March 7-11

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Please remember to send your child to school with their winter coat.  The weather varies so greatly from day to day and even hour to hour.  It’s better to have a coat and not need it than to have not have one and need it.  Thanks so much!

Please remember to send all homework packets back to school on Mondays.  When students turn in their homework, they receive 15 minutes of indoor recess.  For students who don’t have their homework packet, they spend 15 minutes practicing their learning goals on RAZ kids, spelling city, or IXL.

THIS WEEK IN...

Spelling:  We are working on Unit 14 words.  They are:  get, through, back, much, and go.  

Phonics:  We are continuing our work with the digraphs /sh/, /th/, /wh/, and /ch/.  Our focus words will be:  each, which, teaching, path, teeth, fishing, wishbone, watch, matching, and dish.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are students, effort, perform, mood, remember, and proud.  We’ll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we’ll search for them in the short story called “A Little Symphony” by Lani Perlin.

Comprehension:  We continue our work on summarizing. When we summarize, we retell the most important parts of the story.  We’ll practice this skill while we read Dancing As a Team by Sharon Dennis Wyeth.

Scholastic News:  This week, we’ll read an article all about birds and spring weather.  Then, we’ll use a bar graph to answer questions.  Students will also have time to practice identifying the main idea and details of the article using a graphic organizer.

Writing:  We are wrapping up our autobiographies.  Later this week, students will be introduced to the ever famous second grade biography unit!  This week, students will be asked to explore several books about famous people.  At the end of the week, they will pick someone they are most interested in learning more about.  This person will be the focus of their biography reports.  We’ll be looking for information about what this person is best known for, some interesting facts about them, and some ways they are just like us.  Students will be asked to use two different sources to help them find information.

Math:  We continue our flexible groups for place value.  Miss Gilmour will also be introducing a new math topic this week:  odd and even numbers!  The goal is for students to be able to identify a number is odd or even and prove it with a doubles or near doubles number sentence.  For example, 8 is even because it can be broken into two equal teams.  It can be represented as 4+4.  9 is odd because it cannot be broken into two equal teams.  It can be represented as 4+5.

Science:  Our adventure with plants continues!  Today, Team Howard will plant their very own radish seeds.  Our goal is to find out what plants need to grow.  Some plants will receive both water and sunlight.  Some plants will only be receiving water OR sunlight.  We’ll observe these plants over the next two weeks to find out what happens.  

Have a great week!