Week 8

 Dear Parents,

        I apologize that you were not receiving my weekly e-mail. I send it EVERY week. If you do not receive it by Saturday afternoon, please e-mail me to let me know. Apparently group distribution lists can be corrupted at any time , then don’t send. The only fix is to create a new list which I have done. Hopefully all will go smoothly from here on.

        In math this week we switched from two digit regrouping in addition to subtraction. The class is doing very well. This is one of the harder skills we learn in second grade. I am so proud of their efforts and lots of sparkly stars have been earned.

        In writing we are focusing on a group narrative. We are using the skills we have learned as a class to write even better narratives by using various transition words, adding feelings, adding details, and editing for correct spelling and punctuation. We also learned about abbreviations, common nouns and proper nouns.

        In reading we looked at two mentor stories, read them together and discussed the central idea of one and the author’s purpose of the other. We made a class book following the pattern of The Important Book. Their pages are precious, so I will make a copy to put in their memory pocket.

         In social studies we listened to a Brainpop Jr. about Johnny Appleseed. We tasted apple juice, freeze dried apples and Apple Jacks Cereal! WE used our ap skills to follow directions and work on the United States map. They were surprised that two of our states are not touching the other 48 states!

 

*The Leader in Me Monthly family letters begin this week! BE A LIGHTHOUSE FAMILY by completing the family activity and returning it each month. The students are awarded a special certificate at the end of the year.

 

*There will be no sight words or spelling words this week.

 

*See the attached Watch Dogs Flyer- We LOVE having visits in our classroom from our dads!

Week 7

  Dear Parents,

         In math this week we began adding two digit numbers using hundreds charts, mental math, ten frames and number lines. We are beginning to learn how to add and regroup on paper as well. This is a very hard concept for second graders at first, but with practice, we will get it! We took our assessment on Friday.

         In writing this week we wrote our BOY narrative about a recess time in which they had lots of fun. I scored the rough draft on our LISD narrative rubric . We spent the week editing, revising and publishing this narrative. Now we will choose topics by ourselves to write our own narratives. I will share them with you during our upcoming conferences in October. I will be sending up a sign up genius in the next few weeks. We will be taking this writing through the writing process. 

         In reading we learned all about constitution Day and how it started. We also learned about our flag and what it represents. It is a symbol of our great country. We learned that the flag has 13 stripes and 50 stars to represent the first thirteen colonies and now our fifty states. We also began researching our American Symbols. 

          In science we have been changing the physical properties of matter as we cut, bent, broke, folded, added heat and removed heat. We planned our steps and documented them in our science notebooks. We did a talk read talk write activity after our investigations. We took smaller pieces and made something that could have a different purpose than the individual pieces. We took a picture of our creations. We had the task to create a bridge as a group! We had to work together and make a plan. Learning can be so much fun!

 

*Important Swim information, a pumpkin project and 6 week progress reports, and Texas State Fair tickets are in the Friday folder. Please look at the papers in the folder, take them out and return the folder on Monday.

 

*A parent shared with me that she hasn’t been getting my e-mails for two weeks. I send one every Friday. If you don’t receive it, please let me know. You can always  go to this link in my signature line to see past letters: http://carpenter2nd.blogspot.com/

Week 6

 Dear Parents,

       In math this week we began adding two digit numbers using hundreds charts, mental math, ten frames and number lines. We are beginning to learn how to add and regroup on paper as well. This is a very hard concept for second graders at first, but with practice, we will get it!

       In writing this week we wrote our BOY narrative about a recess time in which they had lots of fun. I scored this on our LISD narrative rubric and will share it with you during our upcoming conferences in October. I will be sending up a sign up genius in the next few weeks. We will be taking this writing through the writing process. 

       In reading/social studies we learned about Patriots Day and wrote an acrostic Poem about peace. We also learned about Habit 1 of the Leader in Me Program- Be Proactive, I’m in charge of me! We learned about being in charge of our own weather and sometimes changing our thoughts so we can have a better day. We read about friendship, read a friendship poem and made friendship bracelets. We read the Scholastic News The Kindness Challenge and filled out a comprehension page for a grade. On Friday we listened to The Dot  and created are own Dot artwork for International Dot Day!

        In Science we began our new unit on changing matter. We are learning that by adding/taking away heat, cutting, bending, or breaking matter we change some of the physical properties.

