2/19/2016 0 Comments Winter NewsThank you to the parents who helped out with our Valentine centers!
As Term III approaches, I would love to share some of our learning activities in the classroom... Also be sure to check out the homework tab for some new additions to the homework packet. Growth Mindset Our goal as a district this year has been to adopt a growth mindset in ourselves and our students. Carol Dweck is a psychologist who has studied achievement and has developed the idea that the power of our mindset is the key to success. She challenges the myth that talent and ability are something we are born with and explains how this belief can hinder one's potential. A fixed mindset is one in which a person believes that they have no power to change their ability in a given area: "I'm just not a numbers person" or "Spelling isn't my thing". Whereas a person with a growth mindset would say "I haven't mastered all the math operations yet, but if I keep practicing I will" or "The more I read, write and look up words, the better my spelling will get." Dweck's theory that fostering a growth mindset leads to higher self esteem and success is also backed up by science on the brain. Neuroscientists used to think that IQ was fixed, but increasing research shows that IQ can change based on effort and mindset. The brain can be retrained and develop new neurons. To support the growth mindset in the classroom I also stress the importance of making mistakes and learning from these mistakes. Sometimes our moments of greatest frustration is when our brain is actually growing. If we can take a deep breath and use these 'failures' as learning opportunities, then our mindset and brains grow. However as a parent, student and/or teacher this can be challenging. Therefore to further reinforce the concept, Sra, Grau and I have teamed up to watch and discuss the video series on Growth Mindset from Class Dojo. We have been sending additional discussion questions home each week that relate to the video and our classroom conversation. They also contain the link to the videos so you can watch them again at home with your child. They are great videos to see more than once and to discuss with your child. Click here for the link to catch up on any of the videos. This week we will complete the series with Chapter Five. Language Arts The new common core standards call for more reading of non-fiction texts. At first I was concerned because of my love of literature. However, after teaching several non fiction text sets this year on animals, forces of the earth, and now places and cultures around the world; I am pleasantly surprised by how engaged the students and I are reading these texts. The students were excited to learn about extreme weather, gravity and magnetic forces in our last reading last and I am so excited to share our next set of texts on different places and cultures around the world. This reading unit will tie nicely into our ongoing study of the continents, oceans and physical features of the world. The homework packet will also now contain a parent letter each week on the words we are studying, the comprehension skill we are working on and other classroom updates. See the homework tab for this week's homework packet. As writers our class has learned the structure of letter writing, story writing and we will now dip more into the informative writing genre as we choose an animal to research and write about. Our Spring field trip will also tie into our study of animals this year. The second grade team is planning this trip for May and will shortly be in touch with details. Math: Place Value The students did a great job on our geometry unit and since then we have been building understandings of place value. In second grade students should be able to see a number like 375 and recognize the number has three hundreds, seven tens and five ones. They should then be able to use this understanding to add and subtract. For some students this abstract concept is already solidified in their minds, but for some they need time, visuals and manipulatives to build this mental representation of our base ten number system. Some of the manipulatives we use in class and that are great for use at home too are connecting cubes, base ten blocks, (drinking) straw bundles, and pictures. We are also studying how to collect data, classify that data and represent the data with different graphs. We are teaming up with Mrs. Pilotte's class to collect data from Memorial students on how many teeth they have lost.
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February 2019
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