Ending September

Last week was the first week of clubs on our Early Release Day. This week the kids did art club in our classroom with me. We painted fall trees using the eraser on a pencil.

The kids thought it was a lot of fun and these paintings went home with kids last Thursday. Each early release day they will get to visit another teacher and participate in a different club activity.

Extended Form and Comparing Numbers

We have also been working on writing numbers in extended form and comparing numbers. This week we practiced these skills on white boards, on the SMART board and during math centers.

Reading Counts

Students in second grade participate in a program called Reading Counts by Scholastic. This program provides students with a way to test their reading comprehension after they read a book. In class when students have a 70% or higher they get class iPad time. At the end of the school year there is also a school wide reading carnival that they can participate in. During this past week we got to have our first class iPad time. Students only have access to the Reading Counts program at school but they can read a book at home for their reading log and then take a reading counts comprehension test in school during the specified times. The goal of the Reading Counts program isn't to test kids but to allow them to see and monitor their own reading comprehension.

Peek at Our Week

This week marks the beginning of October and I am surprised at how fast time is moving! A couple quick things to keep in mind:

1. We go to the library this Thursday at 8am.
2. PTA Night Program is October 14th

As always everything we are doing is in this week's newsletter that went home. Click on the link below to grab this week's newsletter.
Class Newsletter September 29th 

What We Are Learning This Week

For math this week we will wrap up our unit on comparing numbers and writing numbers in expanded form. We will then continue on to skip counting by 5s and 10s forward and backwards. When in class we will not always start at 5 or 10. For example if counting by 5s I might start at 25 and have students continue counting on by 5s (30, 35, 40, 35, 50, 55, 60....) up to 100. 

Reading this week will be a review of all the skills that have been taught thus far this year. This includes 

• Main Idea: What is the Story about?
• Author's Purpose: Is the author writing to persuade, inform, or entertain? 
• Text Features: bold print, glossaries, electronic menus/icons (ex. links on a website)
• W Questions: Who, what, when, where, and why. Students need to think about these questions when reading. 
• Sequencing: Putting the events of a story in the order they happened.
• Cause and Effect: What action/event happened in a story and what caused it to happen.
• Using illustrations to determine information about the characters, setting, or plot.

For science we will continue our study exploring solids and liquids. Last week we focused on what a scientist is and how we need to be safe when completing science experiments. This week we will start to explore how a scientist makes predictions and what a liquid is. 

Benchmark Testing

This year a new kind of benchmark test is being given to all students in grades 1-5. This benchmark test is completed on a computer. Students will have to click on their answers and write short answer responses in a text box. We will be taking the reading benchmark test this week during our computer time (12:35-1:05). Students will take small parts of the test each day until the test is completed. They will take the math portion of the test next week October 6th-October 10th. 

Our Homework This Week

Our math homework this week has a copyright so I can not post it here but if you need an additional copy I can e-mail it to you just let me know if your child needs another copy.

Spelling/Phonics For The Week

Our spelling words for this week focus on the phonemes ou, or, er, ar, ir, oo, and ch. Five words will be introduced each day up until Wednesday. Thursday we will play a review game and Friday will be our spelling test. 

Have a great week and check out my recent post on our Maps and Communities unit.  

Maps, Communities and Open House

Thank you all very much for coming out in the rain to Open House on September 16th. I enjoyed meeting with you all and I know the kids loved having you see some of their work hanging up around the room.

I wanted to post one of the documents I sent home called the ABCs of 2G. I want to make sure you have access to this resource at anytime since it does have some important information in it.

ABCs of 2G

Maps and Communities

This week we finished up our maps and communities unit with a group project. Students were given a large sheet of paper, a map key, and some directions. They had to draw a compass on the map, and then use it and the project directions to place each thing on their map at the correct location. For our first group project kids did a great job working together and sharing ideas/responsibilities. This project took two days. On day one the kids discussed what they wanted to do, drew the map key and split up the jobs. (If a kid was facing the camera I put a mouse face on them to protect their identity on the internet) 

On day two they drew each building/item on their map according to the directions.

Check out each group's finished projects! They did a fantastic job and they had a lot of fun doing it!

Weekly News

This week is more like a normal week except that Wednesday is an early release day. Students will be dismissed at 11am. We will also go to library Thursday morning at 8am. Everything we are doing is in this week's newsletter that went home. Click on the link below to grab this week's newsletter:

Newsletter for the week of September 22nd

Homework for the Week

In case your child leaves their math homework at school you can click on the links below to download another copy. Math homework for 9/24 is going to be an online interactive game that works on comparing numbers; a skill we will be working on all week. If you do not have internet access I can send home a worksheet. The game is called Raceway Number Values. You can click on the link to go to the game. This game allows students to practice comparing numbers with the greater than < and less than > symbols.

The homework this week for math cannot be placed online due to copyright. I can only provide a paper copy to you. Please let me know if you need another copy of the math homework on these days.


In addition to learning how to compare numbers students will also learn how to write numbers in expanded form. The following video explains what exactly expanded form is. If your child gets confused with this skill in their homework you can have them watch this video.

Spelling for the Week

Our spelling words this week focus on the phonemes or, sh, and ay. Five words will be introduced each day up until Wednesday. Extra credit words will be introduced during our small group time throughout the week. 

I hope you have a great week. Check back soon to see what we have been doing.

