It’s the online computer age… In case you didn’t see last week’s Thursday packet… we will now save paper by publishing it online at: http://www.op97.org/longfellow/digitalbackpack/. If you do wish to continue receiving paper copies you need to let the office know.
Also, you can fill out the optional Scholastic Book order online… go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs → parents →You’ll need to register & use our class activation code: 1FFAG. I’ve extended the due date to this Thursday, 1/28.
This short week will fly by, with Thursday’s field trip, and all the students’ wonderful book report presentations! Another special event is Friday’s celebration of the Wellness Committee theme for January: to get a good night of sleep and eat a healthy breakfast. So sleep in a bit on Friday morning and come to school in your PJs, for a healthy breakfast in the classroom! Olivia’s mom is organizing a potluck breakfast; please contact her (528-4032) to arrange what healthy food your child can contribute.
In reading this week we will finish our story map summaries of the book, Kate Shelly & the Midnight Express. Then we’ll learn more about individual dinosaurs by reading Dinosaur Time, and make a chart organizing the characteristics of these different dinosaurs. During our field trip we’ll “dig up” dinosaur bones in “the field”, and also work “in the lab” studying the bones to determine where they fit in the skeleton of a suchomimus. Back at school we will use what we experienced, as well as our fossil reading, to write about being a paleontologist. This week’s spelling words all use the consonant blends of wh or sh.
Math: As you can see from our last Home Link, we are learning to be observant of shapes, and notice how things are alike and how they are different. This is foundational to seeing & understanding how shapes are classified. This week we will study polygons (closed shapes with many angles or corners) and learn the difference between a line and a line segment.
Science: While we’re loving our Sink & Float study, this week our science is being paleontologists!
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar; Home Links and cursive papers are due the next day; practice your spelling
Due any day this week: January book report
Due Thursday: Parent-teacher conference confirmation forms; Field trip – wear comfortable Paleontologist’s clothes & bring a healthy snack as well as your lunch. Final day to submit paper or on-line Scholastic Book Orders & money; Spelling workbook, pages 74-77 (or meaningful sentences if you have challenge words).
For Friday: Spelling test; PJ & breakfast in the classroom day! Also, this is the last day for contributions for the St. Jude’s math-a-thon, and the Longfellow blanket drive.
Due next Monday: January Book It Calendar;
Capture 5 recording sheet of your moves in the game you play with an older member of your family.
Coming home: reading, spelling & math tests! The last reading test was quite difficult; and many students did very well on the last math test! Keep the important green packet about our March 18 Science Fair in a safe place for frequent referral. Also, parents, please note your conference time, attached, and return the confirmation slip!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Week of January 19, 2010
In addition to teaching the concrete skills of adding, subtracting, sounding out words to read, we are teaching thinking skills… using what we know to figure out new things. In reading we predict; in math we estimate; in science we make a hypothesis. These are not wild guesses, but are predictions based on clues that we know. This week we start a fun physical science study: Sink & Float. This is an excellent unit for our students to learn the scientific method of investigation. The sequel to this unit will be each student using the scientific method on his/her own science experiment (more information to follow) for our 2nd grade science fair on March 18!
Parents, it will really help your child if you can monitor his/her cursive homework practice, especially the pencil grip, posture & letter formation. Remember, these practice sheets are due the next day, (or asap). Reminder: these are due the next day! [See last week’s newsletter for more details.]
We’re reading 2 nonfiction pieces this week, Kate Shelly & the Midnight Express, and Dinosaur Fossils. While Kate Shelly is a historical character, this account of her heroism reads like a hair-raising adventure story! As the title suggests, Dinosaur Fossils deepens our understanding of fossils while providing information about a variety of dinosaurs.
This selection provides excellent background knowledge for next week’s field trip during which we will simulate doing the work of a paleontologist! Know these vocabulary words: dinosaurs, hardened, chance, difficult, scientist. Our spelling words provide practice with the vowel sound of /ar/. Working with the graphic organizers help build understanding and remembering the facts we learn.
Math: After months of working with numbers, and today’s math test, tomorrow we start a different kind of math: geometry. This is a refreshing break for many; there are many hands-on activities to explore 2- and 3-dimentional shapes. This is not a break from thinking though – we will learn and use new vocabulary words to do critical thinking as we note similarities and differences. We will also continue to review and practice the skills we’ve learned thus far, especially adding & subtracting.
