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!

This week in 2nd grade...

This is for the week of Jan 30th!

Reading

This week we will be activating our background knowledge, like we did this past week, to help us understand how to use context to understand the meaning of a word, use text features to identify important words, identify key vocabulary, check the meaning with similar words, and explore similar words meaning. 

Words of the Week

We began words of the week this past week. Our words were would, very, your, its, around. This week our words will be don't, right, green, their, call. Each day we work with spelling the words and using them sentences to practice. We are also using our words of the week to help us practice our handwriting.

Math

In math, we are doing a quick unit over 2 digit subtraction. Along with addition, our goal is that students understand the place value behind the numbers, and can correctly break apart numbers and use what they know to help them subtract. In future grades, they will learn how to stack and subtract, and while we will cover that for a day, our focus will be on: using a hundreds chart to subtract, subtracting tens, ones, and adding the differences (when it applies), using place value blocks, and making numbers friendly (we are calling these landmark numbers) to help them subtract (ie. 59- 42 is the same as 59-40= 19 --> 19-2 = 7). 

Our math test will be Friday, February 2nd. I will send home a review for students to practice on Thursday evening. As always, feel free to have students practice. For the test, they will need to be able to use the strategies subtract the tens, ones, and add the differences (like the break apart of subtraction), and hundreds chart to solve problems. There will be one question per each of those strategies as they both focus specifically on place value. Similarly to addition, there will be 7 subtraction problems they will be asked to solve in any way they feel comfortable. The test will end with 3 word problems, as we are working on picking apart word problems and using the problem to help us find the answer! They did SO AMAZING on the post test for addition, I'm sure subtraction will be no different!

Writing

We will conclude our informational writing on Wednesday with our writing test. We have published one piece thus far, taking it through the writing process and explaining each part, and are working on planning and drafting our hornworm piece, in the hopes it is finished by next week. I am blown away by how hard they focus during writing each day!

As a hornworm update: a large majority of our worms are in their pupa! This means they will emerge in apprx. 21 to 28 days as moths!

As always, please follow me on Twitter @msklister and if you need to get ahold of me, email me at klister@cpsk12.org or message me on Remind!

Math Test, Spelling Bee, and Friday Folders

Hi everyone! Just a couple exciting events coming up this week!

Math Test

We will be taking our math test tomorrow. I sent home a review this evening that covers all the strategies we learned. Please note: Break apart and hundreds chart will be specifically asked about on the test. There is one problem for each. Beyond that, the rest of the problems will just ask students to solve, so as long as they have ONE strategy to use, they should be set. Please don't stress! We will review quickly in class tomorrow and my posters will stay up for reference during the test!

Spelling Bee

On FRIDAY we will be doing our spelling bee as a 2nd grade. A packet of words went home this evening in their Friday Folders. Feel free to practice at home as you feel necessary. We will use the traditional spelling bee style on Friday in our classroom. The parents of the top 2 spellers will be invited to our Citizen of the Month assembly!

Friday Folder

As a last note, I sent Friday Folders home this evening. I understand 1 day can be a quick turn around, and I apologize, but please send back the folders and checklists at your earliest convenience. Also, please return reading logs so I can log time spent reading for Book It! I got quite a few back today :)

Have a wonderful week!

Updates: Math Test, Book It Goal, Book Orders, Yearbook Orders, Music Performance

I figured I would post a quick blog update with a few important pieces of information!

Math Test

I had our test over 2-digit additions scheduled for tomorrow, but with the impending weather and myself feeling we need a bit more practice, we will instead test next week. I do not want to test the first day back after a 4-day weekend, so chances are the test will be Wednesday! I have tentatively written this down. If you need an outline of the strategies we are using in our room, please let me know! I would be more than willing to send pictures or scan in the document I made at the beginning of the unit. Thanks!

Book It Goal

I have set our January Book it Goal at 180. That means your child should have at least 60 minutes of reading time recorded each week, or 20 minutes/3 nights. Remember, the school goal is to read 20 minutes each night. Please remember to send in reading logs on Friday morning! I will record the times then, but if they are not turned in, I have no way of knowing how long your child has read. When they meet 180, I will send home the pizza pass. My apologies for being 1 night late this week!

Book Orders

January book orders went home last week! Order online or send in the order form by January 27th. If you have any questions, let me know!

Yearbook Orders

Yearbook orders went home yesterday, 1/11, and are due back February 10th. They are $8.25, and money is turned in to me! I will take it anytime you choose to send it in.

Music Performance

We have a 2nd grade music performance in February! Permission slips went home for speaking parts. Please return those ASAP. Keep an eye out for more information!

If you have any questions, contact me at klister@cpsk12.org or on Remind!

This week in 2nd grade...

It's our first full week back from winter break, and I am so excited to get started!

Reading

This week in reading we will be focusing on making connections. We have talked about connecting to text a few times this year, so I see this week being a review. Our focus was on making connections with ourselves to the books we are reading, but this week we will extend to making connections between texts, and making connections to the world around us (current events, etc).  I will also be administering the STAR test, DRA (to select students), and AIMS this week. If you have any questions about these assessments, let me know!

Math

This will be our final week on 2-digit addition. I am very confident that every student has at least one, if not more, strategies to solve problems! This will make solving 3-digit addition problems that much easier. Next, we will move on to two digit subtraction! As they say, practice makes perfect, so practicing at home with your student helps to refine their skills. I have a copy of all the addition strategies we learned; if you would like a digital or printed copy, let me know!

Writing

We are starting a new writing project this week. It is surprise though, so more to come soon :)

If you need to reach me, contact me by email at klister@cpsk12.org, or on Remind!

Thank You!

I just wanted to post a quick \ for the wonderful presents I received this Christmas. I am sending home written thank you cards tomorrow, but some of the cards didn't have names on them, so I'm sure I'm forgetting a few people! Thanks so much for making this year so far a blast. I am so enjoying the opportunity to work with your wonderful kids! Thanks as well to everyone who helped at the Winter party!

Katie

This week in 2nd grade...

WELCOME BACK! I am so excited to begin the second half of the school year with such a wonderful class of 2nd graders. Can you believe it, in 5 short months, they will be in 3rd grade?! WOW

This week will mostly be used to get back into our routine and remember our expectations.

Reading

In the coming weeks, I will be giving our benchmarks for AIMS and testing students with the DRA. Both of these were given at the beginning of the year, so we are looking to see growth in these numbers. The best thing you can do with your child at home is continue to read every night!

Reading logs will go home next Monday. I am not sending them home this week, but if you would like to keep track on a slip of paper and send it in, that is okay with me!

Math

We are continuing to work on two digit addition strategies. When we have completed all of our strategies, each child will have 5+ ways to solve problems! If you would like a copy of the strategies we are using, let me know!

Writing

This week we are focusing on completing our writing about something we know a lot about. This is an informational style writing, so we will be adding text features this week and next week, when we begin publishing. Our specific focuses this week will be writing body paragraphs, introductions, and conclusions. Together, we are writing an informational piece about dogs. 

Thanks for all you do with your child at home! If you have any questions, contact me at klister@cpsk12.org or on Remind!