Week of November 30, 2009

Thank you to all our wonderful Mayflower sailors & Pilgrims, and their families who came to watch! You can view photos of our reenactment on the Longfellow homepage, or use this direct link: http://www.op97.org/longfellow/archives0910/mayflower/index.html You can also print a copy of the Book It Calendar from Longfellow’s homepage, in case you ever misplace your original.

Our Camouflage selection for this week is an African folktale, “How the Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots”. As we read this delightful story, reminiscent of Kipling’s “Just So” stories, we will work on the thinking skills of classifying & categorizing, predicting & verifying as well as drawing conclusions. The vocabulary words for this story are: glossy, delicious, cautiously, scramble, slinking.

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).
Social Studies:
* Our final Tasting travels take us to Europe again: Sweden, for yummy blueberry soup!
* We will tie up our Pilgrim learning by doing some math, reading and writing related to Pilgrims.
* We start Unit 4: People at Work. The Kindness Market started years ago, as a way to help my students understand the concepts of goods, consumers & producers. We will learn about Olivia’s dad’s job tomorrow, as he shares about his work studying the brain and all the things our brains can do. If you would like to teach us about your work, in 2nd grade terms, please let me know.
Touch Typing: We have begun using the computer program, “Custom Typing”. Your child can also work on this at home, as long as you can supervise and make sure s/he is using the correct hand position & fingering. S/he knows the correct ID & password-these IDs are Not to be used by anyone else, because this program really is customized to your child’s skill and progress. Your child can find the “Custom Typing” link is right on the district homepage. Also, is there a parent who could come for an hour a week to help ensure that the students are using the correct finger on the keyboard? If so, please contact me.
Homework
Daily: Home Link (??), Read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your Book It calendar; count coins, practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due tomorrow: Salmon-colored Kindness Market planner & the November Book It Calendar; If you can, bring the Pilgrim packet I handed out last Tuesday.
Due Wednesday: library book; Spelling workbook, pages 58-61; those doing challenge words, write a meaningful sentence with 5 of the challenge words instead of doing pages 60-61. Leave your sentences in the spelling workbook, at this week’s lesson.
For Friday: reading, vocabulary & spelling (long /i/ sounds) tests. Optional: Book orders due, so your books will be back before the winter break. Please email me if you want to order online. Math-a-thon participation form due for extra math work/fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hosp.
Due next Monday: Mad Minute D2
Due any day next week: Book report: bring in the book and a creative project related to the book; using either the fiction or nonfiction story map as a guide, tell us about the book, and why you liked it (for further information, see my webpage).
Coming… Tuesday, Dec. 15: Kindness Market--have your home-made goods here ready to sell by 8 AM.
Also coming home today: spelling words, Everyday Math letter/resource for parents, Mad Minute D2, Dec. Book It Calendar, Book Order forms…