorrow morning and share our delicious work at snack... all together! Kate also said she'll be bringing in an apple crisp! WOW! Thanks Kate! So, get a good night's sleep and come prepared for baking, remembering, honoring, and of course, eating! It is also Tuesday, PE, sneakers please.

Dictionaries and Place Value!!

Happy Friday Friends! Busy day in 2W, that's for sure! We started with work board and reading groups and math quickly followed. Today, we reviewed our learning about place value and remembered how the digit's place in a number determines it's value! After quick review it was on to our new game High, Low, 10 More, 10 Less!! Using cards we formed numbers with different values, and then figured out what 10 more and 10 less would be. Great practice and excellent review of place value! We used our dictionaries in word study while practicing silent e... ninja style! We also talked more about the first Thanksgiving, and how we would celebrate with our very own feast on Tuesday. Mr. Jarzembowski will be back and in the lead on Monday, so make sure you arrive ready and rested for all our learning!

Nurse Jeannie's Visit and Skip Couniting and Number Lines!

Howdy Friends! Another busy morning on the work board and in reading groups! In math we reviewed skip counting strategies (by 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's) and used number lines and the hundreds board to show our thinking! We even practiced skip counting backwards! Tricky! Aine lead a great morning meeting and brought back the drum greeting, Rockin' Robin, and the clothespin game! Well done Aine! We were visited by Nurse Jeannie who came and talked with us about the importance of a healthy breakfast! Morning routines can be tricky, sometimes rushed and sometimes we may even miss breakfast. Yikes! Knowing how important breakfast is can help you make the right choice, even on the busiest mornings! Breakfast is often cereal, oatmeal, pancakes (lucky), or eggs... but breakfast can also be quick and on the go! A cheese stick, banana or apple, granola bars, or even PB and J are all quick and easily portable too! And YES... cold left over pizza can even be breakfast too! Something's always better than nothing! In the afternoon, we learned about the first Thanksgiving, a true story about religious freedom, an incredibly long and difficult journey! We learned how truly difficult it must have been to be one of the early settlers, Pilgrims, and how Native Americans helped the Pilgrims survive! In the end, the first Thanksgiving should always be remembered, at least according to President Abraham Lincoln. And we AGREE!! So we will have our own celebration, in honor and in remembrance of that first Thanksgiving! We'll keep you posted on the details! What a great time to be a second grader! Fun Friday tomorrow, and I have some fun tricks up my sleeve... so to speak! See you tomorrow morning! Eat a good breakfast so you're ready to rock and roll... 2W style!

Cafe Sun and Collect-A-Dollar!!

What a Wednesday! Students started the day on work board and in reading groups, as usual and everyone worked on the new Thanksgiving inspired literacy centers. In math Mr. Jarzembowski taught us a new game from Investigations, Collect A Dollar!! Using dice, students counted coins and added up, all the way to one dollar. Taking care to record our money, and how we added our money, while making coin exchanges (trades) along the way! What a great game and excellent coin counting practice! Justin lead his morning meeting and Bianca held another math meeting in the afternoon! Well done meeting leaders! In spelling we practiced more with silent e and how it makes the vowel long, or say it's name! It was Cafe Sun today, and Bianca lit up the stage singing her rendition of Wildwood Flower! WOW! Marcus and Aine told Jokes, and Niko and Justin performed a "s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n" soccer game! Hilarious! This afternoon in writing work shop students talked about the word "and" and figured out when to use it, and how NOT to over use it! Great day friends, and thanks to Mr. Jarzembowski for his enthusiasm and fun lessons for today! Tomorrow is Thursday... sneakers for P.E. and library books please!

Tuesday... P.O.W!!!

Greetings Friends! Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend! We arrived ready for Tuesday and Mr. Jarzembowski lead the class today as part of his mater teaching experience. He lead us through a new work board (fun!), and our new spelling rule, silent e. We problem solved in our P.O.W. journals in math and stretched our learning about money and counting coins. Showing our thinking is the most important part of problem solving in our journals, and recognizing important words. We finished P.O.W! with some friends sharing their thinking! Katie showed us how she used a greater than sign in her equation, while Georgia used addition to show how she added up the coin values! Everyone worked hard and showed some great work! Bianca lead her first math meeting of the week, while Trey held his first morning meeting! Well done friends! We wrote our weekend stories this afternoon, and Mr. Jarzembowski showed us how using dialogue can really liven up a story! First we learned what talking looks like in a story. Then how to use quotation marks, or talking marks. We read Mr. J's story carefully to make sure he "scooped up" all his talking with quotation marks, and reread it again. Once without the dialogue, and again, with the dialogue. It was totally clear that when the characters in a story are talking... it makes for a better story! Great job everyone! Mr. J will be in charge again tomorrow, and he has some great opportunities in store for our learning! Great day everyone!