Tuesday, November 10, 2015

A new week means a new job

In second grade each week your student has a new responsibility in the classroom. Ask your child what their job is this week. 
Here is a picture of one of our friends leading calendar for us. 


Monday, November 9, 2015

Homework

Homework went home this afternoon as well as a new reading log. 
Our focus this week is with nouns: what are they, why are they important, and what are three kinds of nouns we work with? Currently, our focus is on common nouns and proper nouns. 

Thank you so much for the support you give your second grader with homework. I know that reading logs can feel tedious much of the time. However, they are not only a reminder for most of our children to practice their reading a little each night, but also a piece to practicing responsibility. 

With that being said, if there are ever any struggles with weekly reading logs, please just send me a note. Homework responsibilities should never feel stressful and/or cause any frustration. Just let me know. 

Below is a snapshot from today's shared writing experience. We have begun our first fantasy story. Our classroom is filled with VERY creative second graders. This was a lot of fun and brought many giggles too. Ask your child about Planet Zot. The only planet made of stale burger so we are able to walk on it. Oh I almost forgot the Saturn like ring around it made of Cheerios. 

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Community is important.

Each and every day we are turning to one another for support, participation, and guidance. It takes each and every one of us to be successful. 

In writing, we have spent time modeling and practicing peer editing using our latest writing piece-writing about a fun time outdoors. It has been great seeing and hearing your second graders provide support, suggestions, and positive feedback to one another throughout the writing process 





SPELLING
Each week your second grader is introduced to a new set of words that become their spelling words. This is when they do the most of their word detective work. Each new group of words comes with a specific rule to assist them with the spelling of various words. We are continuously practicing to carry over these various rules to spelling in our everyday writing. 

MATH



We have just completed Unit 2 in math. We focused on making rectangles, building rectangular arrays, using specific vocabulary to describe various shapes, and the beginning steps to finding the area of a rectangle. 
Ask your child how many represents: 
UNI, BI, TRI, QUAD, PENTA, AND HEXA 

One more challenge-Can you define a rectangle? How about a quadrilateral? Talk to your second grader about this and see if you're right. 

READING
We are practicing our fluency and comprehension each day. Through reading in small groups, with a buddy, and to our self at times, we are practicing to read for meaning. Our focus currently has been on the five W's as we get ready to move into summarizing. We're also having fun "getting to know" characters as we read. 

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! We have been so lucky to have such beautiful November weather.