Week 28

 

Dear Parents,

           In math this week we began our math unit on fractions. We learned that fractions have equal parts. We are focusing on halves, fourths, and eighths. We first shaded in one of the parts of each of these fractions and then shaded in more than one part. We then shaded in all the parts to realize that 2/2, 4/4, and 8/8 equal one whole. On Friday we had Lucky Charm math!

          In writing we learned about the concept of then and now. We looked at communication, homes, school and toys or games from the past and present. We are making a flip book to show what we’ve learned. We had the choice to write about the lucky charms, people we are lucky to have in our lives, and create a project. ( if our research was done)

         In reading we researched famous Americans using a printed page, facts4me, and/or World Book Kids. We will continue researching after Spring Break. In Social Studies we reinforced the map skills that we’ve learned so far.

         In Science we began learning about the needs of plants. We can’t wait to plant our lima beans after break! I hope all of you have a restful Spring Break!

    

 

PLEASE sign up for the student led Spring conference if you have not done so. Your child is looking forward to sharing his/her leadership skills and their growth with you. Here is the link to our sign up genius. Please let me know if the times left do not work for you. We will work it out! Four more and we will be 100%! 😊 !

 

Sign up Genius Link:

 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B4CAFA82AA02-62671187-mscarpenters

Week 27

 Dear Parents,

               We have had another great week of learning together! Soon we will only have one nine week period left. I  am still supporting your children through my teaching and small group, but I am letting them take charge of doing their independent work. They have all grown so much this year! I am proud of each and every one of them. In math this week we continued to practice three digit subtraction with and without regrouping in many ways. We had a scoot, a dice rolling paper and a spin paper to choose our numbers. We tested on Friday.

                 In writing we finished up our Helen Keller biographies and our poetry books. We went through our pockets for open house and chose one project to save for our student led conference with you. The rest of the projects in the pocket will go home with you tonight. 

                 In reading/social studies we read a map key and used directions to locate objects on a map. Some children had difficulty with this, but we will continue to practice our map skills on Mondays. The timelines were also presented during this time. The children loved sharing this meaningful project. We read two short stories and answered questions about them. We read the questions first, then highlighted things we thought would help us answer the questions in the story as we read. We had to analyze the 3 answers to choose the one that best answers the question. ( This is prepping them for the STAAR test they will take next year.) We also read a Scholastic News article called “ And the Winner Is … “ and answered comprehension questions.

             A big thank you to those who were able to make our Spring Open House! The smiles on everyone’s faces lit up our room. The children are so proud of what they accomplished this year. We have one more nine weeks together and we will make it a great one!

              PLEASE sign up for the student led Spring conference if you have not done so. Your child is looking forward to sharing his/her leadership skills and their growth with you. Here is the link to our sign up genius. Please let me know if the times left do not work for you. We will work it out! Four more and we will be 100%! 😊 !

 

Sign up Genius Link:

 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B4CAFA82AA02-62671187-mscarpenters

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.

Week 22

 Dear Parents,

          This was a very short week! In math today we reviewed the skills for our math assessment we will take next Monday. We took our two lessons in iready reading and math. We worked on our poetry books and caught up on projects we started last week. We talked about the kindness week challenge and colored some kindness posters. We read a story about Abigail and John Adams and then sorted cards as fact or fiction. I hope you all stay warm again this weekend.