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. 

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. 

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. 

Yippee for Pajama Day!!

It was a perfect pajama day. 

Snapshot of our week

Here is a snapshot of our week! Exploring with math games. We spent time reviewing money, doubles facts, and making ten with different addenda, along with drawing rectangular arrays. 

We've also had fun exploring shapes in our geometry unit. Ask your child what makes a rectangle. What is a quadrilateral? We even imagined our rectangles were chocolate bars and chose which one we'd want by measuring it's area. 

We are doing an amazing job working through the writing process. We are getting very good at revising and checking our spelling using our Quick Word. Our Authors' Share Chair has also become quite popular. We are becoming quite the presenters! 

PAJAMA DAY!!

We are so excited we completed our Mr. Potato head again. 

The reward is wear your pajamas to school. 

Tomorrow, Friday the 30th your second grader can wear his/her pajamas to school. 

It'll be a fun (and adorable) day! 

We've got rare insects in our classroom

What a tremendous day today! 

As we study insects, we've been blessed to have two guest speakers come to us. Both did an outstanding job challenging us with new information as well as exposing us to new insects that otherwise, we'd probably never get to meet. (Might be a good thing) 

Here are some snapshots of our time with insects. Pure engagement! 

Thank you Mr. Gavin. 

Tasting different kinds of honey. 

Reading poetry about bees! 

Yikes! 

And now switching gears from bees to cockroaches and walking stick bugs. Oh my goodness...what a wacky Wednesday. 

One of the tools used to catch particular insects. 

WOW! 

We learned that if this insect becomes afraid, he lets off a strong smell of rubber. 

Woah! That walking stick is like nothing I've seen before! 

Super cool! 

Curious Maine insects 

A great, great day! 

Fun facts: 

Did you know that a butterfly has two knob like things at the top of its feelers? 

The feelers of a moth actually look like feathers. 

Have you ever thought of an insect having brains? 

Their brain is really just a bunch of nerves in one spot. 

Finally, mosquitos certainly can annoy us but the reason is that they are attracted to carbon dioxide. We happen to breathe out carbon dioxide so they're naturally attracted to us, unfortunately.