ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:
Welcome back to school! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! I definitely enjoyed being able to spend some quality time with my family. Any time I get to spend with them is so special to me!
Now that the snow is here, please help you child to remember to bring all of their winter gear with them to school. They will need their winter coats, snow pants, boots, hats, and mittens to play during recess time.
Regular homework will begin again this week. Homework packets are due on Monday!
THIS WEEK IN...
Writer’s Workshop: We are focusing on the writing goal that states that our writing has an order and that it makes sense. We will playing a fun game called “Masterpiece Mixup” where a brilliant story has been broken into pieces. It will be up to us to put the masterpiece back together again! In our individual work time, Team Howard will visit three stations. First, they will help fix mixed up short stories and put them back in the correct order again. Then, they will use picture cues to help them write a short story that has a beginning, middle, and end. Finally, we’ll use pictures, questions, and statements to prompt our writing. Students will have the choice to write for three different purposes: to inform, to persuade, or to share a personal memory (a narrative).
Reader’s Workshop: Each day will focus on a different reading strategy. First, we’ll talk about the importance of tuning into interesting words. There are so many great words in the books we read each day! We’ll practice how we stop and think about them in our reading. Then, the team will be given their very own word catchers to catch any interesting words that they find during their read to self time. These words will be words they can use in conversations or in their writing. Next, we’ll focus on a strategy that helps us solve unknown words. This strategy is called cross checking. When we cross check, we’ll ask ourselves three very important questions. Does is look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense? We’ll also practice a comprehension strategy called retelling. This time, we’ll practice it with flair! We’ll use the yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz to help us retell the characters, setting, problem, beginning, middle, end, and solution. Finally, we’ll practice another accuracy strategy called stretch, blend, and reread. We’ll stretch out each sound in difficult words, blend them together, and then reread them with gusto!
Spelling: This week will be our review/challenge week. Any words your child missed from units 5-8 will be words that they practice again this week. Then, however many words remain in our 10 practice words will be filled with challenge words from the third grade priority list. Team Howard will be assessed on these words on Friday.
Math: This week, we are going to have a lot of fun reviewing our strategies for memorizing our math facts. In second grade, we have to remember how to add and subtract numbers up to 20 in a snap! That’s a lot of math facts! To help us with our fluency we’ve been practicing some strategies to help us remember these facts quickly. Here’s a review of what we’ve practiced so far:
+1/-1: We picture a number line in our head. The number we are looking for is either the next number (+1) or the number before (-1).
+2/-2: We picture a number line in our heads again. If we add two, we take two hops forward on the number line. If we subtract two, we take two hops backward on the number line.
+/- combinations of 10: We’ve practiced this a lot! Every day, we count the days of school. We then review how many more straws we’ll need to make a bundle of 10. For example, on the 57th day of school, there would have been 7 bundles of one (straws) in the ones place. On this day, we would have needed 3 more bundles of one (straws) to make a bundle of 10. We’ve also practiced this a lot with tens frames. We’ve practiced identifying how many dots are in a tens frame in a snap. Then, we talk about how many more would be needed to make a bundle of 10. With each kind of practice, we talk about how the facts can be flipped as well. For example, if we have 4, we’ll need 6 more to make 10 because we know that 4 + 6 = 10. If we know that, then we also know that 6 + 4= 10.
+/-doubles: We love singing the doubles rap! These facts come with lots and lots of practice and are super important for us to know! We need to know our doubles facts forwards and backwards if we want to be able to memorize our near doubles (doubles +1) facts. Here’s a silly video of some teachers singing the doubles rap:
+/- near doubles: If we know our doubles, then we can practice our near doubles! Near doubles facts are facts like 1+2, 3+4, 5+6, etc. So, if we know 1 + 1 = 2, then we know that 1 + 2 = 3, because 2 is one more than one. Here is another example: I can solve 6+7 because I know that 6 + 6 =12. So, that means 6 + 7 = 13 because 7 is just one more than 6.
Social Studies: This week, we will go back to basics with our classroom vision. We’ll be breaking each part of it down and sharing what each part means and how we can show that in the classroom. We’ll talk about respect, effort, attitude, cooperation, and honesty.
Read Aloud: This week’s read alouds will focus all on the power of a growth mindset. A growth mindset is one where you believe your brain is flexible and can grow with practice and determination. Those with a growth mindset are able to persevere, take chances, and learn more. They believe anything is possible! We’ll kick off our book study with this video of an inspiring little boy in California who invented his very own arcade! Check out the video below:
We’ll also learn a little bit more about how our brain works. The team already knows the parts of their brain and what each part is responsible for. This short video shows them a little more about how their brain can actually grow and become stronger.
Then, we’ll use the books below as conversation starters about how the characters in the book were able to show growth mindset and how it their mindset and their attitude helped them accomplish their goals in the end.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