I suggest reviewing & keeping the attached Family letter, a companion for our Home Links.
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar; Home Links and cursive papers are due the next day; practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due Thursday: Spelling workbook, pages 82-85
For Friday: Parents-return conference request form; To prepare for the reading test, take your reading book home, and reread the story with a parent; then summarize it, by identifying the main ideas. Be ready for spelling, reading & vocabulary tests;
Due next Tuesday: Capture 5 recording sheet of your moves in the game you play with an older member of your family.
Due next Wednesday: optional book orders (many good book possibilities for Feb. book report);
Due any day next week: your January book report
Reminder: no school next Monday
Many graded tests are coming home today: review them and “learn from your mistakes”.
Parents, it will really help your child if you can monitor his/her cursive homework practice, especially the pencil grip, posture & letter formation. Remember, these practice sheets are due the next day, (or asap). Reminder: these are due the next day! [See last week’s newsletter for more details.]
We’re reading 2 nonfiction pieces this week, Kate Shelly & the Midnight Express, and Dinosaur Fossils. While Kate Shelly is a historical character, this account of her heroism reads like a hair-raising adventure story! As the title suggests, Dinosaur Fossils deepens our understanding of fossils while providing information about a variety of dinosaurs.
This selection provides excellent background knowledge for next week’s field trip during which we will simulate doing the work of a paleontologist! Know these vocabulary words: dinosaurs, hardened, chance, difficult, scientist. Our spelling words provide practice with the vowel sound of /ar/. Working with the graphic organizers help build understanding and remembering the facts we learn.
Math: After months of working with numbers, and today’s math test, tomorrow we start a different kind of math: geometry. This is a refreshing break for many; there are many hands-on activities to explore 2- and 3-dimentional shapes. This is not a break from thinking though – we will learn and use new vocabulary words to do critical thinking as we note similarities and differences. We will also continue to review and practice the skills we’ve learned thus far, especially adding & subtracting.
I suggest reviewing & keeping the attached Family letter, a companion for our Home Links.
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar; Home Links and cursive papers are due the next day; practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due Thursday: Spelling workbook, pages 82-85
For Friday: Parents-return conference request form; To prepare for the reading test, take your reading book home, and reread the story with a parent; then summarize it, by identifying the main ideas. Be ready for spelling, reading & vocabulary tests;
Due next Tuesday: Capture 5 recording sheet of your moves in the game you play with an older member of your family.
Due next Wednesday: optional book orders (many good book possibilities for Feb. book report);
Due any day next week: your January book report
Reminder: no school next Monday
Many graded tests are coming home today: review them and “learn from your mistakes”.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Week of January 11, 2010
Congratulations 2nd graders—you hard-working students & supportive parents raised $685.35; on Wednesday a PADS representative will come visit our classes, collect this wonderful check, and talk with us about PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter)!
The exciting thing this week is starting to learn cursive writing! In order that students not practice bad habits, or incorrect formation, my rule is that students are not to write in cursive until I have taught them the letters. Once I’ve taught all the letters in their name, they may begin signing their name in cursive on their papers. Learning a new skill like this takes a lot of practice, so practice sheets will come home about 2 times each week. These are due the next day! Parents, your support at home during the cursive practice time is very valuable, to help establish good writing habits and letter formation! Please encourage your child to sit with good posture, and hold the pencil with the thumb and forefinger, allowing it to rest on the middle finger. This is a secure, but relaxed grip, which promotes efficient writing in the future, minimizing writer’s cramp. Please also watch to see that your child forms the letter correctly. Most letters start on the base line, and have a fluid motion and the pencil stays on the paper until the word is completed, then it is lifted to dot i’s and cross t’s: many students have a hard time learning to do this! The complement to handwriting is typing – the students are making good progress during our weekly Touch Typing lessons in the computer lab; and some are consistently practicing at home as well!
Another new thing we are starting is Logic lessons. This is an un-graded enrichment activity for those who get to their seats quickly in the morning.
