Weekly Update 10/26

There is going to be a lot of excitement this week with Halloween around the corner! We will be having a Harvest Party on Friday, October 30th. The children are allowed to wear their costume or part of their costume during the party. Please have your child bring their costume to school in a bag marked with their name. Due to the large amount of children who will be changing, we won't be able to allow the kids to change in the restroom, so they will need something that can fit over their clothes. There is a school policy that the kids can't wear masks, face paint, or bring anything that resembles a weapon. Thank you for your help with this!

Here's a look at what we will be doing in the classroom this week.

During our reading groups, we will be focusing on the skill of inferencing and supporting ideas with evidence from the text. This is a skill that we will be continuing throughout the year with increasing independence. This week's discussions will involve a lot of teacher modeling of what it sounds and looks like to infer.

Our writing blocks this week will focus on revising the personal narrative stories the students wrote last week. Our focus will be on developing good story leads (first sentence or two of their story) and adding and changing parts of their stories to make them more clear/descriptive. We plan to end the week doing some partner sharing of their stories!

The kids will be excited to see the "Work on Writing" choices for Daily Five. They will have several exciting choices based on Halloween.

In math, we will begin the week taking the Unit 2 Assessment and a Cumulative Assessment on Monday and Tuesday. Then we will begin Unit 3 on Wednesday focusing on more addition fact strategies. 

We will also continue our Apple Economics unit this week. The students will be reading a book titled "From Shoot to Apple" and will complete a graphic organizer summarizing the important points. We will also continue to discuss vocabulary (producer, consumer, goods, services, economics, and community) through various economics plays that the students will be performing. 

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!!!

Weekly Update 10/19

We are looking forward to getting back to a regular routine this week in 2^nd grade.  Here are some of the highlights for the upcoming week:

Writing- Thank you for all your work at home helping your child brainstorm ideas for a story.  This week we will use those brainstorming ideas to create a personal narrative story.  They will have ample time to write their stories this week and next week we’ll begin talking about how to edit our writing. 

Math- Unit two finishes up this week with a look at Even and Odd Numbers.  We’ll look at how two even addends will always result in an even sum.  In addition, we will discuss Name Collection Boxes, Frames and Arrows Problems, and Solving Number Stories on a Number Line. 

Daily 5- Our focus lesson this week will be on Literary Elements (Characters, Setting, Problem, and Solution).  We will discuss and practice how to re-tell a story using all of these important elements.  The children are doing a fantastic job in their reading groups and we are enjoying watching them become independent in their use of many of the reading strategies we’ve been teaching!

Social Studies- We began learning about “Apple Economics” this past week.  Now the students will have an opportunity to be part of a play.  During the plays they will be using vocabulary and big ideas from the unit.  We hope this will help them learn the concepts in a fun, interactive way.  On Thursday we will also show a short video about apple production.

**The first 2^nd grade SCHOOL STORE will be on Tuesday morning.  We will have school store once a month this year. 

Weekly Update October 12, 2015

An important reminder that there is no school on Monday and Tuesday this week. Monday is Columbus Day and Tuesday is a full day professional development day. I will look forward to seeing the students on Wednesday.

Although it's going to be a quick week, we will still have a lot of time for learning in the classroom.

During writing, we will continue working on our personal narrative stories. This week, the students will brainstorm ideas for a story about a special celebration in addition to the piece they will brainstorm for at home. Then the children will get to decide which story they would like to write first. The kids are being encouraged to write the story in chronological order, to add transition words or phrases to move their story along, and to use descriptive words and language to paint a picture for the reader. The kids are really beginning to apply these features to their writing, which is coming alive before our eyes!!

Our Guided Reading groups this week will focus on the strategy of "Making Connections." This strategy helps with reading comprehension. The students will be asked to make either a text to self connection, text to text connection, or a text to world connection while reading. This is a strategy you can use at home too when your child is reading.

We are excited to begin our first social studies unit of the year, "Apple Economics." This unit will begin with an overview of non-fiction features and using them to read a book about apples and apple production. We will also discuss important vocabulary (consumer, producer, goods, services) and use this knowledge to help us perform plays within the classroom that demonstrate economics in action.

In math this week, we will discuss solutions and revise the work the children did last week on a practice Open Response question. The children will also have time to explore the counting up strategy for solving problems and we will revisit odd and even numbers and shapes.

We look forward to our second Community Meeting Assembly on Friday when we will discuss the first compassion project, which is donating to the Westford Food Pantry.

Homework:  Due to the short week, there will be no spelling this week. In place of spelling, we are asking that you help your child with a writing assignment. They will need to find a photograph of an important recent event/moment in their life. Then they will need to brainstorm some ideas about the moment that they may use in school to write a personal narrative story. They are not required to write the story at home, just brainstorm ideas.  This assignment will come home with your child on Wednesday.

*Jess Pilat has graciously offered to help with the planning of the Harvest Party on October 30^th.  If you haven’t yet turned in your classroom party form and donation, it would be helpful to have them by the end of this week so she can plan accordingly.  Thank you!

Weekly Update 10/5

We have now settled into all of our routines and we are eager to start a new month of learning in second grade.  We have a lot to look forward to this month, including school pictures and our first class party.

This week we will be fully implementing The Daily 5 and meeting with reading groups on a regular basis.  The students have done an outstanding job with all of The Daily 5 routines- we are so impressed!!  It’s exciting to see the students so involved in their own learning. 

We released our beautiful butterflies last week.  It was sad to see them go, but we know that they need to be where they feel most at home.  This week we will finish up our Life Cycles unit by looking at the apple tree life cycle and completing our unit assessment.

In writing the students will be continuing their personal narrative stories.  We have been sharing some mentor texts to help them along.  Some of the skills we’re working on are description and writing in sequence using proper transition words.  You can help your child with ideas for personal narrative by discussing important events you’ve recently experienced or family traditions that are special for your family.

Math this week will be full of math facts practice!!  We will discuss strategies for quick recall of facts.  The focus will be on doubles facts, turn around facts, and “easy” facts (+0 and +1 facts).  It’s always a good idea to be reviewing math facts.  We won’t be sending home specific fact practice this year, but we have compiled a list of ways to practice.  Look for more information coming home soon.

A few more things…

*We are still in need of a volunteer to organize and run our class parties.  There are 3 parties per year.  If you want more information or would like to help out, please let me know.  Our first party is fast approaching- October 30^th!

*Friday is picture day.  Our class will have their pictures taken at 11:10 am that morning.  Picture forms were sent home last week.  Please fill them out or place an order online before Friday.  If you need an extra form I have plenty.