Autumn Happenings

It's so hard to believe that we are already well into the month of October!  We have been very busy in our class, and your 2nd graders are working very hard. 

I hope that your child has been sharing information and activities from his or her guided reading group with you.  As we move toward new reading standards this year, we are spending more time within texts and different genres and working with many different objectives.  We are taking a break from guided reading groups for the next couple of weeks to assess and update reading levels.  I hope to have some useful data to share with you at conferences in a few weeks!  During our language arts block, students continue to working on spelling and other basic conventions.  We are also beginning a short unit on technical writing.  During this unit, students will use the writing process to complete a how-to piece entitled "How to Draw a Monster". 

We had our Unit 2 assessment in math earlier this week.  I was so impressed the progress I saw in place value and 2-digit addition!  If you are looking for a quick and easy way to practice math at home, now would be a great time to work on counting groups of mixed coins up to five dollars with your child. Today, we began our next math unit.  Over the next couple of weeks, 2nd graders will be working on measurement (centimeters and inches) and shapes.  Some vocabulary terms to look out for are right angle, quadrilateral, line segment, equal faces, trapezoid, and hexagon.  If you are measuring things at home, try to get your child involved!   

Some exciting things are going on in our health study right now!  The 2nd grade team is teaching a new unit this year on the human body.  We are incorporating technology and some pieces of great expository text with some fun projects and experiments on the body and the body systems.  Last week, students took a close look at "The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body".  As a class, we talked about key ideas and supporting details, as well as the organization of Joanna Cole's books and the use of diagrams in her stories.  This week, we are starting a group project.  Each small group has been assigned  a body system.  Today and tomorrow, groups will research online and in books and articles and practice taking notes.  Next week, each group will collaboratively plan a 3-dimensional display of its assigned body system.  Your child will bring home a note telling what materials he or she has volunteered to provide for the group (this could be things like yarn, clay, balloons, dry pasta, etc.)  Groups will assemble a display, label it, and complete a small research paper.  After the completion of this project, we will be diving into the book "Good Enough to Eat" and doing some experiments with food.  There are some supplies we will need at that time.  I will send out an e-mail when I have more information for you.  Now would be a great time, if you have items at home that tie into our human body study, to send them in for your child to share with the class! 

Please look over the important dates below and let me know if you have any questions.  As always, thanks for all that you do! 

October 31 - Halloween Celebration

November 1 - No School - Recording/Reporting

November 6-7 - Conferences

November 8 - No School

November 27-29 - Fall Recess...Happy Thanksgiving!