February 9, 2018

Dear Families,

Here are some updates from our week!

Important dates:
February 14: Valentine's Day, Don't forget your boxes and Valentines! Ice Cream Party in the afternoon!
February 15: 100th day of school! Yahoo! 100 Days smarter! 100 Pancake Celebration!

February 19-20: Midwinter recess/ no school

February 27: Science Fair 6:00-8:00

Science Fair Ideas:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/list

Reading:  This week we continued with our book clubs.  We practiced accountable talk during our discussions as well as how to organize  thoughts while reading using a thinking routine.  We will continue our book clubs next week with new books. 

                                                     Our Book Tasting!

A book from one of our book clubs: 

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch  

Math:  We took our Unit 5 math test.  Please look for the cover sheet for the test so you know how your child did on the test.  Attached are the homelinks and IXL skills for unit 6.   Please use them as you see fit.  We are also sending the at home review for you now. PLEASE KEEP THIS IN A SAFE PLACE. The review will help your child practice the skills that we'll focus on this unit.  You should have your child review with this packet during the unit and before the test.  We tell the kids a great way to practice for the test is to:

1) Take the pretest by yourself at home

2) Have mom/dad look over your pretest and see what you still need to practice

3) Use a slate/marker to have mom/dad make up similar problems on the slate until you are secure with the skill.Please do not return the completed at home review. This is for you to keep at home to practice throughout the unit.

IXL SKills for Unit 6

E.12, E. 18, E.20, G.9, G.14-- Addition Word Problems 

F.10, H.9, J.5-- Subtraction Word Problems 

Section M--Place Value

Section R--picture and bar graphs only 

Writing: We continued with our Realistic fiction writing unit!  We worked on internal and external character traits of our main character, story elements, and leads. We practiced writing many different kinds of leads so that we can pull our readers in!  Be sure to ask your child what they are planning on writing about!

Science: We began our Measuring Matters unit.  We started with our entry event with our essential question which was, "How, can we as scientists, build a ramp that will make our sled travel the farthest?".  This STEM/STEAM activity allowed students to practice their teamwork, problem solving and measuring skills while having fun building a ramp. We still haven't finished our ramps because we're trying to figure out what will make our sleds travel far. Is it the slant of the ramp? Is it the weight of the sled? Is it the friction of the sled causing a slow down? We'll continue to test as we watch luge and skiing videos from the Olympics! We also had frog jumping contests and measured how far our frogs jumped using inches and centimeters. We will continue our measuring unit next week, introducing area and perimeter!

                                                        Our Amaryllis Plants
                                   How tall will they grow? Which one will grow the tallest?

Olympic Day tomorrow! Be prepared to Go for the Gold! 

Have a great weekend!

The Second Grade Teachers

February 2, 2018

Dear Families,
Thank you to all that participated in our Multicultural Night. The kids worked really hard on their pamphlets and I'm really proud of their effort. I think they had fun greeting the visitors and they all looked amazing!

Important dates:

February 2: Report cards ready to view
February 14: Valentine's Day
February 19-20: Midwinter recess/ no school

February 27: Science Fair 6:00-8:00

Reading:  Last week we started learning about book clubs and how to talk about books with our groups. Students chose books at our "Book Tasting" and met with groups on Thursday.  Students learned about accountable talk, as well as how to organize their thoughts while they read.  Next week we will continue reading and discussing in our book clubs.

                                                       Tasting books for our book clubs!

                                         After studying land forms, we made them out of Playdoh!

Word Work: We're really excited about our Wordly Wise Vocabulary Books! Most students completed Lesson 2 last week and will continue to work at their own pace. For some, this vocabulary book is very challenging. Check out this website for games and extra practice:

WordlyWise3000.com

Be sure to go to the free activities at the bottom of the page and go to "student page."

Math:  UNIT 5 MATH TEST IS TUESDAY!  Please continue to practice recognizing coins, counting change and counting back change from a dollar.  We want to emphasize again that this is a difficult skill and it would be very beneficial to practice at home. Also, you can go over the unit 5 review that was sent home at the beginning of the unit and IXL skills.

As expectations rise in second grade math, automatically knowing addition and subtraction facts becomes more important. Please continue to practice math facts so that as we begin to learn about double digit addition and subtraction, it is not too difficult.  This site has worksheets that could be used for practice. Math Practice at home:

https://www.math-drills.com/addition/add01srg_001.php

https://www.mathfactcafe.com/grade/2/

Writing: This week we finished up our personal narratives and had a little time to blog! Please remember to encourage blogging at home.  Next week we'll begin our realistic fiction writing!

Science: We had a fun week in Science this week!  We finished up our Landform unit by building land forms out of playdoh and playing a land form trivia game. We also did a fun experiment to learn about weathering and erosion using cookies!  Ask your child all about it!  Next week we'll start our Measuring Matters Science unit.

Behavior and Expectations: As the first semester comes to a close, we are raising our expectations for behavior and academics. Please encourage your child to come to school ready to learn and ready to lead!  

Have a great weekend!

The Second Grade Teachers