~Welcome to our classroom~
Coding Links |
Dentist VisitOur third grade students were invited to Dr. Brieden’s Orthodontics office for a Dental Education Field Trip. This field trip provided information about the anatomy, functions, and care of the teeth, gums, and mouth as well as introduce x-rays and other dental materials to our students. Dr. Brieden also provided us with awesome prizes for a teeth brushing contest to be held with all of our third grade students.
Reducing the Impact of StormsStudents explored the effects of natural hazards, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and dust storms. In the activity, students designed multiple solutions to keep a house from blowing away in a windstorm, then they compared the merits of their solutions.
How to Warm Up a Frozen PlaygroundIn this experiment, students manipulated ways to bring light and warmth to a cold place where the sun doesn’t shine throughout the winter.
Halloween X-Ray EnrichmentOur students considered what would happen if their body didn't have bones. They traced their hands and then added see-through bones to their picture, making their own skeleton hand. Students then compared their hand bones to the bones of a mystery animal.
Fact Mastering MathematiciansThe students below can successfully complete 100 0-12 multiplication problems in under 5 minutes with 100% accuracy!!!!!!
Engineering ProjectStudents were able to construct their own simple machines using every day objects found around their house. Their simple machine mission was to have the tool perform "work". We learned that the scientific definition of work is applying a force to make movement.
Third Grade Math Game FunTo end our 2016 year with a bang, the third grade teachers organized a fun and interactive week of various game sessions for the children. All of the third grade classes came down to the library and computer lab to play games involving money, time, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and measurement. The students had a great time learning with their peers that they don't get to see every day in their classroom.
Meteorologist MeetingOur students were able to live chat with a real life meteorologist out of Evansville, Indiana. Meteorologist Garlick showed us around his studio, let us see the tools and technology he uses to predict the weather, and answered some of our tough student questions. He even showed us how his green screen works.
Fun fact: Did you know meteorologist do not read off of a teleprompter? They give the weather forecast off the top of their heads! That must take a lot of studying! The Economy of Michigan BINGOStudents had a chance to drive into Michigan's economy with this game. Each partner had product cards that are sold in Michigan. Then, together with their partner, they had to determine if the product was manufactured, a type of agriculture, tourist, or a research/developed type of product. This gave them a chance to understand more deeply how money is made and spent in Michigan.
Purpose of Writing ActivityWeather is Awesome!Check out our handmade cloud foldables. Students had to use cotton balls to create models of the different types of clouds we encounter. Students also had to add detail about what the cloud looks like, as well as the weather we may expect from a specific cloud. Students then were able to use the cloud foldable to go outside and make observations about the clouds and the weather. Your kids are weather experts!
Using Informational Text StructuresCheck out our pictures as we dive into informational text. To coincide with our reading unit, students have been learning the different diagrams to organize texts. The four different structures include description, comparison, sequence, and cause/effect. Reading non-fiction is totally awesome!
Making and Comparing Weather Around the U.S.To explore different weather around the US, students have been using their iPads to access the charts and graphs with this information. Students are able to record the information from the site and use the information to compare and make predictions about weather patterns.
The Saturated SpongeTo go along with our unit on weather, students participated in a science experiment that represents humidity and precipitation. Students had to record the number of spoonfuls of water it took before the sponge was saturated. The sponge was representative of the cloud being filled with water. When the cloud gets to full or the humidity reaches 100%, it will precipitate. Students were able to make this connection to better understand this concept of weather.
Geography of Michigan BrochuresDuring our enrichment period, students have been working on brochures that show the important characteristics of Michigan's Geography. Students are becoming experts on the human and natural characteristics, natural resources, and location of our Great Lakes State.
Informational ReadingThe students are becoming experts on their read to self books. They are taking notes on supporting details and main ideas of their sections. Then, they are able to take their new found knowledge and teach their peers about what they learned.
