May 4-8

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

On Tuesday, we will be welcoming children’s book author, Ryan Higgins to our school.  We’ll be reading his book Twaddleton’s Cheese before he gets here.  It’s always exciting to have the chance to meet the author’s of the books we are reading!

Homework packets are due on Thursday!

Please remember to send in a healthy snack for you child to eat in the afternoon.  We always take some time to eat a little something to keep our brains and bodies energized!

Next Wednesday is an early release day.  Russell School will be participating in a school wide wellness fair.  Part of the wellness fair is providing opportunities for alternatives to screen time.  My room is designated to be a board game room.  If you have any board games at home that you would like to donate to the classroom for the day, it would be greatly appreciated!  I'll be sure to label your game and return it to you as soon as the day is over.  If you have any questions, please let me know!

This week in...

Phonics:  We will be working with the diphthong sound /oi/ with the spelling patterns “oi” and “oy”.  Our focus words will be:  soil, oil, broil, moist, point, boil, oil, toy, joy, soy, and royal.

Spelling:  This week, we will be taking some time to go back and assess all of the words we have practiced so far in second grade.  This will give us a better look at what words we need a little more practice with before moving on to third grade.  Once these assessments are complete, you and your child will receive a list of words they need to be practicing.  You’ll also receive your child’s spelling planner.  This planner will have a list of 10 words they will be practicing each week.  Once they have shown that they have mastered all of our second grade priority words, they will have the chance to start practicing some third grade priority words.  Regardless of what words they are practicing, they will always be assessed on ten words at a time.  When we make the switch over to completely individualized spelling lists, Team Howard will be taking a spelling test every Friday.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  gathered, agreed, randomly, jabbing, and signal.  We’ll define these words in our vocabulary books and then demonstrate our understanding of them.  Finally, we’ll search for them in a short play called “Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky.”

Comprehension:  We’ll continue to work on identifying the problem and solution in a story this week.  The problem is something the characters want to change or fix.  The solution is what solves the problem.  We’ll practice this skill while we read the play called “Pushing Up the Sky” by Joseph Bruchac.

Writing:  We are in the beginning stages of our animal projects.  Last week, we explored different animal books and chose and animal we would like to study.  This week, we will be reading our animal books and gathering information about what our animals look like, where they live, what they eat, and other interesting facts.  As a model, I will be studying bears with the team.  At the end of the week, I will be modeling how we take our facts and put them into a rough draft.  The team will work on their rough drafts next week.  

Grammar:  We will practice how and when to use the word “I” and the word “me” in a sentence.  We use “I” in the subject part of the sentence.  We use “me” in the predicate part of the sentence.  Here are two examples:

1. Kira and I sing in the show.
2.   My teacher helps me with the words.

Math:  This week, we will be doing math switcheroo everyday!  In these groups, Team Howard is getting what they need in order to show proficiency in two standards.  First, that they can add and subtract fluently within 100 using strategies based on place value.  Second, that they can solve one and two step word problems with unknowns in all positions.  

We will also continue practicing our math facts.  At this point, students should really be working on their near doubles or +/- 10 facts.  If your child is not there yet, please help them do a little extra practice at home.  Math fact cafe and xtra math are both GREAT websites for math fact practice.

We will also work on how to write amounts of money correctly using money symbols.  

Scholastic News:  To go along with our animal projects, we will be reading all about mudskippers.  They are little brown fish that swim in shallow water by the muddy seashore.  After reading the article, we will use a chart to help us answer questions about more unusual fish.  

Mother’s Day:  We will also be preparing a very special mother’s day gift for all of you great moms out there!  However, I can’t tell you what it is.  It’s a surprise!  You’ll have to wait until Sunday to find out what we were working on this week.

I hope you have a lovely week!