Mrs. Pelling's Second Grade Blog: September 2022

Week of: October 3rd

Upcoming Dates:

Oct. 3-7 - Hispanic Heritage Week - We will do activities to celebrate each day this week!

Oct. 4 - "Walk to School Day" - Walk to school and earn a paper shoe to color and hang in the gym. If you aren't able to walk to school, then you can earn your shoe by walking with Mr. Hancock at recess.

Oct. 5 - District Closed - No School

Oct. 10 - Indigenous Peoples' Day - No School

Oct. 14 - Fun Run - Our time slot is 9:00-9:15.
Oct. 24-28 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Early Dismissal on Thursday and Friday (11:00)

Nov. 8 - No School - Election Day

Nov. 23-25 - Thanksgiving Break - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.

Reading: This week we will finish up 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 once readers have finished reading a book and know how the parts fit together, they can retell it to think about what lessons the author wants to teach.

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 use mentor texts as resources and learn to ask ourselves: "Could I write like this?". We will also learn to try out some of the craft moves that we have found in our mentor texts.

Math: We will complete 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 solve addition and subtraction word problems using the ruler as a number line. We will also work on using measurement to solve two-step word problems.

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 focus on another one of the 5 habits to help with having a growth mindset and those are: Empathy, Flexibility, Persistence, Resilience, and Optimism.

Week of: September 27

Upcoming Dates:

Sept. 26 - District Closed - No School

Oct. 5 - District Closed - No School

Oct. 10 - Indigenous Peoples' Day - No School

Oct. 14 - Fun Run - Our time slot is 9:00-9:15.
Oct. 24-28 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Early Dismissal on Thursday and Friday (11:00)

Nov. 8 - No School - Election Day

Nov. 23-25 - Thanksgiving Break - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.

Reading: This week we will continue 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 some strategies to help us fix our mistakes as we read. The kids will also learn about author's craft and how to notice what authors do and why they are doing it. Finally, we will notice how an entire story goes together: from beginning to end!

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 do the very important job of goal setting! We will also learn to revise as we go and to keep our audience in our minds.

Math: We will 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 measure and compare lengths using standard metric length units and non-standard units (paper clips). We will relate measurement to unit size. We will also solve addition and subtraction word problems using a ruler and a number line.

Week of: September 19th

Upcoming Dates:

Sept. 20 - Picture Day

Sept. 26 - District Closed - No School

Oct. 5 - District Closed - No School

Oct. 10 - Indigenous Peoples' Day - No School

Oct. 14 - Fun Run - Our time slot is 9:00-9:15.
Oct. 24-28 - 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 continue 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 to use multiple strategies at the same time when tackling tricky words. We will also work on identifying vowel teams in the middle of words. Finally, we will learn that new words can be very tricky and it helps to think about what the word means in the story.

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 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: We will 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 measure lengths using rulers and meter sticks. We will also learn to compare lengths using centimeters and meters.

Week of: September 12th

Upcoming Dates:

Sept. 20 or 21 - Picture Day (I don't know what day will be for 2nd grade yet.)

Sept. 26 - District Closed - No School

Oct. 5 - District Closed - No School

Oct. 10 - Indigenous Peoples' Day - No School
Oct. 24-28 - 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 continue 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 look for words that you already know in order to scoop up more words at a time. We will work on comprehension and retelling our stories. The kids will start to take notes on post-its while reading and they will also work on using strategies to tackle challenging 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 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 finish 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. Our main focus will really be to work on routines. This week we will work on more subtraction strategies such as taking from 10 within 20 and 100. We will also start our new math module that is all about measurement with the metric system.

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 focus on another one of the 5 habits to help with having a growth mindset and those are: Empathy, Flexibility, Persistence, Resilience, and Optimism.

Week of: September 6th

Upcoming Dates:

Sept. 5 - Labor Day - No School

Sept. 7 - AIMS Reading Assessment (similar to MAP)

Sept. 8 - AIMS Math Assessment (similar to MAP)

Sept. 20 or 21 - Picture Day (I don't know what day will be for 2nd grade yet.)

Sept. 26 - District Closed - No School

Oct. 5 - District Closed - No School

Oct. 10 - Indigenous Peoples' Day - No School
Oct. 24-28 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Early Dismissal on Thursday and Friday (11:00)

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. Our main focus will really be to work on routines. This week we will add and subtract like units, make 10 to add numbers up to 20, and make 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 focus on another 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!