March 19-Spring Break

Hello Families! We have been busy in second grade. Here is what we have been up to and where we are going:
Reading: We have been working very hard thinking about the books we are reading. We have been inferring unknown words, the author's message and predicting events. We have just begun character book clubs on Friday. Every kid has a character they will about and infer character traits based on what they read. Ask your child which character they are studying.
Writing: We will be finishing our Author's as Mentors study and publishing stories right before spring break. We have studied authors like Angela Johnson, Donald Crews, Ezra Jack Keats and Cynthia Rylant. We have learned many ways to make our own writing better: using ellipses, comeback lines, lots of details, the time of day and sound words. I have been so excited about the amazing stories I have been reading this month!
Math: We are finishing up our measurement unit. The test is on Monday. We will jump right into Unit 10- studying money and place value. Keep working on facts at home. I have some good improvement over the last couple of weeks. As a reminder, proficiency is a score of 54 on both the addition and subtraction tests. *If anyone happens to have an old bath scale (non digital) that they are not using, please consider donating it to our classroom. We need it for some measurement and upcoming lessons. Thanks!
Social Studies: We began our final unit:Communities. We have started discussing needs vs wants and goods/services. We'll start discussing the three types of communities: urban, suburban, and rural. After spring break, your child will be asked to build a small building that would fit one of the communities. Look for a more detailed letter after spring break.
Other News:
*Our field trip to the Ye Olde School House is Mon. April 12- the first day after spring break. We will have a phone reminder sent to that everyone can remember their lunch and special attire.
*Mr. Saunders has been a joining our class for a half hour on Tuesdays to talk with us about friendship and peer interaction. This week he talked about what to do in times of conflict: walk away, reason, ignore. I have seen the kids applying the techniques at recess.
*We are short pencils- if anyone would like to donate plain yellow pencils to our classroom, it would be greatly appreciated!