Week of: September 27

 Upcoming Dates:

Oct. 11 - Indigenous Peoples' Day - No School
Oct. 18-22 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Early Dismissal on Thursday and Friday (11:00)

Oct. 26 and 27 - Picture Day (I will let you know what day is for 2nd grade asap.)
Nov. 2 - Institute Day - No School for Students

Nov. 24-26 - Thanksgiving Break - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.

Reading: This week we will continue with the first unit in our reading curriculum, Lucy Calkins Reading Units of Study.  The first unit is called, "Second-Grade Reading Growth Spurt".  This week we will work on word-solving strategies that will help us to solve tricky words when we encounter them in our reading. We will specifically focus on vowel teams and using context clues to figure out these more difficult words. 

Writing: We will also be continuing our first unit in our writing curriculum, Lucy Calkins Writing Units of Study.  The first unit is called, "Lessons from the Masters: Improving Narrative Writing". This is a narrative writing unit where students will writing about small moments from their own lives. We will work on our endings this week and learn to bring our stories to a satisfying conclusion. We will also review punctuation strategies and editing skills. 

Math:  This week we continue with our work in Module 2, "Addition and Subtraction of Length Units".  This is a measurement unit that focuses on centimeters and meters. This week we will learn to compare lengths using centimeters and meters. We will also learn to relate measurements to unit size. Finally, we will work on solving addition and subtraction word problems using the ruler as a number line. 

Social Studies:  Our first unit in social studies will focus on building classroom community and building a growth mindset.  Both of which will help us to have a successful year in second grade! This week we will continue to focus on one of the 5 habits that help with having a growth mindset and those are: Empathy, Flexibility, Persistence, Resilience, and Optimism. We will most likely focus on one or two words per week! This week our focus will be on "Persistence".  We have also started to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we reviewed these states: MN, IA, MO, AR, and LA.  Ask your child to tell you about "Chef MIMAL"!

Week of: September 20

 Upcoming Dates:

Oct. 11 - Indigenous Peoples' Day - No School
Oct. 18-22 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Early Dismissal on Thursday and Friday (11:00)
Nov. 2 - Institute Day - No School for Students

Nov. 24-26 - Thanksgiving Break - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.

Reading: This week we will continue with the first unit in our reading curriculum, Lucy Calkins Reading Units of Study.  The first unit is called, "Second-Grade Reading Growth Spurt".  This week we will learn strategies to help us think about what we are reading and check our comprehension. We will also learn to take notes as we read and to have discussions with partners about our reading.

Writing: We will also be continuing our first unit in our writing curriculum, Lucy Calkins Writing Units of Study.  The first unit is called, "Lessons from the Masters: Improving Narrative Writing". We will learn how to stretch out the story of a tiny moment by using and adding details to our writing.  The kids will learn to zoom in on the small moments in their stories in order to add details that involve the senses!

Math:  This week we will start a new math module, "Addition and Subtraction of Length Units".  This is a measurement unit that focuses on centimeters and meters. This week we will learn about concepts of a ruler as well as estimating lengths using different measurement tools. 

Social Studies:  Our first unit in social studies will focus on building classroom community and building a growth mindset.  Both of which will help us to have a successful year in second grade! This week we will continue to focus on one of the 5 habits that help with having a growth mindset and those are: Empathy, Flexibility, Persistence, Resilience, and Optimism. We will most likely focus on one or two words per week! This week our focus will be on "Flexibility and Persistence".  We have also started to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we learned about these states: MN, IA, MO, AR, and LA.  Ask your child to tell you about "Chef MIMAL"!

Week of: September 13th

 Upcoming Dates:

Sept. 14 - Author/Illustrator School Visit (via Zoom) - Beth Perry/Tom Lichtenheld

Sept. 17 - MAP Math Assessment (A.M.)

Oct. 11 - Indigenous Peoples' Day - No School
Oct. 18-22 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Early Dismissal on Thursday and Friday (11:00)
Nov. 2 - Institute Day - No School for Students

Nov. 24-26 - Thanksgiving Break - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.

Reading: This week we will continue with the first unit in our reading curriculum, Lucy Calkins Reading Units of Study.  The first unit is called, "Second-Grade Reading Growth Spurt". This week we will learn how to preview the book before reading to take a sneak peek. Finally, the kids will learn that second grade is a year where they can really take off as readers. And to do that, volume is key! We have to read lots and lots! We will also learn that readers can read longer phrases by scooping up snap words that they already know.

Writing: We will also be continuing our first unit in our writing curriculum, Lucy Calkins Writing Units of Study.  The first unit is called, "Lessons from the Masters: Improving Narrative Writing". This week we will learn to capture everyday moments in our "Tiny Topics" notebooks and save them as possible story ideas. We will also learn how to stretch out the story of a tiny moment by using and adding details to our writing.

Math:  We will continue with our first math module called: "Sums and Differences to 100".  Much of the first unit (only 8 lessons) will be a review of first grade material.  This week we will subtract single-digit numbers from multiples of 10 within 100. We will also learn the "take from ten" strategy. This will complete out first second grade math module.  I am hoping to start our next module, on measurement, this week as well. 

Social Studies:  Our first unit in social studies will focus on building classroom community and building a growth mindset.  Both of which will help us to have a successful year in second grade! This week we will start to focus on one of the 5 habits to help with having a growth mindset and those are: Empathy, Flexibility, Persistence, Resilience, and Optimism. We will most likely focus on one word per week! This week our focus will be on "Empathy".

Week of: September 7th

 Upcoming Dates:

Sept. 6 - Labor Day - No School

Sept. 14 - Author/Illustrator School Visit (via Zoom) - Beth Perry/Tom Lichtenheld
Oct. 18-22 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Early Dismissal on Thursday and Friday (11:00)

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.

Reading: This week we will officially begin the first unit in our reading curriculum, Lucy Calkins Reading Units of Study.  The first unit is called, "Second-Grade Reading Growth Spurt". This week we will learn that you can choose not only what you read, but HOW you are going to read.  We will also learn how to preview the book before reading to take a sneak peek. Finally, the kids will learn that second grade is a year where they can really take off as readers. And to do that, volume is key! We have to read lots and lots!

Writing: We will also be starting our first unit in our writing curriculum, Lucy Calkins Writing Units of Study.  The first unit is called, "Lessons from the Masters: Improving Narrative Writing". This week we will talk about how you can learn craft moves from mentor authors. We will also learn to capture everyday moments in our "Tiny Topics" notebooks and save them as possible story ideas.

Math:  We will continue with our first math module called: "Sums and Differences to 100".  Much of the first unit (only 8 lessons) will be a review of first grade material.  This week we will add and subtract like units, make 10 to add numbers up to 20, and mand 10 to add numbers up to 100.  We will also learn about subtracting single-digit numbers from multiples of 10 (up to 100).

Social Studies:  Our first unit in social studies will focus on building classroom community and building a growth mindset.  Both of which will help us to have a successful year in second grade! This week we will start to focus on one of the 5 habits to help with having a growth mindset and those are: Empathy, Flexibility, Persistence, Resilience, and Optimism. We will most likely focus on two words per week!