Upcoming Dates:
Oct. 2 - Walk to School Day
Oct. 17 - Field Trip - All Seasons Apple Orchard - information and permission slips to come
Oct. 17 - Family Math Night
Oct. 18 - Fun Run - grade level times TBD
Oct. 21-25 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Early Dismissal on Thursday and Friday (11:00)
Reading: This week we will continue our first unit: "Second-Grade Reading Growth Spurt". This week the children will work on their strategies for figuring out tricky words, which includes thinking about meaning. We will also teach children to focus on the beginnings and endings of words; as well as vowel teams.
Writing: We will continue our first writing unit called, "Lessons from the Masters: Improving Narrative Writing". This week we will look at our writing and set some individual goals. We will also work on revision. Finally, we will study mentor texts and think about what "craft moves" we would like to try in our own writing.
Spelling: This year we will be using a program called: "Words Their Way". We will also use another program called: "Phonics Units of Study". We will continue to have individualized word lists. Students will bring their word sorts home on Monday and will be tested on 10 randomly selected words from their sort on Friday. Please spend time working on the spelling PATTERNS from their sorts at home. The goal is not to memorize the words, but to learn the letter patterns.
Math: We will begin our second module this week. This module is called: "Addition and Subtraction of Length Units". This unit covers measurement using centimeters and meters. We will begin using non-standard units like cubes and paperclips and then move into using rulers with cm and m. This week we will measure several objects using centimeter rulers and meter sticks. We will then learn how to compare lengths. Finally, we will learn to relate measurement to unit size (big paper clips vs. small paper clips).
Social Studies: We will continue to work on classroom community building activities. We will also be learning about how to "Talk it Out" with our classmates when we have conflicts. This past week we learned about different ways to handle "conflict". Our class agreed that taking it out was the best option in most cases.