Week 18

Welcome to week eighteen! This week’s theme is: Happy Holidays!

Our next field trip will be to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.  We will leave the school at 10:00 and return to the school at 1:00.  We will eat lunch at the school when we return.  If you would like your child to have a small snack at the museum, please send it to school in a baggie with your child’s name on it.

On Wednesday the second grade has earned the privilege of watching a movie because they had over ten days of perfect attendance. We will watch The Velvateen Rabbit, and we will be reading the book before we watch it.  It is rated G and is a Feature Film For Family movie with parent/teacher guided discussion questions at the end about courage and what it means to be real.

The last day of school before Christmas Break is Wednesday, December 19^th.  School will resume on Thursday, January 3^rd.  Enjoy your break!

Here is a look at what we are learning this week:

Art: Students will continue working on their student directed art projects using mediums such as collage, pastels, paper construction, and water color.

ASL:  foods

Dance:  Students will continue to study shape relationships i.e. far/ away, over/ under.

Health: How to cope with stress.

Math: Students will continue studying patterns.

Music: Rhythm and bells, lyrics and so me notes

PE: Students are working on their Presidential Fitness by running or walking laps of our school. Second Grade has already run 100 miles this school year! We hope to make it to 200 miles by Thanksgiving.  As the weather gets bad we will have indoor recess whenever it is snowing or raining or freezing.  Please have your children dressed for weather as we will go out in the cold, clear, crisp air this winter!  Please have your child wear or keep a pair of tennis shoes in his/her backpack.

Reading: Large Group Phonics: r- Controlled  e , i, u, Small Group Phonics: Vowel Combinations: ie, ui, Shared Reading: Around Town “Big Bushy Mustache,  “ Guided Reading by leveled groups, Centers (SSR, iPods, Computers, Partner reading

Science: Students will study animals and their habitats.

Social Studies: Students will continue their study of the continents and the animals that live on them.

Spanish: Students will begin studying the vocabulary for vegetables.

Writing:

• Writing: Hand writing with Mrs. P: Students will be learning the penmanship of lowercase “f,q” 
• Composition with Mrs. P: During composition time students will work on missing work and review the parts of speech through mad libs. 
• Spelling with Mrs. S: Students are grouped by levels and engage in Words Their Way sorting activities.  Students sort words into categories by sounds patterns according to their present level of functioning.  This week students will play word board games.
• Sentence Fundamentals with Mrs. S:: Students will continue their study of PENSMARK, a self-regulating strategy developed to teach sentence fundamentals: capital letters, end marks, making sense, simple sentence formulas, and subject/ verb identification. PENSMARK is a mnemonic device that stands for Pick a formula, Explore words to fit the formula, Note the words, Search and Check, Mark out the imposters, Ask “Is there a verb?”, Root out the subject, and Key in on the beginning, middle, and end. Everyone has mastered the three requirements of a complete sentence: Capital letter, End mark, and “Makes sense.” We finished the prerequisite skills for identifying subject nouns and verbs:  We finished applying those skills to identify the subjects and verbs in the sentences.  Now we are writing our own sentences using the SV formula and words from our subject noun and verb word banks.

Week 17

Welcome to week seventeen! This week’s theme is: Happy Holidays!

Our next field trip will be to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.  We will leave the school at 10:00 and return to the school at 1:00.  We will be gone from the school during lunch. The school will provide school sack lunches (at the normal price) for each student.  If you do not want your child to receive a school sack lunch on the 18^th, please email your child’s teacher.  If we do not receive an email from you, a sack lunch will be charged to your account.  

If you would like to chaperone our field trip, please email your child’s teacher (we would love to have you!). However, if you are not the first volunteer from our grade you will have to pay your own admission as we are only allowed one free parent chaperone per grade.

We have had a few dedicated parents who have been consistently coming in to switch our books for the Take Home Reading Program.  We are very grateful to these volunteers, but we want to be to be sure that they do not have to come in to our school every day.   If you are available to volunteer in our Take Home Reading Program, please sign up for the day of your choice at the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vip-IwZRyMC-PvaHbGSCxNu53Mx1pdOMoSDE-31wobQ/edit

Here is a look at what we are learning this week:

Art: Students will continue working on their student directed art projects using mediums such as collage, pastels, paper construction, and water color.

ASL: Color assessment. Introduction to foods.

Dance:  Relationships between body shapes (i.e. over/under, far/ away)

Health: Self-esteem.  Encourage your child to identify his/her strengths.

Math: Students will begin studying patterns.

Music: Rhythm and bells, lyrics and so me notes, Christmas Songs.  Students are playing instruments on cue to create a musical dramatic reading of select Christmas stories.

PE: Students are working on their Presidential Fitness by running or walking laps of our school. Second Grade has already run 100 miles this school year! We hope to make it to 200 miles by Thanksgiving.  As the weather gets bad we will have indoor recess whenever it is snowing or raining or freezing.  Please have your children dressed for weather as we will go out in the cold, clear, crisp air this winter!  We need lots of gloves to keep here at school.  Please donate gloves!

