Life in Seussey Second

Soaring to greatness by thinking great thinks!

It’s Monday! What are you learning?!

June5

Greetings Seussville Alumni! I miss you already and I hope your summer is off to a relaxing and wonderful start.  Summer is such a perfect time to recharge our batteries, enjoy the sunshine, and slow down a bit.  It is also an excellent opportunity to continue learning.  Even though you aren’t coming to the classroom every day, you are still learning and might not even realize it.  It might look a bit different but can be just as much fun AND help you develop the lifelong learner habit.

Summer is one of the times when I am able to catch up on professional development (learning for teachers).  I came across a blog post and some tweets last week that inspired me and I just had to share them with you.

1. #IMWAYR (It’s Monday! What Are You Reading): This is a hashtag on Twitter where people from all over the world are sharing what they’re reading every Monday. This of course got the gears in my brain thinking.  How could I incorporate this over the summer?  PADLET! One of the very best things you can do this summer is read.  Read every day.  Read all types of books and texts.  Then share your reading with others.  Start your very own reading challenge.  Will you try to read every Caldecott Medal winner book? Or is there a series of books you have been anxiously awaiting time to dig into?!  What better time to do that then NOW!  Here’s how it will work: every Monday during the summer, head on over to our #IMWAYR Padlet.  Post a picture of what you are currently reading.  Then write the title and author and perhaps what you love about it or if you recommend this book to others and why.  Your picture should include you and the book in whatever creative way you choose!  You could even give a brief summary (What makes a really good summary?) or a short book review (Who can remember how to organize one?).  Then if you are ever stuck on what to read next, head on over to the Padlet for some fresh book recommendations.  If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this Padlet, you can see some posts from Seussville Alumni last summer.  You never know when a surprise guest might post on our Padlet too! 🙂

https://padlet.com/spitzer/IMWAYR

2. Summer Reading Bingo..er…Reado: Are you wanting to read this summer but aren’t sure where to even start?! Have no fear READO is here! I created a Summer Bingo (READO) card.  In each tile is a type of book you can read.  Be sure to check out the bottom of the card for fun prizes.  If you decide to compete for the prizes, please sign the bottom, have your parent(s) sign it, and return it to school on August 15, 2017 (the first day of school!)

Summer Reading Bingo Card

3. #KidsWritingLife : I was reading a blog post the other day that inspired me and reminded me that just because it is summer, doesn’t mean our writing lives should stop. They also mentioned a book I had never heard of before called The Scraps Book by Lois Ehlert.  In this book the author talks about what inspired her to create art and write books.  She even shares some of her brainstorming techniques and story inspirations.  This book was by far the coolest book ever and I just had to share it with you too.  Check out the video I created of it below:

After you have watched the video, I want you to think about your own writing life.  What are things that inspire you?  What objects do you have that you could turn into a story?! Have you found a new treasure, made a new memory, or created something amazing? What can you collect or look for outside that could become your next great writing piece?  Take what you learned during the school year, inspiration from The Scraps book, and head over to our #KidsWritingLife Padlet every Monday and write! It can be about any topic, any genre, and be as long or as short as you want.  I recommend trying all different types of writing this summer and encourage you to write about science, math, social studies, nature, vacation, and the world around you.  Feel free to include media (pictures/videos) too if you wish.  Please make sure to have a title and include your name on each piece. You learn to write better by reading.  You learn to read better by writing. Reading and writing work together to improve your ability to think.

https://padlet.com/spitzer/KidsWritingLife

Kids Writing Life Blog Post Inspiration

4. Symbaloo: Remember your Log-In cards also went home this summer too. Please feel free to use any of tiles on the Symbaloo page to continue learning at home.
https://sososeussey.edublogs.org/1-fish-2-fish-seussville-tech-fish/

Last but certainly not least, make sure to take some time to relax, play, sit in the sun, draw with chalk, blow bubbles, take a walk, ride your bike, laugh, eat popcorn, have a movie night, and enjoy your family.  I miss you but I’m look forward to interacting with you on our Padlets!  Happy reading, writing, and math fact practicing!

