Has she grown from the beginning to end of the year?
READING
Addisyn's favorite books this year are from the "Diary of a Whimpy Kid" series. The character had just started middle school and I have to explain a lot, but Addisyn enjoys the antics. She got one from Santa that we read at home, she read another at school, and we just started a new one this summer. Addisyn prefers to do most her reading together, saying she doesn't like reading alone, so I keep trying to motivate her and help her explore various series so we can hitch on to a series if she shows interest. At school they work on fluency (speed w/o errors), and strategies for reading both literature and informational texts. She earned "3's" (met expectations) in all parts of the reading grade.
I took pictures of my three favorite pages from her Reading Journal.
1- Fluency--Tips to be a Super Reader
2- Main Topic--Finding the topic of informational texts
3- Making Inferences--(I love this one, but also wonder why I was teaching this to my 9th graders like it was their first time... It bothers me how schools seem to teach the same stuff year after year like it's brand new.)
"Henry and Mudge" Summary of piece of Literature
The focus for 2nd graders is to write narratives, opinions, and informational texts. Mrs. Orduno did a good job of providing areas of interest for students to write about. They wrote about their own personal experiences and about literature they read in class.
Over and over, Addisyn was reminded to use details in her writing. She is either thinking at a macro level about events and not realizing how the details are what brings a story to life, or she thinks them in her head but doesn't know how to use specific words to communicate them. When I can remember, I also try to have her use details in her spoken communication just to help her be specific with language.
She also earned "3's" (met expectations) in all parts of the writing grade.
NARRATIVE WRITING -- Book about when she went ice skating: working on sequencing and details
NARRATIVE WRITING (from late Fall) -- Book about a visit to Sea World: There were just two events in this story, and notice how she later (after teacher prompting) added dialogue as a sensory detail.
WRITING using literary terminology:
INFORMATIONAL WRITING Sample -- Mother's Day:
PERSUASIVE WRITING Sample -- after a story about ants:
I also enjoyed the inside front and back covers of her Writing Journal:
MATH
NARRATIVE WRITING (from late Fall) -- Book about a visit to Sea World: There were just two events in this story, and notice how she later (after teacher prompting) added dialogue as a sensory detail.
WRITING using literary terminology:
INFORMATIONAL WRITING Sample -- Mother's Day:
PERSUASIVE WRITING Sample -- after a story about ants:
I also enjoyed the inside front and back covers of her Writing Journal:
A few things they covered in math this year: place values to 1000, carrying/borrowing when adding or subtracting with 2 or 3 digits, reading analog clocks, and measuring. Math worksheets were homework 3 days/week. Worksheets always had modeled samples, word problems, and one problem requiring students to use logical reasoning--like to explain something with words or to use algebraic thinking (fill in the missing info).
We encountered distress during HW time earlier this year, sometimes taking 30-60 minutes to do a worksheet with 5-8 questions. Addisyn would overlook the example, and then get frustrated because she didn't want to read the word problems. I don't know where her brain was but I refused to just read it for her; I made her do her own HW. (And my teacher philosophy is to make failure a harder endeavor than actually doing her work.) Helping her meant pointing to words, helping her sound things out, showing her how to hold her pencil, and numerous time-outs. Thankfully things got better the second half of the year.
Addisyn also needed extra time during class time to finish class work (presumably any subject area) because she was not focused during regular work time. Mrs. Orduno would let Addisyn finish her work at a table near her while other students were able to do more fun activities, so Addisyn missed out on some of those extra opportunities.
The good news is that Addisyn has a good brain for math, and despite frustration, she really does understand the logic of math. She "exceeded" grade level expectations in 4 out of 5 math areas on her report card.
SCIENCE
Two of her three field trips this year related to science. They studied animals at the Zoo and toured Mission Trails. They studied types of animals, weather, and learned how to hypothesize and run an experiment. Addisyn's experiment was called "Will a car go faster on a table or on the carpet?"
