April 27-May 1

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

The book fair is here!  Come by the library and check out the fabulous books they have.  The book fair will last all week.

This Thursday is our authors tea.  I really hope you can make it!  Room 10 is going to be transformed into the Team Howard  Poetry Cafe.  Come a few minutes early and you’ll have the chance to enjoy some refreshments and small treats before the poets perform.  Refreshments will be served at 5:15.  The poets will perform at 5:30.  The whole evening will be concluded at 6:00.  An RSVP will be sent home with Team Howard on Monday afternoon.  Please sign and return it by Wednesday.

Homework packets are due on Thursday.

April’s spelling test will be on Thursday.  It will cover units 24-27.

Donations:  It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could send in a sweet beverage to be shared with those who attend the authors tea.  Juices, sodas, waters, etc. would all be suitable.  If you would like to donate a beverage for the authors tea, please let me know!

Schedule Switcheroo:  The second grade team is going to try something new.  Instead of having recess at 10:30, we are going to try recess from 12:00-12:30.  It will be exciting to see how it goes!

This week in...

Creative Writing:  Team Howard will be writing a very special book titled Second Grade is Out of This World!.  The book is about an alien who has come to planet Earth and is nervous about starting second grade.  Together, we’ll author a book that shows our alien friend all of the great things about second grade.  This book will then be published!  In your child’s backpack there is an order form for you to look at.  It will give you all of the information you need should you wish to order your very own copy of our book.   I NEED ALL ORDER FORMS RETURNED BY WEDNESDAY even if you choose not to order the book.  It is a requirement from the publishing company.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Penguin Research:   This week, Team Howard will work in small groups to research six different species of penguins:  emperor, adelie, gentoo, macaroni, little, and king penguins.  Together, they will find information about what they look like, what they eat, where they live, and interesting facts.  At the end of the project, the team will create LIFE SIZE posters of the penguins they studied.  These will be on display in the hallway.

Poetry:  We will finish our final draft books and begin rehearsing for our authors tea.  Each student will be performing at least one poem for you on Thursday evening.  So, we’ll spend some time rehearsing our poems so that we can perform them for you with great fluency.

Animal Projects:  This week, students will have the chance to explore tons of books about many different animals.  At the end of the week, they will decide which animal they would like to study most for our animal projects.

Math:  We are going to finish up our unit on odd and even numbers as well as arrays.  By the end of the week, all students will be assessed to see if they have met proficiency in these two standards:

“I can identify a group of objects up to 20 as odd or even.  I can represent even numbers with a doubles number sentence and an odd number with a near doubles number sentence.”

"I can find the total number of objects arranged in rectangular arrays with up to 5 rows and 5 columns.  I can write a repeated addition number sentence to find the total number of objects in the array.”

We will also continue our flexible groups for word problems with a focus on adding and subtracting within 100.

Science:  This week, we will be creating a landform flip book to represent the landforms and bodies of water we have been studying.  Our flip book will show an island, ocean, plains, mountain, valley, stream, lake, cave, canyon, and volcano.

Read Aloud:  We will finish up Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

April 13-16

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  Spring break homework packets will also go home on Thursday.  

On Thursday, Spark's Ark will be visiting Russell School.  This will be a great kickoff for our spring animal projects!

There is no school on Friday, April 17 as it is teachers' comp day for conferences.  Enjoy the extra day with your kiddos!

The April spelling test will be on Thursday, April 30.  It will cover units 24-27.

This week in...

Phonics:  We will be working with the diphthong sound /ou/ with the spelling patterns ow and ou.  Our focus words are:  clown, growl, howl, brown, crown, round, loud, cloud, house, and sound.

Spelling:  We will work on unit 26.  The words are:  line, set, own, under, and read.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  lengthy, burrow, ranger, warning, distant, and beyond.  We'll define these words and show we know what they mean in our vocabulary books.  Then, we'll search for them in the short story called "The Coatis of the Sonora Desert".

Comprehension:  We'll work on identifying the author's purpose.  We'll use the acronym PIE to help us.  Did the author write the story to PERSUADE, INFORM, or ENTERTAIN us?  We'll practice this skill while we read Dig, Wait, Listen:  A Desert Toad's Tale by April Pulley Sayre.

Grammar:  We will focus on personal pronouns.  Personal pronouns are words that take the place of a noun or nouns.  For example, "he" could take the place of "Bobby" in a sentence.  "It" might take the place of "the desert".

Writing:  We'll focus on two more kinds of poetry this week.  First, we'll write sensory poems.  Sensory poems describe a feeling or emotion with your senses.  Here is an example:

Happiness

Happiness is yellow.
It looks like my friends and family smiling.
It smells like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
It tastes like ice cold lemonade on a hot day.
It sounds like the ocean waves crashing on the sand.
It feels like a big, warm, hug.
Happiness is love.