Seussville Review 2016-2017

May24

Dear Families;

I give you back your child, the same child you confidently entrusted to my care last fall.  I give them back, inches taller, months wiser, more responsible, and more mature than they were then.  Although they would have attained this growth in spite of me, it has been my pleasure and privilege to watch their personality unfold day by day.  I give them back reluctantly, for having spent nine months together in the narrow confines of a classroom, we have grown and we shall always retain a little bit of each other.

Ten years from now if we met on the street, your child and I, a light will shine to our eyes, a smile to our face, and we shall feel the bond of understanding once more, this bond we feel today.  We have lived, loved, laughed, played, studied, learned, and enriched our lives together this year.  I wish it could go on indefinitely, but give them back I must.  Remember that I shall always be interested in your child and their destiny, wherever they go, whatever they do, whoever they become.  Their joys and sorrows I’ll always be happy to share.

Thanks for your support and all that you have done to make our year complete! Check out our year as a Seussville citizen in our video below.  Here’s to a successful year of learning and for the many more successful years to come.  Remember Dr. Seuss says, “Don’t cry because it’s over.  Smile because it happened!”

What was your favorite part of second grade?  What did you enjoy learning the most?  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!

The Pitzer Post!

May19

~*The Pitzer Post*~

May 22-24, 2017

In this weekly post, you will find information about the academic content and special events happening in the upcoming week. 

Literacy (Reading & Writing)

We have completed all 16 themes of our reading and writing curriculum! WHOO! I am so proud of all of our hard work this year.  We have learned the following:

Vocabulary Words:
We learned 96 vocabulary words this year:

cabin, visit, memory, tradition, relatives, generation, rely, role, member, identity, sibling, symbol, fascinate, exploration, journal, measure, calendar, interval, daily, orbit, position, solar, ray, rotate, crossing, rural, build, purpose, social, urban, reside, route, state, journey, boundary, terrain, essential, wheel, machine, reduce, labor, effort, attract, magnet, object, operate, field, effect, result, vote, wait, government, duty, election, contribute, police, volunteer, participate, influence, emergency, nourished, farming, maintain, bounty, various, produce, freight, consume, distribute, available, taste, range, interest, earn, increase, value, browse, spend, market, business, prepare, provide, obtain, wages, droplet, puddle, cause, stage, transform, precipitation, fresh, careless, amount, critical, parched,  and drought

Your child should be able to define each word and use it in a sentence correctly!

Phonics Patterns
We learned 62 patterns this year:

diagraphs (ph, th, ch, sh), short vowels, ake, ine, oke, ute, ail, ain, ay, eed, ea, eat, oat, ow, ue, ui, or, orn, art, ir, urn, air, eer, ear, ore, are, ire, oom, ew, au, aw, awn, alk, all, ood, ook, ank, ink, unk, ice, age, arge, oil, oy, ound, out, ow, contractions, kn, wr, dge, tch, adjectives with er and est, prefix un, suffixes (ful, less, er, ly), plurals ( s, es), plurals (y to an i and add es), y plus er & est, verbs (ending in ed), verbs (ending in ing), and compound words

Your child should be able to spell and read words correctly with the above patterns!

Genres
We learned 8 genres this year in writing:

personal narrative, expository (informational)/observation log, letter, biography, opinion/response to literature, story (realistic, fantasy, humorous, fable, mystery, fairy tale, and folktale), poetry and procedural text!

Your child should be able to explain what each type of genre is, provide examples of books and write text that would fall into to one of these genres!

We were also able to get to 40 minutes of guided reading stamina! WOW!  Next week, we will review what we have learned in creative and neat ways!

Math

Wow we were able to complete 15 chapters in math this year! In those chapters we learned the following concepts:

Place value to 1,000, addition with and without regrouping to 1,000, subtraction with and without regrouping to 1,000, bar models, multiplication, division, balanced equations, metric measurement, money, fractions, time, picture graphs, lines & surfaces, shapes & patterns.

The most important skills to take away from second grade are the first four concepts listed.  Those are skills your child should have mastered or be very close to mastery.  We also learned stamina.  We sometimes have to try, erase, try, erase and try again.  It is hard but when we apply what we have learned and use our critical thinking and problem solving skills, we can do wonderful things!

