October 19  

Fall Party

We will have a small fall party on the 30th.  Your student is welcome to wear a costume or holiday attire all day if they wish.  Please be mindful that all costumes worn are free from items that could get lost, broken, or pose a hazard to others.  Also, students will need to be able to use the restroom independently.  If they are unable to get in and out of their costume by themselves please choose an alternative outfit.  Please email me if you would like to help provide snacks or drinks.

Homework

Homework is now being sent home on Friday and is expected to be completed and returned by the following Friday.  The weekend should give students more time so they don't feel so rushed during the week.  Also, please note that I have a relaxed personality.  If you don't have an item at home (like food coloring) for a mini science experiment, please just use something else.  Never feel like you need to run to the store to buy something.  Your students and I talked today about being creative... use ketchup, mustard, milk, or any other liquid.  If an assignment calls for a certain crayon color for underlining or whatnot and you don't happen to have that color, use whatever you have.  This should be low stress for everyone.

Word Study

Students will continue to practice spelling words each week in class (and at home I hope:).  I expect that your students are able to read these words easily.  I've noticed that during writing time there are many students spelling simple sight words incorrectly.  There won't be a test on Friday.  We will keep track of how they are progressing on their spelling by looking at their daily writing.  For all other spelling inquiries your student may have we will begin to consult the dictionary, both online and a physical text.  

We will begin studying words next week- their origin, syllable types, sound patterns... These words are more challenging and intended to assist primarily in reading and second in writing. Click HERE to see the words we will be working on. The focus is closed syllable patterns.  The link will give you a redirect notice.  Just click on the link within the notice.                 

NWEA 

A family report from the NWEA assessment will be coming home this week.  This is one measurement that will be used this year to help your student grow.  It provides me with in-depth information as to what your student knows and is able to do in several math and reading domains.  Miss Grimm and I will use this information to create lessons and small group instruction that specifically targets areas of need.  I do not share scores with students or let them know "how they did".  What we will do in class over the few days is look at areas of strength and areas to bolster.  It is important for your student to have an idea of what they know, their next steps, and their end of the year goal as it pertains to a specific area of learning.  This knowledge puts your student in the position of owning their learning and having a say as to how and what they need to work on.  It also is a great lesson on charts and graphs.  :)  We will create these growth goals as a class and individually.  Your student will keep track of their progress throughout the year.  

Math Exploration

Music Class

              

October 12

Curriculum Highlights 

Reading

Our stamina is increasing!  Many students are telling me about the books they are reading at home.  Please keep up on this important routine.  Reading daily helps enrich your student's vocabulary and is fun!    

Students will practice identifying the main topic and supporting details of a text, both written and oral.

Writing

We are working on making our writing easy to read.  Each day we are focusing on lowercase letters and numerals.  If your student reverses letters and numerals still there is no need to worry.  This is common at the beginning of second grade.  

Students will begin using the dictionary to help them with their spelling.

Social Studies

Students will continue to learn about Growth Mindset; specifically the quality of empathy. We will investigate the ripple effect of kindness.

Students will continue learning about community. They will reflect on how they can be responsible and respectful members of the communities in which they belong (family, school, neighborhood, teams, and clubs, etc)

Science

Students will learn why leaves change color in the fall, how it’s related to its life cycle, and dip our toes into the topic of biodiversity.

Math

Students will continue to focus on adding and subtracting to and from 20 and continue practicing skip counting.

This week we will begin learning different strategies to help us mentally add and subtract.

Conferences

Please click HERE to access the conference schedule. A google hangout link will be available and posted in our Google Classroom at the time of your conference. This will be just like our virtual connection a few weeks ago. Directions on how to access classroom are HERE.

Supportive Homework Suggestions

Math: Play a card game.  We use cards many times throughout the week.  Ask your student to show you one of our games.  Students know how to play: Fishing for Ten, Double-Digit Top-It, and Addition Top-It.  Do you know of a fun card game?  Your student may share it with the class.  :)      

Reading and Writing: Consider getting a special notebook and a neat pen or another writing tool to share with your student.  Write to them and leave their journal on their pillow.  Ask them to write back to you.  Make it a goal to share the notebook at least once a week.

Computer: use IXL and Guided Readers

Prescribed homework will come home on Monday and is expected to be returned on Friday.  

Pictures from our bread experiment. 

control

unwashed hands

washed hands, keyboard

Pictures from our fun Friday activity

October 5

Forks and Spoons

I don’t have forks and spoons to provide during lunch and snack time. Please make sure that your student has all the necessary eating utensils packed from home. Students eating school lunch will have utensils provided with their delivered lunch.

Show and Tell

Students may bring in one item to show the class or tell about something special, share a joke or riddle… Encourage your student to plan ahead what they would like to say. It helps them be more comfortable in front of the class. ***Nothing alive or dead unless you check with me first please.*** 

Monday- no show and tell

Tuesday- Alaina, Brianna, Lola, Natalie

Wednesday- Danielle, Rylie, Harper, Zayden

Thursday- Victoria, Jaidee, Kasen, Xander

Friday- Mitchell, Anvi, Corey

Scholastic Books

You can choose to have your child's online book order shipped right to your door or delivered to me with our class order. All orders earn FREE Books for our classroom. Thank you for your support!

Class Order Due Date: I can order anytime!

Connect to Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/GTLCJ

Shop the flyers for your child's grade together: https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=667327

Class Code: GTLCJ

Curriculum Highlights

Reading

Students will build stamina and muscle memory for Reading to Self and Reading with a Buddy. Our goal is 20 minutes.  Students will also begin reading in small instructional groups

Writing

Students will notice the spaces between words and that most words have all lowercase letters. We will practice writing sentences with spaces between each word and we will write words with all lowercase letters.

Social Studies

Students will continue to learn about Growth Mindset; specifically the quality of perseverance.  Students will also continue learning about community. Students will recognize that they are members of a family, classroom, and school community.

Science

How do you become a great inventor?  Students will be introduced to the important role of failure in the process of developing solutions to problems.

Math

Students will continue to focus on adding and subtracting to and from 20 and continue practicing skip counting.  Students will use many math tools (number line, number chart, rulers, clocks, etc…) to help them recognize the relationship between numbers and groups of numbers as well as begin to investigate our base-ten system.  We play math games each day. Currently, they all focus on subitizing and fact fluency.

Conferences

Conferences will be virtual this year. Schedule HERE.

Supportive Homework Suggestions

Where, when, and what for reading: Find a good spot for reading when away from school. Plan a time each day for reading. Talk about reading options: traditional chapter or picture book, podcast, library book, recipe book, instruction manual, an ebook... Start the good habit of having your student read or listen to reading each day. 20-30 minutes is perfect. If that is too much, start with 5 and work up to 30.

Math: Toss a ball back and forth with your student and count by 2s, 5s, 10s, as high as they can go. Can they make it to 200? Try starting from 1,000. Try counting by 3s, 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s. Still too easy? Go backward :) I noticed that this is a struggle with many students. Please consider practicing with your student.

Computer: use IXL and Guided Readers

Prescribed homework will begin this week. It will come home on Monday and is expected to be returned on Friday.