2nd Grade
Welcome to our class website! I am looking forward to a wonderful year of learning and growing together.
Upcoming Dates
Here is what we've been up to in class! Reading / Writing Students have started researching their fast land change topic. Ask your child what topic they are researching and what they have learned so far! We started by reviewing how to read nonfiction very carefully to learn new information. Then we learned about the research process. Students asked questions about their topics and learned how to use various nonfiction text features to find the answers to their questions efficiently. The students also learned how to take “dash fact” notes, which is not copying the entire sentence from a text, but only writing down key words and using their own words. Next week we will begin writing paragraphs from their notes! Science We are continuing to explore fast and slow Earth changes during our science unit. We began learning about slow Earth changes last week and explored how water can change the Earth very slowly. The students created a model of a mountain (made out of cornmeal, salt and water) and observed what happened to the mountain after many rainstorms. The students observed how water can erode the Earth to create canyons (and also landslides in many of our experiments). Next week we will also learn about how wind and ice can erode Earth very slowly as well. Here are a few science words the students are learning: erosion, weathering and landforms. Math Unit 6 has been all about shapes and geometry! It has been fun playing with different shapes and learning their many different attributes. The students learned new vocabulary to describe shapes: parallel, congruent, line of symmetry, right angle and vertices. During the last few weeks we have focused on how to identify, describe, draw, and create 2-D shapes based on their defining features. Last week we learned the vocabulary word area, and began to explore the area of different shapes. We will continue learning about area next week along with fractions! Please look for the Unit 6 overview in your child’s take home folder next week.
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Upcoming Dates
Visiting the Lightning Bugs and making instruments! Creating Volcanoes in science: Celebrating Birthdays! Making Puppets of their Fable characters with pARTners! Here is what we've been up to in class!
Reading / Writing We completed our Folktale unit by finishing our Fables, creating puppets and taking the Unit 5 assessment. The assessments were handed back Friday before Spring Break. The students looked over their work and revised some of their thinking, if needed. Please check your child’s take home folder to see how they did on the assessment. Our next language arts unit will be all about research and nonfiction! We started in reading by reviewing text features and creating an All About Me text features book. After break, we will begin our first research unit! Students will learn about the research process, using nonfiction resources to find answers to questions, taking notes and sharing new learning with others. Students will pick one type of quick Earth change and one slow Earth change as their research topics. Please note we will also take the end of the year WYTOPP assessment. Please make sure your child arrives to school on time during those two days of testing. Science Before break we started our next science unit on quick/slow Earth changes. In the pictures below you will see the students working together to creating a mini volcano. Each time the volcano erupted, the students built new “land” with clay, to show how after each volcanic eruption, the land changes. After break, we will learn about other ways Earth’s land changes quickly, then we will learn about how it can also change very very slowly. Math The kids have been working on place value, using the number line to solve 2 digit addition/subtraction problems and story problems involving money. Last week, we finished Unit 5 on place value and money. Your child’s assessments should be in their take home folders. Please continue to work with coins, and how to write out dollars and cents whenever there is an opportunity at home or at the store! Lightning Bugs came to visit the last week in February! The kids were again great leaders with their Buddy! They first read the fable, The Lion and the Mouse, to their buddy and then helped him/her create a mouse and lion puppet. On Thursday, the Children’s Museum came to CES! They taught more about properties of materials, and the students constructed houses out of different materials to meet a certain weather/climate challenge. Upcoming Dates:
Reading We are still focused on the fiction genre, and have read many fun folktales, fables and trickster tales together. Our discussions have focused around...
Writing We are writing fables together! Students have been working on...
Social Studies/Science We have taken a small break from science and social studies for these few weeks, so we have more time to finish our Fable stories before Spring Break. Science will resume after Spring Break when we will focus on fast and slow land changes. Math We are continuing to learn about coins, the value of each coin, how to calculate the total sum of a variety of coins and how to solve story problems involving money. The kids are doing a great job with identifying each coin and totaling the sum of a collection of coins! Some are still confusing the nickel and the quarter, so if you get a chance to talk to your child about money and coins, have those discussions at home, too! Upcoming Dates
Here is what we've been up to in class! Reading In our fiction unit, we have focused on the genre of folktales and have read many folktales from around the world. In class we are working on...
Writing We are taking what we have learned about opinion paragraph writing, and now writing descriptive paragraphs for their Maker Mall product. The kids are learning about...
Science In the photos above, you will see the kids constructing their Monsters for our monster design challenge. The students had a list of criteria from a “Lots o’ Laughs Toy Company” looking to expand their monster toy line. Here is the criteria the students had to follow: They also needed to “buy” their materials, so they had to create a budget for their monster as well. Finally, they presented their monster with their partner and the class voted on the monster they thought would be the best for the new monster collection. We had a lot of fun creating our monsters! Social Studies In social studies, we have continued to learn about community and how communities around the world meet the needs of their citizens. Here is what the kids are learning…
Math Last week, we continued working on different units of measurement (inches, feet and yards). We focused on solving multi step addition and subtraction story problems involving measurement. Some of us were even ready to solve story problems asking to convert the answers from inches to feet or yards! Finally, we finished our measurement unit with a Unit assessment. I will share these unit assessments at conferences in the next few weeks. Next week we will start learning about money and coins! Visiting our Buddy Preschool!Colter Pride at Axis!Upcoming Dates
Here is what we've been up to in class! Reading In our new reading unit, we are focusing on culture, community and reading fictional stories. The kids have learned about...
