Candy Cane Science

Introducing some fantastic science vocabulary....
                      Properties, hypothesis, pliable, immersed, submerged
         

We observed the changes in candy canes when we immersed them in cold water, warm water, and baby oil (yes, that's right)!  Your kids might want to come home and experiment with some other liquids. Make sure they show you their experiment brochure and have parent permission first. We talked about how you can do science right at home but it should be supervised by an adult. There is a great video on you tube that demonstrates how candy canes are made. 

Rusty Experts!

                                Our box turtles! Next week we'll add the speech bubbles.

Weekly News 12/11/15

3rd graders assimilating an earthquake. Part of their earth science unit. They are studying land forms and rapid changes that impact our earth.











2nd-3rd Grade Explorer News

Some quick news about the week….

Holiday Bazaar

Thank you to all our families behind the scenes of this great Berlin tradition. We have some awesome parents spending a lot of time to make this happen for our bobcats. The kids were very proud of their choices. I’m just not sure how many of them will keep their secrets until the holidays.   

Secret Santa:

Students should bring their books to school wrapped and labeled To:________ and From:______. They should put their name on it. They can bring them in anytime but please have them in by FRIDAY DEC. 18th. I have a safe place to keep them “hidden.” I would like to have a class celebration on either Tuesday or Wednesday Dec. 22 or 23rd. At this time we will reveal our Secret Santas. We will keep an eye on the weather!

Literacy

Westward Ho!

The highlights of the Oregon Trail this week, Chimney Rock, Independence Rock, Fort Laramie, and crossing the Snake River. We’ve definitely gotten a taste for the hardships of the trail. This week we looked closely at the characters from Ranger in Time and their attitudes as they travel. We wrote about who we might be most like and how we’d feel about the events, chores, and daily adventures on the trail.

Book Clubs

Most kids are on to their second or third book in their series. We are mapping out characters and picking out physical and personality traits. Kids are having conversations about characters, plots, and making connections across text.  

Word Study:

Word of the Day: pioneer

Vowel patterns: short a, e

High frequency words: should, give, own, read, while

Science:

Second graders researched turtles and box turtles. We learned quite a few new facts about our class pet. We filled our brain files and took copius amounts of notes from a documentary and books in our classroom. Rusty was at the heart of our research. Of course he came out and we made observations, felt his scales, and noticed some details we had not noticed before.

Meanwhile, third graders started an Earth Science Unit that extends their learning from last year.  We began looking how weathering can cause rapid changes on the earth. We followed a Prezi presentation on landslides,earthquakes, tsunami’s, and tornados. We also learned how volcanoes can change the shape of the land and how quickly and drastically it can occur. We ended the investigation assimilating an earthquake with a plate of marbles, a plate on top, and building with plastic cups. Then our second lesson looked at the slower processes of change, ice, water, acid rain, roots, and animal burrowing.

Math Corner:

Mrs. Singh has a website she is hoping 2nd graders and 3rd graders visit regularly to support their math learning in her class. You can find it on our school website under programs and services.

Notes and Reminders

Dec. 18   Book Exchange books due

Dec. 21   Gifts for Giving

Dec. 22 or 23 Class Celebration (weather dependent)

2nd Grade Teachers!!! Amphibians and Reptiles

These third graders are engaged!!!!

      

A teaching poster. Showing comparisons.

These second graders know there stuff!

December 4th Class News

                     Dec. 4, 2015

2nd-3rd Grade Explorer News

Wow! I can’t believe that we are 4 days into December already! I hope everyone is enjoying all the hustle and bustle this time of the year brings. I want to start off this week’s Explorer News with Information about upcoming  events….

Holiday Bazaar

The holiday bazaar has been a tradition at Berlin School. The PTNA does a fabulous job organizing this event. On December 10th, our library will turn into a “Grand Bazaar!”  This is a time where each student can pick out items/gifts for their immediate members of their household. Students will bring these home to share with family members. Our class will be attending at 10:30. Please help your child fill out the form and return it. Some kids struggle to identify who is an immediate family member.

