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Our Second Grade Classroom
Children's Interviews and Illustrations are Hanging Outside of our Classroom Spelling: This week we worked with the doubling rule. Children learned that when a word ends in a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) the final consonant is doubled before adding ing or ed. We also practiced sight words by using the Trace, Copy, Cover, (look) Away technique. You will see this in the children's Friday Files that went home. We practiced the technique and discussed using it for personal word lists that children are working on. Language Arts: * We discussed the six traits of writing: ideas, organization, voice, sentence fluency, word choice, and conventions. We focused on IDEAs in writing and brainstormed some topics to write about. Ideas included: animals, family, friends, hobbies, school, home, experiences, travel , sports and many more. Children then chose a topic to write about used a web graphic organizer to fill in their main topic and sentence surrounded with several supporting details. They then used this graphic organizer to formulate sentences with the details and finally to write a first draft paragraph. Children then edited their work. Next week, we will continue with conferencing and editing in order to complete the process with a final draft. Other things we've been up to...practice with editing and writing conventions; read aloud The World According to Humphrey children made predictions and connections to the text. Parent - Teacher Conferences: Children have been preparing to lead their P-T conferences. As a reminder, there are no classes on Thursday due to conferences. Also, there is no class on Friday due to a professional development day. Math: Subtraction with Regrouping: 845 - 567 _____________ This week children completed their assessment on our last chapter adding 3 digit numbers with and without regrouping. Assessments went home in Friday Files. Some children are working on counting up from the larger number when adding numbers. Practicing addition facts at home is extremely helpful and beneficial to students. The goal is for them to know their addition and subtraction facts up to 20 comfortably. This will help them to be more successful with new concepts and skills that we are working on. We began our next chapter in math subtraction with regrouping. We began with regrouping in the 1s and will continue next with with regrouping in the 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. A subtraction problem like the one above can be challenging and confusing since you can't take 7 away from 5. Children are working on remembering 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 On Friday, we learned the snowball greeting. Lots of smiles and friendly greetings. We also enjoyed the last of our "All About Me" Cube Shares.
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Language Arts: * Children finished writing their final draft paragraphs about their interview buddy in 2nd grade. They also illustrated a picture of each other. Their work will be posted outside of our classroom next week. * 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. Comprehension Strategies in Reading: We practiced and discussed reading strategies: Children practiced making a connection to the text and wrote and illustrated that connection after hearing The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney read aloud. Spelling: Practice * the the schwa sound in es as in buses *contractions *long spelling (tch, ck, dge) right after short vowel as in tch for batch, back, and judge. Children took an assessment on Friday. Continued work in grammar through the use of Daily Oral Language. As a group we edit sentences for punctuation, capital letters, subject-verb agreement, showing possession using an apostrophe Parent - Teacher Conferences Children have begun preparing for their P-T conferences by learning how to organize and collect work in their portfolio as well as reflecting on their work and learning. Children have reflected on work and found some pieces to share that they feel proud of. Math: Addition of 3 digit numbers with regrouping Addition of 3 digit numbers with regrouping in the ones and tens. We broke down problems into ones, tens, and hundreds adding them in this fashion as well. For example, we practice with examples like 358 +234 =? 8 ones + 4 ones = 12 ones = 1 ten and 2 ones 5 tens + 3 tens = ? tens 3 hundreds +2 hundreds = ? so, 358 + 234 = ? Children have worked on setting up 3 digit and 2 digit math addition problems correctly, being sure that numbers are in the correct place. Children have been practicing strategies for addition such as putting the greater number in their head and counting up the next number. Practicing math facts at home for immediacy is a great activity to strengthen these skills. We discussed the importance of starting the addition in the ones place and always doing neat and careful work when working in math in order to avoid careless errors. Children have also been working on reading, understanding, and solving addition word problems with regrouping. Get Ready for Halloween!
