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”.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Week of December 14, 2009
Thank you, thank you... for your wonderful responses to Lori’s & my requests for volunteers! It looks like we’re set for our Kindness Market tomorrow morning! Please make sure your child’s hand-made goods to sell are here at 8 AM. If you need to, you may bring them to the room as early as 7:30 AM. It would help your child if tonight you could pretend to be a customer, and, using real money, have your child make change for 1, 2 or 3 items. Also please remember to help your child set a price and determine how to display these treasures. The 2nd grade students have voted to have the local homeless shelter, PADS, be the recipient of our Kindness Market. PADS is a fine organization, staffed by many volunteers, so the money raised really will go (almost) directly to those in need.
The students did a wonderful job last week with their book reports, and engaged our interest in many fiction and non-fiction books! The evaluation is coming home today. When working on the report cards, I was pleased to note how many students met goals they had set at our fall conference—Congratulations!
The main things we will do & learn this week center on finishing these projects:
1. The Kindness Market! Having been producers, now we’ll be business people, selling our product, and mathematicians making change and counting our net sales.
2. Taking the different components of the Camouflage Unit test; the only part you can really prepare for is Wednesday’s vocabulary test (the definitions came home last Monday).
3. Finishing & assembling all the pages for our Tastings book, so you can celebrate your child’s learning (academic & nutritional) over the vacation. This may be a good time to put math & reading to use in making the recipes together in your kitchen.
4. Revise & polish the writing of our “Mayflower” voyage.
5. Continue “Author’s Chair”: each student is reading his/her best writing of the fall.
6. Start learning “the Scientific Method”. Last week’s investigation of the composting we’ve done was supposed to end our Rocks & Soil unit; however new questions emerged, so together we will design & begin another experiment about composting.
7. Continue work with concrete strategies of adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. Counting up when making change is a great example of this.
8. Make a gift for you – remember to let your child know how much you appreciate it.
Reminder… Wednesday we go to the library; bring in your old books so you can check out new ones for the vacation.
If you are able, bring in non-perishable food items or cash for Longfellow’s Drive to help care for hungry people. (Thank you for all the generosity so far!)
Homework Please sign & return the report card envelopes ASAP. I want you to have Happy Holidays, so no written work is assigned until the new year!! However, do find time every day to read (& mark your Book It calendar)!
Attached is the class directory, in case you want to arrange play dates.
I wish each of my students’ families peace, joy & contentment; I’ll see you in the New Year, on Monday, January 4, 2010!
fondly, Ms. Lambshead
The students did a wonderful job last week with their book reports, and engaged our interest in many fiction and non-fiction books! The evaluation is coming home today. When working on the report cards, I was pleased to note how many students met goals they had set at our fall conference—Congratulations!
The main things we will do & learn this week center on finishing these projects:
1. The Kindness Market! Having been producers, now we’ll be business people, selling our product, and mathematicians making change and counting our net sales.
2. Taking the different components of the Camouflage Unit test; the only part you can really prepare for is Wednesday’s vocabulary test (the definitions came home last Monday).
3. Finishing & assembling all the pages for our Tastings book, so you can celebrate your child’s learning (academic & nutritional) over the vacation. This may be a good time to put math & reading to use in making the recipes together in your kitchen.
4. Revise & polish the writing of our “Mayflower” voyage.
5. Continue “Author’s Chair”: each student is reading his/her best writing of the fall.
6. Start learning “the Scientific Method”. Last week’s investigation of the composting we’ve done was supposed to end our Rocks & Soil unit; however new questions emerged, so together we will design & begin another experiment about composting.
7. Continue work with concrete strategies of adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. Counting up when making change is a great example of this.
8. Make a gift for you – remember to let your child know how much you appreciate it.
Reminder… Wednesday we go to the library; bring in your old books so you can check out new ones for the vacation.
If you are able, bring in non-perishable food items or cash for Longfellow’s Drive to help care for hungry people. (Thank you for all the generosity so far!)
Homework Please sign & return the report card envelopes ASAP. I want you to have Happy Holidays, so no written work is assigned until the new year!! However, do find time every day to read (& mark your Book It calendar)!
Attached is the class directory, in case you want to arrange play dates.
I wish each of my students’ families peace, joy & contentment; I’ll see you in the New Year, on Monday, January 4, 2010!
fondly, Ms. Lambshead
Monday, December 7, 2009
Week of December 7, 2009
December is going fast--Volunteer requests abound! Please let me know if you can help with any of the following:
~~ Support our young producers & cashiers next Tuesday morning, 12/15, at our Kindness Market is a week from tomorrow!
