Wow have we been busy in 2nd grade! It is hard to
believe we are already two weeks deep in October! What have we been getting to
know the kids and It has been fun to see lots of new friendships form as
everyone settles into their new classrooms and routines. It's hard to believe we are already thinking about Fall and Halloween! Remember, if you are able to sign up to help with our class Halloween party, please click the link below! Our Halloween Party will be on Wednesday, October 31 from 10:45-11:45am. Please remember to send your child to school with their costume, we will put them on later that morning. Also, please remember this is a half day of school for Teacher Professional Development in the afternoon.
Halloween Party Sign-Up:
In Readers’ Workshop we have been digging deeper in our own
reading and in reading with partners. Readers’ Workshop mini-lesson topics have
included and will include this week:
- · Preparing myself to read a new book by reading the title and taking a book walk (preview)
- · Using the “Five Finger Rule” for Just-Right books
- · Using the skill of re-reading to hold tight to the meaning of a story
- · Using the skill of re-reading to stop and re-read when things don’t make sense
- · I can take care of my partnership by using good partner reading skills
- · I can take care of my reading partner
- · I can plan ways to read with my partner
- · I can talk with my partner about our reading
- · My partner and I can solve our own problems
Students have been continuing to use Book Logs once a week
as well to record their findings about their books, paying careful attention to
the author, title, whether the book is fiction or non-fiction, and how to write
good comments about books.
This week our students will be concluding the Reading
component of the iReady Assessment. If your child qualifies for extra support
(called an iRIP) after the assessment is complete, we will be in touch directly
with you. All students will be bringing
home information on their performance on the iReady Reading component later
this week. I will be using feedback from the iReady as well as student reading
tests done with me (DRA) to group students with partners, in guided reading
groups and later this year, book clubs.
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| Sharing reading interviews with our partners. |
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| It was fun to learn about other reader's reading habits! |
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| We learned a lot of great advice about working hard as a reader to accomplish our goals! |
Writers’ Workshop
In Writers’ Workshop we are deep into our poetry unit and
wow, what Poets we have in our classroom! It has been great to hear the
different kinds of poetry our writers are creating and sharing with partners
and the class. Mini-Lesson topics in Writers’ Workshop have included and will
include this week:
- · I can use beautiful language (juicy words) in my poetry
- · I can write a meaning ful poem about myself (using form poetry)
- · I can show not tell in my poetry.
- · I can use repetition in my poetry.
- · I can use alliteration in my poetry.
- · I can use a simile in my poetry.
- · I can write a Halloween poem.
Look for our Halloween poems to be featured in the hallway
soon inside of our Haunted Halloween Houses project!
Math Workshop
Math Unit 1 Tests will be coming home this week. Please make
sure to take time to review this with your child – what they can do, and what
they are still learning how to do. For many, the “Challenge” and the “Open Response”
were tricky and would generate an awesome conversation with your child at home.
We have now begun Unit 2. Mini-Lessons and topics covered in
Math already and coming this week include:
- · Counting by fives and tens
- · Grouping by 10s to count (practiced with Fishing for 10s game)
- · Counting money ($1 dollar, $10 dollars, $100 dollars)
- · Playing The Exchange Game (students practicing trading 10 singles for a $10 bill and then trading in ten $10 bills for a $100 bill)
- · Playing Spinning for Money (students use a spinner to accumulate coin amounts)
- · Creating addition number stories
- · Representing and solving addition number stories
- · Digging deeper with number grid puzzles going beyond 100
- · Exploring strategies for learning doubles facts (calculators, flashcards, double tens frames)
- · The “Making 10 Strategy” for addition
Our mathematicians also completed their iReady Assessment
for math this past week. Information regarding their progress will be coming
home soon with your child!
Social Studies
Second Grade Social studies teaches kids all about their
community – what makes up a community, the geography of our community, the
economics of our community, the past of our community and the government of our
first community. We are currently learning about the three different types of
communities and the features that make them unique. These include: urban (big
city), suburban (us) and rural (living in a small community spread far from a
big community). It has been fun to discuss the pros and cons of each with the
kids and when given the opportunity, to see which community they would pick to
live in if they were an adult.
Word Study
In Word Study we have really been zooming in on short and
long vowels with our students. They should even be able to give you examples of
short and long vowels at home! The rule stands that a long vowel in a word
always says the name of the vowel (i.e. the ‘a’ in name or the ‘e’ in me).
Students have been practicing sorting long vowel and short vowel words,
generating short and long vowel words from word cards, playing a concentration
game to reinforce the concept and helping me to generate a giant list of short
vowel and long vowel words.
We LOVE Books!
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| Celebrating our first free book of the year from the Scholastic Donation Program! A special thank you to Mrs. Weckstein's family and friends for making this possible. Our October book will come home soon. |
