A Nonfiction Scavenger Hunt in the Library!

Week 5

Dear Parents,

         Week #5 was full of wonderful learning opportunities! In math we focused on counting money. The strategy used is for the children to put the what the coin is worth above the coin and count up the amount under the coin until they get the total. We use a hundreds chart to help us with the counting. We also learned how to use different coins to make the same amount. We used greater than, less than and equal to signs to compare two groups of coins. If we miss a problem on a practice page we go back and correct it. We also took our istation math test on Monday.

          In reading we have been focusing on reading realistic fiction books. We created mental pictures of the characters and drew them. We focused on the words in the text that helped us create our image. Om Wednesday we discussed what Patriot Day is and why we celebrate it. We saw a powerpoint about 9/11 and created a class circle map about peace. We filled out a story element graphic organizer on a book called It’s Only Stanley. On Friday we talked about how we make connections to stories we read and how those connections build our comprehension.

           In writing we continued learning about writing tools that can help us, like an alphabet chart and a consonant cluster chart. It helps us be fearless spellers and makes our writing easier to read. We wrote a peace acrostic poem on 9/11 and began a writing about Fall. We built our background knowledge, made a sensory chart, and began our rough draft.

            In science we continued observing properties of matter as we sorted objects by their physical properties. We then observed several objects and filled in a chart listing whether the objects were flexible/not flexible, cool/warm, a solid/a liquid, or smooth/rough. On Friday we did a talk-read-talk-write about sorting matter.

·      Please send in earbuds so your child can use the ipads during guided reading.

·      If your child has not turned in his/her completed Leadership poster, please send it in on Monday.

·      Thank you to the two parents who sent in snacks this week. Our snack tub is full again. I appreciate your help in providing snacks so the children feel good and ready to do their best!

* Link to Mrs. Moore’s Guidance Lesson:     https://app.secondstep.org/Portals/0/g2/Lesson_Materials/Home_Links/g2L5_Home_Link.pdf

*The CRE Under the Sea Book Fair will be September 27 – October 4th. Volunteers are needed! Sign up to volunteer through the CRE Voly page at https://tinyurl.com/y4cvzpnk. Volunteers are especially needed September 25, 26, and 27 to decorate, set up, and help with previews. Contact Mrs. Watts with any questions at wattsbm@lisd.net. Thank you!

Sorting by Physical Properties

Week 4

Dear Parents,

            This week zoomed by being only 4 days. In the Coyote Folder your child’s first progress report and istation report went home. I have their beginning of year writing sample yet to collect and will be sending home a sign-up sheet for conference times  in about two weeks.

             In math we continued counting money (pennies/dimes), counting with snap cubes (towers and single cubes) and counting using our own drawings of stickers ( Rows and singles). We are getting the hang of number talks and are finding strategies to help us add using mental math. Our intentional problem solving is going well and the children are already enjoying sharing their work in front of the class.

             In reading we read several stories and focused in on the setting and the characters. We talked about the characters having external and internal characteristics. We have our guided reading groups up and running and are working on their independent work stamina (getting work completed on their own while I am with reading groups.) Thank you for helping your child fill out their reading log nightly ( Mon.-Thurs.) and turning it in on Fridays.

             In writing the children have been excited about writing using authors as their mentors and they are busy creating their first book. We are learning how to be fearless spellers, use a spelling dictionary, and our word wall to help them spell.

           In social studies we again focused on being a good citizen, took a self-assessment, and wrote about ourselves for our leadership notebooks. We also worked on a shutter book that tells more about what we want to learn this year. We began setting goals this week and started to track them on our September calendars.

            In science we have been learning about matter and how to classify things by looking at their physical properties. Check out our blog to see some children who took objects from around our room and sorted them by size, shape, color, mass or texture.

• There are quite a few children who come without snack each day. Please send your child with a healthy snack. I try to provide snack if it is forgotten. I bought snacks and had some snacks donated, but those are almost gone. If you would like to send snacks for our tub to help out it would be appreciated. The individual bags of goldfish, pretzels, cheez-its are always met with smiles.
• Please send in earbuds so your child can use the ipads during guided reading.

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.