Reminders:
No school Monday, November 25 - Friday, November 29.
Want to volunteer? Here is the Pease Mountain sign up! Please make sure to read the top section before you sign up. Thank you!
If you are able, please send in instant mashed potatoes to support the Charlotte Food Shelf by Thursday, November 21.
CCS is participating in the NexTrex Challenge. We are attempting to collect 1,000 pounds of certain types of plastic by May 15, 2025. Want to learn more? Click here! Want to participate? Please collect the types of plastic in this visual and have your child bring them to CCS.
Math: Second grade mathematicians are working to identify numbers based on their component parts, decomposing numbers by place value, adding numbers by regrouping sets of tens and ones, and measuring length with Unifix cubes. Our work in measuring in cubes begins a transition from the concrete to the more abstract work that is to come. As we explore numbers in a concrete way, students are physically manipulating and lining up Unifix cubes and counting them to understand length/number; students are able to see and count the 36th cube, the 5th. As we transition from the concrete (cubes) to the more abstract (number lines) students will first create a measuring tool to represent the Unifix cubes/number lines. The next iteration of this tool will no longer physically show Unifix cubes as students make the leap to the more abstract number line.
Word Study: In word study we wrapped up unit 4 and began the next unit of FUNdations. Students are working on writing longer words including multisyllabic words and words with suffixes. To learn more about these units of study, check out the pages of our blog!
Writers’ Workshop: During our poetry unit, we have begun to focus on structure. We’ve worked to understand that poets choose a structure to enhance the feeling a reader gets when they read our poem. We have studied other poets’ poems to learn from their work by determining what is powerful about their poem and then trying those techniques in our own writing.
Readers’ Workshop: We have wrapped up our first bend in our ‘Power Up! Next Level Word Solving Skills’ unit. Students have been introduced to the six syllable types in the English Language as well as their exceptions. We have also introduced common prefixes & suffixes. In our next group of lessons, students will learn how to divide longer words into their syllables and apply what they have learned about syllables to read new words. Curiosity is key right now! In your child’s home school folder you will find the six syllable types. Our hope is that your child will see words and try to find some of the syllable types out in the world! Please note, they do not need to be decoding longer words with their new syllable knowledge - not yet anyway. This curiosity phase is critical to get the engagement and enthusiasm for our next group of lessons which will focus on syllable division patterns. We are purposefully pausing here to allow kids time to interact with words around them and find different syllable types.
SEL/Theme: We have begun our second unit in Second Step. This unit will focus on empathy. During our first two lessons, students worked to:
• Name a variety of feelings
• Distinguish between comfortable and uncomfortable feelings
• Use physical, verbal, and situational clues to determine what others are feeling
• Use physical, verbal, and situational clues to determine what others are feeling
• Label their own feelings as the same as or different from others’ feelings
Science: Over the past two weeks our curious scientists have been busy! Scientists were presented with a challenge to determine what household materials were used to make two mixtures. They began by conducting experiments on the four possible materials used: salt, baking soda, cornstarch, and sand. Students completed four experiments with each substance and recorded their observations. They then used their data to analyze our two unknown mixtures. Students were able to determine that mixture A was made up of cornstarch and sand while mixture B contained salt and baking soda!
Project: November is Native American Heritage Month. During our project block we learned about Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and John Hitchcock and then created artwork inspired by them.
Quiet Time: Our students have ‘traveled’ far these past two weeks!