~~ Supervise a math station (I’ll have the materials & lesson prepared for you) this Friday afternoon, (12/11) from 1: 15 – 2:30.
~~ Help with our Holiday Party on Friday, 12/18, from 1:10 – 2:50. Each student follows a recipe to make his/her potato latke from scratch, so about 3 adults are needed at that station; there are 3 other stations as well, including a Dreidel game.
~~ Buy the supplies for our Holiday party.
~~ Do you have ½ to 1 hour a week to help us (by giving praise & reminders, for keeping fingers in the correct typing position) in the Computer lab ?
Regarding our Kindness Market: Please help your child decide how much their crafts will be sold for and how they will display them. Their desks tops will be the selling area for most students. Please continue to help your child count money and make change at home. We are suspending our Mad Minutes math packets for the next few weeks to concentrate on counting money. A math money packet is coming home for all to do in place of the Mad Minute.
Our final Camouflage selection is “Animal Camouflage” This well-written expository text, with wonderful photographs, gives new information on camouflage as well reviewing what we’ve already learned in our camouflage, or “Look Again” unit. As we read this text, we will summarize, make connections & identify the main idea of each paragraph or section. The vocabulary words are: blend, marsh, mimicry, costume, surroundings. Our spelling words all have the long /o/ sound, spelled in different ways. The spelling workbook gives good practice with the suffixes -er, -est.
Writing Celebration! In the “Author’s Chair” each students will read his/her best writing of the fall to the class.
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. At home, see if you can explain your work to your child – do you produce goods, or provide services?
We finish up our science study of rocks & soil this week by exploring our compost, as well as 3 different kinds of soil: loam, clay & humus.
Homework
Due any day this 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). As you prepare for your Book Report, you may find it helpful to refer to the story maps & assessment of your last book report that are coming home today. Practice your book report summary at home. “Are you loud, proud and looking at the crowd?”
Daily: practice making change, in preparation for the Kindness Market, Home Link as needed, read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your Book It calendar; practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due Wednesday: Go outside & gather these things to bring to school for making soil: sticks, leaves, pebbles, bark, roots! Also bring your library book; Spelling workbook, pages 62-65 (many students used their time well in class today, and were able to finish the spelling book)
For Friday: spelling test, & abbreviated reading/vocabulary test; Math-a-thon participation form due for extra math work/fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hosp.
Due next Monday: money (math) packet
Coming… Tuesday, Dec. 15: Kindness Market--have your home-made, non-food, goods here ready to sell by 8 AM.
Wed, Dec. 16 – Camouflage unit vocabulary test
Also coming home today: spelling words, coin math packet; Camouflage vocabulary & definitions; also I’m returning your story maps & book report feedback;
The first trimester report card will come home on Friday.
More opportunities for Kindness – If you are able, bring in non-perishable food items or cash for Longfellow’s Drive to help care for hungry people.
Winter has begun, bringing more opportunities for fun, as well as flu! Sitting in class in cold, wet pants, socks & shoes is an invitation for all those germs. For snow play, winter boots are needed. For more fun, wear snowpants! Don’t forget mittens & hats.
~~ Support our young producers & cashiers next Tuesday morning, 12/15, at our Kindness Market is a week from tomorrow!
~~ Supervise a math station (I’ll have the materials & lesson prepared for you) this Friday afternoon, (12/11) from 1: 15 – 2:30.
~~ Help with our Holiday Party on Friday, 12/18, from 1:10 – 2:50. Each student follows a recipe to make his/her potato latke from scratch, so about 3 adults are needed at that station; there are 3 other stations as well, including a Dreidel game.
~~ Buy the supplies for our Holiday party.
~~ Do you have ½ to 1 hour a week to help us (by giving praise & reminders, for keeping fingers in the correct typing position) in the Computer lab ?
Regarding our Kindness Market: Please help your child decide how much their crafts will be sold for and how they will display them. Their desks tops will be the selling area for most students. Please continue to help your child count money and make change at home. We are suspending our Mad Minutes math packets for the next few weeks to concentrate on counting money. A math money packet is coming home for all to do in place of the Mad Minute.
Our final Camouflage selection is “Animal Camouflage” This well-written expository text, with wonderful photographs, gives new information on camouflage as well reviewing what we’ve already learned in our camouflage, or “Look Again” unit. As we read this text, we will summarize, make connections & identify the main idea of each paragraph or section. The vocabulary words are: blend, marsh, mimicry, costume, surroundings. Our spelling words all have the long /o/ sound, spelled in different ways. The spelling workbook gives good practice with the suffixes -er, -est.
