Post 28

NEW INFORMATION:

Hello Families,

We are excited to introduce our next at home project for the 2^nd graders!

1. Your child will have the next two weeks to complete an assignment on China that they will present to the class.  Projects will be due May 18^th, however your child may bring it in anytime the week of May 15^th.

2. The 2^nd graders are to research an aspect of China. Some ideas for a theme may include:

-       The Great Wall

-       The Forbidden City

-       The Yellow or Yangtze river

-       An Emperor

-       Holidays

-       Beijing

-       Landmarks

3.  The 2^nd graders are to prepare a presentation to present to the class, such as:

-       Power Point

-       poster

-       model

Their presentation must have a written component that includes:

-       The topic

-       Why it is important to China?

-       At least 3 important facts

-       2 sources of information, either books or the internet

-       List of sources with Book Title by Author or name of website & address

Students are expected to continue reading nightly and completing the reading response as usual.

Please contact us with any questions, comments or concerns.

                      The Second grade team

IMPORTANT DATES:

Thursday, May 11, 2017  - our first session of CAP 

Thursday, May 11, 2017 - 12:30 Release

Wednesday, May 19, 2017 - Our Day in Ghana presentation

Thursday, May 18, 2017 (or any prior day that week)- China projects due       

Thursday, May 18, 2017 - our second session of CAP

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

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 compared fables.
• We practiced and presented fables reader's theater.
• We began learning about another type of folktale - pourquoi tales.  

At home, search the internet for pourquoi tales that you can read together. 

Next week, we will continue reading and learning more about pourquoi tales.

In fundations (word study): 

• Continued our work in unit 11, which covers the long e sound. 
• We used the spelling options procedure to practice writing words with long e using the vowel teams ee, ea, ey and e-e, e and y.
• Trick words son, won and whose  

At home, please refer to the Units 1-11 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 working in unit 11.

In social studies: 

• We read and wrote about inventions from China.
• We read, watched a video and wrote about Chinese foods.

At home, begin working on the China project. Help your child choose a topic, begin gathering resources, and choose a format for the project.       

Next week, we will learn about Chinese New Year.

In science we:

• We examined the new creatures in our room - caterpillars! We wrote and drew about what we already know about caterpillars and observed our caterpillars, noting what we observed in our journals.

At home, ask your child about what they observed with their caterpillars this week and talk about what they wonder about caterpillars.

Next week, we will continue learning more about caterpillars.

In writing: 

• We wrote opinion pieces, starting with a topic sentence that states our opinion, providing a most important reason to support our opinion, stating multiple examples and writing a conclusion. 

Next week, we will continue working in our opinion writing unit.

In math:

• We measured objects on our playground in meters.
• We measured objects in our classroom in feet, inches, decimeters and centimeters.
• We worked on solving number stories involving measurement. 

At home, challenge your child to estimate distances or lengths in your home and then measure them accurately. 
  

Next week, we will finish our measurement unit and begin a unit in place value.

Have a great weekend!