The 2015-2016 school year has treated us well. These second graders have become independent readers, learned to collaborate with peers, and even were able to engineer their own self standing plant. Check out the pictures below.EPCOT Science EventWhat student wouldn't love to spend their whole day engaged in science exploration? At NHE, your child will be involved in powerful science experiments throughout the EPCOT Event. Each session your scientist will be engaged in connecting, predicting, hypothesizing, testing, and synthesizing real-world concepts including Solar Energy. Each activity will begin with a read aloud of a book that will trigger each child’s scientific thoughts. Then, students will be engaged in hands-on, inquiry-based experiments. Students will move through different classrooms all day and analyze something new and exciting each rotation. Our first EPCOT Event in fall 2014 was a great success. The students asked for EPCOT again, so the teachers at NHE are bringing it back!
Ms. Sawdon helping us to Learn American Sign Language...Thank You to Mr. Shepherd For our very own dictionaries!Keeping Track of Your Child's Positive BehaviorThis school year, we will be keeping track of our positive behaviors in the classroom with the website Class Dojo. What's great about this website is that you can log in at your own will to keep track of your child's behavior while they are at school. Students will receive points throughout each day and those points will convert into Rocket Rewards (just like last year with our banking system). More information will be coming home soon to let you know how you can jump on board with our Class Dojo. Below is a link to the website.
Posts below this point are from the 2013-2014 school Year.... Enjoy Your blast from the pastFront RowOver break I was research more ways our students could find extra practice with their math skills online. I was SUPER EXCITED to find this great website and app. The website/app is called Front Row (frontrowed.com). Each student has his/her own log in and the program works at your child’s pace and focuses on problems he/she is having difficulties with. I am very impressed with what this program has to offer. My hope is for all of my students to continue to use this program over the summer on their tablet or PC, as well. Please visit the above link or download Front Row on your I-Pad.
Your student’s log in will be their first name and last name initial with a period after it. For example, my log in would be “Kristina” for my first name, and “K.” for my last name. Our classroom’s code is “spcdxg”. I am told you will only have to enter the classroom code once! Bonus! Summer Activities
Below, you will find a couple links to some summer activities happening around our area. If you are looking for more suggestions, please let me know.
Synonyms and Figurative Language
As we get started with our Realistic Fiction writing, I want our students to remember to jazz up their words as they write. Today, we discovered many, many ways to say the same word! Funny how words can have so many "tones."
ContractionsWe are diving into a deeper understanding of how words work by studying contractions. Using noodles as apostrophes has been a great hands-on activity to help solidify this skill.
Pizza Hut ChallengeCongrats to our students who are still accepting the Pizza Hut Challenge! Reading your 20 minutes every day is vital to your success in school. Keep working hard! R.E.D.
Read Every Day! Landforms
To help us illustrate major landforms and major bodies of water on the Earth’s surface, we made models with Play-Doh. The students LOVED getting their hands and fingers messy. We had a great discussion on how each of these landforms and bodies of water are similar and different after our experiment.
Check out our slideshow... DivisionBelow you will see a few pictures of students working with counting bears to help them solve their division problems. We are just beginning our adventure into multiplication and division. Do not expect homework with these skills just yet. We would like to come to a better understanding of these new concepts before we practice them independently.
Subtracting, Regrouping, Explaining, Oh My!As we enter into a deeper understanding of two digit subtraction problems, please know we will be learning a few methods to calculate our answer. If you child begins his/her subtraction problem in a foreign language to you, please be sure to listen and see what they are trying to accomplish. The variety of skills will help them to determine the method their brain works best with. Remember, there is more than one way to fry an egg. :)
Student of the MonthWe would like to congratulate the following students for their Student of the Month honors so far this year:
September- Jacob A. October- Kaydence November- Jacob E. December- Simya Soon we will announce the Student of the Month for January. Keep up the good work!! Blog Publishing
In the above tab "Writing Blog for Students" you will find your child's published paragraph. We are only typing in one of our two paragraphs from our last unit on informational writing. Please comment on your child's writing as well as other students. I have the settings on to approve comments before they will appear, so please know your comment will not automatically show up.
