Week 3

Dear Parents,

    Another smooth week of learning went by! I am really impressed with your children. They are building up their work stamina and already following our classroom routines. They realize that we all make  a mistake we just try harder or fix it! ( including Ms. Carpenter) 😊

     In math this week we continued on with learning our math routines. Among these we are practicing time to the hour and counting money. Please help with these activities by practicing at home. Recognizing the coins and their values is an important TEK in second grade. Then they must add up all the values to find a total number of coins. This takes A LOT of practice for some second graders. We continued to problem solve if there were enough items for a class. ( 20 students, 24 pencils- yes, there were enough and 4 extra!) We had to prove our answers by creating a drawing.

      In reading we were continuing to learn about how to decide the central idea of a story. We made sure we could find details to support this idea. We also began practicing the skill of inferencing. Knowing that we can get information from the words, the pictures, and what we know about the world around us helps us make these educated guesses.

      In writing we have been challenged to look at craft moves that authors and illustrators use and incorporate them into our writing and illustrating. We will continue this next week as well.

       We had our first spell check today. This cannot be retaken if the grade is under 70%. It is important that your child practice his/her sort and spelling of his/her words all week and be ready for the spell check on Friday. This will be two grades. The list of words is counted and then the two sentences is a separate grade. The sentences show if your child is learning to spell basic sight words as well as their list of words and then transfer the correct spelling into their writing.

         In science we finished up our unit 1 and took an assessment. We began unit 2 on the properties of matter. We observed four sets of items, worked as groups and recorded our observations in our science notebooks.

Using our senses to plan an investigation can be yummy!

Week 2

Dear Parents,

        We made it through our first complete week of school. Your children are getting in the habit of our classroom routines. We are building up our work stamina and finding out that learning can be fun when we synergize! In math this week we deconstructed the number 10 by using snap cubes. We also continued our practice of our classroom routines like number talks, guess my number, and marvelous magical number. We introduced the 100’s chart and discussed that depending on which way you go on the chart, your number may be one more, one less, ten more, or ten less. We continue to tell time to the hour recognizing which hand is the hour hand, which is the minute hand. On Friday we used a long strip of paper to write the numbers to count as high as we could count. Some ran out of time!

      In reading we have been focusing on the topic, central idea, and the details of many wonderful stories and one short video. The children are quickly learning the difference between these three things. On Friday we read about friendship by reading The Sandwich Swap. Then we wrote about a new friend we met this year.

       In language we have been writing in our writing notebooks, learning what we do when we think we are done, conferring with the teacher and sharing a few of our writings. We completed a project called “ I like Me” and had to write six complete sentences that told me more about ourselves. We have been working with words by listening to the beginning, middle and ending sounds. We know that a word with a CVC pattern has a short vowel sound and a word with a CVCV pattern has a long vowel sound.

        In Science we have been leaning about science skills such as observing, asking questions, predicting, planning and investigating. We are also learning about science tools. On Friday we planned an investigation and used our senses to record our observations!

*Here is an informative video of how we now check into our school through the front office:     

 checking into the school

https://live.myvrspot.com/iframe?v=ZDM0NjkwNDQ4YWE3MWQ2YzBiMzZiNzI5MGJlYWI0Mzk

*Reading logs were due today. If your child brought back the completed log for the week, I put a star by the week and he/she received 2 stickers for his/her rewards chart. If your child did not turn in the log today, please make sure that it is complete and ready to turn in on Monday. A few students had 3 out of the 4 days filled in, but all 4 need to be filled in to turn in on Fridays. Please help me teach your children that this is a homework responsibility.  As always I am appreciative of your help! 😊

*If you were unable to come to parent orientation, I sent the packet home in your child’s Coyote Folder today. There are three forms that need to be completed and turned in to me by next Friday: A parent contact form, Tell me about Your Child form, and the parent volunteer sign up form.

Saving Sammy Investigation

Week 1

Dear Parents,

         What a wonderful first week we had! We are all getting to know one another and working toward knowing expectations for a successful second grade year. In math we set up our notebooks and began learning our routines. We went over time to the hour, the two names of clocks we have in our room (digital and analog), the hand signs for being a part of number talks (a mental math strategy lesson), and how to independently work on solving word problems by finding multiple ways and tools to get an answer.

