Week 12

 Dear Parents,

            This week in math we finished up our unit on time and area. We took our assessment and also did some fun math activities with fruit snacks. We also started our unit on nonstandard units of measure.

             In writing we had several lessons such as show, don’t tell emotions and character traits, writing sentences of varying lengths, adding details, and describing gestures. The students were challenged to use at least two of these in their writing. We are revising and editing by ourselves, Ms. Carpenter and with a partner. Next week we will take them to final copy.

             In reading we took a reading checkpoint independently. This was not for a grade. We teaching skills to independently read/listen to a story, take notes about each paragraph, find our answers in the text and write where we found them. We are learning the difference between folktales and Fairy Tales. We listened to several of each. We used graphic organizers to learn more about  chosen stories. We learned about story structure and filled out a graphic organizer about Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. 

              In science we continued to learn about force and motion as we blew up a balloon, played tug-o-war and blew bubbles. We know that a force can be a push or a pull.

Week 11

 Dear Parents,

        We had an exciting week this week as it was Red Ribbon Week. We saw a Magician who captivated us! Thank you PTA. We also had the Wonder Wagon visit our school! We had a wonderful time doing a STEM activity! Thank You Mrs. Speer, Mrs. Pugh and Mrs. Dulin for volunteering and helping our class!

        In Math this week our focus was telling time to the hour, half hour, quarter hour, 5-minute increments and to the minute. Please help reinforce this skill at home as our assessment is next week! It has been very hard for some, but I think we are getting the hang of it!

       In writing we mapped out our imaginative story after choosing a character, setting and event. We began writing our rough drafts. We will revise, edit and publish next week! I can’t wait to read these stories. Your children have quite the imaginations!

          In reading we read Serious Farm and came up with the central idea as we filled out a graphic organizer together. We also read Gingerbread for Liberty and took a very difficult comprehension check. They powered through and did their BEST!

           In science we began our unit on force and motion. We set up our unit, went over our vocabulary and we had an exploration with a marble and some play do. We also had a wonderful STEM Challenge with Super K and her Wonder Wagon. We had 50 Legos to use to build a strong, tall and sturdy structure! It has been a great week!

 

Dear Parents, ( I only have three parents who have not signed up. Remember, I can do a phone conference if needed.)

         It’s time to sign up for Fall Conferences. Click on the link below to get to my sign up Genius. When signing up, please let me know if you would prefer an in person conference or a phone conference in the comment section. If you could, please type your name and your child’s name in the comment box as well. I have a lot of beginning of  year testing information to share with you and prefer that we meet in person in my room, however, if you cannot meet in person I will do my best to update you over the phone. If none of the times provided meet your schedule, please let me know and we will work something out.

 

Link to Sign up Genius:

 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B4CAFA82AA02-52527137-fall 

 

Week 10

 Dear Parents,

         This week in math we finished up our unit on two digit subtraction with and without regrouping. Most of the class is solid in this ski8ll, but a few students could use some extra practice at home. 1 or 2  problems a night could really help your child. On Friday we practiced both addition and subtraction with and without regrouping. It can be confusing for them to switch back and forth.

          In writing we are wrapping up our individual narrative writings and we will be beginning our imaginative stories next week. They love to write fiction! They will choose a setting, character, problem and solution!

         In reading we learned the skills of themes and reinforced what we knew about point of view. We also read a Scholastic News about Smokejumpers and answered questions for a grade. When these graded papers come home, it is helpful if you go over what your child missed with them and where to find the information. We read the story together and discuss all the important information. Right now I am guiding them very much as we do these. We examine the questions, decide what’s asking and if the answer can be found in the text. We find the paragraph together , then they read by themselves to find the answer. 

         In science we continued our unit on sound and met with a group to plan like an engineer to solve a problem. The groups selected their materials and began to build their devices. We also had a Pumpkin Science day where we learned about the growth and parts of a pumpkin. We estimated the weight, diameter, and height of the pumpkin. We opened it up and estimated the number of seeds. I took the seeds home, washed and dried them so we could have a taste of raw pumpkin seeds and roasted ones. There were 445 Seeds!

• Congratulations to Fabian and  Nevaeh for being recognized at our Recognition Rally!

 

                 * Can’t wait to see you at the Fall Festival tonight!

 

*I will be sending out a  Fall Conference sign up Genie on Sunday. I can’t wait to talk to you about how we can partner together to best serve your child.

Week 9

 Dear Parents,

       This week in math we have been working hard on learning two digit subtraction, with and without regrouping. Thank you for your support at home and working with your child. This is always confusing at first, but we’re getting it! 

        In writing your children have taken off by planning his/her individual narrative writing project. The children are excited to write about their experiences and are doing an excellent job so far. We also have learned about nouns, Proper Noun s, plural/ singular nous and abbreviations! 

