Week 26

 Dear Parents,

          In math this week in math we worked on 3 digit subtraction with and without regrouping. Most of the students are confident in this skill, but mistakes are made when they have an error in their calculations. That is why it is so important your child practice all the addition flashcards each week until they know them automatically. This will help them tremendously as they do not have number lines next year on their desks. When we are finished with the addition flashcards, we will begin subtraction facts. Additionally we practice our facts at school with iready fluency flight. I still see children using their fingers to count.  If your child has had some trouble, I sent a paper home for support. I am also going to pull those students and work with them in a small group.

            In writing we finished our Class Biography on Helen Keller. We took our notes, created the sentences as a class and finished our final copy this week. We had some very proud faces when they saw their finished work! We also learned about adjectives and adverbs. We made adjective flowers choosing 5 adjectives that describe us. These will be displayed in the hallway during open house next Thursday!

              In reading/ social studies we learned about symbols on a map. We looked at the map key to help us find places on a map and completed a paper for a grade. We read The Jelly Donut Difference and created kindness donuts to show how we can make a difference in the world. Kindness Matters! We  read Maggie’s Kite and took a comprehension check. Some answers were brain questions and some could be highlighted in the text. We also read  a Scholastic News article called “Up in the Air With Ida” and took another comprehension check. We listened to a short video called “Follow Your Dreams”. We revisited what a central idea of a story is and filled out a graphic organizer together.

Week 25

 Dear Parents,

           This week in math we had many opportunities to practice 3 digit addition, with and without regrouping. We then took our assessment on Friday. We  are doing very well at doing these sorts of problems. Next we will move on to three digit subtraction, with and without regrouping.

             In writing we have been researching Helen Keller. We have read 3 sources and have taken notes in a time order. We will work as table groups to turn these notes into interesting, complete sentences. Next week we will combine our sentences to write a class paper on Helen Keller. We have learned when someone other than the person the writing is about is the author, that is a biography.

             In reading we watched a Brainpop Jr. video about The Lunar New Year. We stopped the video at several places to discuss answers to questions they would take at the end. Some did very well, others need a bit of work on their listening comprehension. This is something we have been focusing on in class. Later in the week we read I Am Helen Keller. We could use the story to find answers to the questions on the comprehension assessment. They are getting very good at being word detectives and going back to the text to find the answers. On Friday we got to watch the video-“ I am Helen”.

              In science we listened to the story Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. We then wrote a story mirroring its plot. The task was to create a story in which the weather brought food from the sky. They took this story to final copy.

Week 24

 Dear Parents,

          This week in math we have been adding 3 digit numbers with and without regrouping. We always start in the ones! They have been working hard on how to do this. The mistakes are usually just calculation mistakes. They do understand the process. Practicing their weekly flashcards should help with this. They have 0s, 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s, They should continue to practice all the flash cards until they can add them automatically.

            In writing we have been writing our LEAD Conference Paper reflecting on their year in second grade so far. We also have been working hard to finish our poetry books as well as to begin to learn how to write a biography!

            In reading/ social studies we reviewed the compass rose and made our own naming both cardinal and intermediate directions. We reviewed making an inference and read clues to match up for a grade. We read the story The Stories He Tells and found details  to find a central idea. We listened to the story Love Monster , completed a directed drawing and wrote about someone special to them.

            In science we played a game with our academic vocabulary for our unit on Conservation of resources. We took our checkpoint on Tuesday. On Wednesday we set up unit 9, Tools to observe the moon and sun. We watched videos of a sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, and star rise and discussed what we saw. We then played a game, is it a star or not? We answered the question, What is the sun and why is it important. We also discussed shadows.

Week 23

 Dear Parents,

            It was so great getting back to a full week of Learning. Next week our Valentines Day Party is on Friday. Homework for Parents had been sent home. Your assignment? Write a Valentines Letter on the heart I provided written to your child. This is a keepsake for your little girl or boy. I can see how proud they are pointing out their heart in the hall. Please if you have not turned in your heart, do by Wednesday so everyone has a heart on our hall bulletin board. We are missing 5. Also, if you have not sent in the $3-$5 dollars to help our room mothers pay for this party please do so before the party day as I will give them the money that day. I brought all my saved shoe boxes to school to let anyone who needs one take them home. Please have the decorated boxes and Valentines by next Thursday so everyone is sure to have a box by Friday.

             This week in math we learned our 4 addition facts and had our quiz on Friday. On Monday we celebrated the 100^th Day of School. We had many fun activities such as writing about if we were 100 years old ( and I aged their picture with the  free app aging booth). You should have heard the giggles as they saw pictures of each other looking very old. We did 100 exercises and created a piece of art with the digits in 100. We  also made our 100 piece snack, which they loved! Thank you to all of you who provided part of this snack.There were other activities throughout the day like rolling a die with a partner and racing to see who got to 100 first. There was also flipping a penny 100 times. We took our test on ordering and comparing numbers on Tuesday. The rest of the week we focused on problem solving reading varying word problems.

             In Writing we wrote our 100 year old me papers and researched an African American Athlete for Black History Month. We continued working on our poetry books. 

             In reading/ social studies we learned about Groundhogs Day and predicted if he would see his shadow. Our class was unfortunately correct as he did see his shadow which means 6 more weeks of winter. We learned about Cardinal and  Intermediate directions on a compass rose and practiced finding things in the classroom in the cardinal directions for a grade. We read Whatever the Weather poems and practiced visualizing them to add to our poetry books.

              In science we went on a natural and manmade scavenger hunt and answered questions about what surprised us. We learned that natural resources are used by humans to create manmade resources. We even played a fun game practicing what we learned. Table 3 won!  We learned about recycling as we read a Scholastic News article and answered questions.