Post 16

Dear Second Grade Families,

As you know, we've asked for your feedback regarding homework and have been working to reiterate expectations in the classroom.  To this end, we've been working to redefine expectations as necessary.  Our work with your children over the past two weeks has focused on clarifying what needs to be done to achieve individual hopes and dreams; and, as importantly, how this will be done.

Our team has decided that homework tasks will change but will remain within the district's guidelines for total time spent on homework based on the following conclusions:

• Homework routines are important

• Most families value homework

• Teachers and families value reading tasks above other homework tasks

Moving forward:

• Total time spent on homework will remain 30 minutes.
• Nightly reading of at least 20 minutes will continue.
• BEGINNING JANUARY 23^rd - Nightly reading response

• Nightly math and spelling review worksheets will not continue. 
• Additional resources will be available to families on our websites, and may be given as “homework” at the discretion of individual families.

Our team will spend next week teaching and practicing homework routines with students in the classroom.

- The Second Grade Team

IMPORTANT DATES:

January 16, 2017 - NO SCHOOL - Martin Luther King Jr. Day

REMINDERS: 

Wow words:  Please continue to help your child gather new words each week through their reading and your conversations at home 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. This is an ongoing reminder for the year. Please make acquiring new words part of your home routine.

CURRICULUM UPDATE:

In reading we: 

• Finished My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett and wrote and answered questions about important parts of the story.
• Read multiple books about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and wrote about what we learned about him, why he was important and how he can inspire us. 

At home, discuss Martin Luther king Jr.'s work and how we can solve problems peacefully, both at home and at school.   

In Fundations (Word Study) we: 

• Continued work in unit 6, moving into reading and writing multisyllabic words with the vowel-consonant-e syllable within them.
• Played fundations bingo
• Trick words: only, house, move, place, together, right   

At home, please refer to the Unit 6 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. 

Next week, we will continue our work in unit 6.   

In writing we: 

• Continued writing informational books. We discussed how to best work with a writing partner and began choosing our best chapters for publishing our first piece.  

At home, talk about your child's writing. Ask about what each chapter is about and feel free to make suggestions. You could also encourage your child to do research on his/her topic to have more information to add to his/her book. 

Next week, we will continue our work on writing informational books, adding in a research component for those who choose to.

In math we:

• Continued practice with number stories.

At home, continue to help your child to apply their understanding of adding double digit numbers to real-life situations, such as when adding money and when talking about time. Ask them to explain how they solved their problems as well.

Next week, we will begin a new unit about geometry.  

In Social Studies we:

• Learned about the Day of the Dead. We chose traditions to write about and all made a calaca (a skull figure that is commonly used for decoration during Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico).

At home, talk with your child about what they learned about The Day of the Dead. 

Enjoy your long weekend!