This last Thursday, February 3rd was our 100th day of school for the year. We celebrated by learning about and making a book about counting to 100 in different ways. (By ones, twos, fives, twenty, twenty-five and by fifty) We practiced 100 math facts, colored 100 things, played 100 dice tic tac toe, drew a picture of what we might look like if we were 100 years old. And, wrote advice a 100 year old person would give. We also wrote about how we would spend $100.00. During the week we worked hard to meet our goal of reading 100 books. You can see our Reading Bug with 100 body sections in our hallway. We also read a poem about 100 which happens to have 100 words. 5 class members actually memorized it. Yea for them and their effort! We also played a card game, "Close to 100".
Math
We have been really working on grouping things by a certain number and counting by that number. This was accomplished by skip counting. The kids are quite good at counting to 100 by ones, twos, fives and tens. You can help them continue to improve by helping them sing our skip counting songs at home. Just sing the skip counting numbers to the tune listed.
Counting by 2 Yankee Doodle
3 Are You Sleeping
4 Row, Row, Row your Boat
6 London Bridge
7 Mary Had a Little Lamb
8 This Old Man
We are really working hard to understand double digit addition and subtraction without regrouping (no carrying or borrowing). (Please do not teach your child regrouping adding or subtracting yet until I can help them build the conceptual understanding needed.) If they learn the algorithm (short cut of carrying or borrowing) before they have a conceptual understanding then it is more difficult for them to understand it. Like many adults who memorized the how to do it before they understood the why you do it - they will not have the mathematical foundation they need. We will get to it - just give us time.
Example of kids present strategies -
Problem - Sally went to the Sticker Station. She bought 2 strips of ten star stickers and 6 single star stickers. She also bought 2 strips of ten moon stickers and 3 single moon stickers. How many stickers did Sally buy?
2 strips and 6 singles + 2 strips and 3 singles =
20 + 6 + 20 + 3=
26 + 23 =
10 + 10 + 6 + 10 + 10 + 3 =
Sometimes they keep one number whole as in:
26 + 10 + 10 + 3 =
Sometimes they combine the tens and then the ones and then those numbers:
20 + 20 = 40
6 + 3 = 9
40 + 9 = 49
All of these are valid strategies. It just depends on the child which one they understand better. Eventually they will progress to higher level strategies but we have to start where their understanding is now.
It is a similar process in their understanding of subtraction. Hang in there they will get it. We have to get them understanding these strategies before we can move on to regrouping. I am seeing improvement everyday.
We also use the 100's chart, base 10 blocks and number line as tools for their computation. I have them drawing lines and dots for base 10 blocks. A horizontal line represents a strip of 10 base 10 blocks, a dot represents a single block. This representation relates to the base ten blocks, the sticker strips and singles and the 100s chart. It is a very simple picture of the modeling tools.
Please continue to work with your child on counting money and telling time. Most have this figured out but some are still struggling. Also continue to practice the math facts cards I sent home and the related subtraction facts.
Reading
Once a week we ability group the entire 2nd grade to facilitate working on specific reading skills that the different groups need. Most of the students are working on fluency. Fluency is made up of 4 elements: expression, phrasing, smoothness and rate. They need to read like they were having a conversation. It needs to be interesting to listen to. It needs to be phrased correctly by attending to punctuation so as to have correct meaning. These elements need to be balanced. If there is too much expression but incorrect phrasing it is still awkward and lacks correct meaning. The best way for them to know how to read is to listen to others read correctly to them. Please read to your child. Besides the 15 - 20 minutes of independent reading that they are to read each night they should also be hearing books read to them. It may also be helpful to record your child reading and let them listen to themselves. Then they can hear if they are reading word by word, in two word phrases, choppy,or with correct phrasing and expression. Except for a few children in each class who are still struggling with decoding words as they read, fluency seems to be the biggest hurdle students are facing to becoming great readers.
Spelling
This week's Spelling Principle has to do with adding -ed to words. This changes the word to it's past tense. It is a difficult spelling principle because it had three different sounds associated with it.
Sometimes when you add -ed it will ad a /d/ sound as in slugged
Other words take on an /ed/ sound as in rounded
And other words will have a /t/ sound as in baked
We will also be talking about past, present and future tenses.
Writing
Some students are still trying to finish up and publish a snowman story.
We are starting a spiral review of writing and grammar skills. We will begin by focusing on capitalization and punctuation skills.
Social Studies
The students have just completed a unit on healthy eating. They are beginning a unit on map skills. I will teach our class a poem about the 7 continents and a song to go with it.
We will learn from a short video and a Scholastic News about the Chinese New Year. We will also begin activities related to Abraham Lincoln and Valentines Day.
That brings us to our keyword for this week which is
"Love is in the air." We will be having a Valentines/Friendship party on Monday February 14th at 2:00. Please have your child bring Valentines to share with the class. I will send a note and a list of the student's names.
Vocabulary
We have read the book "Mike Mulligan and His Steamshovel." Our vocabulary words are:
straightened
skyscraper
efficient
settled
diligent
cellar
Last week every student in the class got 100% on the vocabulary test. Yea!
Dress the kids appropriately for the weather conditions and have an enjoyable week.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)