November/December Second Grade News

Dates to know:
*Friday, November 11th - Veterans'/Special Guests' Day- 10:30-11:45
*Thursday, November 17th - Report cards go home
*Monday, November 21th - Friday, November 25th - Thanksgiving Break
*Friday, December 16th - Holiday Party 2:30-3:45
*Monday, December 19 - January 2 - Winter Break
*January 3rd - No School - Staff Development
*January 4th - School starts for students
*Monday, Janauary 16th - Martin Luther King Day - No school
*Wednesday, January 25th - Early Release Day - Dismissal is at 1:15

Reminders:
*Please send in the following for Veterans'/Special Guests' Day on Friday:
Girls: Cookies
Boys: Juice bags or boxes
*Be filling out reading minutes for November.
*Be sure your child has a warm coat for recess, we will be going outside.
*Have your child practice his/her math skills by playing Everyday Math online games.

Literacy
Reading: Reading instruction continues to cover comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary. The children have been doing a great job memorizing their poems for Veterans'/Special Guests' Day! This is a wonderful way for them to practice their fluency. They are making great progress as they work independently, in partners, and small groups. Continue to have your child share the story elements (characters, setting, problem/resolution, beginning, middle and end) with you after reading a book independently or with you. For an extra challenge, see if your child can make connections to the story, tell you the main idea and/or author's message.
Fundations: Our instructional focus has been on words with suffixes. The children are learning to mark the base words and circle the suffix. We have discussed how each suffix changes the meaning of the root word and when to use each suffix. We are currently focusing on the following:
*vowel-consonant-e syllables
*two syllable words with closed and vowel-consonant-e syllables
*compound words
*exception and suffix -ive
Writing: We continue to work in the genre of Personal Recount. We are getting more comfortable with the timeline and providing details. The children are excited to share and write about their personal experiences. Our targets still include conventions (capitals & punctuation), descriptive words (modifiers), complete sentences, and proofreading. We have added transition words, commas in a series, and providing more details to enhance their stories. In addition to writing narratives, we have been working on descriptive poems in the form of acrostic, couplet, shape, and free verse poems. This is a great way for us to share our creative sides!

Math: We are currently working on Unit #4 in math. Our learning goals for this unit include:
*change to more number stories
*parts-and-total number stories
*reading temperatures on a thermometer
*estimation to solve problems
*adding 2 digit numbers mentally
*adding 2 and 3 digit numbers using paper and pencil
*measure lengths and distances
*partial sums addition algorithm
*explore area

Science/Social Studies: We are wrapping up our plant unit as we watch many of our bean plants wither away. Our field trip to O'Tooles' Nursery was a great way to extend our knowledge of plants. The plant soup was also a real hands on (mouths on) approach to gaining a greater understanding of plants. Students are currently researching biomes and discussing the weather, plants, animals, food chains of each habitat. We will also study George Washington Carver which will lead us into our new social studies unit: Connecting the Past to the Present.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
We are so thankful for the parent volunteers who were able to attend the field trip to O'Tooles' Nursery. Also, we appreciate all of your support with the pumpkin project, and sending in plant parts for our soup. All of these activities help make your child's learning experiences fun and memorable! The Halloween parties were a huge success! Thank you for the food items, crafts, games, and help that you gave. We couldn't have done it without you. A special thanks to all of the parents who are able to help out in the classroom on a regular basis. We appreciate you support and the children look forward to working with you!
We wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones.

The Second Grade Team