Upcoming Dates:
May 10: MAP Reading Assessment
May 11: MAP Math Assessment
May 19: Field Trip to Chicago Children's Theater
May 30: Memorial Day - No School
June 2: 2nd Grade Picnic - Rehm Park - 11:30-2:00 (Families welcome!)
June 7: Last Day of School
*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Writing: We will be continuing our writing unit: "Poetry: Big Thoughts in Small Packages". This unit is all about writing poetry and focusing on line breaks, rhythm, and meaningful phrases. Making sure our words rhyme is completely optional (poetry is so much more than that!).This week we will begin by working on editing some of the poems we have already written. Then we will learn to think carefully about our word choice and try to pick the most precise words for our poems. Finally, we will learn that writers of poems often use repeated lines to help give their poems a rhythm and to emphasize meaning.
Reading: We will continue with our reading unit: "Series Book Clubs". In this unit, students will work together in small groups to read books in a series. The students will be assigned books at their appropriate reading levels. They will work on comprehension strategies together with their groups. This week we will that readers notice when an author uses literary language and they try to figure out what the author REALLY means. We will also work on noticing patterns in our series books and using those patterns to figure out how other books in the series might go. Finally, the kids will take their Reading MAP Assessment on Tuesday, 5/10.
Math: We will continue our work with Module 8: "Time, Shapes, and Fractions". We will continue to work on halves, fourths, and thirds. We will also learn to partition circles and rectangles into halves, thirds, and fourths to make equal parts. In addition to halves, thirds, and fourths; we will learn about the "whole" and how many equal parts it takes to make a whole. The students will understand that equal parts of an identical rectangle can have different shapes.
Social Studies/Science: We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long. This week we will continue our science unit: "Plants and Insects". We will study the life cycle of mealworms as well as plants. Each student will have their own worm and seed to study and plant in class! This week we will be continue studying the life cycles of a plant and mealworm. We will make observations and record what we notice in our journals. We have also learned the last two states on our US maps: Alaska and Hawaii! Yay! We will have a quiz on all 50 states on Friday, May 20th.