Week 26

 Dear Parents,

                   This week in math we focused on solving word problems by representing them several ways. These problems were both three- digit addition and subtraction. Some had a beginning, middle end. Some needed to be understood by putting  numbers  on a number line or in a strip diagram. We worked through our thinking and our problems together. These pages will come home today in your child’s Coyote Folder.

                     In writing we finished up our note taking by looking at three sources about Helen Keller. We then began as a class to put those notes into complete sentences in a time line order. Then table groups worked together to write the second half of their biography together. You will see their final copy at Open House next Thursday. They have been very interested in learning about this amazing famous American! On Friday we learned about adverbs.

                     In social studies/ reading, we continued learning about how to read maps and map keys. Our reading story was about Helen Keller. We read the story and took a comprehension check all by ourselves. They all worked hard and did their best!

                     In science we continued learning about using tools to observe the sun and the moon. We were able to use binoculars to see what the differences we could see between the naked eye and the binoculars. We recorded our observations in our science notebooks. On Friday we created a ChatterPix on our ipads to explain what we learned.

Week 25

 Dear Parents,

          This week in math we finished up 3 digit subtraction with and without regrouping. I believe they all have this skill an d did very well o0n the test this Thursday. On Friday we practiced out facts and reviewed the unit. 

           In writing we began our class research project. I had modeled reading about Ben Franklin, deciding which were important facts and taking notes in a timeline order. We then began researching Helen Keller. We will read several sources and cite them. We will make the same decisions about what is important and write the information on sticky notes. Next week, we will turn those notes into sentences. We will make sure not to copy exact wording and make sentences of our own. They are already amazed at the hurdles she overcame. They also enjoyed decoding words I wrote in Braille.

            In reading/ social studies we learned about timelines and filled in the timelines of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for a grade. They did very well on this skill. Please be working on your timelines as they are due March 3^rd for a grade. They will also be up for open house. We each chose an African American Athlete to research for Black History Month. We did a rough draft and a final copy. The final copy will be on display at open house. On Friday they wrote their middle of year writing on a raindrop. They were comparing a tornado and a hurricane. They were allowed to use their spelling dictionaries, but could not ask fer new words. This had to be completed in one period of writing. This is a true gauge of what your child can do independently without editing and revising with me. I was impressed!

           In science we are studying the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. We are learning how the light of the sun reflects both off the Earth’s and Moon’s surfaces. That the moon appears to glow, but it is reflecting the light it gets from the sun. We learned w2e can observe the moon with our naked eye, a set of binoculars or a telescope. We experienced through videos what we would see using each tool. They were very interested in learning what the light and dark spots on the moon actually are as we magnified what we saw with our eyes with first binoculars and then a telescope.

Week 24

 Dear Parents,

             In math this week we forged ahead with our three digit subtraction problems with and without regrouping! We did a wonderful job of earning sparkly stars for our charts. Many children went to treasure box this week and are already filling up their charts again! If you would like to donate treasure box items, it would be appreciated. His group have shown their leadership and have each gone 5 times so far this year. On Thursday we had some fun Valentines Day math that include3d Smarties!

              In writing we finished up our unit on Poetry. We visualized and drew pictures of the movie in our minds as we listened to poetry. We each wrote 2-5 poems for our poetry book! We began our next unit on research. We are researching Ben Franklin and learning about Biographies. We are learning to discern what information is important in the lives of the people we are researching. We are learning to put the information in our own words in note form. Later we will learn how to put that information into interesting sentences.

               In reading we also learned about biographies and important traits of famous individuals. We learned we all have hurdles to overcome and all have a story. We read a Scholastic News story about Presidents Day so we understand why we have Monday off as a holiday. We answered comprehension questions for a grade. For Social Studies we focused on landforms and took two days to make a landform book.

               In science we set up our new unit-Using Tools to Observe the Sun and Moon. We had a demonstration about how we see the moon from Earth using a Flashlight, a globe and a ping pong ball. We realized that the sun gives off light and heat, but the moon just reflects the light of the sun. We wrote a reflection about what we learned and drew a diagram.

 

A very important second grade project t is going home today in your child’s Coyote Folder. It is the Timeline Project. These projects will be up during open house for all to see! They turn out just darling. There is an instruction page, Two sentence strips that you tape together to make a long timeline. There are 10 index cards. One for the Title and one for each year of your child’s life. You start with the year they were born and make a card for every year until 2025.The index cards go on the long strip with one complete sentence on each card. This will be a grade so please have them check their spelling and start with a capital, ending with a period. Went to Sea World. (is not a sentence)  I went to see world is! They are usually good if they start with I. They can tape a a picture they draw, a photograph or a printed photo to represent each year. If you have any questions please e-mail me and I can help.

Week 23

 Dear Parents, 

                This week in math we finished up our unit on 3 digit addition, with and without regrouping. We took our assessment on Wednesday and began our unit on 3 digit subtraction on Thursday and Friday. We did not have regrouping as of yet, as we are still switching our minds over to subtracting. This is a difficult switch, so please next week check over your child’s math homework to see if they are needing extra help with this skill. I will be supporting them through this unit at school.

                 In writing we dove into poetry and our goal is for each child to publish at least 3 poems! We also began research on famous African Americans for Black History Month. We each chose one person to research on Pebble Go and fill in a flip Book. During Guided reading we also focused on a daily famous African American and filled out a fun fact sheet. We learned a little each day about a different person on the CRE Announcements and had a chance to find out more during guided reading. We did a LISD Unit Checkpoint and also practiced map skills.

