Tiger Squad

Wiggins' Words

Happy Spring!

Even during this slow to warm spring, we have had springtime in class!  We are growing plants, observing tadpoles, trying to hatch triops (ask your child!), and our butterfly larva will be here any day to add to our butterfly habitat.  Our second grade curriculum calls for us to learn about life cycles.  Each of these critters gives us a good opportunity to see a variety of developmental stages.

There are some upcoming events I want to call to everyone's attention:

1. Today your child brought home a notice concerning next Thursday's Relay for Life Carnival.

2. Our CRCT testing days are Wed., Thurs., and Fri. of next week.  The testing times are 8:15 to 10:30 each morning.  Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest and a good breakfast.  On time arrival is also critical.  Should anyone be ill, makeups are the following week.

3. Our field day is May 14 from 12:00 to 2:00.  Our class needs 5 or 6 volunteers for the afternoon.  Please email me if you are available to help.  The students should wear their field day t-shirt or green tie dye shirt, wear of bring sunscreen, and bring a water bottle.  It is always a fun time.

4.  Our Author's Tea is from 7:20 to 8:00 the morning of May 22.  We will have refreshments in the family room and books in each family classroom.

I hope this has everyone updated on what is happening at school!  Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Wiggins

Wiggins' Words

Dear Parents,

I feel that over the past few weeks we have been to the moon and back!  I hope you have enjoyed the moon chart.  It has made me much more conscious of looking up in the evening and morning. February was a packed month and March is gearing up the same.

Our class has had a winning season.  We won the Out to Lunch Bunch competition, the ink cartridge recycling contest, and we have won the Golden Clock 4 times!  Just today Katie Cannon represented our class in Who Wants and Afternoon Off and won with a life-line left!  Go, Katie!

Monday is the day of our performing arts field trip to the Cobb Civic Center.  The students will see a ballet.  Please have them wear their green tie dye shirts.

Tuesday is class picture day.  Everyone will have a class picture and individual picture made.

This month we are ending our study of the moon, the sun, and the stars and beginning our study of Australia.  The students will become very familiar with this rare and interesting country.  They are usually fascinated with the animals and landscape.  The second grade teachers have planned two grade wide experiences for the beginning of April.  One is an Australia museum in which each class is responsible for and exhibit on the Australian Outback.  On April 3 we will have an Australian Olympics as a fun way to celebrate all we have learned.  I need two volunteers for that morning.  If you would like to help us out please let me know by email.

The Australian unit fits very well into our life science focus for the last nine weeks of school.  The objectives revolve around plants and animals and how they change.  We will have a butterfly habitat to observe.  I have also planned science lab experiences for them.

In reading next week, we are moving away from fiction for a while to focus on the strategy of determining importance in nonfiction.  The students will begin keeping a Wonder Box of things we want to learn about.  Each child needs a file box that will hold 3x5 cards.  We need them by Wednesday of next week.

We are fine tuning writing skills through choosing just the right words.  We have revised papers so they don't repeat the same word too many times, learned about strong verbs, and juicy adjectives. We have started a WOW WORD wall for posting words that have super powers to communicate just the right ideas.

In math, we have had a great time with geometry.  The hardest part was learning all of the vocabulary?  We are now working on measurement. Next we will tackle fractions.  We have been practicing them already, along with multiplication.  The trick in math is to maintain skills as we move from one discipline to the next.

Thanks for all of your support.  I am proud of your kids!

Mrs. Wiggins

Konnichiwa!

Parents,

Ask your child what he/she knows about Japan!  We have had a very rich time learning about this fascinating country. We kicked off our unit with a wonderful presentation by storyteller, Cathy Kaemerline. As a class we have explored the land, food, clothing, language, and wonderful literature that make up Japan.  The horticulture teacher from Pope is coming in tomorrow to teach us about Japanese gardens. The Japanese dolls that are coming in are wonderful!  Thanks for your help on this project.  They will be a part of the decorations for our Japanese festival Friday morning.  The students should wear their green T-shirts for the festival.  Thank you to all the volunteers who are making "sushi" and helping set up our table.

In math, time and money have been our focus.  We took our test on this unit last week and are moving on to geometry this week.  We will be covering both plane shapes and three dimensional shapes.  Vocabulary is a big part of this unit.  Side, angle, vertex(vetices), quadrilateral, polygon, as well as all of the names of the shapes are some of the words in the lexicon of geometry.  The students will learn to identify right, acute, and obtuse angles. ( There goes that vocabulary again!)  In class, we will participate in different hands on experiences with the shapes and practice with paper pencil activities.