         A big thank you to the parents who sponsored our class for popcorn and punch day. We all had popcorn and punch! We had three more donations of snacks for our bins so we are good for now! Thank you for helping me provide for our class.

Week 5

 Dear Parents,

             This week in math we started a unit all about addition strategies. We learned that when adding two numbers together, the order of those numbers does not matter. We learned about adding doubles and near doubles, as well as how to add three numbers by looking for two numbers first, then adding the third. We learned to look for numbers that make a 10. We learned how to use a number line and a hundreds chart to add. We began using our reflex app to practice our facts so that we can memorize them and do them quickly.

            In writing we continued our book writing project and learned about three charts that we can look at to help us spell. We viewed an alphabet chert, a consonant cluster chart and a word wall chart. We are also getting more proficient at using our spelling dictionaries. We learned about the VCe  pattern in words as we studied words with the long o, e, and u sounds. We learned that synonyms are words with the same meaning.

           In reading we read listened to a read aloud, It’s Only Stanley and predicted the end of the story. We read The Great Fuzz Frenzy as a class as we practiced connecting the text and used visuals to help us understand the text. We read the story What’s the Matter? as a connection to our science unit about matter. We sorted matter as solids, liquids, or gases.

           We finished up our unit on matter this week as we looked at many objects and classified them by their physical properties. We sorted objects by different properties and wrote about it in our science notebook. We read articles about matter and discussed the vocabulary: temperature, flexibility, texture, solid and liquid. We took our assessment on Thursday.

 

* We are flying through snacks. If you’d like to donate the individual packages of goldfish for our snack bin, it would be appreciated. I have had one donation and am very appreciative to Mrs. Walker! Please send a snack and water bottle every day. I know we all run out sometimes, and that is what our snack tub is for.

 * Tutoring starts this Monday- tutoring students all brought their forms back! We will start Sept. 11^th. Please be here at 3:45 to pick up your child.

 

*See the attached popcorn and punch flyer from the PTA. The forms and money are due next Wednesday, no change will be made. They are $1.00 each or $5.00 to sponsor a whole classroom.

 

*Important Lunch time information: If your child buys their lunch, they are also allowed to buy snacks/ ice-cream. The lunch ladies by law are not allowed to tell your child no when they purchase multiple snacks and/or ice- creams. You may block snacks or put in a weekly dollar amount that your child may spend each week. This could prevent you from getting a large lunch charge. Please talk to your child about not buying snacks or ice-cream and giving it to friends. We do have a life threatening allergy in our class. Food is not to be shared in the cafeteria. Thank you for your help with this. 😊

Week 4

 Dear Parents,

          This week in math we have been practicing many skills: counting a group of coins, then figuring out how many more cents are needed to make a dollar, time to the hour and half hour(Chant: minute, long word long hand, hour short word, short hand), using a hundred’s chart to add number strings and using a number line to compare numbers.

           In writing we focused on being authors by looking at what real authors do in their books. We can write large words (to show shouting), small words ( to show quiet talking), write words at the top, middle or bottom of a page, put only pictures on a page and use speech bubbles. We can’t forget that our story needs to have a beginning, middle and end. We are excited about being authors of our own books!

           In reading our focus was on characters. We learned more about how to look for external and internal traits as we read the story Picture Day Perfection. We discussed several higher questions as this story took a surprising twist at the end. We took a comprehension check over this story. We also learned about Labor Day and why Monday is a holiday. 

           Science has been so much fun this week as we went on a scavenger hunt in our room to look for objects with certain properties. We observed frozen/ unfrozen gummy worms, frozen/ unfrozen popsicles and blown up/ not blown up balloons to compare their properties. Did the size, shape, mass, color or texture change? Did the state of matter ( solid/ liquid) change? We maybe even got to eat the unfrozen gummy worm! We classified matter as flexible/ not flexible, hotter or colder, heavier/lighter, solid/liquid, its shape and texture.

 

*The first three weeks’ grades can be found now on Skyward. I start off the year giving a lot of support, directions and chances to do things the correct way. You may notice that grades are very high. I feel as an experienced teacher that to grow successful students, they must first feel successful. Once work habits are established I give less and less support until your child is working independently on all graded papers. Many of the children have very high grades this three weeks. As a group, they are great direction followers. Thank you for partnering with me this year to help your child learn and grow in his/her independence.

          * We are flying through snacks. If you’d like to donate the individual packages of goldfish for our snack bin, it would be appreciated.