Schedule Changes

Hello Second Grade Parents!

Due to the Snow Day, our schedule for the rest of the week will look like this:

Thursday, December 20:  K-2 Polar Express Day  

                                      * Don't forget to wear your pajamas!*

                              ** Parent Volunteers -- if you cannot volunteer on Thursday, we understand.  Please email Mrs. Wright at p.curry-wright@cdsedu.org to let her know.  All others, please meet in Mrs. Wright's classroom first thing Thursday morning.

Friday, December 21:  We will have our Classroom Party (snacks and watching the movie "Polar Express").  Please feel free to donate snacks for the party.  A parent has already offered to donate the juice boxes and paper products.

We have a lot of celebrating to do, in very little time!  We will fit in as much cheer as we can!

Unit Updates

Busy, busy, busy as always!  Here are some highlights of what we have done and what we are doing:
 
Math:  Students continue to work on their thinking skills as they find strategies to attack story problems.  When working on a problem, students need to ask themselves the following questions:

* What is happening in the story?

* What do I already know?

* What do I need to find out?

* What strategy can I use to solve the problem?

 
Students are also focusing on organizing their work and keeping track of their data in a way that makes sense.  When working with your child at home, you can help by prompting them with the above questions.  Let your child find a way that makes sense to them to solve the problem, instead of showing them how.  I would much rather see an attempt at a strategy than see a correct answer with a strategy that they can't explain!

While story problems pop up continuously in our math work, we will also learn more about collecting, plotting, and analyzing data this month.

Reading:  We ended a theme called "Nature Walk", and genre focus on Fables.  Through reading various fables, students learned that a moral is a lesson that is learned in a fable.  Because reading and writing go together, we will end up writing our own fables.  It will be interesting to see what kinds of lessons we can learn from our students!

We will take some time to work on an end of theme skills test that assesses concepts taught during the last five weeks.  Data from the last skills test led Mrs. Lent and I to form an RTI goal around making predictions and making inferences.  Students have successfully become more knowledgeable around these concepts over the last couple of weeks.

(*A quick reminder: RTI stands for Response to Intervention.  Goals in reading or math are set, according to data collected through assessments.  Groups are formed according to need, and re-teaching, extra practice, or enrichment take place.  After two weeks, students who need to are re-assessed.  A positive gain almost always takes place for 100% of those involved.)

In reading, we also are working on comparing, classifying, fact and opinion, consonant clusters (gl, br), double consonants (bubble, across), questioning (questions that cannot be answered in the text), evaluating (How well did the author explain...?), and monitoring (Does it make sense? Maybe I need to read it again.).

Writing:  Students have worked hard applying ways to write with voice!  As a culminating activity, students were asked to choose a strong feeling: love or can't stand, and apply it to a topic.  Look for these papers coming home soon! 

Through the rest of December, we will have mini-lessons on adding detail (a concept revisited later in the year), as well as work on writing fables, as mentioned above.

Science:  We finished our unit on magnets after several engaging experiments.  To begin our unit, we wrote a list of everything that we thought we knew about magnets.  Then, through reading nonfiction and experimenting with materials, we affirmed, revised, or edited our thoughts.  Below are some photos of our fun - I mean, learning:

Look close -- is that book ring floating?

How many paper clips can this magnet hold?

Listing facts from nonfiction texts.

Learning about magnetic fields.

Magnetic, or not?

Social Studies:  We have just begun a unit on Wants/Needs and Goods/Services.  Aside from learning the definitions for those vocabulary words, we will also learn about consumers (those who buy a good or service) and producers (those who provide a good or service).  Through leveled nonfiction texts and role play activities, students will understand how people in a community are connected through the goods and services provided and received.  Students will also understand how an income is earned by providing a good or service, and used as trade for consuming a good or service.

And one more thing to notice...when you come to school for our upcoming Winter Concert, please be sure to check out our bulletin board in the hall.  Our students are offering gifts from the heart  -- to the world!  Things like shelter, friendship, and a clean earth are packaged up for our world to receive!