The weather has gotten cold in a short amount of time.  Please make sure that your child is dressed for the weather as they will be going outside daily for recess.

Word Study:

This week in your child reviewed how to decode and write words with double consonants by playing a game called “Follow the Path”.  We also took a closer look at the sounds that middle consonant make in words.  Our second graders ended the week by sorting and writing words with the –obe, -oke, -ope, and –ore word patterns.

Reader’s Workshop:

Our readers continued learning about the different types of dialogue.  They learned that “no-said dialogue” is when the author doesn’t come right out and tell the reader who is talking.  Instead, the reader can look at the pattern of the dialogue to find out who is talking.  In “continuation dialogue”, the character starts talking and the author tells you who is talking smack dab in the middle of the dialogue and then the dialogue continues on.  Our second graders had to find examples of these two types of dialogue in their “just right” books and share them with the rest of the class.  Ask your reader what type of dialogue is the hardest to find:  simple, no-said, or continuation.

Writer’s Workshop:

Our Summary unit continued this week.  We read Lost in the Forest together and we wrote a good written retelling with the class.  Then we read Little Dinosaur Escapes and were given a summary that was already written.  Our writers had to edit and revise the summary in order to make it better.  By now, your child should know that good summaries include at least two important events in each section and have juicy vocabulary, setting and main characters from the story. 

Math Workshop:

Our mathematicians started the week out by taking our assessment for Unit 4.  They also tried out a new type of assessment called an open response.  This is where your child not only has to solve a math problem, but they need to explain their mathematical thinking in written form.  This is VERY difficult for most students.  I tried to encourage them to write down what their “BRAIN” was telling them to do in order to solve the problem.  We will be reviewing the answer to this open response and your child will be learning how to properly tackle this new type of math problem.  We also started our Geometry Unit.  Students were introduced to points and line segments.  They now know how to use a straight edge to follow codes that connect the line segments to form shapes.  They also know about parallel line segments and polygons. Our second graders ended the week by exploring with the concepts of: geometry, division, clocks, money and time in our math workstations.

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies we began our Celebrations Unit by learning first about the Mexican Christmas, Los Posadas. This holiday uses the poinsettia as a symbol of Christmas. We read a legend by Tomie dePaola that helped explain the significance of this red star flower. Next we began our study of Kwanzaa as we prepared to make our Mkekas! These are a traditional placemat that we will do a paper weaving with next week and are symbolically decorated with illustrations of our family members.

Science:

Our botanists looked at garlic bulbs this week.  They found out that there is a group of cloves (seeds) inside of each bulb.  We conducted an experiment to see if we could start a new plant from a garlic clove by using a cup, water and COTTON BALLS!  They will be monitoring their growth and observing the appearance of both roots and shoots! 

Yellow flowers have also sprouted from the buds on our brassica plants.  Our botanists have noticed that the brassica stem is getting longer and twisty, while the leaves are growing bigger and smoother along the edges.  Did you know that a potato has eyes?  That’s what our second graders learned this week.  Mrs. Brown sliced an old potato into sections (with eyes) and planted them to see if we could start a new potato plant.  Ask your child what direction (top, bottom or to the side) the eye of the potato must be facing when you plant it in the soil.

Important Dates/Reminders:

Friday, December 21: Holiday Sing Along (2:30-3:00 PM) Cafeteria

·        Friday, December 21: Classroom Holiday Parties (3:00-3:45 PM)

·        Thursday, January 3:  School Resumes