Gifts For Giving

This event will take place on Monday Dec. 21 from 9:30-12:00. This is a time for students to travel between 4 different classrooms and make crafts for family members. This is a great opportunity for parents to volunteer. We may also be looking for donations of materials to help pull this off (60 kids!). I will let you know as we start to plan the craft. Mrs. Wagner is looking for twine, ribbon, small rubber bands, and potpourri.

Secret Santa:

This year, we will continue the Secret Santa tradition. This is a book exchange. Information will go home about who your child selected out of a “hat.” The cost of the item should be around $5.00 or less. If this presents a hardship for families, send me an email at mturcotte@u32.org. Students should bring their books to school wrapped and labeled To:________ and From:______. They should put their name on it. They can bring them in anytime but please have them in by FRIDAY DEC. 18th. I have a safe place to keep them “hidden.” I would like to have a class celebration on either Tuesday or Wednesday Dec. 22 or 23rd. At this time we will reveal our Secret Santas. We will keep an eye on the weather!  

Westward Ho!

The Explorers have transported themselves back to 1850 along with a golden retriever named Ranger. We showed up in Independence, MO. We are traveling along with this modern day rescue dog on an adventure back in time with the Abbott family. We’re out on the Oregon Trail, enduring dust, boredom, and danger.

This week we are “buzzing” about books. We are learning to have collaborative discussions about the books we read. Ranger in Time: Rescue on the Oregon Trail is our mentor text this week. We are taking turns retelling, sharing our opinions, our ideas, making predictions, etc. What does “buzzing” on topic sound like? What kind of phrases do we hear when students are on topic? If you don’t understand something someone says, how do you ask for clarification? What if you don’t agree? Guess what...we’re practicing using our CARES!

We also started writing written responses to chapters in our Ranger In Time Text.

Book Clubs

For the next 3 weeks, the 2nd half of Reader’s Workshop is dedicated to Book Clubs. Students are working in partnerships called “Book Clubs.” This week, partners picked a series of “good fit” fiction chapter books to read and study until the holiday break. They are setting goals, making plans, and outlining ways they will accomplish their goals, and yes...there is a place to revise their goals. One group discovered their chapters were VERY long. After the first night (it took them an hour to read), they agreed that they would need to rethink that a bit. Some groups are sharing a text in class and for homework they have agreed to read different books in that series, talk about them in class, and switch and share.

My reading goals for them…

  Identify main characters, secondary characters, and the relationships they have.

  Infer character traits

  Build stamina - use peers to help them stick to books to the end

  Make connections across a book series

  Make comparisons

  Deepen their thinking and their comprehension

  Hopefully, they come to love some of these books and their characters and seek them out on their own.

 

    

Word Study:

Word of the Day: ambitious (regards to the Oregon Trail and goal setting) and we revisited determined

Spelling pattern Long u ew, ue, oo  We had several opportunities to sort and practice these words. Next week we’ll review short vowel spelling. We also spent some time reviewing the high frequency words of the week. Don’t forget to have your child practice those… they are especially important words! We are back to quizzes on Fridays.

Narrative Writing:

This week we typed up our narrative pieces that we have been revising.

Math Corner:

Mrs. Singh has a website she is hoping 2nd graders and 3rd graders visit regularly to support their math learning in her class. You can find it on our school website under programs and services.

Science:

Second graders are starting an animal exploration. The turtle will be at the heart of our learning. This is what many second graders have on their hopes and dreams for the school year. When asked what type of an animal a turtle was, they were not sure. Reptile or amphibian? The 3rd graders were also unclear.  The 2nd graders had some time to do some research and make a plan to teach the 3rd graders what the differences are. Friday afternoon was their chance to do some teaching!

Notes and Reminders

Dec. 10       Holiday Bazaar

Dec. 18   Book Exchange books due

Dec. 21   Gifts for Giving

Dec. 22 or 23 Class Celebration (weather dependent)

WEEKLY NEWS

                     

2nd-3rd Grade Explorer News Nov. 13, 2015

Thank you to all the parents who came for conferences the last 2 weeks! It is a great time to connect with families and answer questions you may have. Don’t hesitate to call or reach out if you have any questions or concerns at any time. Our next reporting period is January when the report cards are sent home.