Fossils and Dinosaurs: This week we read a fun piece of imagination: The Dinosaur Who Lived in my Backyard; the vocabulary to know is: hatched, neighborhood, swamp, rescue, sprinkler. Each student will also read a biography on Martin Luther King. Our spelling words provide practice with the important consonant blends: ch and th.
Math: We are finishing Unit 4 in math this week, with our test next Tuesday. My focus has been for the students to develop sensible, thinking strategies to do figure out these 2-digit addition and subtraction problems. Today’s Home Link gives an excellent explanation of the different strategies I have been teaching. I suggest you keep this in a safe place where you can refer to in from time-to-time, since the ability to use these different strategies is a life-long tool. This week I will also teach the partial sums algorithm (the Everyday Math clarification of the “carrying” method most of us learned for 2-digit addition), but mastery of that is not expected yet. FYI, there is a movie explaining the partial sums algorithm on the Everyday Math website. Go to https://www.everydaymathonline.com then to Free Family Resources, then to Algorithms in Everyday Mathematics and select Grade 2 and Addition, then click the Partial Sums Addition. We will start by working on 2 digit plus 2 digit numbers.
We will finish our Economics unit in Social Studies this week, with a test on Friday. Know this vocabulary: income, price, trade, wants, goods, factory, scarcity, bank, shelter, producer. For extra credit, know what a capital resource is (we’ll discuss it in class). Vocabulary flash cards are attached if you want to practice at home.
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar; Home Links and cursive papers are due the next day; practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 78-81; also bring your library book;
For Friday: be ready for social studies, spelling, reading & vocabulary tests; instead of a Mad Minute math packet, the Unit 4 Math study guide is due on Friday!
Due next Tuesday (No school Monday~~Happy Birthday, Dr. King!): Be ready for Unit 4 math test; gym shoes! story map (start thinking what book you’ll do your January book report on.)
Coming…
January book report will be due the week of Jan. 26 (no school the 25th)
Looking ahead… The February book report needs to relate to Black History Month or President’s Month. The book can be fiction or nonfiction, about Africa, African-Americans, George Washington and the Colonial Period, or Abraham Lincoln & the Civil War period. I offer to lend books from my own collection and/or to help students find books from the library if they wish. If you read a biography, your project can be coming “in character”, ie, presenting your book report as if you were that person coming to our classroom. Tell us about your life, and what you did that was so great that a book was written about you! Students who do their report on an African American can also be an orator at the “Night at the Museum” (Longfellow’s cool Black History program) on Friday evening, February 26.
Mark your calendar!
No School – 1/18, 1/25, 2/15, 3/1
Parent-Child-Teacher Conferences: Wed, 2/3 & 2/4; No school in the PM on 2/4 & 2/5.
Family Fun… consider using one of our days off school to take a family field trip to the Field Museum to enjoy their extensive dinosaur exhibit, which includes the awesome tyrannosaurus rex, Sue! I expect there won’t be much of a crowd there on Jan. 25, because it’s not a holiday.
Winter is here: please remember warm clothing & boots for outside, and shoes & sweater for inside. Keeping a water bottle here is also important.
The exciting thing this week is starting to learn cursive writing! In order that students not practice bad habits, or incorrect formation, my rule is that students are not to write in cursive until I have taught them the letters. Once I’ve taught all the letters in their name, they may begin signing their name in cursive on their papers. Learning a new skill like this takes a lot of practice, so practice sheets will come home about 2 times each week. These are due the next day! Parents, your support at home during the cursive practice time is very valuable, to help establish good writing habits and letter formation! Please encourage your child to sit with good posture, and hold the pencil with the thumb and forefinger, allowing it to rest on the middle finger. This is a secure, but relaxed grip, which promotes efficient writing in the future, minimizing writer’s cramp. Please also watch to see that your child forms the letter correctly. Most letters start on the base line, and have a fluid motion and the pencil stays on the paper until the word is completed, then it is lifted to dot i’s and cross t’s: many students have a hard time learning to do this! The complement to handwriting is typing – the students are making good progress during our weekly Touch Typing lessons in the computer lab; and some are consistently practicing at home as well!
Another new thing we are starting is Logic lessons. This is an un-graded enrichment activity for those who get to their seats quickly in the morning.
