Week of October 30

Dear Parents –

We have an exciting week ahead with many special events to celebrate. 

Our Mini Academies are on Monday.  Many thanks to the parents who volunteered to lead an activity.  This is always a highlight and our children love being able to learn from our parents. 

We also have our Halloween Dress-up Day on Tuesday.  Students are allowed to come to school wearing costumes; however, in order to be sensitive to our diverse beliefs and cultures, we ask you to be mindful of the following guidelines:  No masks, blood, weapons, or scary costumes.  

We will spend part of our day learning more about Halloween as part of our yearlong social studies unit on Celebrations.  We’ll take a look at the purpose and history of Halloween, some common traditions, symbols, colors, and other interesting facts about the holiday. 

We end our week with our Deepavali celebration.  This is a wonderful opportunity for students to learn more about the purpose, traditions, and different aspects of this festival.  Our class will visit the Deepavali activities in the hallway in front of the Studio from 10:00 – 10:20, and will watch a performance in our Studio at 11:00.  Parents are welcome to join us.  We hope to see you there!

Here’s a peek at our week ahead:

Monday, Oct. 30 (Day 2) – Music and PE

Tuesday, Oct. 31 (Day 3) – World Language

Wednesday, Nov. 1 (Day 4) – Art and PE (Swimming)

Thursday, Nov. 2 (Day 5) – Library and World Language

Friday, Nov. 3 (Day 6) – Music and PE

Reader’s Workshop

This week we will continue to work on our fluency while also learning how to read for meaning.  We’ll take a look at the character’s actions and words to help us determine how the character might be feeling at different times throughout the story.  We will also continue practicing reading dialogue and changing our voices to fit the character’s voices and moods. 

Writer’s Workshop

In our Writer’s Workshop we are learning how to write like scientists.  We continue learning how to write different parts of a lab report.  Our focus has been, and will continue to be, how to write the procedures of an experiment.  This week we will also focus on how to write about the results of the experiment and write the conclusion.

Science

We continue to learn about the states of matter through simple science demonstrations and experiments, and through readings.  This week students will be placed in an expert group to learn more about one state of matter, either solid, liquid, or gas.  Each group will read books and articles to help them learn more about their state of matter.  We will be in the lab at the end of the week to conduct our first scientific investigation. 

Math

This week we continue to practice solving story problems and using strategies to show our thinking.  Our focus this week will be on solving addition story problems with an unknown change within 20.  At the end of the week we will take a look at addition problems with an unknown start.  Throughout the week, students will have many opportunities to practice solving a variety of story problems and recognize the key words that tell them to add. 

Dinner Questions

What are the traits of a scientist?

What does it mean to read fluently?

Tell me about how scientists write?

What strategies can you use to solve word problems?

Week of October 23

Dear Parents –

Welcome back!  I hope you had a wonderful break and enjoyed spending time with friends and family. 

Here’s a peek at our week ahead:

Monday, Oct. 23 – No School (Faculty In-service)

Tuesday, Oct. 24 (Day 4) – Art and PE (Swimming)

Wednesday, Oct. 25 (Day 5) – Library and World Language

Thursday, Oct. 26 (Day 6) – Music and PE

Friday, Oct. 27 (Day 1) – Art and World Language

Our next Mini Academies are scheduled for Monday, October 30 from 1:30 – 2:30.  We still have a few spaces available.  Please sign up by this Friday if you are interested in leading an activity.  You can sign up here – 2AS Mini Academy Sign Up Sheet. 

Reader’s Workshop

Our reading lessons this week continue to focus on becoming a more fluent reader.  Students will learn more about using punctuation to help change the rate and pitch of their speech.  We’ll talk about the importance of using punctuation cues to scoop the text into longer, meaningful phrases.  We will end our focusing on how readers can use dialogue to help them understand how the characters sound.  This week students will continue to practice their reader’s theater skit to help improve their fluency.

