Week 10

Welcome to week 10!  This week’s theme is: Discovery Week
The Scholastic Book Orders that were sent home last week are due this Friday if you wish to order anything.

Your students learn so much each day.  It is important that your child is in school so that they don’t miss out on important learning opportunities. To encourage all of our students to attend every day, we will be having a fun activity during our class time as soon as the second grade gets 10 days of perfect attendance.  

We are in need of volunteers!  The second grade needs parents who are willing to come in during our reading class (8:30-9:30).  We need helpers Monday-Friday. If you are able to come in during this time, please email your child’s teacher. 

During Term 2, we will be starting our take-home reading program (a letter will be coming home soon), so we will also need volunteers to help switch our books.  Each child will have a book on his/her reading level that will be sent home each night and returned to school the next morning. The parent volunteers will be responsible for taking the returned books out and putting a new books into the students’ bags.  Volunteers can come in anytime between 8:40 and 2:30 to switch these books.  The parent volunteers for the take-home reading library will be working in the faculty work room. This is a great opportunity for parents who have small children as they would be welcome to come with you. There is room in the faculty work room for a small porta-play.  If you are interested in helping with our take-home reading library during Term 2, please email your child’s teacher.

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:  Students will be learning to sign the Pledge of Allegiance and focusing on understanding the IDEAS:  allegiance, republic, liberty, and justice.

Dance:  Students will begin to explore the dance element of SPACE. What does it feel like to move in place (axial)? What does it feel like to move and dance around the space (locomotive)? Students will discover the difference between axial and locomotive movement.
Health: Students will discover and begin to identify the difference between helpful and harmful substances through a magazine chase activity. Remember: this coming week is Red Ribbon Week,  the perfect week to introduce the dangers of harmful substances to the body and mind.
Math: Students will be studying measurement

Music: Rhythm and bells, lyrics and so me notes; conducting.
PE: Students are working on their Presidential Fitness by running or walking laps around  our school. Second Grade has already run 100 miles this school year! We hope to make it to 200 miles by Thanksgiving.

Reading: Large Group Phonics:  Long /o/ Digraphs, Small Group Phonics: Open Syllable + Silent /e/, Shared Reading: Nature Walk “Owl Moon” Guided Reading by leveled groups, and Centers (SSR, iPods, Computers, Partner reading); 2nd Grade Dolch sight word assessments

Science: Students will continue their study of the human body.

Social Studies: Students will learn the continents and  vote for their favorite continent-specific animal

Spanish: The numbers 1-10

Writing:

• Handwriting with Mrs. P: Students will be learning the penmanship of lowercase “c,a,g”.
• Composition with Mrs. P: During composition time students will write final drafts of their current narratives.
• 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.
• 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.” Now we are working on the prerequisite skills for identifying subject nouns and verbs:  the five types of nouns: person, place, thing, quality, and idea;  and the two types of action verbs: mind (ex. think) and body(ex. jump). Please reinforce this at home.  We are drawing quality nouns from the Scout law and writing the noun form of  each quality (trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness, friendliness, courtesy, kindness, obedience, cheerfulness, thriftiness, bravery, or courage, cleanliness, and reverence.).  We are drawing idea nouns from our The Pledge of Allegiance (allegiance, liberty, justice, republic) and from our school discipline policy (anarchy, bullying, cooperation, democracy).  Talk about these ideas and qualities with your children, and think of your own family qualities and ideas.  Make your own T-charts for your home values and practice using these nouns as the subject of simple sentences as you talk.  For example, “Trustworthiness helps our family work together.” By using nouns that the children are learning in other settings, the concepts are reinforced across the curriculum, and children can begin to generalize the skills outside the classroom.