Monday, September 30, 2019

October Updates


Upcoming Dates:
  • Thursday, October 3rd & Wednesday October 9th - Parent Teacher Conferences
  • October 7th or 8th- Vision & Hearing Screening (Please be sure to send glasses if your child wears them)
  • October 14-18th- Fall Break
  • October 31st- Halloween Parties and Costume Parade
Curriculum Update:

READING:
We wrapped up our first Lucy Calkins Reading Unit, Growth Spurt, last week and are currently doing a small Mini Unit Called: Readers Get to Know the Characters. We are studying characters closely and using what we notice to become the characters through Reader’s Theater! After fall break, we will begin a new unit called Becoming Experts. This unit is devoted to reading Nonfiction. During Reader’s Workshop students will be working on the following:
  • We continue to build our stamina to be able to independently read for longer periods of time
  • Notice and learn about the difference between fiction and nonfiction
  • Notice, learn and question
  • Identify “What is this book teaching me?”
  • Characteristics of Nonfiction (text features)
  • Building knowledge of unknown words
  • Strategies for solving unknown words
  • Adding info across books
  • Retell topics not just books
  • Lifting your level of thinking
WRITING:
We will be wrapping up our Opinion Writing Unit this month as well. Students have written several letters stating an opinion with reasons and examples. They have enjoyed choosing their favorite books and characters to write opinion letters to family, friends and classmates. We will conclude the unit by connecting our opinion writing skills with our civics unit by writing about a classmate who we think is our “MVC,” or Most Valuable Citizen. In our opinion writing unit students have focused on:
  • Collaborating with a partner to plan writing
  • Writing to a specific audience
  • Using evidence to support our opinions
  • Using precise words to describe a character
  • Using transition and linking words to strengthen our writing
  • Writing conventions including punctuation, capitalization and spelling
  • Editing and revising using a checklist
Our next unit (informational writing) will be connected to our science standards and students will write science lab reports and other procedural texts describing our science experiments on Force and Motion.

MATH:
We will be wrapping up our third Envision topic right before Fall Break. In Topic 3, students are learning various strategies to add within 100.

After Fall Break, we will jump to topic 12, which is a short measurement unit and will align with our work as scientists studying force and motion. Students will explore precise measuring with different standard and nonstandard units including inches, centimeters, yards, and meters. They will estimate, measure precisely, and compare units.

HELPING YOUR CHILD WITH MATH:
  • Review the in class worksheets with your student 
  • Practice fact fluency using flash cards
SOCIAL STUDIES:
We are completing our unit on Civics this week. Students identified what our Roles, Rights and Responsibilities are in various parts of the school and playground. During our Technology Time with Mrs. Fleet we learned about an App called Adobe Spark. Students then collaborated with a partner to create a video describing one pace in our school. Please look at your child’s Seesaw account for the video.

WORD WORK/SPELLING:
Your child has had several weeks of getting into our routine of Word Work and Spelling. Please continue to practice these words with your child (see yellow word study page in homework folder). The idea is that your child learns to identify the pattern (through sorting) but is also able to accurately spell the words as well. So far, the children are making good progress!                              

Sunday, September 8, 2019

September Updates




Upcoming Dates:
  • Monday, September 2 - No School (Labor Day)
  • Friday, September 20st- No School (Professional Learning for Teachers)
  • Thursday, September 27th- Digger Dash
  • October 3rd- Parent Teacher Conferences
  • October 9th- Parent Teacher Conferences
  • October 14-18th- Fall Break
Curriculum Update:

READING:
During Reader’s Workshop students are working on the following:
  • Learning the routines and rituals that will make Reader’s Workshop successful
  • Choosing Just Right Books- Books that we can read most of the words without difficulty or can use strategies to figure out the hard words
  • Building our stamina to be able to independently read for longer periods of time
  • Recording our thinking while reading
  • Stopping, thinking, and retelling a story to check for comprehension
  • Reading more and more to continue growing
  • Strategies to use when words are tricky
WRITING:
Our writing unit is Opinion Writing. During this unit students will be writing letters to share ideas about books (opinions). By the end of the unit students will be able to: 
  • Write about an opinion (likes or dislikes) and give reasons why
  • Have a good beginning in which you state your opinion and set the reader up to expect the writing to convince them
  • Connect parts
  • Have different parts, a lot of lines about each part
  • Have at least two reasons
  • Have an ending that reminds our reader of your opinion
  • Chose words that would make your reader agree with your opinion
Conventions are a big emphasis in second grade as well:
  • Capital at the beginning of each sentence
  • Punctuation at the end of each sentence
MATH:
We are wrapping up Topic 1: Fluently Add and Subtract Within 20
During this unit students focused on the following:
  • Math Tools and classroom routines-using manipulatives, number lines, and tens frames
  • Understand if order matters when adding two or more numbers together (commutative property)
  • Adding and subtracting within 20 using a variety of strategies
    • Making 10
    • Doubles or near doubles facts
    • Fact families
    • Counting on
    • Using a number line to count on or count back
    • Bar diagrams
  • Beginning to develop fact fluency within 20
  • Understanding the connection between addition and subtraction
  • Solving addition and subtraction story problems, sharing strategies for solving, and ways to record
During Topic 2: Work With Equal Groups, students will focus on:
  • Even and odd numbers
  • Using arrays to find totals
  • Making arrays to solve addition problems
  • Modeling problems with equations, drawings, and arrays
SOCIAL STUDIES:
Civics- Roles, Rights and Responsibilities of responsible community members.

During this unit we described important characteristics of a responsible community member. We learned that people can express their ideas respectfully within a community. We also explored the idea that responsible community members influence the rules, policies, and laws in their communities (including classrooms).

Communities - We are exploring how communities change, reasons for living in a specific community, and the different types of communities.

WORD WORK/SPELLING: Each student was given a spelling inventory to identify areas of strength and areas to work on. Students were then divided into groups based on their unique needs. Each week your child will come home with a list of words based on a spelling pattern. Please practice these words with your child (see yellow word study page in homework folder). The idea is that your child learns to identify the pattern (through sorting) but is also able to accurately spell the words as well.