         In Social Studies/ reading we read Big Red Lollipop and took a comprehension check. We discussed how the story was written in first person. We also discussed what it means for a story to be written in  third person .We listened to The Compromise Kid video and discussed how we can compromise when we are having a disagreement. We used words like compromise, decision, and disagreement. We talked about antonyms and synonyms for these words. In science we continued with our unit on sound. We used tuning forks to see and feel vibrations. We talked about volume as loud or quiet sounds. We listened for low or high pitches and talked about how the sound waves differ for those pitches. We read and highlighted an article about sound. On Thursday, we put together a book about sound, highlighted it and glued it in our science notebooks.

Week 8

 Dear Parents,

      In math this week we began two digit subtraction with and without regrouping. At first they confuse it with the addition we have been doing, but practicing at home will help with this transition. The class is getting more independent with their problem solving skills each morning!

      In writing we wrapped up our class project about the first day of school and published it! We are very proud of the writing we did together. We are looking forward to launching our individual narratives next week.

       In reading and social studies we read a story, thought about the words, read questions and decided the best answers to those questions. We went back to the text to prov e our answers. We went back to the story and highlighted words that described sea stars. We figured out the author’s purpose for writing the story. Soon we will be taking these assessments on our own. We read Being a Good Citizen  and figured out the author’s purpose in writing this story. We filled in a graphic organizer together. We began researching our book about Texas Symbols and worked hard filling in missing information, writing sentences and drawing pictures.

        In science we began our investigations about our new unit, Sound Energy. We listened to what happened when we strummed a rubber band on  a box with a hole cut in the top. We predicted how it would sound when we made the rubber band tighter. We realized that sound energy causes vibrations. We also used a drum to make vibrations. We wrote about our observations in our science notebooks.

Action Items

• We have only three days left for stuff the pantry- see below items that can be brought to school. We have not had any donations in our class.
• Thank you Madeline and family for bringing in more individual bags of goldfish!
• We still need a few more pumpkins on our vine!
• Cultural dolls are due Oct. 15^th- see below
• Please send in $3.00 for our Fall festival grade level basket for the silent auction

Week 7

 Dear Parents,

            In math this week we continued adding two digit numbers with and without regrouping. We also added number strings which is adding four two digit numbers. In problem solving we focused on the two step problems. They were working very hard and earned many sparkly stars for their charts. We are also getting charts filled up and are making trips to the treasure box. 

             In writing we began a class narrative about our first day of second grade. We are taking this paper through the process of brainstorming, writing our opening statement, organizing facts in chronological order, drafting our paper using the graphic organizer and writing a terrific closing sentence. We will be continuing this paper next week.

              In reading/ social studies we watched as the teacher took an assessment, thought through each question, and went back to the text to fin d the answers. Wev listened to the important Book and wrote our own page for a class book. We read the story Spoon and focused on the author’s purpose for writing the story. On Thursday, we celebrated Johnny Appleseed’s birthday as we read about his life and mapped his travels. We also tasted apples, dried apples, freeze dried apples, Apple Jacks cereal and, had apple Juice. Thank you to those of you who sent in he apples! 😊

             In science we have been reading about combining Matter. We had the task of choosing materials to build a boat, writing a plan to build, then building our boat. We tested them to see if they could float.

              *  A Big thank you to the Luu family for sending in Goldfish for our class members who do not have a snack! 

              * There is an electronic newsletter attached. A paper copy will be sent home Monday!

               We had a GREAT Field Day! Thank you to all the parents that came and cheered us on! We were really good sports and cheered for all our teammates!

Week 6

 Dear Parents,

         We began learning about adding with regrouping numbers. This is a very difficult skill mat first, but I promise I will teach and support your children until they understand. This is why we started math homework this week, for extra support. By Thursday they were ready for a challenge. They were to try 5 problems by themselves. Most gat all 5 correct, some 4, and some three. They are getting it. Sometimes it can take a couple weeks until they feel confident with this skill.

            In writing we wrote our BOY writing sample. We will see great growth in the MOY sample to the EOY sample. We use a rubric to rate the level as a draft, but then will take this piece to final copy.

             In reading/ social studies we focused mainly on social studies as we learned about our rights as citizens. We celebrated Constitution Day, and learned all about its purpose, who , where and when it was written. I was born on Constitution Day! It was a big birthday for me, so lots of fun things happened that day. I appreciated all the kind notes and gifts. We tied in research by researching some of the famous Americans who signed the Constitution. We also researched 4 American Symbols.

           In science we had several fun learning activities as we changed the physical properties of matter as we cut, bent, broke, sanded and melted matter. We recorded those changes in our science notebooks. Part of these activities was creating a paper airplane. Congratulations to Parker who came in first place and Nicholas who came in second place for their planes flying the greatest distances.