January 20-22

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due on Thursday!

On Thursday, we’ll have a very special assembly introducing our new buddy bench.  The buddy bench is a dream that has come true thanks to the help of our wonderful community!  Parents donated box tops, teachers supported the initiative, a high school senior built the bench, and IB students at the high school designed and painted the benches.  The buddy bench is a place where students can go if they are feeling like they need a buddy.  Then, other students can meet with them at the bench.  Be sure to ask your child about it after school on Thursday!

Remember, there is no school for students on Friday as it is records day for teachers.

This week in...

Spelling:  We are working with unit 15.  The words are good, new, write, our, and me.

ELA:  With a short week, we’ll be using our ELA block to work on homophones.  These are words that sound the same but have different meanings.  We’ve practiced many of them as spelling words.  This week we’ll focus on:  their, there, they’re, to, too, two, your, you’re, which, witch, its, it’s, right, and write.

Beginning tomorrow, students will be put into small groups of detectives.  Together, they will read a mystery book and keep track of the mystery, clues, and suspects.  It will help us practice teamwork, fluency, comprehension, and problem solving skills.  We are so excited to get our new mysteries!

Math:  This week, we’ll continue to introduce some place value skills.  Here are the skills that second graders will need to show proficiency in by the end of the year:

I can read and write three digit numbers in standard form (number form), words, and expanded form.

I can skip count by fives, tens, and hundreds within 1,000.

I can identify the digits in the ones, tens, and hundreds place.

I understand that 100 can be thought of as a bundle of 10 groups of 10 just as a bundle of 10 can be though of as 10 groups of 1.

I can compare two three-digit numbers using <, >, and =.

I can add or subtract 10 or 100 to any number within 1,000.

We’ll also spend some time practicing our math facts.  Our goal is to be able to add and subtract numbers up to 20 fluently using mental strategies.  Basically, that means we need to be able to answer the question in a snap!  We’ll practice this by using math fact cafe, IXL, worksheets, and flashcards.  I’m still working on assessing all students to see which math fact family they will need to focus on now that they have practiced all of the strategies.

I’m also going to use this week as a chance for review.  We’ll review graphing, geometry, and fractions.  We’ll practice reading bar graphs and pictographs and answering questions about the data they represent.  We’ll practice identifying shapes by their names and also identifying their attributes (angles, sides, faces).  Finally, we’ll review fractions.  We’ll practice working with halves, thirds, and fourths.  

Social Studies:  To go along with our Flat Stanley unit, we’ll continue working with geography.  Last week, we learned all about maps and globes.  This week, we’ll learn more about our special place in the world.  We’ll work on creating a poster that shows ourselves, our street, our town, our state, our country, our continent and our planet.  Here is a link to a book that we used to introduce the project:

I hope everyone has a lovely week!