It's hard to believe that the autumn weather is beginning! It will soon be time for Halloween, pumpkins, and colorful leaves! We continue to have a great year in our classroom and are remaining extremely busy. I am very proud of our class for earning their first marble party...a "PJ'S and Parfaits" celebration...yesterday.
Students will finish their assessment on butterflies and moths tomorrow. I look forward to seeing all of the things they have learned during this first science unit. Believe it or not, some of our Monarch caterpillars are STILL snacking on milkweed! Most have gone into their chrysalises...we hope to see some adult butterflies emerging in a few days!
On Friday, we will begin a health unit of study on the body. For the first few days, we will talk about taking care of our skin, hair, nails, etc. Next week, we will talk about the parts of the eyes and ears, as well as how to take care of them. Next Wednesday, an ophthalmologist will visit our class to talk further about proper eye care. As we get further into October, students will begin to study the body systems, starting with the skeletal system! I will be taking the butterfly items off of our science wall...if you have posters, pictures, books, X-Rays, etc. that would tie in well with this study of the human body, we would love to borrow them for a few weeks!
Reading groups got off to a wonderful start last week! I have had great reports from other teachers who have students from our class in their groups, and have really enjoyed working with my groups as well. Some reading skills that students will be working on with fiction books this year are summarizing, making inferences, making text-t0-text, text-to-world, and text-to-self connections, and many other things! Within non-fiction texts, students should be working on locating and using text features (glossary, index, diagrams, etc.), as well as identifying main ideas and defining new vocabulary words. If you have questions about skills you would like to work on at home, let me know and I will send some resources your way!
During our language block, we will be beginning a new author study later this week on Mem Fox. We are also working on identifying synonyms and antonyms, writing contractions properly, and alphabetizing groups of words. Please look over the DLR (Daily Language Review) pages that are coming home to get an idea of what editing skills we are working on as well. These are the half-sheet pages that have the day of the week at the top of them and include sentence writing skills, compound words, spelling questions, etc.
In math, students are currently studying measurement and shapes. New terms introduced have been centimeter, square corners, right angles, vertical, horizontal, and perimeter. This is a short unit and will be assessed later this week. Next week, we will begin an in-depth study of story problems.
The 2nd graders have shown a lot of enthusiasm for our current study in Writer's Workshop...paragraph writing! They have done a fantastic job staying on topic and using supporting details. Next week, they will choose one of their memories from the memory box to write a paragraph about. Late last week, we sent out the friendly letters for which you provided addresses and stamps. If any of the recipients write back to your children here at school, I will send those letters home for you to enjoy!
Next Wednesday, October 6 will be "Walk to School Day". If you live close enough and the weather permits, please plan to walk to school with your child if possible. Teachers will also be joining groups of students walking to school, and there will be a snack at the end of the walk! Hope to see you all then! We are crossing our fingers for another beautiful fall day.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Monarchs!
I hope that your 2nd grader has come home and told you all about the new visitors in our classroom...24 Monarch larvae! Students have been amazed at how quickly these larvae have gone from barely-visible caterpillars to HUGE caterpillars that will soon be going into their chrysalis stage! We will spend the rest of this week, as well as next week, continuing our study of butterflies and moths. Next week, I will e-mail out a study guide to help as you guide your child in reviewing for the test on Tuesday, September 28.
I am excited to hear that several students were able to make it to the Monarch Watch open house last weekend! Here is a link to another opportunity...the Monarch tagging event at Baker Wetlands this Saturday:
http://www.monarchwatch.org/wetlands/
In math, we continue to discuss strategies and write story problems. This week, students were introduced to story problems that involve a missing number at the beginning of the equation. Students are quickly discovering that it is very challenging to write a story problem to go with equations like this! Here is an example of what this type of story problem would look like:
Equation: ___-4=11
I had SOME pretzels. I ate 4 of them. Now, I have eleven pretzels. How many did I start with? I started with 15 pretzels.
Several homework assignments now have had a question involving students in writing their own versions of various types of story problems. Please double check your child's homework to be sure that he or she is grasping this concept!
I am happy to report that we will be starting reading groups next Monday! Be on the lookout for a laminated manila folder coming home in the first few days of reading groups containing reading homework. Students will have reading homework frequently. Books are always due back the following day. One change in 2nd grade is that students will sometimes have WRITTEN homework assignments to go with reading group books. Please help your child be responsible for written assignments, as well as assigned reading.
Last week in writing, students worked with partners on their first research project of the year! I was extremely impressed with the great research students did on assigned butterflies and moths, and cannot wait to share these with you at conferences in the fall! This week, students have been reviewing parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) and practicing some more personal narrative and non-fiction writing. Next week, we will continue looking at the writing process. Students will begin to be more involved in their own editing and revising. Next week we will also be sending out friendly letters, so please remember to send in an envelope, a stamp, and an address of someone your child knows if you have not already done so.
As always, thank you for ALL you do! It continues to be a fantastic year!
I am excited to hear that several students were able to make it to the Monarch Watch open house last weekend! Here is a link to another opportunity...the Monarch tagging event at Baker Wetlands this Saturday:
http://www.monarchwatch.org/wetlands/
In math, we continue to discuss strategies and write story problems. This week, students were introduced to story problems that involve a missing number at the beginning of the equation. Students are quickly discovering that it is very challenging to write a story problem to go with equations like this! Here is an example of what this type of story problem would look like:
Equation: ___-4=11
I had SOME pretzels. I ate 4 of them. Now, I have eleven pretzels. How many did I start with? I started with 15 pretzels.
Several homework assignments now have had a question involving students in writing their own versions of various types of story problems. Please double check your child's homework to be sure that he or she is grasping this concept!
I am happy to report that we will be starting reading groups next Monday! Be on the lookout for a laminated manila folder coming home in the first few days of reading groups containing reading homework. Students will have reading homework frequently. Books are always due back the following day. One change in 2nd grade is that students will sometimes have WRITTEN homework assignments to go with reading group books. Please help your child be responsible for written assignments, as well as assigned reading.
Last week in writing, students worked with partners on their first research project of the year! I was extremely impressed with the great research students did on assigned butterflies and moths, and cannot wait to share these with you at conferences in the fall! This week, students have been reviewing parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) and practicing some more personal narrative and non-fiction writing. Next week, we will continue looking at the writing process. Students will begin to be more involved in their own editing and revising. Next week we will also be sending out friendly letters, so please remember to send in an envelope, a stamp, and an address of someone your child knows if you have not already done so.
As always, thank you for ALL you do! It continues to be a fantastic year!
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