Post 12

IMPORTANT DATES:

December 8, 2016: 12:30 dismissal

December 26-January 2: NO SCHOOL - December recess - School resumes on Tuesday, 1/3 


REMINDERS: 

Wow words: Please continue to help your child gather new words each week and bring them in on Wow Word Wednesday. Here are links to an online dictionary (Merriam Webster for kids - Word Central) and our wow word worksheet in case you need a new one.

CURRICULUM UPDATE:

In reading we: 

• Read The School Mouse by Dick King Smith, My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook and The 4th of July Story by Alice Dagliesch. 
• Worked on summarizing while reading to increase comprehension.  

At home, ask your child to tell you about what s/he is reading. Who are his/her favorite characters in the stories. What does s/he like about these characters?    

In Fundations (Word Study) we: 

• Practiced reading and writing words with the the suffixes -s, -es, -ing, -ed, -er and -est.   
• Trick words: sure, use, used 

At home, Please refer to the Unit 5 family letter to learn how you can support our word study work at home. Also, look though the fundations - word study section on my website. There, you will find all of the first and second grade trick words. If your child needs practice with these words, please practice through activities such as playing bingo, memory or through reviewing them on flashcards. Here is a link to a great website with different sight word games that you might like to try. Finally, please check your child's homework each night with them to see if they are grasping the fundations concepts that they are practicing. If they are not, please let me know by writing down your observations on the back of the homework sheet, but also feel free to help teach them concepts they are not grasping. 

Next week, we will wrap up unit 4 and move on to unit 5, in which we will begin reading and forming multisyllabic words from 2 closed syllables.   

In writing we: 

• Finished our small moments unit!  

At home, help your child think about topics in which they are experts, as we will begin our informational writing unit next week.

In math we:

• Began a project-based math unit called Measuring for the Art Show. This unit focuses on the development of the open number line model within the context of measurement. Next week, we will begin using the open number line to solve problems requiring double digit addition. Please refer to the math practices section of our website to learn about how this will be taught in second grade and how we would like you teach teach your child at home. 

In Social Studies we:

• continued our work in our United States unit by learning about Independence Day, local and national landmarks, various landforms in our country and after reading Me on The Map, we used google earth to see our specific place on the map, starting in our classroom at Memorial-Spaulding and ending with our galaxy.

Throughout this unit, we will focus on what life is like in the United States as a basis for future comparisons with Mexico, China and Ghana. We will talk about art and culture (with a particular focus on Jazz), food, important places, important landforms, sports in our culture and national celebrations. We will also discuss world geography and landforms. Engaging in discussions about any of these topics as they naturally come up would be a great connection between home and school. 

Next week, we will finish up our U.S. unit and begin our trip to Mexico!

Have a great weekend!