Next week will be spent reviewing our skills in fun and engaging ways!

MIFEnd_of_Year_Letter

Upcoming Events

Monday, May 22, 2017 

  • Lunch: Hot Dog
  • BEACH DAY!
    • Your child can bring a beach towel, sunglasses, sandals, hat, etc. (no bathing suits, please)
  • Visitors can join us for our last reading camp beach front style! 9:30am-10:00
  • Followed by the premiere of our end of the year movie
  • Yearbook signing in the Gym/Playground @2pm

Tuesday, May 23, 2017 

  • Lunch: Cheese Pizza

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

  • Lunch: Sub Sandwich
  • Last Day of School @1pm

Celebrating Our Greatness!

  • Wrapping up our reading, writing and math curriculum
  • Selecting 5 books for our #SummerShelfie reading challenge
    • A note coming home with more details!
  • Realizing just how much we have learned this year
  • Creating compound word posters to highlight what we learned about this phonics pattern
  • Designing a picture made entirely of shapes in Google Drawings
  • Working hard to level up on the super improver wall
  • Meeting our end of the year goal in World Language and getting to wear our PJs to school
  • Celebrating AR and perfect attendance accomplishments at the DGS awards ceremony

Presenting the Seussville Poetry Cafe!

April28

On April 28, 2017, the second graders at Dunlap Grade School celebrated National Poetry Month with an all-day Poetry Café.  Parents and grandparents were invited to join in on the fun by participating in poetry activities with the kids.  Our day started with a Poetry Picnic.  We snugged up with a book of poetry and read with classmates and or our special visitors.  We spent the time reading all sorts of poetry and looking for alliteration, rhyming words and how the poets play around with spacing.

The rest of the day was spent exploring poetry in the following activities:

Newspaper Poetry: This is where poets cut out words/headlines/letters out of newspapers and rearranged them until a poem emerged.

 

Performance Poetry: Poets were placed into groups and chose a poem to perform for the class.  The groups practiced fluency and created actions to go with their poems.

Pass the Plate Poetry: Poets worked in collaborative groups.  Each group had a plate with one word written in the middle.  The plate was then passed around, with each student adding his or her word somewhere on the plate.  The word they wrote needed to go with the word in the middle.  The goal was to pass the plate as many times as possible.

Roll- the-Dice Poetry: Poets explored syllables while writing these poems.  A pair of dice was used to roll numbers that needed to be added.  Whatever the total amount was that was the number of syllables the line of the poem had to have.

Selfie Poetry: Poets used Chromebooks and Padlet to write Selfie poems that talked all about themselves!  They could write about what they liked, disliked, what we looked like, and or what they were proud of! They then took a selfie of course to include with their poem. Check out our poems here: Selfie Poetry Padlet

Book Spine Poetry: Poets worked in groups to arrange books that had titles written on the spine.  Then they had to stack the books in a way/order that created a poem.

Magnetic Poetry:  The day ended with making our own magnetic poetry by finding words in magazines and attaching them to magnets!

It was a fun day of embracing the perfectly poetic world of poetry.  The Poetry Café really helped us practice authentic writing, develop a purpose for writing and share our writing with a real audience.  It was great to see so many families participate and engage in poetry and celebrate this wonderful genre of writing with us.

What poem was your favorite?  What poem was easiest to write?  Which one was the hardest?  What poems will your write in the future?

The Pitzer Post!

January27

~*The Pitzer Post*~

January 30-February 3, 2017

In this weekly post, you will find information about the academic content and special events happening in the upcoming week. 

