Mrs. Tabor’s 2^nd Grade Weekly News

9/21 – 9/25

 

Dear Families,

            For the first week of “official” homework, your children did a great job!  Thanks to a one of you, I realized that there is some confusion with the spelling assessment and the homework journal.  Let me clarify.  Your children are responsible for the 5 word wall words in their homework journal each week.  Depending on your child’s spelling ability, some children have an additional 10 words that are pulled from their spelling pattern they are working on this week.  Those are words that you can practice in any way that works for you and your family, but I will add those www.spellingcity.com for your child to practice. 

            From now on, we will have library on Tuesday, so make sure that you send library books back to school Tuesday mornings.  As students become more independent in the library, we will add additional library days for small groups.

            Following is a list of activities and announcements for next week.  Please contact me with any questions.  Thank you!    

 

Related Arts for Next Week:  Enrichment

Daily Lunch Time:  10:43 – 11:09 am

 

Daily Homework:

-          Read 15 minutes each night and record title in student agenda.

-          Word Wall Words: students should be able to recognize and spell the following words by Friday, September 25^th : third, clean, took, head, money

-          Study words 6-15 in agenda.  These words are from your child’s Words Their Way group.  Students will be assessed on these words on September 25^th.

-          Please check agenda and take home folder nightly. Sometimes assignments will come home to be corrected, completed and returned.

-          Homework Notebooks due every Friday

 

Reader’s Workshop:

What is schema? How can this help me as a reader? 

-          This week we will learn about schema.  Schema includes all the experiences in one person’s life.  When students use their schema while reading, they are using their prior knowledge to make connections to their books.  We discuss how each person’s schema is unique to them.  Students will practice explaining their schema about their just right books using the following schema thinking stems:  That reminds me of…, I’m remembering…, I have a connection to…, I have schema for…, and I can relate to.

-          As a part of our work with schema, students will also practice making text to self, text to text, and text to world connections. 

 

Word Work: 

-          We have 3 groups: long a- and short a- vowels, CVCe and CVVC (like a_e and ai_ words), and dipthongs (oi_ or _oy words).  The long a and short a group will only be tested on the word wall words.  The other 2 groups will be tested on the word wall words, plus 10 additional words that fit their spelling pattern.

-          Students will be quizzed on the 10 words provided last week on September 25^th. 

 

Math Workshop:

What is half of an inch?

How do I find an accurate / precise measurement?

How do I collect and display measurement data?

-          This week we will continue our measurement unit.  We will practice measuring items to the nearest ½”.  We will also measure our heights and learn how to use our data to create a table and make a line plot. Then we will come up with questions we could ask someone to answer about our line plot.    

 

Social Studies:

What does Habit 6:  Synergize mean?

This week we will learn about Habit 6.  Synergy is achieved when two or more people work together to create a better solution than either would have thought of alone. It’s not your way or my way, but a better way.

 

Writer’s Workshop:

What are the parts of a friendly letter?

How do I write a friendly letter?  How do I respond to a friendly letter? 

-          This week we will work on how to write friendly letters.  Students will also learn the five main parts of a friendly letter; heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature.  They will also exchange a few letters with another second grader from a different classroom. 

 

Other Information:

-          We will take our last section of the MAP test this week.  We will test on September 23^rd  from 1-2 pm.

-          The Husky Hustle will take place on Friday, September 25^th during our related arts time from 11:45-12:30 pm.  Parents are welcome to join the students while they walk.  Students can continue to collect pledge money.  The class who earns the most will win a new iPad for their classroom!