2^nd Grade November News

        October was a fun and very busy month. We ended our Mystery Unit of study by participating in solving the mystery, “Who Borrowed Mr. Bear?” The students had a great time using their detective and scientists skills to solve the mystery.

        You will be getting your child’s report card home prior to conferences. The report cards will be sent home in a large manila envelope. Please remove your child’s report card and sign on the label to indicate to us that you have received it. Then send the envelope back to school as we will use this same envelope for your child all year.

        The comments sections of the report card are quite small and we’ve covered a lot of ground already this fall. On the report cards, we’ve just put a list of what’s been done. The remainder of this newsletter will be a more detailed explanation.

        Reading: We have spent quite a bit of time assessing each child’s reading level. We are using the district’s PALS assessment. This helps us to know the student’s spelling, oral reading in context – which includes fluency and comprehension, and sight word lists. You will be seeing your child’s printout at conferences. We have also been working on choosing appropriate reading materials. The students should be choosing books that are slightly challenging for them, not the books that are just right. Just right books, or too easy books, are great for practicing fluency at home. We have also been working on comprehension strategies. The strategies we’ve covered so far are: making predictions before and during reading, making connections, questioning, and visualization. You will be seeing your child’s reading response journals at conference where they’ve used these strategies to respond to books they have read in class. Writing responses is something fairly new to the students and it has been challenging.

        Writing: Writing has really crossed all the curriculum areas. We write responses to literature, we write scientific observations, and we write mathematical explanations (procedures). Along with those forms of writing, we’ve also been working on “Living the Writerly Life”, a unit of study where we work to see the world as writers do and work to build up our writing muscles and stamina. We are beginning our personal narratives which will be the first books we publish this year.

        Social Studies: Our focus so far has been building classroom community; looking at rights and responsibilities or each member of this community. We have also been doing daily geography to introduce students to reading maps. Then we did a week long mapping unit where we introduced the kids to different kinds of maps and latitude and longitude. We also worked to create a birds-eye view map of our classrooms.

        Science: Some students have seen Mr. McGill for science as part of the specialist rotation, and some have not seen him yet. The grades on the report card are from the science we’ve been doing in our homerooms. So far in homeroom science, we’ve discussed classification and learned that there are WAY more species of insects than any other kind of animal. We’ve also observed and studied frogs and toad and their life cycles. And we’re in the middle of our insect unit where we are using our observation skills and will be conducting our first scientific investigation of the year.

        Math: Math comments will be different for each child depending on whether they are in 2^nd, 3^rd or 4^th grade math. The comments section of the report card lists what has been covered so far in the classes. Every student should be working on memorizing basic facts for quick recall. By the end of 2^nd grade, students should be able to complete 30 math fact problems in about 1 minute. Students should also be working on telling time on analog clocks and counting money and making change.

        The weather continues to baffle us, so please make sure your child has a jacket appropriate for the early morning weather each day. Students will not be allowed to play in the snow unless they are wearing boots and they will not be allowed to roll in the snow unless they are also wearing snow pants. It’s miserable to sit through the rest of the day in wet clothes.

        Thank you for continuing to send in healthy snacks each day. Please don’t send in so much for snack that it takes more than 10 minutes for your child to completely finish it.

        We look forward to seeing you at conferences either on November 5^th, 10^th, or 13^th.  Please review your child’s report card and come prepared with any questions you may have.

Thank you,

The 2^nd Grade Team