          In reading we learned about how to come to our gathering spot and what rug rule expectations. Are.  We read, listened to and discussed a few stories which helped us learn that we think as we read to understand the story. We made our friendship snack and had fun learning more about our classmates as they shared their Me bags.

           During guided reading we practiced read to self and buddy reading. We practiced what it looks like and what it doesn’t look like. We are building our reading stamina. The first try we only stayed focus as a class for two minutes. By Friday we were staying focused for almost nine minutes. As soon as someone looked around, spoke or got off task we would start the timer all over again. We sure had fun practicing!

             In writing we set up our writing notebooks, Wrote from two different prompts, then filled the pieces of a heart shaped puzzle with ideas that are close to our heart that we can write about.

             In science we set up our notebooks, learned the science safety rules, made an emergency plan and discussed what a scientist is and what he/she does. We had our first science investigation on Friday. Ask your child if he/she was able to save Sammy with his/her partner.

• Thank you parents for the wish list items you donated this week to our class as well as the ingredients to make our friendship snack. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• Starting the second week of school, reading logs will be going home  Mon.- Thurs. to be turned in on Friday. Directions are inside the logs. This is their nightly homework. I will provide 1-2 books a week which they can read nightly to help increase their fluency. They may also choose a book from home or the library to read instead. Those who return their logs filled out and initialed by a parent on Friday will receive a sticker for their reward chart.
• PE is on Thursday this week. Please have your child wear gym shoes. 😊

Beginning of the 2019-2020 SCHOOL YEAR

 Dear Parents,

          It was so wonderful meeting most of you at meet the teacher. I hope to see you all again at  our parent orientation on Thursday Aug. 20^th at 5:00 so you can learn more about second grade. If you are unable to attend, you may find the information covered in a packet that will go home in your child’s blue Coyote Folder on Friday. Please take time to fill out the pages at the back and send them back to school next week. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me and I will answer your questions as soon as I can. This Coyote Folder comes home on Fridays with important flyers, our second grade newsletter and graded papers. Please take everything out and return the folder on Monday. The blue daily folder goes home each night and should also return each morning.

       In math this week we are learning about our daily routines, and IPS. IPS stands for intentional Problem Solving. We have a problem each day that your child solves as many ways as they can. They then share with friends; then the strategies used are shared by students. In writing, we will begin our kick off to writing workshop where we will create play doh creations, add to them, take things away, and compare this to the writing process. We will learn that we write about things close to our heart and make some journal entries.

        In reading we will start the kick off to reading workshop where we will learn our gathering spot, how to turn and talk to a buddy, how to read to self and build stamina during guided reading. We will listen to some wonderful books and have wonderful discussions to check for comprehension.

        In social studies we will discuss our rules, classroom procedures, and begin our review of the Leader in Me program. In Science we will set up our science notebook and learn about what scientists look like, what tools they use and what they do. 

       If you click on the blue link below you will be able to see our class blog. I post all my e-mails to you as well as pictures and videos of activities we do in our class. I will post some of the play doh creations from writing this week as I still have some parents that need to fill out the AUP form in skyward. This allows me to post pictures of your child with projects in the hall as well as share pictures of them on our blog. This form must also be filled out if you would like your child’s picture in our yearbook. If you could respond to this e-mail with just your child’s name and whether his/her picture can be posted on our blog, I can start taking pictures of the children. Example: John, yes you may post his picture on the blog.

• Attached is the weekly letter that was in your folder at Meet the Teacher Night, for those of you who could not attend.

*With technology and the digital world constantly changing, it’s critical Lewisville ISD continues to safeguard student data, and student passwords are a key component to ensuring student information is protected.
On Monday, Aug. 12 (the night before the first day of school), all LISD elementary student passwords will be reset to more complex passwords. Parents and guardians may see what their student’s password will be reset to within their Skyward Family Access account under the Portfolio section (see image below). These passwords will be available to view in Skyward until Friday, Aug. 30.
PLEASE NOTE: If your student forgets or needs help with their password, their teacher will have access to the student password management tool to assist them.