9/20-924

Highlights for 9/20-9/25:

Back to School Night

Tuesday the 21st is Back to School Night! It will begin at 7:00. All parents will meet in the cafeteria and then head to their child's classroom. There will be a presentation for all second grade parents in the second grade pod. We will discuss important aspects of second grade learning including homework, communication of progress and second grade reading and math focuses for the year. We look forward to seeing you there!

Health 

We began this quarter's first heath unit, Mental Health, last week.

• We discussed qualities of a good friend.
• We learned what a conflict is and different ways to compromise in order to reach a resolution. 
• We talked about what makes us angry and learned healthy and safe ways to let out our anger. Some ideas we came up with are: squeeze a pillow, scribble a picture and find a calm place.
• We will also learn about bullies including how to identify a bully and what to do if you are bullied or are a "bystander" to bullying.

Science

We will begin science this week by discussing what a scientist is and how we can be successful scientists. Our first unit "Soil and Erosion" will begin soon!

Johnny Appleseed

We will be learning about Johnny Appleseed this week. We will engage in many fun activities including making observations of different apples in science class, taking a class survey of apples we like the best in math and reading about Johnny Appleseed in language arts.  

On Friday we will be making applesauce! We are asking each child to bring in 1 or 2 apples of their choice by Thursday to observe and help make the sauce. Yum!

Math

We began math learning with our new math classes last week. We discussed math routines and explored some of the many tools we will use in math this year such as clocks, linking cubes, pattern blocks, number lines and hundreds charts! This week we will start to learn our first set of basic math facts +10/-10. We will begin on Monday by learning strategies to help us add the numbers 0-9 to 10 quickly (ex. 7+10 = 17). We will use linking cubes, hundreds charts and ten frames to learn our facts. We will look for patterns in our answers to help us learn strategies that will enable us to recall the answers automatically. Look for a post this week about practicing math facts at home.

Word Study Homework

Students will bring home their Words Their Way journals to begin word study homework starting Monday. Words Their Way is a research-based word study program for phonics, vocabulary and spelling instruction. Word study teaches spelling through recognition of common patterns in words. Successful learning of these patterns will also help students acquire important reading skills from decoding to vocabulary. In class, word study instruction begins with a new word sort on Monday and is integrated into guided reading group instruction throughout the week. The students take their journals home each night for homework to reinforce their learning of these skills in class. Students practiced the word study routine in class last week and completed examples of each night's homework in their journals. A schedule for homework and a description of activities are glued in the students' journals. 

I will include a separate post this week to discuss  the word study routine in more detail.