Week of February 21-24

Please help your child remember to dress warmly, since we are having our big winter storm now.  Who knew.

You Know You're a teacher when. . .

You ask the insurance company to call you after 2:41 p.m.

I found a really cute Valentine project from Cara Carroll on TPT,  it goes with the story Love, Splat.  Pictures with be forthcoming.  The students loved it and I think they turned out quite cute.  Thanks for the idea to several teachers who have featured this project on their blog.

P.E. Games

I tried some new P.E. games yesterday.  Some went over better than others.  The favorite for one class was drop ball.  The students stand in a circle and toss the ball quickly to one another.  If the ball is dropped the student sits down and so it goes until there is one standing.  It was fast paced and the kids loved it.  The best part was someone who very seldom wins won. 

Second Grade Projects

I found a robot project online that had to do with adjectives, I don't remember the blog sorry.  I allowed the students to make their robots any size and color they wanted (I believe in free art).  Then they made a web with adjectives to describe the robot and then wrote a short paper using the adjectives to help describe the robot.  I will post pictures as soon as my camera batter is recharged.

I also started a kindness/writing project for February.  Each child made a cute valentine sack and each day the students are given a little time to write compliments to each other.  The students are sooo excited about this and don't realize how much writing they are actually doing.  Yea, writing without complaining.  Again, I will post pictures as soon as I get the camera up and running.

Happy Monday all!

Second Grade News September 26, 2011

Reading information

Phonemic Awareness (PA) is:

1.    the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words and the understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of speech sounds (Yopp, 1992; see References).

2.    essential to learning to read in an alphabetic writing system, because letters represent sounds or phonemes. Without phonemic awareness, phonics makes little sense.

3.    fundamental to mapping speech to print. If a child cannot hear that "man" and "moon" begin with the same sound or cannot blend the sounds /rrrrrruuuuuunnnnn/ into the word "run", he or she may have great difficulty connecting sounds with their written symbols or blending sounds to make a word.

4.    essential to learning to read in an alphabetic writing system.

5.    a strong predictor of children who experience early reading success.

An important distinction:

• Phonemic awareness is NOT phonics.
• Phonemic awareness is AUDITORY and does not involve words in print.

Phonemic Awareness is important ...

• It requires readers to notice how letters represent sounds. It primes readers for print.
• It gives readers a way to approach sounding out and reading new words.

It helps readers understand the alphabetic principle (that the letters in words are systematically represented by sounds).

but difficult:

Although there are 26 letters in the English language, there are approximately 40 phonemes, or

• sound units, in the English language. (NOTE: the number of phonemes varies across sources.)
• Sounds are represented in 250 different spellings (e.g., /f/ as in ph, f, gh, ff).
• The sound units (phonemes) are not inherently obvious and must be taught. The sounds that make up words are "coarticulated;" that is, they are not distinctly separate from each other.

• Definitions of key PA terminology:

  • Phoneme: A phoneme is a speech sound. It is the smallest unit of language and has no inherent meaning.
  • Phonemic Awareness: The ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words, and the understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of speech sounds (Yopp, 1992; see References). Phonemic awareness involves hearing language at the phoneme level.
  • Phonics: use of the code (sound-symbol relationships to recognize words.
  • Phonological Awareness: The ability to hear and manipulate the sound structure of language. This is an encompassing term that involves working with the sounds of language at the word, syllable, and phoneme level.
  • Continuous Sound: A sound that can be prolonged (stretched out) without distortion (e.g., r, s, a, m).
  • Onset-Rime: The onset is the part of the word before the vowel; not all words have onsets. The rime is the part of the word including the vowel and what follows it.
  • Segmentation: The separation of words into phonemes.

What is the Alphabetic Principle?

The alphabetic principle is composed of two parts:

• Alphabetic Understanding: Words are composed of letters that represent sounds.
• Phonological Recoding: Using systematic relationships between letters and phonemes (letter-sound correspondence) to retrieve the pronunciation of an unknown printed string or to spell words.

What is Fluency?

Fluency (automaticity) is reading words with no noticeable cognitive or mental effort. It is having mastered word recognition skills to the point of overlearning. Fundamental skills are so "automatic" that they do not require conscious attention.

