Welcome Back On Track...

Fall or Winter... Hum...let me make up my mind...

I hope you had a fantastic fall off track time. This on track time is a little broken up with 1 and 1/2 weeks of school then Thanksgiving Holiday break, then 3 and 1/2 weeks of school before the Christmas Holiday break and finally 3 weeks of school in January before we go off track again for 3 weeks.

I am sending home several important items:
1- Your Child's School Pictures
2- Notice - If you need retakes on Pictures they on on Tuesday Nov. 17th that is this Tuesday
3- Book Order Catalogs - I am sending November and December catalogs. I would like to place the orders on Monday November 30th. This will ensure that orders arrive before Christmas. (If you want your book order to be a secret I can help facilitate that. Just place your order in an envelope and write "Mrs. Taylor SBO" on the envelope. {This is a signal to me that it is a Scholastic Book Order.} When the order arrives I will call you and let you arrange to pick up the order here at school.
4- Green Paper telling about the 2nd Grade Holiday Project. You will need to buy and cut fabric as per the instructions. It needs to be cut and put in a ziplock with your child's name on it and brought to school by Dec. 4th.
5- Blue Paper telling about guests (you or someone you know) coming to tell us about customs from another country or culture. If you want to participate please fill it out and return it ASAP.
6- Pink and White papers telling about the Doll Project. It is also due on Dec. 4th. Please send the dressed doll and the 1/4 size paper filled out about the doll.
7- The first part of the keyword is "Plymouth."

Math

This week and a half we will be doing a geometry unit. The children will be learning about 2D and 3D shapes. They will learn to describe the shapes with words such as sides, vertex, angles, right angle, faces, edges, polygon, quadralateral, rectangle, square, triangle, hexagon, parrallelogram, trapezoid, and symmetry. They will make a symmetrical turkey tail.

Spelling

The spelling lists were sent home on October 23rd. I really hope that your child practiced them some while off track. They are studying diagraphs which is when two letters form a new and distinct single sound. The diagraphs are ch, sh, th, ph, wh
There is a web site with a game about diagraphs at:
http://primarygames.com/see-n-spell/diagraphs
You may want to check it out and see if it is something you might want your child to use as a practice tool for working with diagraphs.

Vocabulary

We will use our vocabulary book, "Dear Mrs. LaRu," for not only vocabulary but also to study "story setting" and to help launch a writing unit on writing letters.
The vocabulary words are:
melodramatic
misconception
neglected
obedience
despair
persistent

Reading

I have put out my Thanksgiving books and of course the children always have access to all the books in the classroom which are on a level which they can read. I will be doing guided reading with the students but I will also be doing a District mandated reading test on each child between now and Christmas. I am hoping to test one child each day.

Please remember to help your child have access to books that are on the correct reading level. This will actually help them to improve their reading more quickly. They also need to remember to record all minutes read and to write in their Reading Response Journal each night.

Writing

Besides learning about the correct form for writing letters we will also be doing some writing about Thanksgiving. Each day the students will write a sentence about something they are thankful for in their Gratitude Journal.

Besides all these academic pursuits the children also participate in PE, Music, Computers, Library, Social Studies (Goods and Services is the topic this week.), and Art projects. We have several fun activities and projects for the children to participate in or make during the next week and a half.

The second part of the keyword is "Rock."

Remember the Spelling Test will be on Thursday morning and the Vocabulary Test will be on Friday morning.