Writer’s Workshop

This week we begin our second writing unit on Lab Reports and Science Writing.  We’ll learn about what it means to write like a scientist.  This week we’ll focus on asking questions, thinking about what might happen during an experiment and forming a hypothesis, the steps needed to conduct the experiment, and writing about what they learned from the experiment.  Students will watch scientific demonstrations and use the experience to write an initial lab report. 

Science

This week we will explore the properties of solids, liquids, and gases.  Students will have some time to explore the different states of matter and record what they learned and questions they have about each.  We’ll end our week with a demonstration on how matter can change from one state to another. 

Math

We start our second math unit this week with students using different strategies to practice their basic math facts.  We’ll look at Number Bonds, Name Collection Boxes, games and puzzles to help kids develop automaticity and fluency with their basic addition and subtraction facts.  We will also begin looking at the different structures of story problems. Most students are familiar with story problems with an unknown result, but this week we will also begin learning about how to solve problems with an unknown start and an unknown change.  During our work with problem solving, students will be introduced to the PEA and CUBES strategy to help them solve problems.  Be sure to ask them what these strategies are and how they use them in class. 

Dinner Questions

What do scientists do?  What are you most interested in exploring about solids, liquids, and gases?

What does it mean to read fluently? 

Could you teach me how to do something?  What materials do I need?  What are the steps? 

Weeks of Oct. 9 & 16

Dear Parents –

I hope you had a great weekend.  We’re coming up on two shortened weeks, so this update will cover the next two weeks.  Please expect the next update to be for the week of Oct. 23. 

Here’s a peek at the next two weeks:

Monday, Oct. 9 – No School; Parent-Teacher Conferences

Tuesday, Oct. 10 – No School; Parent-Teacher Conferences

Wednesday, Oct. 11 (Day 5) – Library and World Language

Thursday, Oct. 12 (Day 6) – Music and PE

Friday, Oct. 13 (Day 1) – Art and World Language

Monday, Oct. 16 (Day 2) – Music and PE

Tuesday, Oct. 17 (Day 3) – World Language

Wednesday, Oct. 18 – No School; October Break begins

If your travel plans require your child to miss school, please let me know as this will help with planning our lessons over the next two weeks. 

Reader’s Workshop

We’ll spend the next two weeks introducing students to our second reading unit:  Building Better Readers.  This unit focuses on the important foundational reading skills of fluency, literary language, and maneuvering tricky texts.  We will begin by working on reading punctuation, adding tone and making sure students understand pace. 

Writer’s Workshop

This week we also begin our next writing unit:  Lab Reports and Science Writing.  This unit will give students an opportunity to explore scientific procedural writing using the scientific method as a framework to help them elaborate each part of the scientific process.  The unit begins with an introduction to how-to writing, where students will be asked to think about something that they know how to do, and to write a text to teach others how to do it.

Social Studies

Our social studies unit on Communities is coming to an end and students are busy completing their assessment where they were asked to create a community and think about various aspects of their community, such as leadership, rules and laws, citizenship, goods and services, and interdependence.  Students will have an opportunity to share their projects with their peers. 

Science

We are also beginning our first science unit:  Changes in Matter.   In this unit we will explore properties of solids, liquids, and gases, and the differences between chemical and physical changes.  We’ll spend a few days before break tuning into our unit with simple demonstrations to help students think like a scientist and introduce them to the scientific method.  Students will also be introduced to our science labs to learn about how to use the space and the equipment safely while they conduct their experiments. 

Math

This week we start our second math unit:  Becoming Fluent with Addition and Subtraction.  During this unit students will learn how addition and subtraction are related, and learn strategies for solving two-digit addition and subtraction problems.  Our unit begins with a review of problem solving strategies and vocabulary.  The emphasis during these first few days will be on how to identify the operation needed to solve a story problem, and how to adequately explain our thinking.  In grade 2, students are expected to solve story problems by using a picture, equation and answer, which includes a number and label.  It is important for students to continue practicing their basic addition and subtraction facts to help them become more successful solving two-digit addition and subtraction problems encountered in this unit. 

Dinner Questions

What was the best part of our parent-teacher conference?  Why?

Tell me about one of your lessons with Mrs. Wright.

What is your favorite app to use in class?  Why?  How do you use it?