Dear Parents, I wanted to send a reminder about the details for our Halloween festivities here at Friends. Halloween is being celebrated in our school on Wednesday, October 31st. Children are welcome to wear their costumes to school. Clothes should be worn underneath their costume or packed in a bag to change into after the school parade. The Halloween Parade will begin at 8:15 as our second grade class joins kindergarten and 1st grade and we make our way through the school collecting the other grades for the parade into the Commons. Parents are welcome to remain in the Commons to watch. After the parade, parents may come to our classroom for class pictures and to help children change out of their costumes. We will then prepare for our classroom celebration which will take place from 9:00 to 10:00. The room parents will be sending information out about supplies and food items for this event. We ask that families refrain from sending in candy. After our celebration, our day will resume with our regular classroom activities. Costume Reminders: No Weapons of any type No Masks that make it difficult to walk safely No scary costumes If you have any questions, please contact me. Have Fun! Angela The Book Fair begins next week on Tuesday. Book Fair Information:
This Week... FA HELPERS INTERVIEW *Children have conducted interviews with their FA Helper. They were prepared for interviews with a list of questions. After their interview children toured their FA Helper's workspace. Next week, children will work on turning the information and notes into a complete sentence with the strategy of using part of the question to create the sentence. Some questions included: What is the title of your job? Where is your work space? Do you work with children or adults or both? What are your responsibilities? Perhaps you could find out what questions your child asked. SPELLING: * In spelling, children worked on the long e sound that y makes at the end of a polysyllabic word - as in happy or empty. You may want to ask your child what Polysyllabic means... We also discussed that y usually makes the long i sound at the end of a one syllable word as in my. READING: *Children have been working on finding "good fit" books for independent reading time as well as responsibly logging the books that they read in class. In shared reading, we've been practicing and discussing good comprehension strategies such as: making connections to the text, visualizing, predicting, and questioning. As a whole group, we practiced "turning to a partner" to share ideas, connections, and questions that we had about a read aloud. This week week we continued to read The World According to Humphrey by Betty Girney. We also read The Incredible Painting of Felix CLousseau by Jon Agee, and McDuff Moves In by Rosemary Wells. MATH: *In math we finished up our chapter and children had an assessment on Subtraction with and without regrouping. *Chapter 4 - Bar Modeling. Children are learning about Part + Part = Whole and Whole - Part + Part using bar modeling to work out word problems. We will continue working on this into next week. Children also saw the In-School performance of the 5th and 6th grade play "Dear Edwina." Below are photos of students with their Friends Academy Helper. Enjoy! Language Arts: * Children continued the writing process for their second grade partner interview. This week, the children turned their complete sentences into a first draft paragraph with an opening and closing sentence. After conferencing and discussing edits, children used their first draft edits to begin writing their final draft. Next week, children will continue finishing up 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. Comprehension Strategies in Reading: We practiced and discussed reading strategies: Visualizing, predicting, questioning/wondering, text-to-text connections, and text-to-self connections. Children practiced with Visualizing, Predicting, and Wondering: as they listened to our new read aloud, The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney. The story is about a classroom pet hamster named Humphrey. Children drew a picture of what they visualized during the read aloud. We made predictions and shared questions that we had throughout the story. Spelling: Practice with the three sounds of ed at the end of a word as in spelled - /d/ lasted - /id/ baked - /t/ We also worked with compound words - combining and breaking apart compound words to notice the two smaller words in them. Continued work in grammar through the use of Daily Oral Language. As a group we edit sentences for punctuation, capital letters, subject-verb agreement, etc. Idioms: We read All My Parts by Ted Arnold as an introduction to idioms. Other books on this subject include Even More Parts by Ted Arnold and The Cat's Pajamas by Wallace Edwards We discussed several idioms and their meaning such as "on top of the world" "let the cat out of the bag" "crack me up" Children practiced matching idioms to complete unfinished sentences. We will continue practicing with idioms and reading more Parent - Teacher Conferences Children have begun preparing for their P-T conferences by learning how to organize and collect work in their portfolio as well as reflecting on their work and learning.. Math: Addition of 3 digit numbers without regrouping Addition of 3 digit numbers with regrouping in the ones and tens. We broke down problems into ones, tens, and hundreds adding them in this fashion as well. For example, we practice with examples like 356 +234 =? 6 ones + 4 ones = ? ones 5 tens + 3 tens = ? tens 3 hundreds +2 hundreds = ? so, 356 + 234 = ? Children have worked on setting up 3 digit and 2 digit math addition problems correctly, being sure that numbers are in the correct place. We discussed the importance of neat and careful work when working in math in order to avoid careless errors. Children have also been working on reading, understanding, and solving addition word problems with and without regrouping. We also continued our "All About Me" cube sharing. Great job, Second Graders!
Here is what we've been up to... Language Arts: Spelling: * We practiced the sounds s makes when added to a base word as in * Boys - the s /z/ cats - the s /s/ * Discussed plural and singular words * Discussed the schwa sound in words like buses and boxes *Introduced LAM (Language Arts Menu) : This is a variety of Language Arts activities that children can rotate through. It is their choice with the goal of rotating through 3 different activities before repeating a selection. Some choices on LAM include Lexia, Author's Choice, Writing a personal experience in writer's notebook, read independently, and buddy reading. *Children labeled and learned about their WRITING PROCESS FOLDER as well as their READING FOLDER - perhaps you could ask your child to explain how they use their WRITING PROCESS FOLDER. *Handwriting practice - frog jump Capital Letters - see the home connection folder as your letter reference. *Daily Oral Language - review and practice with writing conventions: Children edit sentences for punctuation, capital letters, pronouns, proper nouns. We have spent time listening for the lift at the end of a question in order to recognize that it needs a question mark. 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). Community
*As you know 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 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. We will continue the "All About Me" shares next week. *Buddy interviews. Children were partnered up for an interview. We discussed the roles when conducting an interview. Children planned by choosing questions, writing out questions ahead of time, interviewing partners, and writing answers. We will continue the process of using part of the question to turn the answers into complete sentences. Children will then turn the information into a complete paragraph with a topic and closing sentence. They will follow the process with a first draft, editing, and final draft. For example the children might have their questions and answers written: In our lesson about turning answers into a sentence, we discussed using part of the question and considering that the audience for the paragraph about a buddy isn't the interviewee anymore so it is no longer a question. Below is an example of what we practiced in class. Ex: What is your favorite sport? Answer: soccer Turned into a complete sentence: Sarah's favorite sport is soccer. Below are photos of "All About Me" Shares, interviews, and our Shoe Greeting. Enjoy! |