Writing Celebration! In the “Author’s Chair” each students will read his/her best writing of the fall to the class.
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. At home, see if you can explain your work to your child – do you produce goods, or provide services?
We finish up our science study of rocks & soil this week by exploring our compost, as well as 3 different kinds of soil: loam, clay & humus.
Homework
Due any day this 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). As you prepare for your Book Report, you may find it helpful to refer to the story maps & assessment of your last book report that are coming home today. Practice your book report summary at home. “Are you loud, proud and looking at the crowd?”
Daily: practice making change, in preparation for the Kindness Market, Home Link as needed, read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your Book It calendar; practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due Wednesday: Go outside & gather these things to bring to school for making soil: sticks, leaves, pebbles, bark, roots! Also bring your library book; Spelling workbook, pages 62-65 (many students used their time well in class today, and were able to finish the spelling book)
For Friday: spelling test, & abbreviated reading/vocabulary test; Math-a-thon participation form due for extra math work/fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hosp.
Due next Monday: money (math) packet
Coming… Tuesday, Dec. 15: Kindness Market--have your home-made, non-food, goods here ready to sell by 8 AM.
Wed, Dec. 16 – Camouflage unit vocabulary test
Also coming home today: spelling words, coin math packet; Camouflage vocabulary & definitions; also I’m returning your story maps & book report feedback;
The first trimester report card will come home on Friday.
More opportunities for Kindness – If you are able, bring in non-perishable food items or cash for Longfellow’s Drive to help care for hungry people.
Winter has begun, bringing more opportunities for fun, as well as flu! Sitting in class in cold, wet pants, socks & shoes is an invitation for all those germs. For snow play, winter boots are needed. For more fun, wear snowpants! Don’t forget mittens & hats.
Monday, November 30, 2009
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…
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…
Monday, November 23, 2009
Week of November 23, 2009
There are no tests this week other than today’s math test. We are reading a charming fiction story about camouflage, “Hungry Little Hare”, and students are expected to learn these vocabulary words from the story: scent, avoid, disguise, disappear, sneaky.
After Tuesday morning’s time travel to 1620, in the afternoon our “Tastings” geographic travel takes us to Greece.
There is no homework due next Monday, but there is a lot coming up to keep in mind. Remember to continue your daily 20-minute reading at home. For some, the 5-day break from school may be a perfect time for you to work on your next book report (& project) due the week of Dec. 7, and/or making crafts to sell at our Kindness Market (Dec. 15).
Coming home today: End-of-trimester timed tests of addition & subtraction facts (some of you wrote goals about improving your word on basic facts.)
Due Dates:
Tuesday, Dec 1: Salmon colored Kindness Market planner & the November Book It Calendar
Week of Dec. 7: Book Reports (see description of the 3 components on my webpage)
Tuesday, Dec. 15: Kindness Market-have your “goods” here ready to sell by 8.
This is the final invitation to families who are available to come to our Mayflower reenactment… Come to Room 203 at 9:50 (stop first at the office to get a pass). We will start promptly at 10:00.
Students, remember to bring or wear your “costume”.
I wish everyone a renewing and meaningful Thanksgiving weekend!
Ms. Lambshead
After Tuesday morning’s time travel to 1620, in the afternoon our “Tastings” geographic travel takes us to Greece.
There is no homework due next Monday, but there is a lot coming up to keep in mind. Remember to continue your daily 20-minute reading at home. For some, the 5-day break from school may be a perfect time for you to work on your next book report (& project) due the week of Dec. 7, and/or making crafts to sell at our Kindness Market (Dec. 15).
Coming home today: End-of-trimester timed tests of addition & subtraction facts (some of you wrote goals about improving your word on basic facts.)
Due Dates:
Tuesday, Dec 1: Salmon colored Kindness Market planner & the November Book It Calendar
Week of Dec. 7: Book Reports (see description of the 3 components on my webpage)
Tuesday, Dec. 15: Kindness Market-have your “goods” here ready to sell by 8.
This is the final invitation to families who are available to come to our Mayflower reenactment… Come to Room 203 at 9:50 (stop first at the office to get a pass). We will start promptly at 10:00.
Students, remember to bring or wear your “costume”.
I wish everyone a renewing and meaningful Thanksgiving weekend!
Ms. Lambshead
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