Dear Parents –
Class News
This past week was a busy one in Grade 2! The students took their Math and Reading MAP
tests, we celebrated Earth Week learning different ways that we can help take care
of the Earth, and ended our week with an Earth Day assembly.
Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to lead
our Mini Academies on Friday. The
children had so much fun and came back to the classroom excited to show their
friends what they made or what they did.
It’s hard to believe that this was our last Mini Academies for the
year. The Mini Academies have been a
huge success because of your commitment and dedication. Thank you for your creativity, your time, and
your willingness to volunteer for our Mini Academies throughout the year. This is an event that the kids love and and
we couldn’t do it without your help.
Thank you!
Field Trip
On May 11th the Grade 2 classes will take a
field trip to visit the Butterfly and Bird Parks as part of our science unit on
life cycles. A permission slip was sent
home last week. Please return the
permission slip by Friday, April 27 to help us with planning. We are looking for parent volunteers to
chaperone, so if you are interested, please indicate on the permission slip.
Here’s a
look at our week ahead:
Monday (Day 3) – World Language
Tuesday (Day 4) – Music and P.E. Swimming
Wednesday (Day 5) – Library and World Language
Thursday (Day 6) – Music and P.E.
Friday (Day 1) – Art and World Language
Curriculum
Connections
Reader’s
Workshop
The children are really enjoying reading and
discussing their books in their Book Clubs.
As a class, we’ve been reading some of Kevin Henkes’ books and learning
about Lilly, one of the main characters who appears in several of his
books. This week we’ll focus on looking
at the language the author uses to make his or her stories so powerful. The week will start with children looking for
examples of how the author uses precise words and descriptive language to help
readers visualize the event and characters from the book. We’ll end the week looking at different types
of literary language, such as similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and
alliteration and how authors can use these to make simple things seem
extraordinary.
Writer’s
Workshop
As writer’s our focus has been sharing our opinions
about the characters and books we’ve been reading in our Book Clubs. This week we’ll focus on how to make our book
reviews even better by retelling the important parts of their books. We’ll practice retelling with partners and
then the students will write a brief summary of their book to help strengthen
their book review. Throughout the week
as students are writing, we will also emphasize the importance of keeping the
audience in mind. Picturing their
audience will help students write stronger book reviews.
Science
Students are excited to start our new science unit on
life cycles this week! This past week we
set up observation stations in our common area where students could begin to
observe the life cycle of beetles and butterflies. We’ll start the week tuning in to life
cycles by looking at some of the vocabulary words for this unit and getting an
idea of what students already know about life cycles. Throughout the week we will talk how
scientists make and record their observations. We’ll practice drawing
scientific diagrams, with details and labels, of the animals in our common
area.
Math
Our unit on Developing Multiplication is coming to a
close and this week will be spent reviewing the skills and concepts that were
covered in this unit. Students will
complete different projects to help strengthen their understanding of
rectangular arrays. We will also continue to practice making and interpreting
bar and picture graphs.
Dinner
Questions
What are some ways that you can help take care of the
Earth?
What are some of the words the author used in your
book to help you create a movie or picture in your mind?
Tell me about the book you’re reading. What is your
opinion? What are the important parts?
What are you excited about learning during your life
cycles unit?