Fossils and Dinosaurs: This week we read a fun piece of imagination: The Dinosaur Who Lived in my Backyard; the vocabulary to know is: hatched, neighborhood, swamp, rescue, sprinkler. Each student will also read a biography on Martin Luther King. Our spelling words provide practice with the important consonant blends: ch and th.
Math: We are finishing Unit 4 in math this week, with our test next Tuesday. My focus has been for the students to develop sensible, thinking strategies to do figure out these 2-digit addition and subtraction problems. Today’s Home Link gives an excellent explanation of the different strategies I have been teaching. I suggest you keep this in a safe place where you can refer to in from time-to-time, since the ability to use these different strategies is a life-long tool. This week I will also teach the partial sums algorithm (the Everyday Math clarification of the “carrying” method most of us learned for 2-digit addition), but mastery of that is not expected yet. FYI, there is a movie explaining the partial sums algorithm on the Everyday Math website. Go to https://www.everydaymathonline.com then to Free Family Resources, then to Algorithms in Everyday Mathematics and select Grade 2 and Addition, then click the Partial Sums Addition. We will start by working on 2 digit plus 2 digit numbers.
We will finish our Economics unit in Social Studies this week, with a test on Friday. Know this vocabulary: income, price, trade, wants, goods, factory, scarcity, bank, shelter, producer. For extra credit, know what a capital resource is (we’ll discuss it in class). Vocabulary flash cards are attached if you want to practice at home.
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar; Home Links and cursive papers are due the next day; practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 78-81; also bring your library book;
For Friday: be ready for social studies, spelling, reading & vocabulary tests; instead of a Mad Minute math packet, the Unit 4 Math study guide is due on Friday!
Due next Tuesday (No school Monday~~Happy Birthday, Dr. King!): Be ready for Unit 4 math test; gym shoes! story map (start thinking what book you’ll do your January book report on.)
Coming…
January book report will be due the week of Jan. 26 (no school the 25th)
Looking ahead… The February book report needs to relate to Black History Month or President’s Month. The book can be fiction or nonfiction, about Africa, African-Americans, George Washington and the Colonial Period, or Abraham Lincoln & the Civil War period. I offer to lend books from my own collection and/or to help students find books from the library if they wish. If you read a biography, your project can be coming “in character”, ie, presenting your book report as if you were that person coming to our classroom. Tell us about your life, and what you did that was so great that a book was written about you! Students who do their report on an African American can also be an orator at the “Night at the Museum” (Longfellow’s cool Black History program) on Friday evening, February 26.
Mark your calendar!
No School – 1/18, 1/25, 2/15, 3/1
Parent-Child-Teacher Conferences: Wed, 2/3 & 2/4; No school in the PM on 2/4 & 2/5.
Family Fun… consider using one of our days off school to take a family field trip to the Field Museum to enjoy their extensive dinosaur exhibit, which includes the awesome tyrannosaurus rex, Sue! I expect there won’t be much of a crowd there on Jan. 25, because it’s not a holiday.
Winter is here: please remember warm clothing & boots for outside, and shoes & sweater for inside. Keeping a water bottle here is also important.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Week of January 4, 2010
I really appreciate the group class gift you gave me before the vacation! I spent the whole VISA gift card from you at the Spa at my health club – relaxing, being refreshed & renewed; Thanks so very much to all of you!! From the students’ comments, it sounds like the 2-week vacation was a wonderful, enjoyable change of pace for everyone.
Thank you too [spelling word] to Lori Bradford who coordinated my helpers & details for our Kindness Market and our classroom Holiday Party, and to all you other parents who were so supportive and helpful at these special events!
Today we began a new unit in reading: Fossils. This is a great sequel to our science study of rocks and soil in the fall. What makes this topic so interesting is that all we know about dinosaurs has been learned from studying fossils, so it’s also a Dinosaur unit! This week we read “Fossils Tell of Long Ago” by Aliki. The comprehension skill we work on is sequence, because the sequence, or order in which things happen, is so important in the formation of fossils. Tomorrow is our first venture into being a paleontologist… digging up “fossils” from the “Dirt Cups” Jackson’s mom is bringing in. The vocabulary words are: amber, fossil, extinct, peat, mammoth, seeps. Our spelling words all have the /oo/ sound, spelled in different ways. The spelling workbook gives good practice with the suffixes -ly, -ing.
