Halloween:
The children looked great in their costumes on Tuesday. They had a blast at the class celebration. A huge THANK YOU goes out to the room parents for organizing as well as all the parents that helped to plan and run activities! What a fantastic job. Check out the photos at the bottom of this week's page. Spelling: *Our focus this week was the long spelling for /ch/ tch and /j/ dge. Children practiced spelling and identifying words that are spelled with the longer spelling for these sounds. Rule: Long spelling right after short vowel. in a one syllable word. For example, judge is spelled with dge after the short u. catch is spelled tch after the short a. Another sound that came up is ck for /k/ after a short vowel as in the word back. Children will continue to work with these words into next week. Math: In math children continued adding three digit numbers with regrouping as well as subtraction with regrouping. The children have worked hard to carry out the multiple steps in the process as well as regrouping and being sure to have accurate computation with addition and subtraction. You might consider practicing some of these skills at home to reinforce what we are doing in class. Children also learned how to subtract with regrouping across zeros such as in the example: 300 -257 ------------------ Children will continue to work on this next week. We will then start a new unit next week. Language Arts: Children spent time writing a reflection about their Halloween costume. They worked independently using our Language Arts Menu to be actively engaged and learning. Children are working on being responsible and using their time wisely whether they are working through the writing process to publish a book, building stamina and comprehension through buddy or independent reading , or participating in author's choice to write a recipe, card, note, or any other variety of purposeful writing. While children work independently others are joining me to conference for the writing process or to participate in book club. This week we focused on writing a fiction story. Some children are ready to conference and finish up by writing a final draft to publish. This is an ongoing process and children are encouraged to begin a new book once they have published one. Upcoming Halloween Festivities and Information: Tuesday, 10/31 is our Halloween Parade and Celebration. Children are welcome to come to the class wearing their costumes to school. We will parade to the commons at 8:15. Parents and siblings are welcome to stay for the all-school meeting. Please refrain from scary costumes and any weapons. Your child can wear other clothes under their costume or bring a change of clothes for after the parade. We will have a small class celebration with crafts and snacks in the second grade classrooms following the parade. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions. Thank you to the room parents for coordinating this event. We are all looking forward to it! Brigid and I are asking that you please not send in sweet treats for students unless you're signed on for providing a snack (for ex. small goodie bags/candy bars are not to be given). Some families have rules about candy/sugar and some students have allergies, so we would prefer this to be a home conversation and don't want to be sending candy from school to homes. Thank you for understanding! This Week...
Spelling: Children had a review week in spelling. We practiced rules, did buddy spelling practice, and talked about spelling in our writing. We discussed the importance of applying the spelling skills and rules that we are learning to our writing. Some approaches to encoding a challenging word are to sound out the word, use the classroom resources and sound cards, write it out and see how it looks, apply spelling rules. Language Arts: Children worked on completing the writing process for their peer interviews. The process started with conducting an interview, then transferring answers into complete sentences and adding a topic and closing sentence. The children then wrote their first draft and finally are finishing up final drafts. On Friday, the children met with partners and completed the activity by drawing a picture of their interviewee. You can be on the look out for these interviews soon. We will post them outside of the second grade classrooms. Children also spent time on the writing process for a fiction story that they have begun to plan and write. Other Language activities included reading groups, spelling practice, and Language Arts Menu Math: Subtraction with Regrouping: 845 - 567 _____________ This week we have been working on subtraction with regrouping. We are regrouping in the 1s, 10s, and 100s. Children are working on carrying out all the steps necessary to solve the math problem accurately such as subtracting from the number on the top, regrouping, and careful computation. It can be challenging and confusing that you can't take 7 away from 5 in the number above and that you must regroup taking from the 4 in the tens column and then regroup from the hundreds place when dealing with subtracting in the tens place. Children are also working on careful computation going step by step from the ones to the hundreds place. We have also spent some time practicing our subtraction and addition facts, counting by 5s, and applying the inverse operations of addition and subtraction to check answers. Ex: 453 - 200 = 253 So, 253 + 200 = 453 Other things we've been up to...Handwriting, Editing practice, and shared reading and practice using comprehension strategies. Children also completed a P-T Conference reflection sheet. Author and Illustrator, Chalise Harper visited on Friday She shared her book the "Good for Nothing Button" and invited the audience to read parts of the book along with her. Charlise spoke about her childhood and interest in writing and drawing from a young age. She shared one of her first books that she wrote as a child as well as her monster drawings that inspired some of her recent illustrations. Charlise also shared her struggles with her vision as well as her difficulty with spelling, and she was sure to point out that neither struggle has held her back as an author or illustrator. Language