This week in 2nd grade.... Character Traits, Place Value, Letter Writing/Fact & Opinion

Reading

Last week we focused on traits to begin looking into character traits. We created a chart together and talked about different ways to classify characters in books. This week we will begin talking about characters in books we read, and seeing if we can identify their character traits based on the story and what we learn. 

Math

This week in math we will continue place value to 1,000. Our test is scheduled for this Friday, March 3. If you would like to practice at home, please focus on praciticng the place value of numbers (i.e. 356 has 3 hundreds, 5 tens, and 6 ones), as well as practicing expanded, standard, and number word form of numbers (see below).

Our Number: 356

Expanded: 300 + 50 + 6 = 356

Standard: 356

Number Word: Three Hundred Fifty-Six

Writing

In writing this week we will finish up persuasive letter writing with a few more fun activities. We will move into opinion writing beginning with facts vs. opinion. We touched on this some time ago in shared reading, so we will spend a few days on it then move on to planning our writing. We are jumping right in this week!

Science

We will look at Volcanoes and other landforms this week in Science to wrap up our Earth Surface unit.

Upcoming Events

Monday, February 27: Monday Morning Meeting

Thursday, March 2: TimberTonix Practice in AM

Thursday, March 2: Dr. Seuss Day! Dress up like your favorite Dr. Seuss character!

Tuesday, March 7: Early Release, classess dismissed 2 hours early (12:45)

Thursday, March 9: TimberTonix Practice in Am

Thursday, March 9: Lego Club at 3:30

Thursday, March 9: Countdown to Kindergarten (4:30-6:30 PM)

Service Learning

Thanks so much to Jada for volunteering to help with our silent auction for service learning! If you would like to help, please reach out to Jada at hallmarkjada@yahoo.com

If you have any questions, let me know! klister@cpsk12.org

This week in 2nd grade... Author's Study, Money/Place Value, Letter Writing

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! Here is your weekly update:

Reading

We are going to begin an author's study for shared reading. We will explore the work of Chris Van Allsburg, who has written titles such as Jumanji, Zathura, and The Polar Express. He is one of my favorite children's authors so I'm very excited his work ties in with our lessons! His books are very easy to infer and read beyond the words on the page. His wonderful stories are also accompanied by lots of beautiful artwork.

Our book it goal for February is 180 minutes!

Math

We will be finishing up money this week with a review/test on Monday. This was a very short unit, as it really is just a follow-up to two-digit addition and subtraction. We spent some time this past week being problem-solvers, and even tried a math talk discussion in small-group. It was amazing to watch each student begin really talking and thinking about the "why" behind math. This is my area of research for my master's program, and is something I am very excited about! We will begin place value to 1,000 this coming week. 

Writing

We will work on letter writing throughout the next week. We are going to begin tying in persuasive letter writing, which will flow seamlessly into opinion writing. Monday we will be writing letters to businesses for donations to help with our service learning (see below). We will begin planning and writing letters on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday where we try to persuade our reader. 

Upcoming Events

February 13: Monday Morning Meeting at 8:20

                     Parent Teacher Conferences from 3:30-7:30 

February 14: Spring Party at 2:15-3:00 in our classroom

February 15: Sick day (wear sweat pants/t-shirt, bring stuffed animal)

                     Lunch with the principal day

February 16: Parent Teacher Conferences 3:30-7:30

February 17: NO SCHOOL

February 20: NO SCHOOL
February 21: Summer School Registration Opens
                      February Book Orders submitted

February 24: 2nd grade music performance

Spring Party

We will hand out Valentine's during the day before the party. I am asking that students decorate boxes/bags with their name on them at home and bring them in to collect their valentines. Feel free to send the valentine boxes/bags beginning Monday, February 13th. I will have a place to store them in the classroom. 

Parent Teacher Conferences

A note went home in Friday folders outlining your time for your conference. If this time does not work, please contact me or the school office to reschedule your time. 