Then, we'll write haikus.  A haiku is a Japanese poem that is written in three lines.  The first and last lines have 5 syllables.  The second line has 7 syllables.  Here is an example:

Ocean

Bright blue in color
Waves crashing on the warm sand
Smell the salty air

Math:  We'll continue with our flexible groups for word problems with a focus on adding and subtracting within 100.  We'll also practice odd/even and arrays.  Our goal for odd/even is to be able to identify numbers 1-20 as odd or even and to prove it with a doubles or near doubles number sentence.  Even numbers can be represented with a doubles number sentence.   Odd numbers can be represented with a near doubles number sentence.  Our goal for arrays it to be able to use repeated addition to find the total number of squares in a rectangular array.

Science:  We are continuing our work with landforms.  So far, we know how to identify several kinds of landforms.  Last week, we started talking about weathering and erosion and how they can change the shape of landforms.  Wind, sun, water, and ice all have the power to change different kinds of landforms over time.  

This week, we'll be using a globe to talk about where water can be found on earth.  The goal is to understand that most of the Earth is covered by water and that it can be found in both liquid (water) and solid form (ice).

Penguins:  As a class, we will be studying penguins as a kickoff to our animal projects.  This week, we'll be reading nonfiction books about penguins and collecting facts about what they look like, what they eat, where they live, and also some interesting facts.  By the end of the week, we'll have a report written showing all of the information we have learned about penguins.  When we come back from spring break, the team will be put into small groups to research specific kinds of penguins. 

Poetry:  Since April is national poetry month, we'll also be enjoying the many humorous poems of Shel Silverstein.  We'll be reading his book Where the Sidewalk Ends.  

April 6-10

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Please remember to send students to school with all of their outdoor winter gear, especially on Mondays!  We had an outdoor science lesson today and many students were not prepared or properly dressed to be able to participate in the activity as it was designed.  As long as there is snow on the ground, students need to bring boots, snow pants, coats, hats, and mittens.

Wednesday is an early release day!  Please plan accordingly.

Thursday is spring picture day!

Homework packets are due on Thursday.

The April spelling test will be on Thursday, April 30th.  Please help your child practice their spelling words at home.  This month, we are working on units 24-27.

This week in..

Spelling:  We are working on Unit 25.  The words are:  should, home, big, give, and air.

Phonics:  We are working with the variant vowel sound /o/ with the patterns au and aw.  Our focus words are:  pause, launch, fault, jaw, raw, law, hawk, fawn, draw, and crawl.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are noble, promised, gleamed, wiggled, beloved, and glanced.  After defining these words, we’ll search for them in a short story called, “My Home in Alaska”.

Comprehension:  We will continue our work with making inferences.  When we make inferences, we take our schema and evidence from the story to make a decision about the book.  This week, we’ll practice this skill while we read Nutik, the Wolf Pup by Jean Craighead George.

Grammar:  This week, we will focus on contractions.  A contraction is a short form of two words.  An apostrophe replaces the letters left out when the two words are joined.  Here are some examples of contractions:  aren’t, isn’t, hasn’t, haven’t, shouldn’t, and can’t.

Writing:  We will continue to work on poetry.  This week, we’ll learn all about acrostic poems and cinquain poems.  An acrostic poem is when you take a word and each letter of that word becomes the first letter in a sentence or phrase that describes that topic.  Here is an example acrostic poem:

Sun is shining

Playing outside with friends

Raining, raining, raining

Insects buzzing around

New animals are being born

Growing lots of new plants

A cinquain poem is five line poem that follows a specific pattern.  The first line is one word that is the topic.  The second line is two adjectives that describe the topic.  The third line is three verbs about the topic.  The fourth line is four words or a sentence to describe your feelings about the topic.  The fifth line is a synonym for the topic.  

Here is an example cinquain poem:

Dolphin

playful, intelligent

jumping, spinning, swimming

incredible animals to observe

mammal

Math:  We will continue our strategy flexible groups.  We are working towards mastery in the following standards:

1. Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies.
2.   Solve one and two step word problems using strategies.

We will also practice our telling time goals.  We will review telling time to the nearest five minutes and also the difference between a.m. and p.m.

Science:  Today, we created our very own landform... a mountain!   We also added a valley and a cave.  Then, we discussed different bodies of water that we could find on a mountain.  Later this week, we’ll begin discussing how landforms change.  We’ll read a book called Cracking Up:  A Story About Erosion.  The book talks about how water, ice, wind, and sun wear away at the Earth’s surfaces and the changes that occur.

Scholastic News:  This week, we’ll read an issue titled Beautiful Balloon.  The article is all about the science behind hot air balloons.  Then, we’ll use a diagram to answer questions about hot air balloons.

New Library Books Fun:  I was able to find some great new books to add to our classroom library this weekend!  This week, Team Howard will work with partners to pick one of the new books and create a brochure about them.  The brochure will include a cover page, the characters, setting, beginning, middle, end, and juicy words.  They will also rate the new book with stars... one star being terrible and five stars being the best!  Finally, they will write a persuasive letter to the reader of the brochure telling them why they should read the new book.

Early Release Day Fun:  Earth Day is celebrated in the month of April, so this week we will be reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.  After reading the book, we’ll write about some of the things we can do to help keep the Earth a beautiful place to live.  For some added fun, we’ll also create our very own truffula trees!