News & Notes {race for education and reflex}

What a gorgeous day for Race for Education yesterday!  The students really seemed to enjoy running on the "big track".  Next week, we will write about their experience, and I'm certainly looking forward to reading their perspective on the event.  Thank you for supporting your children and New Danville through Race for Education.  So many of you came out to walk, run, and cheer us on.  :)  I only wish I could have visited with and greeted each of you during the short time we were there.

Here are a few things to note before we dash into next week...

- Coming home today is a letter regarding an online program we are starting to help students with their math fact fluency called Reflex.  Reflex was made available to the 2nd and 3rd grade classes at LMS through a grant.  This is the first time I have used Reflex with a class, though I have heard many other teachers at last year's Mennonite Educator's Conference speak very highly of it.  I have also completed a training on the program and experienced the program as a student would experience it.  The program is a game-based and self-adapting, providing both motivation for students to increase fact fluency and coaching to help them succeed.  The producers of this program have advised that students should utilize Reflex three times each week.  I am going to set aside time twice during the week for students to use Reflex.  On nights when math homework is not assigned, students could play at home to fulfill the third time.  (Of course, if you do not have internet access, I completely understand.)  If you have additional questions regarding this program, please contact me.

- I have posted an explanation of how I score spelling tests under the spelling tab on the blog.

- You've probably noticed the October Book-It calendar that started coming home this week.  The goal is for students to read 20 minutes on 5 different days each week.  If they read the required 20 minutes, they may color in the picture for that day.  Homework reading does count towards this 20 minutes.  At the end of the month, simply sign the calendar and send it in!  Your child will receive a certificate for a personal pan Pizza Hut pizza.  :)

A Peek at Our Week:

- Math --- Next week will be all about thinking about numbers flexibly.  We will work on name collection boxes, frames and arrows problems, and in/out tables.  If that all sounds new and strange, check out your child's homework next week!

- Language Arts --- We didn't quite get as much revising and editing done this week as I had hoped, so we will have to push off our "publishing party" (little celebration of the hard work they have done during Writer's Workshop) for a little bit longer.  We will continue to get our writing all spruced up for publishing.  Our reading skill will be centered around making predictions, though we will review summarizing as well.  Our texts are thematically related, focusing on immigrants to the United States.  This will provide a nice Social Studies tie-in.

- Bible --- We will study Exodus 4:18 - 6:8.  This section of the Bible relates to Pharaoh's increased oppression of the Israelites and the hardening of his heart.  We will look specifically at how we can trust in God's promises even when things don't seem to be going well.

- Science --- We will continue our study of the plant life cycle, observing our brassica plants, and identifying plant parts.

 Using fact triangles to practice those fact families!

 We rotated through stations to introduce some new skills and strengthen others.  When I told the students that "nests and eggs" would help them when it came time to learn multiplication later in the year, they seemed extra determined to make those equal groups!

 Students also used dominoes to find patterns in adding two even number together, two odd numbers, and one odd and one even number.

 One of the stations included a pan balance station where students predicted which item would be heavier.  They were also introduced to the terms "pound" and "ounce".

 Of course, I had to add some pictures of the Reflex math station!  They were so excited about this program!  It really challenged them, but they seemed quite motivated.  :)

 This week, second grade also started reading to their Book Buddies!  This year, they are the big buddies, and they are so excited.  I must say, they did a nice job of setting good examples and helping their little Pre-K buddies to keep focused.  They will read to their buddies every other Wednesday for about 15 minutes.

 We planted brassica seeds on Monday and many have already sprouted!  We are already making predictions about what color their flowers will be.  There were lots of votes for white and many for yellow!