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!

~*The Pitzer Post*~

January 16-20, 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 8 (week two)
Phonics Words:  blink, drink, junk, thank, trunk, round, stay, blanket, monkey
Sight Words: happy, place, lot, stay, when
Vocab Words:  operate, field, effect
Grammar Skill: Review Action and Linking Verbs

Math

Next week we will continue our chapter on metric measurement.  This current chapter does a lot with subtraction and I noticed that we are having some trouble in that area.  One way to help your child at home is practicing math facts.  Fact fluency is a vital skill for students to have especially as we move into harder concepts.  There are so many options and ways to practice facts:

Check out this great website:   http://www.mathfactspro.com/mathfactfluencygame.html#/home
Students can practice basic facts and it allows you to pick the operation, how many problems and then reports how long it takes you to answer.  There of course is a paid version but the free version is just as great! J  You can also use flashcards and or the Flash to Pass App.  If you are having trouble with when to practice you can try a little bit each night or designate certain nights of the week for practice; whatever works the best for your family.

By the end of second grade students are expected to have mastered addition and subtractions facts 1-20!  I know third grade teachers highly appreciate as much fact fluency as possible!

Science

This week students experimented with magnets of all different shapes and sizes.  They then determined what was magnetic and what was non magnetic.  Can your child explain some examples from class?

Second Step

This week we explored strong feelings like frustration, excitement, and anger.  These strong feelings often take over which makes it had for the thinking part of our brain to operate.

Can you child explain this:

Next week, we will focus on managing embarrassment and remembering when we feel strong feelings to stop, name our feeling, and calm down.

Fun-tivities

On Friday, January 27, 2017, second grade will be celebrating Chocolate Day! We are currently reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.  There are so many chocolately adventures that await. Who is excited?!

On Wednesday, February 1st we will be celebrating Global School Play Day 2017! Check out the flyer below for more information: Global Day of Play 2017

Upcoming Events

Monday, January 16, 2017 

• No School! MLK Day

Tuesday, January 17, 2017 

• Lunch: Hot Dog
• “operate”  note card comes home, due  Tuesday
• STAR Reading Benchmarking Begins

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

• Lunch: Chicken Fajitas
• “field” and “effect”  note card comes home, due Wednesday
• FIRST CURSIVE HW: Watch Cursive Intro Video on Blog and leave a comment!

Thursday, January 19, 2017

• Lunch: Homemade Chili
• Phonics Words Practice Paper comes home, due Friday

Friday, January 20, 2017

• Lunch: Bosco Sticks
• Theme 8 Progress Test

Celebrating Our Greatness!

• Super Improvers were EVERYWHERE!!!
• Diving in to biography writing with  Google Docs
• Navigating the controls of Google Docs and working hard to stay focused. CTRL Z is our friend!
• Receiving messages from our teacher when she had a sub and wasn’t even in our room! She was able to use a program called Go Guardian that allows her to check our Chromebook screens to give us advice or remind us to get back on track.
• Learning how to measure in centimeters and meters
• Our teacher is participating in the #30daystlaphooks challenge (Teach Like a Pirate Hooks, or ways to get students excited and pumped about learning). Her hooks this week were:
  • Mozart and Interior Design Hook: using music and lighting to spark interest in grammar lessons
  • Mystery Bag Hook: a bag with a ? on it appeared in our room before math and we predicted what we thought would be in it
  • Student Directed Hook: we reflected on math workshop and then our ideas were used to create a chart of what workshop should look like.  We had voice and choice in a lesson!
  • Kinesthetic Hook: We got up and moved around the room making sure 12 sentences had correct end punctuation
  • Teaser Hook: Mrs. Pitzer started the day with no paper chain and by lunch time she had a long paper chain attached to her wrist. We spent all day trying to figure it out.
• Participating in the “Who can make the longest paper chain with only 1 piece of paper” Competition!
  • 1st place was 260 cm
  • 2nd place was 242 cm
  • 3rd place was 191 cm
• Realizing that creating a paper chain takes teamwork, critical thinking, problem sovling, and effort!

Second Grade in Pictures

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!

~*The Pitzer Post*~

Sept. 19-23, 2016

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 3 (week one)
Phonics Words:  cheat, flea, speed, treat, wheat, fell, never, bread, people
Sight Words: I’ve, run, fell, fire, never
Vocab Words: fascinate, exploration,  journal
Grammar Skill: Telling and Asking sentences with end punctuation

Math

Chapter 2: Addition to 1,000
Vocabulary: add, place value chart, regroup
Objectives:

• Use base-ten blocks to add numbers without regrouping
• Use base-ten blocks to add numbers with regrouping
• Add up to three-digit numbers without regrouping
• Add up to three-digit numbers with regrouping
• Solve real-world addition problems

This is a great chapter to brush up on math facts.  Check out this great website:   http://www.mathfactspro.com/mathfactfluencygame.html#/home
Students can practice basic facts and it allows you to pick the operation, how many problems and then reports how long it takes you to answer.  There of course is a paid version but the free version is just as great!  You can also use flashcards and or the Flash to Pass App.  If you are having trouble with when to practice you can try a little bit each night or designate certain nights of the week for practice; whatever works the best for your family.  I know third grade teachers highly appreciate as much fact fluency as possible!

MIFChapter2

Science

This week students got a sneak peak of our new science unit!  We previewed some digital media to practice our observations and prediction skills.

Essential Questions:
What is a life cycle?
How do different living things grow?
What are the parts of an insect?
How will we use the scientific method to learn about life cycles?

