Hello Families,
We hope that you are all doing well and that your breaks were restful. It’s been awhile since we have shared any information.
Swimming
Reminder: Our class starts swimming in PE on Tuesday. Information has been shared via seesaw. Our class will swim a total of 9 times during PE. Remember to send swimsuits, goggles, etc on Tuesday.
Reading
Our class has spent the last 6 weeks learning and practicing nonfiction reading skills as well as strategies for discussing nonfiction reading with others. We are now shifting into a study of series books in small groups. These “book-clubs” will be centered around a chapter book series. Students will learn strategies and skills for thinking about and discussing these books. We will also spend a lot of time learning and practicing oral reading fluency skills. We will choose texts for students sometimes, while students will choose texts for themselves as well. A gentle nudge to try something new is often needed at this time of the year. Please continue reading at home each evening. Your child should be bringing new books home each night.
Math
We have been working on the foundations of multiplication and division. For many grade 2 students this meant learning and practicing strategies for adding many numbers. We will shift to problem solving using time, length, and data this week. Students will collect data from one another to create graphs. We will also engage in creating realistic contexts for mathematics within measurement. Telling time is a grade 2 standard. Students should be able to tell time to the quarter hour at the end of grade 2. Telling time is very developmental. Many kids leave grade 2 unable to tell time and this is OK. However, we will spend some time learning and practicing time telling skills. Grade 2 students should be able to add and subtract within 100 mentally and use pencil and paper to add and subtract all numbers within 1000. Below are the strategies we have been learning and practicing all year.
Safety
In social studies, our class will spend the next few weeks studying safety. Our standards for this unit:
- recognize situations and opportunities to promote health, safety, and well-being
- practice strategies to use when help is needed with a task, problem, or situation
- propose, practice, and evaluate responses in situations where external influences may impact their ability to make healthy and safe choices
We are starting off with studying safety at school. Look for upcoming projects soon.
Writing
Our study of persuasive writing has come to a close. Students wrote about “controversial” topics last week. For our class, this was writing about Barbie…yes…there are some strong feelings of like and dislike in our class! Students shared many reasons for purchasing or avoiding this toy. Students also wrote about school uniforms, other toys, and movies. Our time studying and practicing persuasive writing was very successful. Keep an eye on seesaw for student reflections coming soon. Next, we are going to shift back to narrative writing. In this unit of study, students will choose which type of narrative structure they would like to write: personal narrative, realistic fiction, fantasy, mystery, or science fiction. Students have learned about these genres and have already started planning their stories. Our class will spend time learning specific strategies writers use to enhance narrative writing.