Arts: * Children continued the writing process for their partner interview. This week, the children turned their complete sentences into a first draft paragraph with an opening and closing sentence. Next week, children will work on editing and writing final drafts. * Continued work with LAM ( Language Arts Menu) - children are working independently choosing from a variety of language arts activities. The goals are working independently and practicing a variety of skills while the teacher works with small groups. I Wonder... Children wrote about what they wondered about our read aloud School Days According to Humphrey We then went back to reading and wrote about what happened. Parent - Teacher Conferences Children have been preparing to lead their P-T conferences. As a reminder, there are no classes on Friday due to conferences. Math: Addition with regrouping in the ones, tens, and ones and tens together. Children have worked on setting up 3 digit and 2 digit math addition problems correctly being sure that numbers are in the correct place. Solving addition word problems with regrouping. Community Ms. Conlon's brother, Kevin, is a producer for CNN. Most recently, Kevin has been covering the natural disasters that have occurred over the past few months. During his visit to Friends Academy, second graders had a chance talk with him to learn about his job as a producer, as well as learn how his job has an impact on our greater community. Here are just a few things the students learned when we reflected on his visit:
Dear Parents, We have been working together in school to greatly enhance the quality of the homework experience and to ensure each student’s success. It has been during these past few weeks that we have taken the time to “teach” homework. We have been introducing it slowly and carefully to clearly establish expectations, and to take the time to practice the routine at school before children go home to do it independently. We are now establishing a homework routine that will support our daily curriculum through practice at home, as well as foster a home/school connection of concepts introduced. You will find a Home Connection Folder in your child’s bag. Please keep this folder in a safe place at home (preferably your child’s work area). Please keep the following in your Home Connection Folder throughout the year: Stays at Home:
Returns to School (due date will be provided):
Homework will be assigned Monday through Thursday throughout the week. There will never be homework assigned over the weekend or on holidays. Each night, students will be asked to read a minimum of 15 minutes of either an independent reading book (a book chosen by them with your discretion) or an instructional book chosen by the teacher that is sent home for this purpose. They will also be asked to record their reading into their “Reading Log”. Homework is a great opportunity and a natural connection for you to ask your child questions about what they are learning. Homework time should never be an overwhelming time for your child. Please let us know if you ever have any questions about our routine for homework or your child’s response to it. Sincerely, Angela and Brigid A few other details...After choosing questions for interviewing another second grader, children were paired up and interviewed each other. They focused their attention on listening to the speaker and gathering the important details. They will then write their notes into complete sentences and finally turn that into a paragraph. Stay tuned for more progress with this activity.
* Mrs. Gaudet visited our second grade class to talk to the children about being a great buddy to visiting students. Community *Each second grader received a cube to decorate and to share with others during a class meeting. Each cube includes important facts about each student, as well a special object to put inside the box representing a part of his or her life. This share gives second graders the opportunity to practice publicly speaking in front of a small group. Each student is asked to make sure he or she enunciates each word, speaks clearly, and includes details and important information. As an audience, students practice listening to the speaker and asking thoughtful and connected questions to the speaker’s share. Most importantly, we are able to learn a little more about each other during these first few weeks of school building our classroom community. Please enjoy and have children bring them back to class when they are finished. Please be sure the boxes are in by Oct. 20th. Math *Count on by 1s, 10s, and 100s for three digit numbers. For example, children would recognize a pattern in 356, 366, ---?---, 386 --?--, ---?---. For the example above, children would need to continue the pattern adding to the tens. As you see at one point, there is a need to regroup to the hundreds. We worked this out using the base ten blocks. Then children practiced in their workbooks. *Place Value Using base ten blocks and place value chart to read, write, and represent numbers to 1,000. *Read and write numbers to 1,000 in standard form - 1, 000 expanded form: one thousand Expanded form: 1,000 is 1000 + 0 + 0 354 is 300 + 50 + 4 *Comparing Numbers: Vocabulary - greater than (>) AND less than (<). Children practiced identifying greater than and less than - first comparing the hundreds place, then the tens, and finally the ones place if necessary. 675 is ------than 678. Children also practiced reading: 345 >321 ( 345 is greater than 321). Language Arts
*Introduced LAM (language arts menu) : This is a variety of Language Arts activities that children can rotate through. Some choices on LAM include Lexia, Author's Choice, Writing a personal experience in writer's notebook, Read independently, buddy reading *Children labeled and learned about their WRITING PROCESS FOLDER as well as their READING FOLDER - perhaps ask your child to explain what they use their WRITING PROCESS FOLDER for. *Graphic Organizer - for sorting and putting ideas and events in a story in sequential order using transition words such as first, next, then, finally - After a lesson on this, children were given time to plan their own story either fiction or nonfiction. *Handwriting practice |