Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Hightlights From Reading Restaurant

We made a video as a thank you to LEAF for funding our Reading Restaurant!  Watch the video to see some highlights from the night!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Reading Restaurant

Last night we had our Reading Restaurant event! We had a GREAT time! The kids ordered books from our menu. They were able to order an appetizer, main dish, and dessert! Everyone was able to take home all their books along with a "to-go" bag.

We had so much fun at the restaurant. I hope everyone enjoys their books!

A BIG thank you to LEAF for funding this event!























What a night! :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Publishing!

Yesterday, we had such a great experience during writing class. We were able to Skype with a graphic designer and editor from Random House Publishing in New York! They gave the class some great advice about publishing their work. They discussed the process of publishing a real book. It was so interesting. Thank you to Ms. Stolle for setting this up!














The class has also been working hard on publishing their own writing. Yesterday, they shared their published stories with the class. We have some great writers!











Monday, February 18, 2013

This week...

This week in reading, we will be moving on to learn about Non-Fiction Text Features and determining importance.

Essential Questions:

*How  do headings, pictures,and captions help a reader locate the facts in the text?

*What are the different purposes that the different text features serve?

(We will be working on these questions all week and learning about the different features we see in non-fiction books.)

Non-Fiction Features:
 
*Headings
*Photographs
*Captions
*Table of Contents
*Words in bold
*Glossary
*Index
*Maps
*Diagrams
*Graphs
*Labels
 
-Ask your child the essential questions! 
-Have your child find all the different features in a non-fiction book.
-Have your child tell you the importance or purpose of each feature.
 
(click the title below to print your own page to do at home!)
 
 
 
Get a non-fiction book at home and go on scavenger hunt through the book!  Print the page below to do at home!
 
 


 

Friday, February 15, 2013

Busy Week!

We had a busy week!
We were working really hard during stations!













Thank you so much for your donations for the party! We had a great Valentine's Day party with ice cream and dancing!









We also had a great picnic outside on our early release day! The weather was perfect!










It was a great week!
Remember...no school Monday! Enjoy your weekend!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Monday, February 11, 2013

Reading Restaurant

The Reading Restaurant will be open on February 21st at 6:00.  The Reading Restaurant is an event for 2nd grade students at Velasquez and their parents. 

At the Reading Restaurant, you will order an appetizer, main meal, and dessert from the menu.  The only thing on the menu is BOOKS!  You will be able to enjoy reading your books with your family.  These books will be yours to take home and keep! 

We hope to see you there!


**This event was funded by a LEAF grant!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

What's Going On This Week?

This week in reading...

We are learning all about main idea

Essential Questions:

*When you read, what helps you know what the main idea is?

*How do headings, pictures, captions, and text help you figure out what the main idea is?


See if your child can answer these questions!

Here is a little main idea cheat sheet to help them! (We are using this in class, it is in their reader's notebooks.) Click on the title to download this page at home.

 
 
 
In writing...
 
We are working on writing many moments stories.  We are also learning from a new author, Donald Crews. We are learning to THINK like a writer and follow his lead.  This week we discovered how to add sound words to our writing, just like Donald Crews!
 
Next week we will choose a story to publish!