Post 22

IMPORTANT DATES:

Monday, March 27, 2017 - Field Trip - Greater Boston Cultural Center

Thursday, June 8, 2017 - Field Trip - Boston Children's Museum

On the day of each trip, please send your child to school with a paper bag lunch. We will not be purchasing lunch on either trip. We'll remind you and fill in details closer to our field trips.

REMINDERS: 

Water bottles: Please make sure to send your child to school with a sport top water bottle (i.e. one that will not spill when tipped over) each morning that s/he should bring into class each morning to keep on his/her table to have easy access to water throughout the day. Thanks! 

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: 

• Read Ivy and Bean
• Worked in our independent reading books to explain ways that characters change and stay the same throughout our books and make personal connections between our friendships and friendships that we are reading about.

At home, talk to your child about the characters in their books. How are they similar or different from their characters? How are their characters changing in their books? Why do they think their characters are changing? 

Next week, we will work in our new unit on inferring and questioning.

In Fundations (Word Study): 

• We worked in unit 9, in which we focus on the sounds of er, ir and ur. These are trickier, as they all make the same sound! Students are using the spelling options procedure to determine the conventional spelling of these words.  
• Trick words - picture, learn, and earth.

At home, please refer to the Unit 9 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 9. 

In writing/social studies: 

• We finished our special writing project on Mexico and most students have published their Mexican teaching books.
• We flew to China and shared what we already know and want to know about China.

At home, talk to your child about China. Ask about what they want to know about China. Help them explore their interests to learn more through books and the internet.       

Next week, in writing, we will begin a new unit on opinion writing. In social studies, we will be studying China. 

In math:

• We learned about "ballpark estimates" and used them to help determine if our calculated sums seemed appropriate. 
• We learned more about the partial sums algorithm and practiced using it.
• We solved addition problems with 3 or more addends by rearranging numbers to make problems friendlier. 

At home, ask your child about ballpark estimates, present a double digit addition problem and ask her/him to show you how they would solve it using partial sums or have your child show you how they would rearrange these number to make this problem friendlier:

14 + 2 + 3 + 15 + 1 + 5 =
  

Next week, we will continue to practice using the partial sums algorithm, solve comparison number stories, and practice organizing and displaying data in a bar graph.

Have a great weekend!