Literacy (Reading & Writing)

Click the link to view our upcoming theme skills!
Theme 9 (week two)
Phonics Words:  barge, charge, large, page, stage, than, water, badge, package
Sight Words: while, may, than, pull, head
Vocab Words:  government, duty, election
Grammar Skill: Helping Verbs (has, have, had)

Math

Chapter 10: Mental Math and Estimation
Vocabulary
: sum, difference, number line, about, round, nearest ten, estimate, reasonable
Objectives:

  • Relate sum to the addition operation
  • Add numbers with up to 3 digits mentally with and without regrouping
  • Relate difference to the subtraction operation
  • Subtract up to 3 digit numbers mentally with and without regrouping
  • Use a number line to round numbers to the nearest ten
  • Use rounding to estimate sums and differences
  • Estimate to check reasonableness of answers

BASIC FACT EMERGENCY:

  • Please be practicing basic facts for both addition and subtraction at home
  • Students must master these facts 1-20 by the end of 2nd grade
  • You can use flashcards and instead of your child just saying the answer, have them read the whole problem and then the answer out loud
  • Focus on accuracy
  • Have your child create their own flashcards
  • If you ever find yourself doing these facts in your head, ask your child if they can help you with the answer
  • Give students an answer and see if they can tell you addition and subtraction equations that equal that number

Cursive

Week 2 Lowercase Letters are: f, k, i, j

Congratulations to a great first week in the cursive books.  I enjoyed reading all of your comments and appreciated the honesty when you were struggling.  We were able to practice at school and a common area for improvement is making sure to slant our letters.  We can do this by slanting our paper and practicing!  Cursive handwriting papers will comes home with students on Friday so you can see how they are doing.

I know this first video was our longest blog video to date.  Please keep in mind the first couple are this way due to it being a new concept.  They will get shorter.  To help your family out with this, please feel free to watch a letter a night instead of all at once.  Blog videos are posted with the Pitzer Post on Friday afternoons and viewing/commenting must be done by Wednesday morning!

Second Step

This week, Mrs. Barra our school counselor kicked off Kindness Week.  We celebrated by focusing on kind actions and words.  What are some of the ways you were kind this week?

Fun-tivities

Tuesday, January 31 we have the 2nd-3rd grade music program.  Please have your child wear baseball attire! Do they have their lines memorized?

Wednesday, February 1st we will be celebrating The Global School Day of Play. Global Day of Play 2017

Upcoming Events

Monday, January 30, 2017 

  • Lunch: McRib
  • “government”  note card comes home, due  Tuesday
  • Watch Cursive Week 2 Video, comment and practice  (due Wednesday)
  • 100th Day of School!

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 

  • Lunch: Grilled Cheese and Soup
  • 2nd/3rd Grade Dress rehearsal Assembly 10:15am
  • 2nd/3rd Grade Music Program 6:30pm (wear sports attire)
  •  “duty” and “election”  note card comes home, due Wednesday
  • Watch Cursive Week 2 Video, comment and practice  (due Wednesday)

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

  • ½ day of school (SIP Day; students are Dismissed @ 11:15am)
  • Watch Cursive Week 2 Video and comment by today
  • GLOBAL SCHOOL PLAY DAY!
    • Be sure to check out the letter that was sent home above
    • Parents welcome 10am-11am

Thursday, February 2, 2017

  • Lunch: Chicken Tenders
  • Carnival Kick-Off at Morning Announcements
  • Phonics Paper comes home (due tomorrow)

Friday, February 3, 2017

  • Lunch: Pizza Bread
  • Spirit Day/Popcorn Day
  • Reading Camp out 9:30am-10:00am (stuffed animals, blankets, pillows, and or visitors are welcome)
    • Please RSVP if you are planning on attending

Celebrating Our Greatness!

  • Starting cursive!
  • Navigating the blog videos, learning how to post strong comments and taking responsibility for practicing at school and home
  • Celebrating Chocolate Day! Be sure to check out our blog post here: https://sososeussey.edublogs.org/2017/01/27/we-found-golden-tickets/
  • Beginning our new genre: response to literature (book review)
  • Reviewing how to be mature digital citizens by navigating websites correctly to maximize learning
  • Using mental math addition strategies
  • Focusing on our basic facts so we can move into the mastery stage
  • Discovering the Food Pyramid in Science
  • Completing a new listening guide that focuses on strengthening our listening skills as well as our ability to explain our opinions.  Check out the blog post here: https://sososeussey.edublogs.org/2017/01/25/moving-beyond-surface-level-comprehension-2/

We Found Golden Tickets!

