IMPORTANT DATES:
- December 13th: Recycle Material Due for Force and Motion toy project
- December 18th: Wrapped book for Book Exchange Due
- December 19th: Holiday Party
- December 20th : NO SCHOOL
- December 22nd: Progress Reports available for viewing
- December 20th-January 6th: WINTER BREAK!
- Students return to school on Tuesday, January 7th. Have a wonderful winter break!
Thank you for your generous contribution to our classroom library through the purchase of a new book at the Scholastic Book Fair. The books you purchased have added more great books for our students to enjoy! Thank you!
HOLIDAY PARTY
We will have our class holiday party on Thursday, December 19th. We will be having a simple celebration and a book exchange. A letter regarding our holiday party will be sent home in your child’s Homework Folder.
ELEMENTARY PROGRESS REPORTS-FIRST SEMESTER
Progress reports are available for parent viewing on Saturday, December 22rd. Log on to your parent portal to view your child’s progress report. You will also find a first semester wrap up of your child’s academic learning in second grade. Please take the time to read all the learning, growth and success we have had thus far in second grade. The following rating system is used to determine your child's level of performance:
Exceeds
Indicates a high level of achievement. It indicates a student has a strong understanding of the content/concepts/skills taught and it implies a student can demonstrate understanding independently and with very few errors.
Meets
Indicates that a student demonstrates an understanding of content/concepts/skills most of the time and with limited support. Students who are meeting standards make few major errors or omissions when demonstrating a concepts or skill.
Approaching
Indicates that a student requires moderate support to demonstrate an understanding of concepts/skills. Students' ability to demonstrate their understanding of a concept or skill is inconsistent or infrequent, which indicates a partial understanding of the content, concept or skill. Students demonstrate more frequent errors or omissions.
Does Not Meet
Students who do not meet standards seldom demonstrate an understanding of concepts and skills taught. The student requires considerable support to demonstrate learning and makes frequent major errors when demonstrating his/her understanding.
CURRICULUM UPDATE:
READING
During Reader’s Workshop we are entering the last part of our non-fiction unit, centered around reading across a topic. We are going to dig deeply into a self-selected topic where we are excited to grow our schema by reading and researching multiple sources across a topic. In addition to our non-fiction reading skills we continue to work on reading fluency, building stamina as a reader, and making sure that we are working with a book that we can read with 98% accuracy.
During Reader’s Workshop we are entering the last part of our non-fiction unit, centered around reading across a topic. We are going to dig deeply into a self-selected topic where we are excited to grow our schema by reading and researching multiple sources across a topic. In addition to our non-fiction reading skills we continue to work on reading fluency, building stamina as a reader, and making sure that we are working with a book that we can read with 98% accuracy.
WRITING:
We are continuing our work with writing scientifically, writing lab reports and ending with “how to” writing. Below are important parts of writing that we are working on:
We are continuing our work with writing scientifically, writing lab reports and ending with “how to” writing. Below are important parts of writing that we are working on:
- Writing as scientists do
- Procedural writing
- Designing and writing about an experiment(s)
- Constructing question(s), writing a hypothesis, writing explicit procedures, sharing results and writing a conclusion that refers back to our hypothesis.
- Plan informational books
- Integrating scientific information into our writing
- Using checklist/rubrics to self assess and plan for next parts
MATH:
We are continuing with our work in Math Topic 4, focusing on addition strategies to fluently add within 100. During these units students will be focusing on the following:
- Using place value (tens and ones) to add and subtract
- Using an open number line to add tens and ones within 100
- Adding 2 digit numbers using models
- Adding and breaking apart numbers using mental math and partial sums
- Modeling one and two step problems
- Selecting the most efficient strategy to solve a math problem
We have also started our Friday Flex Math groups! On Fridays, we are now grouping the students across the second grade classrooms for math instruction and enrichment at their level. We are excited for this opportunity to reteach and extend our math content in a different way. These groups are flexible; the groupings may change as our math focus areas shift during the year. We had a lot of fun trying this out today, and we believe this will be a beneficial opportunity for all of our mathematicians!
HELPING YOUR CHILD WITH MATH:
- Helping your child with math:Click Here
- Math Words and Ideas: Click Here
- Investigations Game Center:Math Games
It is so exciting to see the progress students are making in their spelling! Spelling groups are formed based on their understanding and application of spelling patterns on weekly assessments, comprehensive assessments, and use in their authentic writing In addition to our weekly test, students were given a comprehensive spelling inventory the last week in November. For most students, our assessments showed that they are progressing at the appropriate pace with their current spelling group. For some students, after Winter Break you may notice they will be repeating sorts or moving to a new sort level if our assessments showed the need for an instructional shift. Please continue to support your child by making sure that their word sorts are practiced daily along with the 5 “No Excuse Words” and challenge word of the week. Using the sorts throughout the week helps your child develop, concretely, the spelling pattern they are working on for the week. The last week in December we will have a “no excuse word” quiz, but there will be no word sorts that week.
SCIENCE:
In science, we are continuing our work with Force and Motion. We have been conducting some experiments and building our background knowledge about friction, gravity, force and motion. We will also be working with Mrs. Fleet on lego building and how force, motion, pushes and pulls all affect the way objects move. To wrap up our understanding of force and motion, students will be creating their own toy that moves. Please see the donation list for ways you can help us gather supplies for this fun, creative science project!
