October 23-November 6

Hello Families! I hope everyone is having a delightful Fall. We only have 3 days this upcoming week. Our Fall festival is on Wednesday. We have had a busy couple of weeks at school. Here is what we have been working on:

Math: We took the Unit 2 test on Monday. I as very pleased with everyones performance on the test. It is so exciting to see such growth and mastery of skills. The test came home with your child today. Please look over it with your child, sign and rerun to school. The last page of the test was not graded- it was a challenge. We have begun Unit 3 which includes telling time, counting money and continued number patterns and strategies. I did mention in a previous email that a couple home links had example problems in the family note that were beyond second grade skill level. These problems are not expected to be completed by the kids- they are just examples for parents. Everyone continues to show growth in their facts test scores. I will be adding some links to websites that have fun math facts practice activities.

Reading: In Readers Workshop we are learning that readers don't just read the words, they think about the story- ask questions, predict, make connections, have feelings... We have learned how to track our thinking as we read by writing down our thoughts on post-its. Your child brought home an example of this on a paper with 6 boxes. They "tracked" their thinking as I read Chester's Way. Ask your child to retell you the story in their own words. We have also been practicing reading with fluency. Ask your child what a fluent reader sounds like.

Writing: We have worked hard to focus our writing on a small moment- not a big watermelon, but rather a watermelon seed. We have worked on writing catchy beginning and excited endings. We are working especially hard on revising and editing. This is a hard process for most because we like to be done after we write the first draft. Everyone has worked very hard these past two months and are excited to finally celebrate our hard work. As you may have noticed, I listed our 1st Authors Celebration on the October calendar as tomorrow, Saturday Oct. 24th (oops!). It was meant to be today, but we needed a couple extra days to publish. SO our celebration will take place on Tuesday. The kids are excited to be publishing their 1st piece as a second grader. They will now officially be authors, as their piece will be displayed in our classroom library.

Spelling: We have one more set of words focusing on the vowel sounds. This week the short and long vowel review will the focus. The words will come home Monday, but the test will not be until Mon. Nov 2.

Science: We have moved from balancing objects to experimenting and observing spinning objects. We created tops and zoomers. Ask your child what a zoomer is. Also ask, what does a top or zoomer need to be set in motion (force).

Character Development:

We have read a couple books this week and watching a short video on Brainpopjr. about Bullying. We are discussing strategies we can use if someone is bullying or being unkind: ignore, walk away, use your words to express you feelings and tell them to stop, be friendly back or make a joke out of the put-down. We also talked about the difference between tattling and reporting. You are reporting if you or someone else is being hurt- with words or physically. You are tattling if you are trying to get someone in trouble. We continue to drop leaves from our Fall tree bulletin board everyday when kind words are being used. We keep track throughout the day when someone in our class uses a kind word: please, thank you, I'm sorry. Are you okay?, You're welcome...

Reminders:

No School Thursday and Friday

Write back to your child in their TGIF Journal (it's sent home every Friday- return the journal by the following Friday))

Please sign your child's assignment notebook everyday

Please help your child return the book and bookbag everyday

Please help your child return the math home links every morning.

October 9-October 22

Hello Families! I hope everyone enjoyed this week of nice weather. It looks like it won't be nice for long. Stay warm this weekend! We had a wonderful week at school. We had lunch in the classroom with a stuffed animal on Monday. The kids earned this reward for filling our class pebble jar. The kids seem to have enjoyed their unexpected day off on Wednesday. Here is what we have been up to:

Math: We are nearing the end of our 2nd unit in math- the test will be on Mon Oct. 19. The self assessment will come home on Thursday- this helps me, you and your child know what he/she needs to work on before the test. The kids have been working on strengthening their fact recall, learning about fact families, learning quick and efficient strategies to add or subtract numbers, and noticing patterns on the number grid. We have also started our addition facts test. Attached to the first test sent home was the 2nd grade facts expectations. All students are working towards a proficient score in addition and subtraction facts. This quarter we will be focusing solely on addition, unless a student completes all 80 addition facts in the allotted three minutes.

Reading: Readers workshop we are learning about what good readers do before they read. We have talked about how good readers 'warm-up" before they read. Readers read the title and look at the cover, thinking "What will this book be about?". They also read the summary on the back, read the chapter titles and examine the title page. We also learned how it is important to look at the pictures on the pages because they help tell the story. Ask your reader how the illustrations in The Ghost Eye Tree helped them understand the story better.

Writing: We are working on writing Small Moments from our lives. It is a hard concept for some to understand. So we talked about how there are Watermelon topics- vacations, my weekend, trip to my cabin, my soccer season... Then there are watermelon seed topics (small moments)- when I met Mickey Mouse, when I gave my dog a bath and she shook and got me soaked, when I went tubing at my cabin, when I scored my first soccer goal... We are learning that writers take small moments from their loves and stretch them out by adding lots of details. We have also begun to focus our writing by planning a beginning, middle and an end. You could support your child as a writer by saying "You could write about that" when something funny or fun or interesting happens. You would be helping them see that their life is full of great moments to write about.

Spelling: I will continue to send a list of word home every week. The list is meant to provide examples of the word family or pattern of the week. It is not necessary to have your child memorize these words, but rather have them practice a couple so that they understand the pattern. There is a list of suggestions for studying spelling words in the Welcome to Second Grade packet given out at PIN. The 5 high frequency words should be practiced the most and be memorized- these are the "No Excuse" words that are placed on the word wall.

Science: We continue to work on balancing objects- we created a mobile this week. Next week we will begin to experiment with motion.

Thank You:

Thank you to all families for continuing to support your child at home with reading, daily home links and quick spelling practice. If you ever have any questions or concerns, please call or email and we can set up a time to talk! I am always more than willing to meet with you!

Reminders:

Return the conference confirmation date and time slip

Write back to your child in their TGIF Journal (it's sent home every Friday- return the journal by the following Friday))

Please sign your child's assignment notebook everyday

Please help your child return the book and bookbag everyday

Please help your child return the math home links every morning.