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| Love this picture one of the chaperones sent me from Mission Trails. |
SOCIAL STUDIES
TIME for Kids Magazine was a frequent resource for learning about community and government. They learned about the three branches of government.
The last field trip of the year was to the Midway. Kids got a paper hat that they used to write facts and collect stickers from various areas of the ship (pictured above with Addisyn modeling at end of year). They learned about the dedication, courage, and sacrifice of our HEROs while they help others.
The end of year presentation was based on a biography of a leader. Addisyn learned a lot about Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery and helped others do the same via the Underground Railroad, worked for the ARMY as a nurse during the Civil War, then continued to live her life in the pursuit of helping others. One of Addisyn's favorite Harriet Tubman quotes is "Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."
OTHER/GENERAL
Homework in this class was consistent using a "bingo" like sheet where students could pick and choose four, from 9 activities each week. Most were the same every week, like the required daily reading and 3 math sheets/week, but they could choose from the rest. Addisyn always did a website activity at grammy's on Mondays, and picked an "easy" one for Thursdays.
In the classroom, students kept journals for practically every subject in their desk. They all had a # based on alphabetical order that they would write next to their name on all papers, and that was their # for their Chromebook too. Each classroom has a locking cart with plugs for every computer and a WiFi port. Mrs. Orduno utilized "Google Classroom" and Addisyn says her favorite thing to do at school is to play on the computer. There has been a big push for "coding" in schools this year, so they got introduced to that through some games and the code.org website, which is basically letting the computer user see and provide the instructions a game character follows when you give a command (like turn left, move forward, stop, say hello, ...).
With just a few weeks left in the school year, the class worked on creating solutions to every day problems. They had to consider a problem, come up with a solution, draw a model of their invention, get it approved, then create it out of recycled or craft materials (boxes/TP rolls/straws/yarn...). Since one of our chickens had recently escaped the coop by flying out of the nesting box while we were gathering eggs, Addisyn decided that was a problem, and came up with a way to prevent that from happening. She thought we could attach tubes to the nesting box so the eggs will roll down the tube, then we wouldn't have to open the top of the nesting box in order to collect eggs. Then she and I worked together to build a shoebox sized model with lots of tape, and marbles as pretend eggs .
Jog-a-Thon--She did 8 laps, less than her goal, but it was hot by the late morning when her grade got to run and I heard that she and many others kept stopping at the fruit stand. Feedback at the following PTA meeting has requested to limit fruit to an after-run activity with their class only. I loved seeing the sea of yellow on campus that morning. Chris and I missed Addisyn's run because we were headed off to our anniversary weekend.
TEACHERS |
| Working on Chromebooks the morning of Jog-a-Thon. |
Well, I feel like my overview was brief. It's only second grade, and I am already feeling more detached from my child's curriculum. Despite trying to have my kids describe to me what is in their folder when they clean it out each day/week, there is still a lot going on that I don't see as a parent. It makes me a bit sad, but also need to accept that she is growing independence and I can't (and shouldn't) have control over everything. I was able to contribute to class activities and communicate with Mrs. Orduño, but I never volunteered in her classroom and I feel like even if I had once, that would have helped me connect with Addisyn and her schoolwork better. I think I'll make a point to do that next year. I wish I was able to do more specific things to help her with her writing details and concentration.
REPORT CARD
Habits of success:
I am not surprised by these--
"S" critical thinking and problem solving strategies
"S" open-ended exploration and discovery of possibilities
I am very happy by these--
"E" communicate, listen,
"E" Collaborate, work respectfully with others
"E" Citizen, self control, follows rules
Improvement from "S" to "E" for Self-Directed Learner (productive use of class time, responsible for own learning and behavior)--this represents her improved effort on getting her work done during regular class time.
Science, Social Studies, PE, and Fine Arts are all effort Scores only and got "Excellent"
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