Our reading lessons are highlighting the strategy of questioning.  The children are learning to ask themselves questions before, during, and after reading a book.  The strategy helps the reader clarify meaning, speculate about text to be read, determine the  author's syle intent, content, or format, focus on specific components of the text, or locate a specific answer in the text.  It is a really easy strategy to incorporate into at home reading. It is amazing to watch the students reach back to strategies learned earlier in the year and apply them along with their questioning.  These thinking strategies not only help the children when they read but also encourage critical thinking and decision-making in other settings. 

I hope you got to take a look at our sled stories during conferences!  They show a significant growth since the beginning of the year.  The spotlighted skill for writing has been voice.  The students are learning to picture a reader in their mind and write as they would speak to that person.  They are using this technique to finish up a narrative on a topic of their choice.  I can hardly wait to read them.  Our next skill will be word chioce where we will be focusing on finding "just right" words to get our point across.  We will be collecting "Wow Words"  that we might want to use in our own writing.  You might want to start pointing some of these out during reading time at home.

Science is going to be really fun as we discover new things about the sun and phases of the moon.  Start watching for the changes in the moon when out at night.

Coming up:

Early Release Day - Wed., Feb. 6

Family Dance and Japanese Festival- Fri., Feb. 8

Thanks for all the help!

Mrs. Wiggins

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's 2008 is off to a productive start!  In class, we have hit the ground running!

I hope you have been hearing some enthusiastic comments about penguins, Mr. Popper's that is! 
I am reading Mr. Popper's Penguins aloud to the students and they are responding in writing to questions on each chapter.  This response journal allows them to express and explain their ideas about the events in the book, share personal connections, and practice their writing skills.  The book is very engaging and challenging.  We are creating a list of new vocabulary words as we go.

Our first reading strategy focus of the new year is questioning.  The students are writing questions they have about a book before, during, and after reading it.  Together we are discussing the questions and how they facilitate understanding  of the book.  Already I am seeing on-target analysis of questions that clarify and questions that don't.  They love to think!

Thank you for the quick response on our inschool field trip.  This Wed. our speaker will come to kick off our study of Japan.  We will culminate the unit with a Japanese festival on the morning of Feb. 8.  We could use some volunteers to help with that event.  If you are available please email Diane Rabson or Lori Goldstrom.

Our science labs are in the realm of pysics with a emphasis on motion.  The Tigersquad activities we are currently working on will undergird these concepts.

We are finishing up our study of addition and subtraction with a math test Thursday.  The students are all doing well.  Some need some additional practice with basic skills.  Good old flashcards seem to work better than anything!

Remember:  Our current spelling curriculum doesn't revolve around Friday spelling tests.  Your key that the test is coming is spelling homework.  The students bring home their words to study on their pretest, then the homework is a review of a skill we have been working on that will be included on the test the following day.

Everyone came to school with a full compliment of supplies, but those are running out!  We seem to have a shortage of pencils.  We haven't been having great luck with the school store pencils. They seem to sharpen to nothing right away.  Ask your child if they are in need of any additional supplies.

Thanks,

Mrs. Wiggins

A note from Dr. Rutledge:  Parents are not to bring fast food into the cafeteria  for their children.

Wiggins' News

The big news these days is our Wahsega trip.  Today we had our Tigersquad meeting to go over the plans with the students so I want to take this opportunity to fill  you in as well.

1.  We will load the bus at 8:00 on October 25.  Students need to be in the classrooms and ready to go.  Chaperones can meet us in the lobby.

2.  Students have a simple packing list:  water bottle and shoes for the stream.  (Shoes should be aqua socks, crocks, or old tennis shoes that can get wet.  Flip flops will NOT work.  Though not very deep, the stream is fairly swift so students need something that will stay on their feet.)

3.  Students may bring:

• disposable camera
• small travel game or book for bus ride (nothing electronic or battery powered allowed)
• extra clothes (in the event of a "dip" in the stream!)
• money for shopping at the canteen (no more than $15)

4.   It works well to put the shoes in a grocery bag.  A small back pack, fanny pack, or tote bag for the water bottle and camera would be helpful while we hike around.  Please label everything.

5.  We will return to Tritt at 5:00.  If you are unable to meet the pick up time, please let me know and I will check your child into ASP.  Anyone who has not been picked up by 5:20 will be checked into after school.

6.  If your child has a Tritt T-shirt, please have them wear it.

The web address is www.georgia4h.org (Click on the "Wahsega 4-H Center link.)  This will give you more information on exactly where we are going and how you can contact the center if necessary.

I know this is a very expensive trip for just one day, but it lays very helpful groundwork for next year's overnight.  Thanks for supporting us.  Your kids will have a ball!!

