End of the year!

I can't believe that I am sitting down to write my lost class blog post of the year!  The past few months have really flown by.  I look forward to a great end to the year, and hope that your 3rd grade students will come back to say "hello" next fall!

In math, we are currently working on an introduction to multiplication and division.  Multiplication is being taught as repeated addition, and division as repeated subtraction.  Students are working on comparision language such as "equal shares", "twice", "double", and "half".  Thank you for your continued support with homework. 

Reading groups have ended for the year to make time for reading assessments.  This year, for the first time at Langston Hughes, 2nd graders will be participating in reading MAPS testing.  We will also be looking at reading fluency and comprehension through DIBELS testing.  If you are in need of reading ideas to keep your child practicing over the summer, please let me know and I would happy to provide you with some resources.  As a whole group during our language block, we are doing different comprehension activities with read-alouds and partner reads.  We will end the year with an author study on Bernard Waber.  Be sure to check out some of his wonderful books! 

In writing, students are working on an animal reasearch project with a partner.  We are using this time to review the writing process.  Students began the project with note-taking, and are now working on rough drafts, editing, and revising.  Next week we will begin final drafts and will also learn about constructing a table of contents, index, and glossary. 

Rather than continuing our spelling groups through the end of the year, we will be doing some whole group word work activities including plural rules, apostrophes and commas, and the 2nd grade sight word list.  Let me know if you would like a copy of that list. 

We have been lucky this week to have a volunteer from the bank named Mr. Lindquist in our classroom.  He is our Junior Achievement volunteer for this year and is doing a wondeful job teaching students about money, communities, and production of goods. 

In science, we continue our unit on herps (amphibians and reptiles).  Students have learned about the similarities and differences between these groups of animals and are now looking at specific types of both.  We will be testing on this unit in about a week and a half, and then will end the year with a fun mini-unit on animal adaptations. 

Thanks, as always, for your continued support this year.  I have enjoyed working with your children and am so proud of the progress they have made! 

Upcoming Dates:

May 10 - Wetlands trip.  Please return the permission slip you will receive today in your child's folder.
May 11 - Field Day
May 14-May 18 - Teach the Class week - forms are due tomorrow (May 4).
May 18 - School talent show
May 23 - Birthday Breakfast
May 24 - Last day of school!  Have a great summer!