With this Friday’s deadline for Longfellow submissions to the District writing contest, we are working this week on elaborating, revising, and editing our best writing.
Math Unit 4 is on developing strategies to do more complex addition and subtraction in our heads. The attached newsletter explains this well, and shows some excellent diagrams to help students organize their thinking, and visualize how to solve math word problems. You can reinforce what your child is learning in school by prompting him/her to use these strategies & tools at home. Also, please do not teach your child how to do pencil & paper vertical addition/subtraction of 2-digit numbers. In this unit your child will be learning other more concrete, 2nd grade level of thinking & understanding as s/he works with these bigger numbers (eg. tally marks, the 100 chart).
In Social Studies we continue our “People at Work” reading, learning about the difference between goods & services, and of the history of “work” (the first farmers). At home, see if you can explain your work to your child – do you produce goods, or provide services?
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar (it’ll hopefully come home tomorrow), Home Link as needed, practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due tomorrow: report card envelope; optional Book It calendar.
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 66-69; also bring your library book;
For Friday: spelling, reading & vocabulary test; Dino Field Trip permission slip & $10.
Due next Monday: play Capture 5 with an older person; turn in the paper of number models showing how you moved on each turn.
Coming…Dinosaur field trip to Children’s Museum on Thurs, 1/28; a few chaperones needed
Winter is here: please remember warm clothing & boots for outside, and shoes & sweater for inside. Keeping a water bottle here is also important.
Ask your child: Tell me what you learned from reading about fossils; [by the end of the week] show me with dimes and pennies how to add 47 to 39.
Thank you too [spelling word] to Lori Bradford who coordinated my helpers & details for our Kindness Market and our classroom Holiday Party, and to all you other parents who were so supportive and helpful at these special events!
Today we began a new unit in reading: Fossils. This is a great sequel to our science study of rocks and soil in the fall. What makes this topic so interesting is that all we know about dinosaurs has been learned from studying fossils, so it’s also a Dinosaur unit! This week we read “Fossils Tell of Long Ago” by Aliki. The comprehension skill we work on is sequence, because the sequence, or order in which things happen, is so important in the formation of fossils. Tomorrow is our first venture into being a paleontologist… digging up “fossils” from the “Dirt Cups” Jackson’s mom is bringing in. The vocabulary words are: amber, fossil, extinct, peat, mammoth, seeps. Our spelling words all have the /oo/ sound, spelled in different ways. The spelling workbook gives good practice with the suffixes -ly, -ing.
With this Friday’s deadline for Longfellow submissions to the District writing contest, we are working this week on elaborating, revising, and editing our best writing.
Math Unit 4 is on developing strategies to do more complex addition and subtraction in our heads. The attached newsletter explains this well, and shows some excellent diagrams to help students organize their thinking, and visualize how to solve math word problems. You can reinforce what your child is learning in school by prompting him/her to use these strategies & tools at home. Also, please do not teach your child how to do pencil & paper vertical addition/subtraction of 2-digit numbers. In this unit your child will be learning other more concrete, 2nd grade level of thinking & understanding as s/he works with these bigger numbers (eg. tally marks, the 100 chart).
In Social Studies we continue our “People at Work” reading, learning about the difference between goods & services, and of the history of “work” (the first farmers). At home, see if you can explain your work to your child – do you produce goods, or provide services?
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar (it’ll hopefully come home tomorrow), Home Link as needed, practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due tomorrow: report card envelope; optional Book It calendar.
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 66-69; also bring your library book;
For Friday: spelling, reading & vocabulary test; Dino Field Trip permission slip & $10.
Due next Monday: play Capture 5 with an older person; turn in the paper of number models showing how you moved on each turn.
Coming…Dinosaur field trip to Children’s Museum on Thurs, 1/28; a few chaperones needed
Winter is here: please remember warm clothing & boots for outside, and shoes & sweater for inside. Keeping a water bottle here is also important.
Ask your child: Tell me what you learned from reading about fossils; [by the end of the week] show me with dimes and pennies how to add 47 to 39.
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