Reading: Large Group Phonics: r- Controlled  e , i, u, Small Group Phonics: Vowel Combinations: ie, ui, Shared Reading: Around Town “Big Bushy Mustache,  “ Guided Reading by leveled groups, Centers (SSR, iPods, Computers, Partner reading

Science: Students will study animals and their habitats.

Social Studies: Students will continue their study of the continents and the animals that live on them.

Spanish: Students will begin studying the vocabulary for vegetables.

Writing:

• Writing: Hand writing with Mrs. P: Students will be learning the penmanship of lowercase “h.b”

• Composition with Mrs. P: During composition time students will continue writing animal reports.  

• Spelling with Mrs. S: Students are grouped by levels and engage in Words Their Way sorting activities.  Students sort words into categories by sounds patterns according to their present level of functioning.  This week students will play word board games.

• Sentence Fundamentals with Mrs. S:: Students will continue their study of PENSMARK, a self-regulating strategy developed to teach sentence fundamentals: capital letters, end marks, making sense, simple sentence formulas, and subject/ verb identification. PENSMARK is a mnemonic device that stands for Pick a formula, Explore words to fit the formula, Note the words, Search and Check, Mark out the imposters, Ask “Is there a verb?”, Root out the subject, and Key in on the beginning, middle, and end. Everyone has mastered the three requirements of a complete sentence: Capital letter, End mark, and “Makes sense.” We finished the prerequisite skills for identifying subject nouns and verbs and most the students have mastered identifying the subjects and verbs in the sentences. Now the students will apply their skills in writing their own simple sentences with subjects and verbs.  This is the SV formula, the first of five simple sentence formulas that we will learn. This may be review for some; therefore, students will work at their own pace advancing to the next level as soon as they receive a score of 100 on three consecutive trials.

Week 16

Welcome to week sixteen! This week’s theme is: Pearl Harbor Week!

Thank you to all the parents who came to Parent Teacher Conference night, and thanks to all who weren’t able to make it but wanted to :) 

 

Our next field trip will be to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.  We will be gone from the school during lunch. The school will provide school sack lunches (at the normal price) for each student.  If you do not want your child to receive a school sack lunch on the 18^th, please email your child’s teacher by next Monday the 10th .  If we do not receive an email from you, a sack lunch will be charged to your account.

We are in need of supply donations!  We are in need of fine point dry erase markers to use during our handwriting time and boxes of tissue.  If you willing to donate supplies please send them to school with your student.  We also are going to start an adopt a hall program and You may donate magic erasers, spray bottles, and rags.  Thank you in advance.

Here is a look at what we are learning this week:

Art: Students will continue working on their student directed art projects using mediums such as collage, pastels, paper construction, and water color.

ASL:  We will continue learning colors in the context of learning food words.

Dance:  Movement maps

Health: Say “No” to drugs.

Math: Students will begin studying money.

Music: Rhythm and bells, lyrics and so me notes, Christmas Songs, and playing instruments to a reading of The Night Before Christmas.

PE: Students are working on their Presidential Fitness by running or walking laps of our school. Second Grade has already run 100 miles this school year! We hope to make it to 200 miles by Thanksgiving.  As the weather gets bad we will have indoor recess whenever it is snowing or raining or freezing.  Please have your children dressed for weather as we will go out in the cold, clear, crisp air this winter!  We are working on the 50 yard dash and the broad jump.

Reading: Large Group Phonics: r- Controlled a, Small Group Phonics: “R” Controlled Vowels: air, are, Shared Reading: Around Town “Chinatown,” Guided Reading by leveled groups, Centers (SSR, iPods, Computers, Partner reading)

Science: Students will continue to study plants.

Social Studies: Students will continue their study of the continents and the animals that live on them.

Spanish: Students will begin studying the  Spanish vocabulary for fruits.

Writing:

• Writing: Hand writing with Mrs. P: Students will be learning the penmanship of lowercase “m,n.” 
• Composition with Mrs. P: During composition time students will be working on writing animal reports. 
• Spelling with Mrs. S: Students are grouped by levels and engage in Words Their Way sorting activities.  Students sort words into categories by sounds patterns according to their present level of functioning.  This week students will play word board games.
• Sentence Fundamentals with Mrs. S:: Students will continue their study of PENSMARK, a self-regulating strategy developed to teach sentence fundamentals: capital letters, end marks, making sense, simple sentence formulas, and subject/ verb identification. PENSMARK is a mnemonic device that stands for Pick a formula, Explore words to fit the formula, Note the words, Search and Check, Mark out the imposters, Ask “Is there a verb?”, Root out the subject, and Key in on the beginning, middle, and end. Everyone has mastered the three requirements of a complete sentence: Capital letter, End mark, and “Makes sense.” We finished the prerequisite skills for identifying subject nouns and verbs:  Now we are applying those skills to identify the subjects and verbs in the sentences.  This is a prerequisite skill for the second grade benchmark skill: I can correctly use adjectives, adverbs and the past tense of irregular verbs.  Since subject-verb identification may be review for some, students will work at their own pace advancing to the next level as soon as they receive a score of 100 on three consecutive trials. Students are taking off working at their own pace!