New Recess

    We are piloting these new opportunities in the week for our learners to get outside and get some exercise. It worked out great the first week. I think everyone enjoyed the extra fresh air. As things are added of course, other things will have to let go. Morning meetings will take a hit. Our buddy time with Mrs. Boucher’s class will also have to be changed to Monday mornings.It will also impact our Reader’s Workshop time, especially as the taking off of snowclothes will eventually be a reality.

100 Mile Club:

     There are a few determined runners in our class. They are eating up the miles! We continue to run and walk the track. We are recording laps along the way. Next week, our second graders will be leading a kickoff for the 100 mile club in our Whole School Morning Meeting. Don’t forget to send back forms!!!

WORD STUDY

Words of the Day: consensus, courage, reliable

We are going to pull back to new spelling lists every other week. For some students, one week is enough, but many others benefit from spending more time with these word patterns. There will also be several in school activities and breaks that will impact our routines over the next few months. Our quizzes will work around this. Students who learn these words quickly can have extra time to read and work on other activities throughout the second week.

WRITING:

2nd Grade-

Read Aloud: The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes

We have selected one draft to take through the revising process. We will be polishing this up and typing it on our laptops next week and before Thanksgiving. This will be the end of our narrative writing unit.

3rd Graders: We are wrapping up the cursive alphabet. We will be practicing these letters. Read aloud time is a good time to work on packets of letter review. Our read aloud is The Sisters Grimm. It’s a bit creepy. We’re making a lot of inferences. But  

we are just at the beginning. We’re just not sure the direction the story is going. We have our suspicions.

Third graders are also revising their drafts of small moment stories. They have another week to work on drafts and can plan on some nitty gritty editing ahead. The plan is to have them type their stories too. Hopefully we wrap this up by Thanksgiving.

READERS WORKSHOP:

We have TWO whole class reading projects going on in class this week.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

Your Life As A Private on the Lewis and Clark Expedition was the title of our whole class close read. What was it like to sign up for this adventure? What were you expected to do? What was it really like? What native people would you meet? Were they kind? Would they trade with you? These are a few of the  themes this book explores. The first day, Mrs. Turcotte read it aloud to the whole class. The kids jotted down some things that stuck out for them after this first read. On Thursday, some students partner read the text for their 2nd read, and Mrs. Turcotte read it again to a small group. The class all jotted down more things they noticed this second read. Next week, we’ll explore a little more about the timeline of this event and it will lead up to a discussion of opinion and collecting evidence from text to back up opinions.

The Great White Shark

Our current event/ science based read was on the great white shark in our current National Geographic. Students worked in partnerships to infer the meaning of new words in the article, practice finding the main idea, drawing diagrams, and making connections from what they learned in the text.

Shades of Meaning (see the blog post before)

A new activity we’ve been trying out is a vocabulary station called Shades of Meaning. Students met with me in small groups throughout the week to discuss, debate, and try to find consensus on an order of vocabulary words based on their meanings. This week we had to arrange them from most honest to least honest ( Our Words: trustworthy, dependable, responsible, loyal, honest, unreliable, sketchy, shady) Everyone took turns sharing their thinking, rearranging words, justifying why they moved words in different places, listening to others, some changed their thinking, and worked to reach a consensus among all. Every group had a little different order and justifications for their thinking. There is a lot of power in this type of activity. The social skill building was huge. I think every CARES value was put to the test and exercised in this group activity.

CONTINENTS:

We had a musical adventure around the world to all 7 continents through the WeeBeeTunes Travel Adventure video series. Through song, it’s a cartoon series that takes you on a pretty deep historical/ geographical/ cultural tour of a few countries on each continent. We learned about English royalty, famous french landmarks, King Khufu’s pyramids, the REAL Timbuktu, the sherpas of Nepal and Mt. Everest, the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, a float down the Amazon River, Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, Ecuador, the great barrier reef, rugby and the cultural history of New Zealand, the race to the south pole, the Calgary Rodeo, and ends with a song packed with the history of Chicago, city of the “Blues.”