Math Time

For the past three weeks students have been studying how to add simple facts with two digits and with three digits. This was mainly a review for many kids however, some of the strategies that were taught were new. From there we moved on to fact families last week. With a fact family students have to identify the two parts and the whole of each fact family. Students worked together in groups of 4-5 and solved for a fact family and then presented it to the class. This presentation provided students with an opportunity to explain their thinking which is a skill we will be working on all year. The kids loved being the teacher and explaining what they did to solve their problem. (If a kid was facing the camera I put a frog face on them just to protect their identity on the internet.)

We also got to practice solving for fact families on our white boards.

After our main math lesson students work on Math centers. This was the first week we have been working on math centers and the kids love them! There were three main games this week.

#1. Firecracker Boom
For this game two students play together. The first player picks a card. If he/she gets the answer right then they can keep the card. Then the second player goes and picks a card and if they get the problem right then he/she can keep the card. This goes on until someone pulls the Boom card. Once someone pulls the Boom card they have to put all the cards they have collected back into the main deck of cards. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game is the winner.

#2. Collect 11
This is a two player game. Each player takes turns finding two numbers on the game board, that are next to each other, and add up to 11. Once they find a set of numbers that follows this criteria they color them in. The winner is the person who finds the last set of numbers that adds up to 11.

#3. Monkey Bump
This is a two player game. Each player will take turns rolling 2 dice. They will add the numbers on each dice together and solve how much needs to be added to this number to make 20. The player then cover this number with a colored chip. For Example: If a player rolls 2 and 5, they would cover 13. If another player has covered that number, they can ‘bump’ that counter off and put one of their own counters on it. If that number is covered by one of the player’s own counters, they can add another counter on top and then they have won that space. You can only ‘bump’ when there is only one counter on the number. The winner of the game is the first player to use all 8 of their counters.

Thanks for checking our website to see what kids have been doing. Come back soon to see what is new each week!

Our Week At A Glance

This week we have a lot going on! Picture day, open house, interim reports, library time, social studies test, and a group project. Everything we are doing is in this week's newsletter that went home. Click on the link below to grab this week's newsletter:

Class Newsletter September 15th

Study guides went home with students Monday for our social studies test this Friday. Our test will be on the different kinds of communities (urban, rural, suburban), maps, and directions on a compass. You can download another copy of this study guide by clicking on the link below.

Maps and Communities Study Guide

Our Homework This week:

This week our math homework will be a little tricky for kids. Part of our math program is explaining how students get their answers when they solve a problem. This is difficult for kids because they want to say ‘I counted on my fingers’ or ‘I did it in my head’. These answers do not really show a child’s understanding of a concept. This week we are working on a word problem strategy called RUBS, which stands for:

Reading the problem and underlining the question help you to understand what you have to do to solve the problem.

Students have learned several strategies to use to solve word problems.  In RUBS the S means choose a strategy, solve the problem, and write the answer in a complete sentence.

Homework Schedule

Spelling/Phonics

This week we are working with words that have the phonemes er, ch, aw, ar, ou, and dge. This week our spelling list has 15 words. Our Words:

wind, race, perch, saw, left, fill, part, group, place, fudge, father, never, watch, under, and start.

I also included 5 extra credit words as a challenge! This week’s word list was placed inside your child’s spelling folder and is posted on our class website. The extra credit words are: 

between, thought, something, example, always

These extra credit words are optional and are mainly to be used as a challenge for kids. 

Quick Reminders

Open House is tomorrow night at 6pm. There will be two sessions available.

Picture Day is September 18th 

Interim reports go home September 17th 

Weekly Class News

It has been a busy week and I am very excited for all the activities the 2nd grade team has planned in the coming weeks for our students, but first let's look at this week. There are two tests this week on Friday, one for reading and one for spelling. The reading test will focus on characters, setting, plot, illustrations, and other key elements of a story.

Homework

Newsletter and Open House

I sent out the class newsletter on e-mail Tuesday, check your email if you did not receive it. If you still need to download it click on this newsletter link.

Open House will be held on September 16th at 6pm. It is on this night that I will go over volunteering in the classroom and on field trips. School volunteer forms will be provided at that time and will need to be submitted back to the school before you can volunteer with the class. I am excited to see everyone at Open House and to talk to you all about what your child has been learning. Check back for my next post on what we have been doing in math for fact families, addends, and subtraction!

Spelling, Homework, and Newsletter

This week spelling homework is going to look a little different. Starting today your child will come home with a spelling homework folder that looks like this:

In the folder each week will be a grid with 12 boxes. Each box will contain a different spelling activity your child can do to practice their spelling words. Each night your child needs to choose one activity to do. When they finish the activity sign off on that square in the grid.

In this folder there will be a label with their spelling words and some blank paper. Students can use this paper for their work.

Homework

Here is this week's math homework:

Tuesday: 

Review doubles facts such as 3+3, 4+4, 5+5, etc.

Wednesday:

Student book volume 1 page 45-46

Thursday:

Student book volume 1 page 53-54

Newsletter

Today a class newsletter and a show and tell letter went home. The show and tell letter explains how we are going to be doing show and tell in the classroom this year during our morning meeting. This activity is a great way for students to practice their presentation skills and meets several Common Core Standards. Our class newsletter includes our show and tell schedule for the year.

Show and Tell Letter

Week of 9/2 Newsletter


Check back later this week to see what we have been up to!