Great Weekend - Now Back to Work!

I hope you all had a great weekend. It is nice to take a little break.

The weather is changing, and the growing season is done but we are just beginning the learning that needs to take place during second grade.

Last week we tasted apples, painted apples, and colored apples, wrote a poem about an apple, wrote an apple story, made a graph about apples and did apple math. Since it was a short week we took a break from routine and did some learning in a variety of areas with apples being our theme.

Spelling
This week we are back to working on hearing, reading, writing and spelling sometimes with short vowels and sometimes with long vowels that have been changed because a magic silent e has been added to the end of the word. This weeks words have long or short i. Please keep practicing the spelling words but even more importantly talk about and practice looking for when the silent e is there and when it isn't there. This concept is extremely important.

Vocabulary
This week we will be reading a book called "Possum's Harvest Moon". The vocabulary words we will focus on are:
autumn
creature
harvest
snug
accomplished
conclude

Please try to use these in your discussions and see if the children pick up on hearing the words and can tell you what they mean.

Math
The students have been practicing using the following strategies:
"Counting on" which is to only be used when adding 1, 2, or 3
"Combinations of 10" - knowing any two numbers that will equal 10
"Doubles" - such as 2+2, 6+6, 9+9, etc. Ask them to tell you the story about the magic pot.
Students needs to be studying their math facts that include these strategies. To show their competency they need to be able to answer each math fact in 3 seconds. At school the children have cards with these math facts on them. They also have two ziplock bags. One is labeled - "Got It!" and the other is labeled - "Still Working". If they can't give the answer to the fact within the 3 seconds it goes in the pile for the "Still Working" bag. If they can answer that quickly it goes in the "Got It!" bag.

Another great practice task is skip counting. They should be able to skip count by 10's, 5's, 3's and 2's. At school we have songs for the 3's. It is sung to the tune of "Are You Sleeping". 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33.

This week the students will be writing their own Magic Pot Riddles and filling out function papers with doubling as the function.

Writing
I will be having a personal interview with each child in the next week or two to discuss strengths and weaknesses in their writing. With many of the students handwriting improvement is a great beginning to becoming a better writer.

For your information when I score the children's writing I am looking for 5 basics right now. They are:
Does the sentence or the story MAKE SENSE?
Is there HANDWRITING legible and improving?
Are there CAPITALS only in the correct places?
Are the words SPELLED CORRECTLY?
Is there CORRECT PUNCTUATION?

Homework
Thank you for helping your child make sure to read 15-20 minutes each night and to respond in their RRJ.

I hope you are enjoying playing the Math Games with your child. Please try to play the game several times during the week but only write in the Journal one time. Please help your child return the game on Thursday.

Keep up the good work on Spelling Practice and now please add Math Facts Practice as often as possible.

Thank you for helping to get the Math homework returned the following day after it is sent home.

(Several students have had classwork that has been sent home to COMPLETE AND RETURN. This is generally because your child is not staying on task to complete the work when assigned. Thank you for helping them learn responsibility and getting it back ASAP.)

Misc.

This week will be Red Ribbon Week where we learn about staying away from drugs and alcohol. Also a reminder that next week - Thursday the 15th will be the walking field trip to Wight's Fort Cemetery. And finally this weeks keyword is -"Harvest"

Have a Great Week!