Notes and Reminders

Nov. 18      Last Day for Stuff a Truck Food Collection (our class has very little)

Nov. 20      100 Mile Club Card return date (Tshirts)

Nov. 25-27  Thanksgiving Break

Dec. 10       Holiday Bazaar

Shades of Meaning

2nd and 3rd graders are learning to discuss, debate, and order a list of some fantastic vocabulary words.  In small groups, kids take turns sharing the meaning of a word and placing it where they think it belongs on the "spectrum" of meaning. They have to justify their placement and agree to listen to others ideas.  At that point, they might change their thinking or not. Everyone gets heard and we agree to disagree. The goal is to find consensus among the group. There are lots of opportunities for social skill development and putting our CARES into practice. Not to mention we're building vocabulary too!

        

 

  

 

Me on the Map

This week we continued our exploration of  where we are in the world and building on our map skills. We read a mentor text that introduced us to the concept of place and space. After, we created our own Me On The Map books. It was a little tricky to draw a map of our classroom. There were lots of conversations about how to go about this. Then when we actually tried it, many found it more challenging than expected. But we persevered!

Snakes!

This month, our National Geographic magazine featured an article on snakes. Today our Explorers took on the challenge of partner reading. We practiced what good readers do before, during, and after reading when your purpose is READ to LEARN.

Before.... Think about what you already know about the subject....

       

   During Reading....

                                      

Self Control = Self Regulation

To be READY at school we need to make sure we have what we need. Throughout our day we can self regulate! Check out our Get What You Need poster...

Sept.21- Sept. 25

2nd-3rd Grade Explorer News

Theme:Empathy

C.A.R.E.S. Our students are starting to put what they’ve learned about the brain into practice. They are recognizing how and why characters do and act the way they do.This week we tackled the value of empathy.

Where in the World?  These projects are so awesome! The amount of support and effort is apparent! Thank you for supporting these kids in this activity. Everyday I see a sense of pride and excitement. This week we traveled to  Riverton, Vermont, Cape Cod, Scarborough, Maine, and Ogunquit, Maine.

Third Grade Dictionaries

Mr. Coburn from the Rotary brought all third graders their own dictionary. We had a great time exploring this fantastic tool. It’s not just a dictionary but so much more. We found the longest word, looked for the most populated states, and learned that states have mottos, state birds, state flowers, etc. Mr. Coburn gave us some extra dictionaries for our classroom. We are learning to use them for the Word of the Day. Of course these are their books to take home and have for reference. They can keep them at school if they would like.

Word of the Day: The goal is to “thicken” our vocabularies this year. 3-4 days a week we have a Word of the Day. These words are either words we use regularly, curriculum based, or word study related. Third graders will be using dictionaries with these words. They practice using guidewords to locate the Word of the Day (in an efficient way). They also note whether a word is a noun, adjective, verb, etc. They use each word in a sentence to show their understanding of the word and practice their sentence structure.  Second graders are building a vocabulary book. They record the words, write their definition of the word, and draw a picture to help remind them of this word.

        efficient, accurate, empathy      

Nature Trail

On Friday afternoon, our second graders joined Mrs. Susmann’s class for our first trip on the nature trail. This trip was our introduction to the trail and how we will use it as a learning laboratory in 2nd grade. Mrs. Susmann and I will be taking second graders out often together for writing and science learning opportunities. Our third graders will be joining Mrs. Wagner’s class to do some similar learning along with their 3rd grade peers.

Notes and Reminders

Check out the blog….

    turcotteexplorers.blogspot.com

3rd Grade planner homework is a daily check in. Parents don’t forget to initial in 2 places.

2nd graders- Homework due Friday.

Oct. 12-13   No School (Columbus Day and Inservice)

Signs of Fall