We enjoyed all of the events throughout the HES Loves to Read Month, but had the most fun dressing like our favorite characters! Here are a few pictures of some of our costumes. Can you guess who we are?
We started our unit on measurement in math today. We enjoyed reading the book Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni. We used one-inch tiles to measure things around the room and to build our own rulers. You can help at home by having your child measure objects around the house, go on scavenger hunts for items that are a certain lengths (ex: look for items that are less than 5 inches), and estimate how many inches long an object is.
It is hard to believe that we have been in school for 100 days! Today was filled with different activities focusing around the 100th day. We rotated through different activities such as structure building with 100 cups, making necklaces with 100 beads, painting pictures with 100 dots, reading books about the 100th Day, and finding a mystery picture in a 100 chart. In writing the students wrote about what they think it would be like when they are 100 years old. They made self portraits of their older selves to go along with their writing.
Room 5 is full of hard working authors! The gripping stories that are being written are full of strong beginnings, action, dialogue, and suspense. Here are some samples of a lesson on word choice.
Our Project Lead the Way unit is well underway. We have learned about the states of matter - solid, liquid, and gas. In our class experiment, we tested different types of materials (aluminum foil, paper, and cardboard) to see if they were good conductors or insulators. Using the information from this experiment, students have worked together to design a model to keep a Popsicle from melting. They are going to spend the next few classes creating their models using cardboard, Styrofoam, bubble wrap, pipe cleaners, and tape. They will test them with Popsicles.
Thank you to our guest readers who have visited with our to share some of their favorite books!
March is HES Loves to Read Month - stay tuned for more info. If you would like to be a guest reader during the month of March, please let me know. February promises to be an exciting month in second grade. Stay tuned for information regarding the 100th Day of School and Valentine’s Day. In reading, we have started a new unit titled Studying Characters and Their Stories. We are pulling old strategies from first grade and the beginning of the year and using them to build reading comprehension based on the characters in the story. We are paying close attention to the character's feelings, actions, words, and how the character reacts to the problem in the story. Students continue to do an amazing job writing gripping fictional stories in writing. These stories contain characters, setting, problem, events, and a solution. We are using dialogue and action to help bring the stories to life. In our new unit in math we are learning different strategies to add and subtract two-digit numbers. So far we have used base ten blocks and open number lines to add and subtract two-digit numbers with and without regrouping. Please continue to practice addition and subtraction math facts at home. We hope that everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday break! We are cruising into the new year here in second grade! Take a look at our current units of study: In Reading, our current unit is called "Bigger Books Mean Amping up Reading Power" In this unit, we are learning about strategies for tackling longer texts with more complex characters and plots. We are learning to identify and understand literary language, develop more fluency by rereading, and using post-its to keep track of longer books. In Writing, we are finishing poetry and will begin our next unit on Gripping Fictional Stories. In Math, we finished our unit on shapes, partitioning, and time. We will move on to addition and subtraction within 100. And as always... we keep working on those math facts:) Happy 2018!
Thank you to Lauren's and Amanda's moms for coming in to share some of their favorite books with us. If you would like to read to the class, let me know.
We have been staying warm even though it is freezing outside! Please send in snow boots, gloves, and snow pants if your child wants to play in the snow at recess. We do not go outside when it is very cold.
This week in writing we continued to work on poetry and trying out different techniques such as writing about feelings, using lines breaks, and trying repetition. The class continues to do an amazing job with this unit. We will start publishing some of our favorite poems next week. Take a look at your child's poetry notebook when they bring it home. In reading we are working with fiction and using Post It notes to keep track of our reading. We have started jotting notes about the characters in order to keep them straight and to notice character traits. We have also been on the look out for literary language - times when authors use similes, metaphors, and comparisons to enhance the text. We are wrapping up unit 3 in math and will take the assessment next week. This unit has covered shapes, telling time to the hour, pictographs, and using number lines to solve problems. We are going to a concert on Wednesday, December 20, to the High School. This is always an enjoyable trip in which we get to listen to the chorus and band play. Please return the permission slip ASAP if you haven't already. Wednesday afternoon we invite families in at 2:15 in the cafeteria to make a snowman craft. We will go back to our classroom at 2:45 for a holiday party. Thank you to the room parents for organizing the party. Don't forget that there is an early dismissal on Friday, December 22. |
Important Dates:May 23 - Art Show
May 28 - No School - Memorial Day June 7 - Volunteer Breakfast June 7 - Field Day June 21 & 22 - Early Dismissal - 1:05 June 22 - Last Day of School Scholastic Book OrdersClick on the red box below to order books from Scholastic.
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