Sick Day

Our class DOJO celebration will be Wednesday February 15th. The students chose a sick day. I am asking for donations of "sick food" for our day. Students may wear sweat pants and t-shirts, and are allowed to bring in a stuffed animal or blanket/pillow to read with that day.

Service Learning

2nd grade students have chosen to help Hurricane Matthew victims in Haiti as our service learning. More information will be coming home soon, but I wanted to get something on everyone's minds. We are going to hand out information about a silent auction that will take place the day of our awards ceremony for our math competition. We will ask for donations for specific baskets soon, but I am opening the door if anyone has any basket items/ideas they would like to contribute, or sponsor a basket on their own! Please know if you are an independent distributor of a certain product, you are more than welcome to include your advertising information in the basket as well!

We are going to have an awesome (and fast, I'm sure) week! Please let me know if you have any questions. klister@cpsk12.org

I'm going to try to start adding a few pictures to my blog posts each week. This past week I only took 1 picture, busy week! Here, group 4 is working on writing meaningful predictions using what they see/know!

This week in 2nd grade... Infer, Money, Letter Writing

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Superbowl Sunday! I know I always look forward to the good food and great company. This blog post will outline our week this week, and some important events coming up soon!

Reading

Our shared reading time this week will focus on making inferences. We will talk a bout making inferences in 3 different ways: using text clues, using what you know, and using multiple clues to help infer. We will also make inferences about the characters in a book. Guided reading or reading group times are up and running again. Each group has an individual focus such as note taking, making predictions, or summarizing what they have read. If you have questions about what your child's focus of their specific group is, please feel free to ask!

Math

We have finished up subtraction and I am so proud of how hard everyone worked. We had some wonderful discussions and amazing conversations about math, subtraction specifically, that allowed us to truly grow our math brains! This week we will focus one more time on money. Now that we know how to count money, we will learn how to add, subtract, and be money problem solvers. This is a short unit, only spanning 4 total days. With how well we did with addition and subtraction, I am expecting huge success in this unit as well. We will test Monday, February 13.

If possible, allow students to see you make money decisions this week. It will be very helpful for them to witness making change or adding amounts to find a total. Thank you in advance for your help at home!

Writing

We have officially finished informational writing. This week we will begin a short unit on letter writing before beginning opinion writing. We will talk about the basics of letter writing such as how to write a greeting and how to format a piece of letter paper. 

Science

We are looking at Earth's Surface in science over the next few weeks. We will talk about topics like erosion, effects of wind and water on land, and different types of land. 

Upcoming Dates:

February 6: NO SCHOOL

February 7: Monday (Tuesday) Morning Meeting at 8:20

February 8: PTA Meeting at 6:30 in the Media Center

February 10: Progress Reports go home today

                     Puzzle Day to conclude Problem Solver week

                      MS. LISTER OUT in the afternoon (after lunch)

February 13: Monday Morning Meeting at 8:20

                     Parent Teacher Conferences from 3:30-7:30 

February 14: Spring Party at 2:15-3:00 in our classroom

February 15: Sick day (wear sweat pants/t-shirt, bring stuffed animal)

                     Lunch with the principal day

February 16: Parent Teacher Conferences 3:30-7:30

February 17: NO SCHOOL

February 20: NO SCHOOL

February 24: 2nd grade music performance

Spring Party

We will hand out Valentine's during the day before the party. I am asking that students decorate boxes/bags with their name on them at home and bring them in to collect their valentines. Feel free to send the valentine boxes/bags beginning Monday, February 13th. I will have a place to store them in the classroom. 

Parent Teacher Conferences

A note went home in Friday folders outlining your time for your conference. If this time does not work, please contact me or the school office to reschedule your time. 

Sick Day

Our class DOJO celebration will be Wednesday February 15th. The students chose a sick day. I am asking for donations of "sick food" for our day. Students may wear sweat pants and t-shirts, and are allowed to bring in a stuffed animal or blanket/pillow to read with that day. 

As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions! You can reach me at klister@cpsk12.org or on Remind!