What do they think is coming to our classrooms to help us learn more about this unit?

Second Step

Our focus skill this week was focus listening and attention.  We learned how to do this despite distractions.  Next week our new skill is: use positive self-talk.  This means talking to yourself to help you stay focused and manage distractions.

Upcoming Events

Monday, September 19, 2016

• Lunch: McRib
• Substitute teacher in the AM (Mrs. Pitzer has a 1:1 Tech Meeting)
• “fascinate” note card comes home, due Tuesday

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

• Lunch: Cheese Lasagna
• “exploration”  and “ journal” note card comes home, due Wednesday

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

• Lunch: Corn Dog
• Read Out Loud: Missing Moon Mystery (book and signed slipped returned)
• Board of Education Meeting

Thursday, September 22, 2016

• Lunch: Chicken Buddies
• Chapter 2 Math Test
• Phonics Words Practice Paper comes home, due Friday

Friday, September 23, 2016

• Lunch: Bosco Sticks

Celebrating Our Greatness!

• 4 more Seussville Citizens leveled up to Wocket status on the Super Improver Wall
• 16 published stories
• Reading Stamina: we are up to 28 minutes! (Our goal is 40 minutes)
• Regrouping in the ones place
• Currently reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
• Embracing creativity with dots
• Exploring our first HyperDoc on our Google Drive
• Completed out first Phonics assignment in Canvas
• Our caterpillars have arrived!
• We have had students make comments on our blog.  If you haven’t left a comment yet, this weekend is a great opportunity to give that a try!

Second Grade in Pictures!

Meet Our 4 Newest Wockets

Being 21st Century Students with HyperDocs and Phonics Assignments on Canvas!

OUR CATERPILLARS ARRIVED!

“Fractions, fractions….they’re parts of a whole….”

Are you ready to jam out fraction style?!  Please watch the following video. Afterwards please post a comment for homework that shares something you learned. Can you include detail and follow the rules of writing too?!

Hmmm, did this little number show up in your mailbox today?  What kind of day do you think we are in store for?  Can you guess what will be for breakfast?

“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

25 lucky second graders experienced Chocolate Day 2016 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 switched our directions with another classmate who had to try to draw our gobstopper.  We learned yet again, how important it is to have clear detailed directions!  It was neat to see how our friends interpreted 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.  Mr. Pitzer even showed us how the chocolate fountain worked.  Special thanks to all the parents who donated money and or supplies!

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?

“Suddenly…from underneath the wrapper….there came a brilliant flash of gold!”

What do you think is coming to Seussville tomorrow, January 22, 2016!  Mrs. Zarko and I have been prepping all week, thanks to your parents, and our husbands.

Here are some pictures to get you thinking about what this day will include.  What do you think is in the bag and how will it be used tomorrow?  What on earth are Mrs. Pitzer and Mrs. Zarko holding and what does it have to do with tomorrow?  What all do you think is on tomorrow’s agenda based on these photos?  Be sure to leave your comment below!

I am excited to share some pretty amazing news!  I was given the opportunity to be on the 1:1 (one to one) Committee for the Dunlap School District.  You may find yourself asking what on earth does 1:1 mean?!  1:1, in its simplest terms, means that every child in a classroom has a device of some kind to use throughout the school day.  By providing every student with a device, I will be able to further enhance our learning experiences together.  I will be using the SAMR Model (model for helping educators infuse technology into teaching and learning) to enhance my instruction.  I included a picture below to show you each level and questions I will be considering as I collect data throughout our journey!

The device our classroom will be piloting is a Touch Chromebook.  These are basically smaller versions of laptops.  It has a touch-pad to use as the mouse as well as a touch screen! I am beyond excited to begin this journey and am looking forward to seeing your child become a mature digital citizen.

The goals of the 1:1 pilot include:

• Equitable access to technology for all students
• Enhance student learning experiences
• Provide effective communication between teachers, students, and parents
• Promote responsible digital citizens
• Extend academic learning beyond the walls of the classroom

Your child will receive the same curricular instruction as our other Dunlap students but will have the opportunity to use technology as a resource to transform and enhance their learning.

The student expectations for the pilot include:

• Students will care for and return assigned devices to the cart daily
• Students will utilize 1:1 technology responsibly, as mature digital citizens
• Students will abide by the rules, expectations, and policies as outlined in the student handbook

Several benefits for our 21st century students will be realized by moving to a technology based learning model from a fixed traditional model.  Teaching and learning will shift to more student centered activities with student accessing electronic resources that provide an environment for collaboration, creativity, analysis, and critical thinking.

Tonight, your child will bring home a packet stating the goals I included above as well as information about Google Apps for Education.  All second grade students already have an Gmail address.  This was the email address I used to set your child up with a Goodreads account.  While your child will not be using this account to sent and receive emails, it will be how they log into Google Apps such as the Drive, Docs, Slides etc.  These are wonderful presentation and processing tools we will use to collaborate both with peers and teachers on projects.  After you have read the permission form, please sign and return the yellow sheet no later than Friday, January 22, 2015.

Pilot Letter and Google Sign-Off

I am thrilled our classroom has been given this opportunity and just know the students will rise to the occasion. Once I have collected all of the permission forms, I will be providing more information about the logistics and fun!

Here’s to our digital adventure in Seussville!

The bell rings for all those who truly believe.  What a magical Polar Express Day!  May you always believe in the magic of Christmas!

What did you enjoy most about your day and why?! Can you tell us in the comment section?!