Please be sure to be encouraging and tell our students what you liked about their writing. We will review these comments in the next few weeks. Thank you for your help in this new adventure for our learners. Merry ChristmasMrs. Kaltz would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas break. Santa letters and Christmas gifts will be coming home when we resume classes in January. We will play our book exchange game when we return from break, as well. Any questions, please email me as I will be checking my email over the break. [email protected]
Special Delivery
Below is a slideshow of our students working on their own water system model. They were to experiment on how they could get the water from "underground" (a cup filled with water) to the reservoir (a tall Styrofoam cup). They had five "pipes" (straws) and a "pump" (eye dropper) to try to make their system work.
Writing GeniusesBe on the look out in the lower elementary hallway in the near future! We are preparing our two paragraph informational writing pieces to be on display in time for our Christmas program next week. Our students are writing, revising, editing, and publishing all their own work. Students have also been working hard editing their peers' writing as well. These great works will be coming to a hallway near you soon.
Calling All Parent Volunteers!Looking for another way to stay involved with your child's learning? Come on in and volunteer in our classroom! Now it is easier than ever. Follow the link below to sign up for a time slot to come in to our class. We look forward to seeing you!
Water's Ways
Continuing our exploration of water, we discussed ground water this week. Our second graders need to know ground water is the fresh water most people use and drink. In our hands-on experiment, the students constructed a system in which water could move through to get from the bottle to the container on their desk. Our big idea for the lesson was to understand the way water moves from high places to low places. To take the lesson one step further, our discussion continued to wonder and predict what pulls water down? After many ideas, Ewan lights up and says, "GRAVITY, MRS. KALTZ!" Way to go, students! Great explorations and manufacturing of your water ways.
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Please be sure to contact the office to schedule your parent/teacher conference. Conferences are November 25th and 26th. The office number is 586-749-8360.
Learning About How Words Work
This week we learned about prefixes, suffixes, and base/root words. During our learning we constructed a tree together with our apples as our prefixes, leaves as our suffixes, and base/root words on our tree truck. While you're reading with your child at night, please hunt for these word structures to help your child identify meaning to unknown words.
Making Our Own Maps of NH!
Today, all of our students created a map of our community, New Haven. In our discussion, we talked about the important human and natural characteristics that should be included on our maps. As you can see, we only included the three major roads through our community, Clark Street, Gratiot, and New Haven Road. Please be sure to take a look at your student's creation with them. Also, try to find where your house would be on their map. Way to go, students! Everyone put forth a great effort on their maps!
Fluid Earth
Above is a slideshow of our first experiment with our Fluid Earth unit in Science. Our question we explored using the Scientific Method was, "What is most of the Earth's surface covered by?" From our exploration with the globe already in Social Studies, many students were able to hypothesize that the Earth was covered mostly by water.
After our discussion and test, we did a follow up hands-on activity measuring water. Each student was able to measure their own 4 ounce cup of water from our classroom sink. We then, added a teaspoon of salt to some of the cups of water in the classroom. A couple students even volunteered to taste the "salt water" and discovered it tasted "weird, funny, and like pool water". We ended our lesson with a discussion on how it would be for humans to have to drink salt water all of the time. Regrouping, Here We Come!
As we are starting our adventure with subtracting two digit numbers, please be sure to go over this skill at home. Subtracting two digit numbers is a difficult concept for students to understand. Our instruction includes using Base Ten Blocks to understand the "borrowing" part of the algorithm. Homework involving adding and subtracting two digit numbers will be coming home soon.
Mixtures & MatterOur special science experiment was a hit! We continued our use of the Scientific Method to test our question, "Can we separate our mixture of ice cream, chocolate syrup, and sprinkles?" Many of the students hypothesized that they would not be able to separate the mixture. A few thought they would be able to use their fingers or their spoon to separate their sprinkles from the ice cream.
Once each student was given his/her three scoops of ice cream, they measured a tablespoon of chocolate syrup and a 1/2 ounce of sprinkles to mix and combine together. We were able to touch many of our grade level expectations with this tasty experiment. Please review your student's data and conclusion with him/her at home. Below is a slideshow from our experiment. Halloween Party
Click on the link below for the Halloween Party note.
Progress Reports
Progress reports will be coming home today, October 16. If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me.