In other news:

We are working our way through reading strategies.  We have learned to use our prior knowledge and make connections to enhance our reading comprehension.  We are now working on the strategy of visualization.  This week our lessons are revolving around visualizing a story setting.  In introducing and practicing a new strategy we rely on texts which don't provide a lot of challenge in the way of vocabulary or decoding.  This enables the reader to focus on thinking about the content rather than dealing with new words.

In math, we are finishing up addition strategies. Again, with these strategies I am focusing on thinking about the numbers as opposed to finger counting.  The students will bring a review sheet home Tuesday and have a quiz on Wednesday.  We will then move on to double digit addition.  At this time it will be necessary for them to have a firm grasp of basic addition facts.  There are some great practice sites on the second grade links on the Tritt web site.  Good old flash cards are strong practice tools as well.

We are writing personal narratives.  I am hearing and reading some very clever stories.  I keep student writing in a portfolio and only send it home periodically.  This gives the students a chance to return to pieces they like and I can get a broader look at how they are developing as writers.  You can keep track of their writing growth through the parent journal entries.

Our social studies lessons have been on map and globe skills and we are having another lab on states of matter tomorrow.

As always, thank  you for all your support and help in making our classroom a great place for your children to learn!

Mrs. Wiggins

Mrs. Wiggins' News

Teaching has never been more fun!  I truly mean that.  I am enjoying these students and our days together tremendously.  I hope you have happy children coming home.  They seem to be as happy and engaged as I am!

All the good vibe may be from the great learning that is going on.  We have made a graceful turn from reading only words to applying thinking and ideas to text.  Ask your child about how to use their prior knowledge to understand their reading and how text to self connections help them get into the book.  They may even be able to sing you a song about it!

Our writing lessons are continuing to focus on the trait of ideas.  The children are learning to add meaningful and enriching details to their pieces while still maintaining a clear focus on the main idea.

Math has been so much fun ( and challenging!) as we have explored number sense through patterning with number lines, blocks, and intersecting lines.  We will have a math test covering this unit on Wednesday.  Tuesday's homework will help them review what has been covered.

Voluntarism and personal responsibility have been targeted in our social studies lessons as vital parts of a community.  We made "Helping Hands" to think of ways we can individually be a part of making our community an even better place to live.

Science takes us on a study of matter.  Our first lab investigation of this topic is Tuesday.

Our TigerSquad time was particularly rich on Friday when we had a visit from Lt. Ellis of the Cobb County Police Department.  I hope you heard a retelling of the crime investigation he plotted out for us.  So  many of the thinking strategies we have used in math and reading were showcased in his presentation.  I love it when the kids see how their learning fits into the bigger world!

Continuing in our family study we are moving into the area of archeology.  We are simulating a dig by putting together shoe box middens.  We need regular adult-sized shoe boxes with lids (no attached lids) and some artifacts to dig for.  Please see your child's back pack for a list of items you can send in to help with this project.

In second grade how media center schedule will be a little different than you may be used to.  There is no regularly scheduled media center time. We will visit Mrs. Bates in the media center for lessons and check out books at that time, but most the the checking out will be done independently during the school day when each individual student is ready for a new book.  That being said.  The students should keep their media center books in their book bag rather than leaving them at home.  That way they have them at school anytime they feel ready to change books.

Thanks goes to Jessica Frost and Rachael Cogen for cutting our mask patterns. Also thanks to everyone who sent in pretzels.  Our "pretzel glyphs" turned out great!  The students loved the funny book that Catherine Chaviano read to us on Friday.  Thanks so much for your time.

Off to a Great Start!

Parents,

I am so happy being back in second grade and starting off with a new group of students.  I love their enthusiasm for school and their willingness to try anything.  They have fit in beautifully with the rest of their TigerSquad family and most consider this their favorite part of school so far.  All in all, it has been a lovely beginning.

Our class has 3 openings for volunteers:

1) Foundation Representative:  This entails working as a liaison between our class and the Tritt Tiger Foundation.

2)  Wahsega Chaperon:  The field trip is October 25 and I need two more parents who would like to go.

3)  S.N.O.O.P.S. Volunteer:  This involves helping assemble materials for the TigerSquad science unit and assisting in some of the activities.  You would be working with parents from the other classes.

Thanks so much for the response to the classroom needs that I expressed at Open House.  Thanks goes to Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Bi mm for the wonderful floor pillows and Mrs. Goldstrom and Itkin for the pillows for the loft.  We now have much more comfortable places to read and work together.  Also thanks to Mrs. Chaviano for sending in the two playground balls.  The students have had a great time sharing them at recess.

Thanks for all you have done to make this a great start for our class!

Mrs.  Wiggins