Upcoming Dates:
Oct. 2 - Walk to School Day
Oct. 17 - Field Trip - All Seasons Apple Orchard - permission slips went home already
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 continue to work on their strategies for figuring out tricky words. We will work on finding vowel teams in the middle of words. We will also be spending a lot of time on how to use "meaning" to figure out tricky words and self-monitor.
Writing: We will continue our first writing unit called, "Lessons from the Masters: Improving Narrative Writing". This week we will be trying out some "craft moves" that we have found in our mentor texts. One of those moves is to write clues that add drama to our stories. We will also be working on revision/editing.
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 continue 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 continue to work on comparing length units. We will learn to use a tape diagram to compare. We will also work on solving two-step word problems around measurement. I am hoping to end the week with an end-of-module assessment. We will then move on to place value in our next module.
Social Studies: We have started to focus on 5 traits for "joyful independent growth". This ties in nicely with what we have already learned about growth mindset. The first trait that we will be discussing is "Empathy". We will also continue to learn about how to "Talk it Out". This week we learned about how to use "I-messages" when trying to work out problems with peers.