Week 4

Dear Parents,

       Now with a month of school behind us your second graders are really feeling comfortable in our room and know the expectations and school responsibilities. Their stamina for working is increasing. I am very proud of the effort they are putting forth. In math this week we continued learning about numbers up to 100 by showing them in different ways. We learned that tens can be shown as ten sticks, towers, card packs of ten, rows of ten, dimes and sticker strips of tens. We learned that ones can be cubes, singles, left overs, pennies or just 1 card. We built many different numbers and drew our answers to word problems representing these numbers. This is building their place value knowledge for the rest of the year.

       In writing we had more practice as we continued to work on stories from our heart (narratives) or writing like an author writes from a mentor text. We had lessons on stretching words and being fearless spellers. We learned how to get many sounds down, circle the word and check the spelling later. We also did some fun interactive writing to learn how to develop ideas and use interesting words even if we are not quite sure how to spell them.

        In reading we have been going through our station rotations as I completed 1 on 1 beginning of year assessments. After our writing assessment is complete I will begin fall conferences. Look for a letter with more information and dates to come home next week. 

        In social studies we continued learning about being a good citizen and our Leader in me lessons about being proactive and what is within our circle of control. I have already seen great leadership in my second graders! Thank you all for getting your leadership posters turned in. Now we can begin choosing our leaders of the week which will be spotlighted on our classroom blog. To see the blog, just click on the blue link in my signature line.

         In science we began learning how scientists classify matter by their physical properties. We learned that matter has mass and takes up space. We looked at objects and described them by their physical properties. We practiced Talk /Read/Talk/ Write. This helps our thinking be added to our schema. We classified objects into groups by these properties. It was another great week of learning!

• PLEASE join PTA. Second grade is in second place for overall membership!