January27

“But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.”  ~ Roald Dahl

Seussville Citizens experienced Chocolate Day 2017 today!  Since we had finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, what better way to celebrate then by bringing this book to life.  We started off our morning the luckiest kids ever because we each got a GOLDEN TICKET!  Then it was off to the classroom to sign a very important contract which was our ticket into the chocolate factory.  We practiced writing procedural text by drawing our own version of an everlasting gobstopper followed by, writing the steps on how to draw it.  For added fun, we will be switching our directions with another classmate on Monday.  We learned, how important it is to have clear detailed directions!  We can’t wait to see how our friends will interpret our gobstopper directions.

Next, we taste tested all different kinds of chocolates: white chocolate, dark chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and milk chocolate.  After tasting, we used adjectives to describe what they looked, smelled and tasted like.  There was something very familiar about semi-sweet chocolate and something very gross about unsweetened chocolate so be sure to ask your child all about it!  There was even one chocolate that changed flavors as we ate it.  Check out our list of adjectives below

Then we finger painted with chocolate syrup. WE COULD EAT THE PAINT! It was sticky fun and we loved it.

Right before lunch, we got to use a chocolate fountain to dip strawberries, bananas, pretzels and marshmallows.

Finally we ended our day with Fizzy Lifting Drinks (root beer floats) and watched the old movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate” Factory.  We practiced our comparing and contrasting skills and were able to find similarities and differences even Mrs. Pitzer didn’t think about.

What a fabulous day of learning and fun! What was your favorite part about chocolate day and why?  Can you tell us in the comment section?  Is there anything you would change or make better for next year?

#OneWord2017

January1

Happy 2017! I hope you are enjoying these last few days of winter break and that your 2017 is off to a wonderful start.  It is around this time of year that people make what is called a New Year’s Resolution.  A resolution is usually some sort of goal or goals that a person wants to achieve by the end of the year.  I was thinking about how we could make resolutions in our classroom and I came across the #oneword project on Twitter.  Instead of creating a list of goals that you may or may not achieve, you choose one word.  You heard me right, one word that you are going to put all of your energy into for the rest of the year.   This concept is from the authors Jon Gordon, Dan Britton, and Jimmy Page in their book called One Word that Will Change Your Life. The more I learned about #oneword, the more I knew we had to try it in Seussville!

Here’s your #OneWord mission before you come back to school on January 5:

1.) Please watch the two videos below to learn more about #oneword, see examples, and get inspired!

2.) Pay close attention to the first video at the time 1:05.  There is an important graphic they show that I will also include in this post.  This is meant to help you find your word.

3.) Start brainstorming and select your #oneword for 2017! What word do you think can sum up your goals perfectly? What word will you focus on, share with others, and live every day? Can you explain why you chose that word to others?

That’s it!  By simply having your word ready in your brain, you will be good to go. When you get back to Seussville, we are going to work more on your chosen word, talk about how to hold ourselves accountable, and create a collaborative project to share!  I can’t wait to share my word with you and hear all about yours!

Oh The Places We Went in 2016!

December31

Happy New Years Eve! It is hard to believe that it is almost 2017. Here’s a look back on the Seussiness we enjoyed in 2016.  What will 2017 bring us?  What are your goals for 2017?  Did you make any resolutions?  If so what are they?  I can’t wait to see everyone on January 5th and I hope you had a well deserved holiday filled with relaxation, family, friends and fun!

Grow Your Heart! #DGSGrinchmas

December1

During this holiday season, we want to spread KINDNESS in 2nd grade.
Just like the Grinch, we want to grow our heart and choose kindness!

So, take on the Grinchmas Challenge of 2016!! Celebrate and record your kindness using the Bingo sheet coming home tomorrow!  You can also read more about the Grinchmas challenge here and find the Bingo sheet here! We’re also going to try to fill up our Grinch here at school with hearts for good deeds!

Grinch Hearts

If the opportunity arises, capture your good deed with a photo and (with an adult!) share it on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #DGSGrinchmas. You can also email me your photo and I can share it on the DGS Facebook page and our class Twitter page for you! Let’s spread the love!

Bingo Card

To celebrate our kindness kickoff, wear green to school tomorrow (Friday, December 2nd!)