Book It
Our classroom will be accepting the Book It challenge this year. Information on Book It came home October 8. We are slightly behind schedule; information should have come home October 1, but we will make do for this month. If you have any questions about Book It, please email or call Mrs. Kaltz.
Remember, if you leave a comment on this page it goes directly to my email and I will get back to you as soon as possible. R.E.D. - Read Every Day
Our class has been working hard during Daily 5 to become better and more fluent readers. We have been discussing how good readers become good readers, and that is by practicing! Below are pictures of a word game we play during our reading groups. Learning and understanding consonant and vowel blends is extremely important in your student's reading development. We are working on these skills daily in Mrs. Kaltz's room.
Fund Run - Oct. 2, 2013
Our class had a lot of fun at the Fund Run this year. We raised close $700 alone! How awesome! Way to go, parents and students.
Writing In Action This year our district purchased a new and innovative writing program called WriteSteps. Our second graders have been diving right into this new writing curriculum. Our focus so far has been on our Six Traits of Quality Writing: Ideas, Organization, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Voice, and Conventions. We are now on our second unit which involves Narrative Writing. Our focus skills for this unit are our beginning, middle, and end of our story. We are also focusing on capital letters and puncuation in the right places. Please feel free to ask your child to show you how we plan our writing pieces in school.
FUND RUN - OCTOBER 2
On September 18, your child brought home information about our Fund Run. All of the information you need to know about the Fund Run is in the envelope that came home. I would REALLY like if our class had 100% participation this year. In the 4 years we have been doing the Fund Run, I cannot remember a class winning the ice cream party. WE CAN BE THE FIRST!
I understand money is tight for a lot of us, but you can make it fun for you and your child. Maybe allow them to take your change every night for a week. I bet that $5 would add up quick. REMEMBER MONEY AND ENVELOPES ARE DUE MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30. Math Menu FunWhen you ask many of the students what their favorite part of the school day is this year, most will say, "MATH TIME!" We are using the Math Menu design along with our Everyday Math Series to complete our math work each day. The students will rotate through four groups everyday: Practice Pages, I-Pads, Math Boxes, and Math Games. Practice Pages is a station where the students will review the material we learned during our math lesson. Math Boxes are a set of problems that are review of information we have already learned. I-Pads and Math Games are stations where the students are playing games to reiterate our essential math skills. The students are enjoying this type of environment, and I invite you to ask your child about his/her favorite station during Math Menu.
Our First Science ExperimentOur first science experiment could not have gone better! We started our lesson by reading the fairytale The Three Little Pigs. We used our book to have a discussion on materials that are better for building than others. The students had various materials to manipulate including: wood, concrete, foam, rocks, styrofoam, and nails. We talked about our Scientific Method and how we will use this system throughout our year to complete our science experiments. Our Scientific Method is as follows: Ask a Question, Make a Hypothesis, Do a Fair Test, Gather Data, and Draw a Conclusion. Please ask your student what conclusion they came up with for building a house after their test was complete.
Scholastic Book OrdersScholastic book orders came home today, September 5. They are due September 27. If you would like to order online and earn more books for our classroom and yourself please follow the link below.
Our classes activation code is: LDC2D Our First DaysOur first week kicked off with bang! Thank you again for the donations for the classroom. We appreciate your generosity very much. Please remember to work on your All About Me poster this week. They should be turned in by Friday, September 6. I hope your child is coming home and telling you all about the learning happening in second grade.
Open HouseI enjoyed meeting many of you at our open house last week. I hope you have been able to check out the website as well as read through the other paperwork that came home. I am also excited to see your child's All About Me poster soon! I'm sure some will even have them done for the first day. :)
|
Important LinksBelow are links to websites or documents that you will find useful.
Hooray Array!
Live Action LearningWhat happens when you drop hardboiled eggs into fresh water and salt water? Check out our video to find out...
Dentist VisitA big thank you to Pradko, Gallagher, and Slanec Dentistry for coming into our classroom to talk about dental health. I hope everyone is enjoying their free gifts! A brand new toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and more went home this week with each student!! How generous!
Below is a video of our students enjoying a "noodle" break. We use the website Go Noodle to give our brains a time out and get our bodies up and moving for a minute. Check it out...
|