Writing We have been writing lots of opinion paragraphs! The kids have worked hard on…
Social Studies/Science The students seem VERY excited about our Marker Mall unit! It is fun hearing about all of their product ideas! Last week, we worked on the science portion of this unit focusing on properties of materials. We completed an investigation called “The Great Show Slide”. In this investigation, the students were thinking about the materials their shoes are made of and what type of shoe would help a person not slide on a slippery surface. We also began a fun partner project where the students are creating a “monster” for a fake toy company. They need to plan and design a monster to fit a criteria the toy company has given them. On Monday/Tuesday, the students will construct their monster and will present their toy to the class. If your child has not decided on what he/she will create for the maker mall, please help them plan out a few ideas this coming week. We will start creating descriptions for their product the week of Feb 11th. Math In math we have began Unit 4 focusing on measurement. Students have learned about…
Discuss or find different items to measure around the house. Talk about what tool you could use to measure these items, and how to convert feet to inches or yards to feet. Winter Sports and Star Student PicturesPictures from before winter break...Upcoming Dates (new dates in red):
Since break the students have continued working on reading nonfiction with a focus on comparing and contrasting two nonfiction texts on the same topic. We have read about Volcanoes, Seeds and Grizzly bears! Monday, we will begin a new unit focusing on culture, community and reading fictional stories. Writing We began a new opinion writing unit. Last week, students practiced sorting facts vs. opinions, forming their own opinions and supporting their opinions with three reasons. This coming week we will begin writing opinion paragraphs. Be prepared to hear lots of opinions, but make sure your child is supporting their opinions with reasons and evidence. :-) Social Studies During this short unit, we are learning about current events. So far, we have discussed what a current event is and why they are important. We have also read a few current event articles and discussed how the event impacted people and/or nature. Next week, partners will read a few more current event articles together, take notes on the important parts, discuss how people and/or nature were impacted and also form their own opinions about what they learned. Math In math, we have continued working on double digit addition and subtraction story problems along with three step, double digit, addition story problems. Thank you for spending time with your child to write the ages of your family members! The kids had a lot of fun figuring out the difference in ages! Next week we will finish this Unit with some review practice Monday and assessment on Tuesday. Our week in photos:More Lightning Bugs PicturesI got the okay to post pictures of Juniper's preschool visit. Again, our 2nd graders were such great leaders and helpers! Upcoming Dates (new dates in red):
Updates from the classroom: Reading In reading we are continuing to focus on how readers understand informational text. The last week we have worked on:
Science See the pictures of the kids in action during science, they have had a lot of fun. During the last few weeks we have conducted the following experiments:
Writing During writing, we have been writing lab reports for most of the experiments we have conducted during science. Each lab report contains: a question, a hypothesis, materials list, procedures, observation drawings and description, hypothesis check and conclusion. While writing lab reports we have worked on:
Math This week we have focused on two subtraction strategies when subtracting double digit numbers: using the number line and base ten drawings. We also have started to work on some challenging, but fun story problems. The part that still can pose a challenge is understanding when to add numbers together or subtract. So, we have worked on highlighting important parts of story problems and noticing key vocabulary for addition and subtraction. Next week, the kids will design and write their own story problems for their classmates to solve. It should be fun! Upcoming Dates (new dates in red):
Updates from the classroom:
Reading In reading we are continuing to focus on how readers understand informational text. The last few weeks we have worked on:
Writing It was wonderful to see the excitement in the kids’ faces when they were preparing for their first publishing party. Thank you to all parents and family members who came to read all of their stories. During our new unit, we have switched our focus to writing informational and procedural pieces. We are blending our science and writing units, so the kids will experience many science experiments and will produce lab reports about their experiments. This week we began writing our first lab report together. Next week, the students will complete another lab report with a partner. Science This science unit focuses on properties and states of matter. We have discussed how solid materials have different properties (texture, flexibility, color etc.). We have explored how many objects in our classroom have similar properties. In our photos, you will see pictures of the kids conducting their first experiment with a “snowman”. Ask your child what they did during our snowman experiment! Next week, we will conduct our second experiment all about observing matter as a gas. Math This week we finished learning about how to measure items precisely. Students also learned how to accurately measure differences in lengths of an object and know why you can get different measurements for the same object if your measuring tool is different. The unit assessment will be graded and sent home this coming week. Next week, we will continue to work on using the number line to skip jump by 1s, 5s and 10s. Important Dates to Remember: Tuesday, 11/20 - 2nd Grade Publishing Party in Cafeteria at 10:15 Tuesday, 11/20 - Book orders due! Return to me or place order online Tuesday, 11/20 - Winter Sports forms due Wednesday, 11/21-23 - No school - Happy Thanksgiving! Friday, 11/30 - PTO’s Kids’ Night out 6:00-9:00 (Return your registration forms by 11/28) Friday, 12/21 Winter concert (more information and times will come after Thanksgiving break) Monday, 12/24 Winter break begins Wednesday, 1/2 - No School - Teacher PD day Thursday, 1/3 - School begins after break! Friday, 1/4 - First Winter Sports Day! Here is what we've been learning in class the past few weeks! Reading We have started our nonfiction unit! The kids spent a few days exploring the differences between fiction and nonfiction and are doing a great job! While reading nonfiction we have focused on:
Writing We are finalizing our personal narrative unit. Most students finished their first published 2nd grade story this week! Please join us for our first 2nd grade publishing party in the cafeteria next Tuesday at 10:15. See the flyer in your child’s take home folder. To get ready to publish the students worked on a few editing strategies:
Math In math, we have been following a Jack in the beanstalk story during our measuring unit. In the story Jack grows many beans of different colors and sizes and decides measure them. During this part of the story the kids worked on:
During the next part of the story, Jack decides to sell the beans at a Farmer’s market and sells each bean for 1 cent per cube length. During this part of the story the kids worked on:
Science We will begin our next science unit next week! Stay tuned for lots of talk about solids, liquids and gases, melting and freezing and lots of experiments! This is a really fun unit, and I can’t wait to teach it myself. |