Last week’s book reports were well-done! I was impressed with how beautifully these 2nd graders did, this first time giving an oral report to the class! Sharing their enjoyment of these stories inspires their classmates, so we’ll keep the projects here a few more days before sending them home.
I hope to get some photos of our wonderful Halloween characters in costume mounted onto my blog (webpage linked to Longfellow’s page). Our party was wonderfully sane, creative & enjoyable, thanks to our parent helpers: Lori (Julian’s mom), Annette (Kai’s mom), Joan & Don (Eleanor’s parents), Dragana (Nina’s mom), Alison (Joseph’s mom) and Tali (Ian’s mom)! We made & munched on vegetable skeletons and apple/nut/olive faces, and then ate ghosts!
Today we began a new reading unit, called “Look Again”. It’s about how we need to “look again” in order to see animals that are using camouflage. We will read a lot of nonfiction, or expository writing, including our first selection, “I See Animals Hiding”. So, in addition to learning a lot about camouflage, and how many animals use it, we’ll also learn the characteristics of expository writing, in preparation for the research & expository writing we will do later this year. The vocabulary words for this story are: unaware, slithering, wariest, natural, invisible. Our spelling words teach us about the funny schwa sound – a vowel sound in an unaccented syllable that is neither short nor long. In the workbook we are also practicing how to use more precise, interesting words in our writing, such as enormous instead of big.
Tomorrow is our Unit 2 Math test on the material we went over today (on the study guide). See the attached worthwhile Family Letter on Unit 3. We will work on: frames & arrows using 2 different rules; money; and “place value” using base 10 blocks; you can reinforce place value at home by using coins: 47 cents is 4 dimes + 7 pennies. The dimes are like our 10’s longs, the pennies are like the 1’s cubes. An important money skill to learn this fall is how to make change.
Our Social Studies/Tasting Travels take us to the land “down under”: Australia, home of Granny Smith apples.
Did you hear that our live worms arrived on Friday? So now we’ll observe to see if & how worms aid in the making of compost. In our study of rocks, we are learning about erosion.
Homework
Daily: Read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your new November Book It Calendar; practice your spelling & vocabulary words & math facts (Every day do a Mad Minute worksheet and use your triangle flash cards.) See how many vocabulary words you can use in your conversation!
Due tomorrow: Be ready for the math test; optional: bring in your October Book It Calendar & UNICEF box (kudos to you if you collected for UNICEF on Halloween!)
Due Wednesday: bring your library book if you want to check out a new one! Spelling workbook, pages 42-45; those doing challenge words, write a meaningful sentence with 5 of the challenge words instead of doing pages 44 & 45. Leave your sentences in the spelling workbook, at this week’s lesson. For Thursday: reading & vocabulary tests, spelling test on the schwa sound
For Friday: Enjoy the holiday to honor our country’s Veterans; think of what you can do as a citizen of our country and of the world, to contribute to peace and the health of our planet.
For next Monday: Story Map on a book you read at home, Mad Minute packet C1, gym shoes
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