Folktales

Parents~This week in Reading,  we focused on folktales and the central message or lesson being taught.  The students were also introduced to our Google Classroom which is a virtual classroom where the students can interact with links, videos, comments, and lots of other awesome technology based learning.  We watched a video all about folktales in our virtual classroom.  Check it out below.

It was a great introduction to folktales but in 2nd grade we want to dig deeper.  We started with the folktale Stellaluna which is a tale based on folktale The Ugly Duckling.  The students did an awesome job comparing and contrasting these 2 stories! 

 We will continue to work on folktales next week with the story of Stone Soup and the fall version Bone Soup!

SPELLING
Again, the class wanted their words on Friday so I gave them to them.  They made their study cards in class after we reviewed the spelling patterns.  The students have been practicing their words in shaving cream, playdough, dry erase, Chinese jump ropes, stamps, rainbow pencils, and tons more. 

 I would really like to add cornmeal tracing to our practice materials.  

*If you are interested in donating a container of cornmeal please shoot me an email.  

Flipping the Classroom with: Batty Wings
In science, we did a super fun experiment comparing our human hand to a bat's wing.  The experiment sheet went home on Thursday.  Thanks to all the parents that became students and learned all about our bat wings! 

MATH
This week in math, we continued to focus on problem solving with subtraction.  Students learned the CUBES strategy and continued to practice our CLOSE strategy. 

The students compared and contrasted both strategies.  Be sure to ask them which one works best for them.

Extra Practice-NOT Homework!
If you are looking for some extra at home practice you are welcome to click HERE.  These are similar to what we work on in class as a warm up each day.

Assessments!

Just so you know, it is close to the end of the quarter and I have begun my progress monitoring and assessing.  Students will take a writing assessment and a math assessment next week in preparation for our report cards that will go out on the 15th.  

Conferences

We are also getting ready for conferences and I can't wait to share how much your children have grown both academically and socially. 

 Click HERE to sign up!

*Don't forget to send in your PINK permission slip for our walking field trip in November!

Important Dates:
October 27th: Trunk or Treat 5:00-7:00
October 28th: Movie and Popcorn with third grade
($1.00 is needed to purchase popcorn and water.)

  

The Phonics Dance

Parents~I am sure you have started to hear some of our Phonics Dance at home so I wanted to take a minute and share a video of our Dance!

This is one of our favorite times of the day!  I introduce a different Phonics Dance Chunk every day or so and we work on the sound and spelling words with the chunk.  But, once we add it to our dance we must dance it every day.  I am already seeing students make the connection between the chunks and our reading and spelling activities. Plus, it is a great brain break for us too!  

SPELLING
I also wanted to give you a heads up!  We had a strange occurrence in class on Friday.  The students begged to get their spelling words early so that they could study more.  They are super excited about our Whiz Quiz!  We had 7 Word Wizards and several that were super close!  I am so impressed with their dedication to learning:)  

ECHOLOCATION
We had so much fun during our echolocation experiment.  You can check it out below. Our prey was a plastic spider ring!

MATH
This week in math, we focused on subtraction without regrouping.  The students continued to measure lengths in inches and CM in math.  Next week, we will continue to work on problem solving with addition and subtraction. 

Extra Practice-NOT Homework!
If you are looking for some extra at home practice you are welcome to click HERE to download several Drops in the Bucket pages and some fact fluency sheets.  These are similar to what we work on in class as a warm up each day.
READING 
In reading, we will be working on folktales and fairy tales.  We will work to understand the central message or lesson from the story.  
We will be reading the book, Stellaluna.  We will also be comparing this book to the story The Ugly Duckling that we read last week in our guided reading groups.  

We will also begin our Guided Reading Rotations on Monday.  Students will be working in guided reading groups based on their reading level. Students will move to different teacher's classrooms from 9:00-10:00 Monday-Thursday.  These groups are fluid so that as students progress in their reading comprehension and fluency they can rotate into groups to support their changing needs.  Students will also be working on reading and writing in class with me from 10:00-11:00 each day.  

Important Dates:
October 27th: Trunk or Treat 5:00-7:00
October 28th: Movie and Popcorn with third grade
($1.00 is needed to purchase popcorn and water.)

  

Problem Solving

This week in 2nd grade,  we focused on place value and problem solving. Students worked to solve double digit addition word problems by decomposing numbers. 

We used our problem solving bookmarks to get close with the problems.  Check out the video link below to learn more about our problem solving steps. Next week, we will add subtraction into the mix.  

This is a skill that we will work on throughout the year!

Please continue to work on fact fluency!

Math Playground is a great site for online fact fluency practice!

Next week in reading,  we will be jumping into the nonfiction world of bats in preparation for our Stellaluna book study!  Students will read several bat poems and nonficiton books in guided reading.  During our writing time, we will be working on a bat report!

We will even do some online research on Pebble Go!

We will be meeting 2 special bats that my classes have adopted in the past. Here is Lil Drac below and Boo2!  Both live at the Bat Sanctuary.  You can read more about their adopt a bat program by clicking the link above. 

          

The students also did a great job helping get our room ready for the weekend!  Check out our ZOO Keepers helping with Daisy's cage!  

Dates to Remember:
Early Release October 12th
Trunk or Treat October 27th 5-7:00
No School October 31st and November 1st

HOW CAN IT BE NOVEMBER ALREADY??

Candy Corn Science

Families~We had such a fun week experimenting with solids & liquids.  The class participated in Candy Corn Science.  We made safety goggles and reviewed science safety procedures.
The class investigated candy corn with their 5 senses and they participated in a sink or float exploration with candy corn, candy pumpkins, and chocolate kisses! (Thank you to all that send in donations to make these science experiments possible.)  A special thank you goes out to Gideon's family who cut out all of our safety goggles!!!  

Check them out below!

We have one more experiment coming up.  

The Case of the Fizzy Corn! 

In reading, we continued to work on finding details in our illustrations to support our thinking. Next week, we will work on how characters react to major events.   Our story, Where's my Mummy, will give us lots of opportunities to test out this comprehension skill.  It is a sweet tale about a mummy who is lost and looking for his mommy in a forest.  The students will also be working in their leveled guided reading groups on nonfiction books all about mummies.  We will focus on our nonfiction text features and how we can gain details about the text from them.

  Here is a video read of the story below!

The students will continue to work on writing narratives with some fun candy corn journal prompts in our writing center and we will add verbs to our grammar study this week.  

Be sure to check the back of your 2nd grader's MOOSE folder for their weekly spelling words.  We are on WEEK 6 for Spelling City.   We will continue to work on the Magic e pattern. 

Your 2nd grader will love WORD Unscramble this week on Spelling City!

Students should be practicing their spelling words nightly at home! 

In math, we will venture into the world of place value.  Students will work to compose and decompose numbers using standard form, number bonds, and expanded form.  

(We will continue to revisit measurement in our daily BUILD Centers.) 

Here is a tutorial all about decomposing numbers in base ten. 

Click below to check out a great site to practice composing numbers using base ten blocks. 

A BIG welcome to Logan Hart who joined our class on Friday!  We are looking forward to getting to know him and his family at 

Park View!

Dates to Remember

October 4th:  Chickfila Night from 5-8:00.

  October 5th: Students can shop at our book fair & PTO Meeting at 9:30 a.m.

October 7th: Fall Pictures & Book Orders Due

October 12: Early Release