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.
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