Nonfiction Book Clubs

For the past several weeks, we've been working on how to be a good nonfiction reader. We've learned lots of strategies, but the one we really have been focusing on is pushing past the WOW facts and pushing our thinking beyond just "wow that's so cool" or "this fact really surprises me" and going deeper by saying "wow I had no idea snakes unhinge their jaw to swallow their prey whole. Now I wonder how that's possible because we can't unhinge our jaws when we eat." Students have been meeting in clubs to share their facts and ideas and also learn from each other. This is huge because lots of times their thinking may change or extend from what they've already learned in their book. 

We've become expert nonfiction readers and are ready to move on to series book clubs this week! 😃

Tree Hill🌳🍃🌻

I'm Last Friday we had an amazing field trip to Tree Hill nature center. We got a preview of our upcoming science unit on habitats and adaptations! 

Students (and teachers too🙂) had some amazing animal encounters and visit with nature. Ask them what they learned and saw. 

He's Here!!!!

Welcome to the wonderful world Cooper Matthew Nowicki! He was born early in the morning on March 4, 2016 weighing 7lbs 7oz and measuring 20.1 inches long. Everyone is doing well! We congratulate the Nowicki family!💙

Mrs. V will be back with us while Mrs. Nowicki is home with Cooper. 😃

Sweet, happy family!!!! We love you guys! 

Ahoy, is a boy!!!💙

This Friday we had such a wonderful morning as a classroom family celebrating Mrs. Nowicki and baby Cooper. 💙 

We had a morning filled with games, snacks, gifts and of course, LOVE! 

Please enjoy the pictures from our time together, and thank you to everyone for your thoughtfulness in showering them. 

How big is her belly??

We "Whaley" love you Mr., Mrs. And Cooper Nowicki!!! 💙💙💙

We sure did have fun "sail"ebrating you! 

Shanghai Circus! 🎪

This year we are celebrating our time together at the greatest school on Earth, and what better way to celebrate than going to the circus! We had a blast watching these amazing acrobats perform with such skill, precision, and agility. Here are some pictures from the trip. 😃

Anthony, Kieran, and Adam got to interact with this clown. It was so funny! 

BINGO!

Reading is an integral part of our day. We read independently, together as a group, and with partners. We read during writing, math, and science. Reading is the foundation for everything we do. To emphasize how important reading is, our amazing principal goes above and beyond to motivate our young readers by giving them fun opportunities if they've met their nine week reading challenge. This past nine weeks' reward for reading 25 books for the nine weeks was BINGO! The kids had an absolute blast, and so did Mrs. Phillips. 😊 She loves being with her students! We have a system in place to be sure that everyone meets this challenge; our reading log. Students are supposed to log their reading in class at the end of independence reading, as well as, their nightly reading. That's 10 times to log a book in just one week, so you can see how easy it should be to meet this goal. Please help remind your student the importance of this habit so they can be sure to meet the next reading goal and experience something fun! 😊

Stop and Jot

Last week, we discovered that the most powerful tool for a reader can be a partner. This week, we are working in stopping and jotting during our reading so that partners are able to have meaningful discussion. As second grade readers, we need to be able to discuss not just what the text said, but what we are THINKING and why. Stopping and jotting is a wonderful tool for our readers to be ready with some great thoughts for discussion with their partner. We are going through lots of sticky notes! 🙂

We've learned that our hits need to be "deep", not just restating what the text says. An example of a deep joy would be "I think the author was trying to tell us that the girls were special when the text said 'the girls were shiny'. I think this because it reminded me of a shiny new car and how it stands out and is special to have." 

Another example is "I think maybe the little girl might be really appreciative and grateful to be on the soccer field because the text said she thought it looked like a sea of grass with real goals and not like the alley with two smooshed garbage cans for a goal."

When readers are thinking this deeply, they can REALLY make meaning of the story and discuss it with their partner. 

Adrian and Arushi are busting discussing their jots once they reach their stopping point. 

Andrey is busy jotting his thinking about the text he and his partner are reading.

The most powerful tool in the world!

Yesterday in reader's workshop, we embarked on a new journey as readers. We've practiced how to read fluently in our minds, how to read with intonation and expression, and how to read as a writer, looking for "special language" like comparisons, onomatopoeia, and figurative language. We are moving into reading bigger and longer books, such as chapter books, but realizing that sometimes we forget about the storyline when we read books like that. So, we got the most powerful tool in the world....a PARTNER! 😀

Over the next few lessons in readers workshop, we will be learning how a partner an be so valuable when we are reading a chapter book. Students were assigned a partner on the same or similar reading level and they got to "shop" for the same chapter book. They had to decide where they wanted to stop and once they both reach that stopping point, they will get to discuss what they've read. During the reading we encourage them to jot down thoughts with evidence from the text and questions they have, so that their discussion with their partners about the book will be very meaningful. Friends were encouraged to take their chapter book home this weekend to get to their stopping point and jot down some thoughts. Check in with your reader and ask them what they're thinking about what they've read so far. Pretend to be their partner and see what kind of discussion they will have. Friends, did you have a big aha while reading?? Leave us a comment and tell us and we can't wait to hear you in action with your partner on Monday. 😃📖

Writers are scientists? Scientists are writers?

The I'm baaaaaaccck! And super happy to be 😊 we are diving into new units in every core subject, but my absolute favorite new unit, is our new writing unit. We are learning how to write like scientists and write lab reports. That's right....scientists are writers and quite organized writers, at that. 

Our first lesson was more of a guided inquiry into how scientists write. We came up with a question we wanted to test and we conducted a detailed experiment, while at the same time being sure to document every step, every material we needed, and what each step looked like. Our testable question was: 

will the little car go farther off the ramp on carpet or bare floor? 

It was SUPER fun and SUPER informational! We learned a lot about the structure of a lab report and lots of science about force and motion. Ask your child what they learned! 😃🚗📝

Sing, sing, sing 🎤

This week in Reader's Workshop we've been spending time with books we are familiar with and books that are new to us to study fluent reading. We've learned strategies to make our reading sound like talking, how to recognize the tone and mood to read with intonation, and how to look for words or phrases that give more detail to how we should be reading. 

Something we've been doing since the beginning of the year is a morning fluency song. After we complete our morning work we sing our fluency song to help us practice all the things listed above. Take a look at us doing it! Our only rule is, eyes on the text and read the lyrics. It's super fun!!!!