Reminders:
No school Thursday, December 23, 2021 - Friday, December 31, 2021. See you on Monday, January 3, 2022!
Fun ideas for vacation:
Listen to an audiobook! Talk about what happened, what surprised you, your thoughts about the text, make sure you use character names/proper nouns as you talk!
Lexia
DreamBox
Play games! (Look at earlier posts of this blog for directions to games like Spit, Shut the Box and more!)
Experiment with heating and cooling snow/ice/other liquids (hot cocoa/milk, etc). As you experiment, observe the freezing and melting liquids… how long does it take for a cup of water to freeze outside on a cold day? Salt water? Why? How long does it take a cup of snow/ice to melt inside my house? Why? What melts faster? Why? What other observations of questions did you have?
Create something together! Create a shared piece of artwork, make something in the kitchen, or build a block tower.
Math: Second grade mathematicians have been working hard in their third math unit: Addition and Subtraction within 100. During the first module of unit 3, our focus included how to:
Add by 1s, 5s, and 10s on the number line
Skip count by 5s and 10s
Understanding that the digits in a 3-digit number represent ones, tens, and hundreds
Solve two digit addition and subtraction problems using place value strategies
Second graders are also continuing to practice counting coins, telling time to the nearest five minutes on an analog clock, and determining elapsed time. There are so many fun ways to support your child’s math growth! Over vacation, you may want to: cook with your child, talk about math in the real world (ex: I spent $25 on gas and then $12 in the store. How much money did I spend in all? How much more money did I spend on gas than I did at the store? …or…We are driving 125 miles. We’ve driven 39 miles so far. How many more do we need to drive?...or….This movie is two hours long. If we start watching it at 7:00PM, what time will it be over? (try to use half hour/hour increments for elapsed time).)
Reading: Second graders have wrapped up their ‘Power Up!’ unit. Our hope is that the explicit instruction of decoding patterns from this unit will be worked on throughout the year as students grow as readers. We have begun our third unit of study… ‘Becoming Experts’! During the first bend of this unit, we focus students’ attention on growing knowledge by paying attention to details, putting parts of text together, and questioning the text. Students learned to notice details and then put those details together into a bigger understanding. We have also reiterated the importance of using the text. When students are thinking about the book, or talking about the new information they have learned, they should be going back into the text to clarify their thinking and details. We’ve had fun exploring different types of nonfiction text!
Word Study: Second graders wrapped up unit 5 in word study this week with an end of unit assessment. This past unit explored prefixes and suffixes and multisyllabic words including compound words. Our students prepared for the assessment with some fun review games and practice. We reviewed the importance of using our second grade word knowledge in our own writing. In writing this week students had the opportunity to self-edit their work and check for spelling rules and unit snap words.
Writing: We celebrated the culmination of our poetry unit! Our second graders have grown so much as poets!
Science: Second graders have been introduced to real life applications of Computer Sciences and had the opportunity to practice coding for different applications on their chromebooks.
We have also been learning each week about famous scientists and their contributions to society. Recently we learned about:
Anna Comstock; an American conservationist, a leader of the nature study movement, the first female to teach at Cornell University, and author and illustrator of “The Handbook of Nature Study” (now in its 24th edition),
Wangari Maathai; a Kenyan social, political, and environmental activist and the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, as the founder of “The Green Belt Movement” (which has over 45 millions trees planted to this date) and other programs she was able to help combat deforestation and soil erosion which causes dangerous mudslides
SEL/Theme:
During our second step lesson students learned about compassion and its importance in peer relationships. During the lesson students practiced noticing and understanding what someone else was feeling. By noticing the physical, verbal, and situational clues students practiced determining what others were feeling. This allowed them to gain empathy for others. In second grade we know that when you have empathy for someone, you can show your care and concern by saying something kind or doing something to help. We learned this week that when you show care and concern it is called showing compassion.
Second graders have also been busy with different art projects, playing, and having fun!
