ur class pet has a name! The students wrote persuasive pieces convincing the students to select the name they wanted, and after two rounds of voting... Yoda is name of our fish. We already have our first Yoda joke- right after the vote, one student came up and asked, "Why did Yoda cross the tank? To get to the dark side!" Another example of why Second Grade is such a great age!
This week in our reading program, Wonders, we will explore the question- What do heroes do? While reading, we will practice the sound /ew/ as in moon. This week we will go back to the skills of sequencing events and summarizing a story. This week in math we will switch gears from addition to subtraction. Students will use base 10 blocks to subtract larger numbers. By having to trade in 10's for 1's when subtracting, we are laying the foundation for the traditional subtraction algorithm, trade-first. At this age, students still need a concrete representation of the skill (using the base 10 blocks) before they move to the abstract version of the skill (traditional algorithm). We continue to explore persuasive writing. This week students will complete an independent opinion piece that I will score. We have reviewed our rubrics for scoring, and shared multiple pieces of work, so I can't wait to see what they come up with. If you did not receive an invitation email from signup genius for parent teacher conferences, start by checking your junk or spam folder. If you still don't see the email, let me know and I can help you select a conference time. Upcoming dates: 3/28 School Board Meeting
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Our class pet has arrived. I am happy to report that we have a baby Beta fish in our classroom, that is doing well in our aqua farm tank. We have plants already sprouting and are excited to see our fish change in size and color over the next few months.
This week in our reading program, Wonders, we will explore the question- How do people get along? While reading, we will practice diphthongs oi and oy. As well, we will continue to review the theme of the story and look at the authors point of view. This week in math we will learn a new addition strategy called partial sums. This may be an unfamiliar strategy for many of you, but it is quite simple. It builds upon the base 10 work we have been doing, asking students to first add the tens together, then add the ones together, before finally combining the two. Here is a quick read to give you an overview: http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/teaching-topics/computation/add-partial-sums/ We continue to explore persuasive writing. The students have been introduced to a thesaurus and are working to add "spicy" words when they write. As well, we are working on combining sentences to make our writing flow. Upcoming dates: 3/21 SAU Fingerprinting Session, Mrs. Flanagan’s Room, 5:30-7:00 3/21 School Board Meeting, Mrs. Wilmoth’s Room, 6:30 3/21 PTA Meeting, Art Room, 7:00 We had a wonderful time during our read-a-thon and camping day. As well, the kiddos enjoyed their ice cream party on Friday. They have come together nicely as a community and are hitting their stride as a group.
With the weather disruption this past week, a few learning activities have been bumped. We will complete our Erosion STEAM project this week and take a day to catch up in Math. As well, we will set up our fish tank for our new class pet. We have an aquafarm tank, that allows us to recycle the fish waste and use it as fertilizer to grow plants. I am excited to see how it goes! This week in our reading program, Wonders, we will explore the question- What do good citizens do? This entire reading unit will explore the idea of how one person can make an impact on the world. While reading, we will again practice diphthongs ou and ow. While reading, we will continue to find the theme of the story but will also begin to look at the authors point of view. This week in math we will continue to work with number stories. As we do so, students are working to use the strategies they have learned to date. In some cases, they find number lines helpful, other times they may draw in base 10. As we work, we continue to share our strategies with one another, learning that we all may use different approaches to solve math problems. We continue to explore persuasive writing. The students have begun to plan their own opinion pieces and are working to add voice to their writing. While we all focused on the same prompt for our first writing piece, in their next piece the students will have the opportunity to chose a topic they feel strongly about! Just a reminder that Tuesday, March 13th is voting day, and school will not be in session for students. I hope everyone had a healthy and restful February Break. I am excited to see the kiddos tomorrow!
This week in our reading program, Wonders, we will explore the question- What excites us about nature? While reading, we will again practice the spelling pattern of bossy r. We will work on identifying the theme, such as friendship, as we read this week. This week in math we will dive into our next Math unit. Unit six will focus on data and comparing numbers. This week, students will work to collect, graph, and interpret data. In Second Grade, we expect students to be able to draw a bar graph and a picture graph. As well, they will learn how to compare two items and find the mathematical difference between them. We will continue with our opinion writing this week, even attempting a free verse opinion poem to tie into our Wonders story. We will wrap up our erosion unit this week with an engineering challenge. Students will be asked to model a solution that will slow erosion. They will have constraints to work within and will have the change to test their designs.
February 23rd: Famous Person Dress Up Day March 6-9th: Book Fair at school- shop from 7:45-2:30 March 6th: We will browse the Book Fair March 8th: Read-a-thon, students can dress in pajamas or as their favorite book character March 9th: Campout afternoon in our classroom (possible ice cream party) 5:30 – Free showing of Wonder in the school gym |
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June 2018
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