October is here! Fall is well underway, and hopefully the temperatures will be dropping soon. Your child is also well on their way in second grade. This is already the seventh week of school! Soon the first nine weeks will be over, conferences will be done, and report cards will be going home. This will be a busy month with a lot going on, but for now read over the blog and see what is happening in our class this week!
Reading
We have now gone through all the parts of the Daily 5 reading program. Your child will be practicing this week with working in different stations and staying on task while reading groups are being pulled. We will spend a lot of time on these skills, because the foundation of this program working is being able to meet with groups on their reading level while others are working meaningfully and independently.
We will also work on the comprehension skill of "making connections" as our reading strategy this week. We will focus on how good readers make connections to themselves, other books and the world as they read in order to create meaning.
For grammar we will focus on pronouns and how to use them correctly in our writing.
Writing
Our "Dream Boards" were so much fun to create last week! Please come by and look at our boards and read the stories we wrote about our dreams for our future.
This week we will continue with Lucy Calkins lessons on writing with a focus on organizing our writing, types of writing and sounding out words that we have difficulty spelling. These lessons will set the stage for our writing program for the rest of the year. At the end of this week every child in the class will know what types of writing they can do during writing workshop, what to do if they get stuck on writing a work, and how to organize their writing.
Math
We are still focusing on addition strategies this week. We are learning strategies to make us faster and more efficient problem solvers by giving us several ways to solve a problem. We will learn addition strategies like "making a ten, making 10 to add 9, making 10 to add 8, count on 1, count on 2 and count on 3." These are strategies that your child can apply to a lot of problem and it will help them think about number sense. As we go through the week you can ask your child which strategies they are learning each day, and ask them to show you the strategies they have learned.
Spelling
This week’s words will focus on the short o spelling pattern. Your child's list will come home on Monday, and they will have a spelling test on Friday. Feel free to look up other short 0 words so that you can point out the pattern to your child. Try this fun website to help you study, too! http://www.spellingcity.com/
Science
This week in science we will be talking about physical and chemical changes.
This is a tough concept, and we will be spending time this week doing experiments of chemical and physical changes to demonstrate the two types of changes.
This Friday we will be trying to do several science stations showing these two types of changes. It would be wonderful to have parent volunteers to help manage the stations. There is a sign-up genius list that has been sent out it you want to volunteer.
Reading Logs Due- Your child's September Reading Calendar is due on Monday. It should be be signed and have the minutes tallied at the bottom. The goal is 400 minutes a month. New calendar's will come home Monday night for October.
PTA Membership Drive
There is a classroom contest for PTA membership! The class with the most PTA memberships in each grade will have a chance to win a glow in the dark basketball! PTA membership forms went home this past Tuesday, and there are more located outside the front office. If you have not yet joined and you plan to, just fill out the form and send it back in with your PTA dues.
Box Tops for Education!
This contest is in the last two weeks of its run, and there are prizes to be won! Keep sending in those box tops! If your child sends in 10 Box Tops, then they can get a coupon. Just have them write their name on a baggie or envelope to keep their Box Tops together. We win extra recess for our class if we are the big grade level winners, and there are probably many items in your house that already have box tops on them!
CONFERENCES
Please sign up for a time if you have not, using the password of "GW" on the website http://www.signupgenius.com/go/fall2170. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Reminders and Dates:
Box Tops for Education ends- October 14th
Tuesday Folder Basket- Nithyalakshmi Somasundaram
Principal's Pride- Ellie
Library Day- Wednesday