                  In science we finished up our unit on natural and manmade resources. We took our assessment and practiced a fun review of all that we learned on our ipads with a Booklet activity. Congratulations to Riley for coming in first place!

• We still are collecting the $3.00-$5.00 per child for each child to cover the costs of our room mothers. Five children still need to bring this in. They always do a fabulous job on our classroom parties!
• I still need two hearts for our classroom Bulletin Board. The Valentine written to your child from you. It would be nice if everyone had one on our board.

 

*If you are coming to our class party, here is the link you can use to preregister:

 

Here is the link for the Valentine’s Day classroom party:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd5D9EWxJBprylyCJbUxf-sUuy_nvD3rGyNODst-xm3MCRIAg/viewform?usp=sharing

 

Valentine Dance: We have received a couple of questions about tonight's dance that we want to ensure you are aware of before tonight. Parents please remember that you must accompany your child to tonight's dance. Students are not to be dropped off for this event. The dance is at 6:30pm - 8:30pm. The entry fee is $5 per person or $20 for a family ticket for up to 7 people. Book Fair will close at 8:00pm tonight.

 

Week 22

 Dear Parents,

              This week in math we began our three digit addition unit. We started out for two days with no regrouping. Then we went very slowly to add regrouping and earn those sparkly stars. I was impressed how many children seemed to grasp it right away and earned 10 stars for 10 correct problems. Those that had a bit of trouble were pulled one on one to practice. I still need to pull those who have been absent, but we will go slowly again today to earn more stars! Your help at home is appreciated as well as I send homework home. On the 100^th day of school we had many choices of math 100 day activities. Role to 100, write your name in a 100^th grid to find a pattern, flip a coin 100 times, do 100 subtraction problems and built a 100 piece snack. A big thank you to all who provided an item for this snack. I mixed the rest of the ingredients and have enough for a Friday snack as well!

                 In writing we focused on poetry, then had two days to write our MOY writing assessment to a prompt, next we wrote about if we were 100 years old and lastly went back to poetry once we finished our other pieces of writing! We had a full week of writing which they have grown to love!

                  In reading and social studies we learned about Lunar New Year, and the directions on a compass rose including the intermediate directions. We created a compass rose and answered questions for a grade. We created a 100 day art project with the cut out digits for 100 and named them. On Lunar New Year Day we ate Ramen Noodles and used Chopsticks! We also had fortune cookies and an activity book. The chopsticks, activity book and fortune cookies were donated by the Panda Express at Old Denton and George Bush. If you frequent them, please be sure to mention how much your child enjoyed this activity!

                   In science we continued on with our unit on manmade and natural resources. We went on a natural resource walk and saw so many outside. We did a talk, read, talk write activity and had many lively discussions.

Week 21

 Dear Parents,

               This week in Math we finished up our unit on representing numbers to 1,200 and took our unit assessment on Friday. We also were focused on our 3’s addition facts. Thank you all for making sure your child practices these flash cards each night so they do well on the quiz each Friday. Knowing these fast facts will greatly help them in third grade. As the numbers get higher, it does become more of a challenge.

               In writing we finished up our unit on correspondence as we wrote a friendly letter to someone. I will make a copy of it to be given to the person, but the original will be saved for your child’s portfolio which you will get at open house. We also began our unit on poetry. We learned some of the elements of poetry and listened to many poems. We are now in the planning stages of writing our own poems.

               In reading we read poetry and took a comprehension check about ta collection of three poems called Whatever the Weather. We learned what it means to visualize a poem as we read it and drew the visualization from our minds. We read a Scholastic News about our new president and took a comprehension check for social studies. 

                In science we began a unit on manmade and natural resources. We sorted picture cards as table groups putting each picture under the proper heading on a t-chart. We looked around our environment to find more natural and manmade resources. We discussed a PowerPoint that showed us examples of both and told us that we were going to be challenged at the end of the unit to build a house out of some of these resources.

Week 20

 Dear Parents,

       This week in math we worked on practice math papers that had skills that we have learned the whole year. We took 2 days to take our math , middle of year CBA. We also worked on writing word form, expanded form, standard form and models of numbers to 1,200.

         In writing we finished up our New Year resolutions and wrote our final copies of a note to someone we know. We will be continuing on by writing a friendly letter as well, next week. 

          In reading and social studies, we learned about the differences between maps and globes and did a Venn diagram as a quiz to show what we learned. We got to see globes and three different kinds of maps up close. We learned about Martin Luther King Jr., read a Scholastic News about him and did a reading check point. We began making a Cloud where we tell about our dream for the world.

           In science we finished up our unit about the effects of wind and water. We took our unit test. We also had the chance to have the Wonder Wagon visit our school again. We worked in small groups to do two different stations. We used the indi car and set up colored pads to tell indi where to go. We also used an ipad and connected to a movable tree house. We set up a code to tell the tree house different commands. A huge thank you to Jennifer Speer and Roshawnda Dulin for volunteering to help us with these fun activities.

          The 100^th day of school is coming up. I have 11 children that have notes in their coyote folders to bring in one item for our 100^th day snack. Please check your child’s folder so you can have the food item to school on our 100^th day.

 

Have a wonderful three day weekend with your family! 😊