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.