Examples of automaticity:

• shifting gears on a car
• playing a musical instrument
• playing a sport (serving a tennis ball)

Point to Remember:

Fluency is not an end in itself but a critical gateway to comprehension. Fluent reading frees resources to process meaning.

For students to develop fluency, they must:

• perform the task or demonstrate the skill accurately, and

• perform the preskills of the task quickly and effortlessly.

Once accurate, fluency develops through plentiful opportunities for practice in which the task can be performed with a high rate of success.

Vocabulary Knowledge is...

Learning, as a language based activity, is fundamentally and profoundly dependent on vocabulary knowledge. Learners must have access to the meanings of words that teachers, or their surrogates (e.g., other adults, books, films, etc.), use to guide them into contemplating known concepts in novel ways (i.e. to learn something new).

(Baker, Simmons, & Kame'enui, 1998)

Comprehension is...

• the essence of reading
• active and intentional thinking in which the meaning is constructed through interactions between the test and the reader (Durkin, 1973, see References).

Comprehension: the complex cognitive process involving the intentional interaction between reader and text to extract meaning.

í  The IRI (Idaho Reading Indicator) testing is complete and I will be sending home your child’s score this week.  Please be aware that this test only covers a very small portion of the reading skills your child needs to be a successful reader.  

Your child is going to two intervention groups each day.  The district has a program called Fast Forword and all second graders in the district go through this program, it is about a half hour.  Your child also attends an intervention group based on the reading needs of your child.  Some children are working on reading to learn and comprehension skills, some children are working on early reading skills, such as word work, phrases and rereading.  We also have a group working on reading fluency using an excellent program called Reads Naturally

Second Grade News September 19-23, 2011

Second Grade News

Mrs. Huntsman

September 19, 2011

v  The fall IRI (Idaho Reading Indicator) was given last week.  This is the state test that is given to all kindergarten – third grade students in the state of Idaho.  This test only assesses fluency, as soon as I have your child’s results I will send a note. 

v  Starting this Friday, there will be an extra recess for all students who have returned 100% of their homework during the week.  I will be sending home reading homework each evening.  This homework will be based on the reading needs of your child.  Some children ill also have side B of the Saxon math to complete. Please check your child’s math sheet to see if he/she needs to complete the B side. 

v  Mr. Roberts is also working on a special activity at the end of each month for all students who have had 100% attendance.  I will let you know more about this as I know more.

v  Please encourage your child to read each night, reading skills are increased by reading.  This reading should be on your child’s level.  Please use the five finger rule when determining the appropriateness of your child’s selected reading material.  (If there are five words on the first page of the selected book that your child does not know, this book is too hard)

Thanks for all you do.

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 – The class will walk to the Art Gallery in Iona to view the art show

October 6 and 7 – No School – District and State In-service

Thursday, October 27 – PTO Evening Halloween Carnival

Friday, October 28, 2011 – No School --- Teacher Workday – Last day of first Term

Monday, October 31, 2011 – Halloween Party

Week of October 31-November 3 – Parent Teacher conferences (I think Tuesday and Thursday)

Friday, November 7, 2011 – No School

Second Grade News for September 12-16, 2011

Homework:\

The students have been asking me for homework, I consider reading for 20-30 minutes each night, homework.  There will be times that I send home a read-aloud homework which is to help your child with fluency.  Read-aloud homework will be clearly marked with instructions.  I will also send home word lists as needed.  All of these things can be counted in the thirty minute reading time.  I will also send home other homework that goes with the reading we are doing, it won’t be everyday but as needed.

Library

Tuesday is our library day.  Second graders often feel that chapter books are the only thing to read.  Most picture story books are actually written on a second to third grade level and right now I am encouraging your child to read story books.  These books are at an interest level for second graders with rich language and colorful plots.  We are able to exchange books each day so if your child reads his/her books I will be glad to let him/her go to the library to get new books.

P.E. will be each Monday, please help your child to remember to dress appropriately.  Thank you.

Five Finger Rule (when choosing a book this is the best way to decide if the book is at the appropriate reading level)

·            Pick a book that looks interesting

·            Read the first page

·            If there are five or more words you don’t know that book is too hard, it can be read with an adult or a new book should be selected.

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.  ~Charles W. Eliot.