Hooray! Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!

October21

Second Graders you all deserve a bow,
We thus declare a holiday-
It starts exactly now,
Because you’ve done so splendidly
In ever sort of way,
This day forever shall be known,
As Diffendoofer Day!

What a wonderful day in second grade land today.  Mrs. Pitzer and Mrs. Weiss were inspired by the book Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by: Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith, so much that they recreated the day.  The book is all about a school (Diffendoofer School) that is different-er then the rest.  They study things such as smelling, laughing and yelling.  One day they have to take a special test and they are worried they won’t pass because they are different.  If they don’t pass they will have to go to dreary Flobbertown.  You do not want to go to Flobbertown because everyone there does everything the same.  However, once the test is passed out they see that they were taught how to think and they pass with flying colors. They have a celebration with pizza, milk and cake.  They then decide to have a special holiday to celebrate their success!

Our Diffendoofer Day began at morning meeting where Mrs. Ellis, er Mrs. Lowe, introduced the school to some crazy second grade teachers. Then it was off to study the same subjects they study at Diffendoofer School:

1.)      Yelling: Mrs. Pitzer’s mom came in and students learned about sound.  They learned how to make noise that was loud and quiet.  They also learned how to change the loudness and pitch of a sound.  Finally they were able to use instruments and their voices to be noise making machines.

2.)       Laughing: Students read and laughed at so many Laffy Taffy jokes.  Then they picked their favorite one to illustrate and write about.

3.)      Listening: Students had to listen carefully to Halloween noises and try to write down as many sounds as they heard as well as draw a picture of the images they created in their minds.

4.)      Tying Knots: In this subject, there were bins filled with; twine, string, shoelaces, fabric, craft loops, yarn and curling ribbon.  The goal was to try to make something entirely made out of knots.  Students discovered which objects tied the best, which objects tied the worst, and that there is more than one way to tie a knot.  We could even wear our creation all day!

5.)      Noodle Poodles: Spaghetti noodles, spirals, shells, fettuccine, elbow macaroni and more were available for us to make a poodle out of noodles.  We then got to name our poodle and write something fun about it that we wanted other people to know.

6.)      Smelling: *sniff* *sniff* we tested our smelling skills by sniffing 8 different smells.  We had to try to figure out what the smell was and describe the smell using juicy adjectives.  We then picked the best and worst smells.  Some of the smells included: grape Kool-Aid, onion, vinegar, pumpkin, popcorn, chocolate and cinnamon.

Next it was time for science class by making robotic rats out of soup cans and foam balls.  We got to decorate our rat however we wanted adding pipe cleaners, washers, bolts, buttons, googley eyes and sticky foam pieces. It was so fun to create our robotic masterpiece.

After science, we drew pictures upside just like the art teacher Mr. Breeze who drew pictures hanging by his knees.  We sat under the tables and drew the life cycle of our robotic rats!

Finally our day ended with some mathematics fun.  We traveled through the following math centers:

1.)      Math Bingo: We played bingo for prizes but we had to find a problem that matched the number given.  We had to really think and practice important skills such as fact families and fact fluency.

2.)      Math Games: There were so many games to choose from: Tanagrams, Optical Art, and tricky puzzles.  It was neat to see that math can be in board games too!

3.)      Candy Corn Math: First our estimation skills were put to the test by trying to figure out how many candy corns fit in the jar. (571 pieces!) Then we used candy corns to measure objects and determine which objects were longer and which were shorter.

4.)     Eggo Math: Students worked with a friend to race to 1,000.  They used an egg carton to shake buttons to see what numbers they would land on.  Next, they added those numbers by practicing their regrouping skills.  They then kept a running total to try to get to 1,000 first.

We also could not have had a day like this without parent volunteers and donations of all kinds. Thank you to Mrs. Michanicou, Mrs. Fleming, Mrs. Feuchter, Mrs. Badawi, and Mr. Glover for volunteering your time to help us learn in so many differen ways.  Thank you also to all who donated to making this a day to remember!

img_8950 img_8954

Here’s to a wonderful day filled with so many activities that allowed us to think AND have fun! Please feel free to share your favorite part of the day in the comment section.

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