Week 20

Welcome to week twenty! This week’s theme is: New Year’s Resolutions.

Happy New Year!

Here is a fun game to play at home with your child to review what we are learning in science:

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/games/animalclassgame800.htme

Be on the lookout!  We are sending home a Get Ready to Read Home Literacy Environment Checklist from www.GetReadytoRead.org.  You can post it on your refrigerator, and you and your child can check off the items together to make sure your home is the best possible learning environment for your child. We will also email you the link to this and many more resources for parents of school age children.

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:  Signing time with Alex and Leah video of foods

Dance:  Students will study the dance element energy.

Health: How to cope with stress.

Math: Students will review one digit to one digit and then begin studying two digit addition.

Music: Music notes on the staff: FACE and Every Good Boy Does Fine

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.  Please have your children dressed for weather as we will go out in the cold, clear, crisp air this winter!  During cold weather we will have indoor recess and work on our sit-ups, push-ups, and jumping jacks.

Reading: Large Group Phonics: Medial Consonants, Small Group Phonics: Vowel Combinations: ee, Shared Reading: Around Town “Jamaica Louise James, “Guided Reading by leveled groups, Centers (SSR, iPods, Computers, Partner reading)

Science: Students will finish up their study of animals and their habitats and begin their study of physical science.

Social Studies: Students will learn about Martin Luther King jr. and explore folklore from various cultures. 

Spanish: Students will continue to study the vocabulary for fruits and vegetables in preparation for our test next week.

Writing:

• Writing: Hand writing with Mrs. P: Students will be learning the penmanship of lowercase “x,z” 

• Composition with Mrs. P: During composition time students will work on non-fiction writing about their favorite planet.

• 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 writing their own sentences using a verb and noun bank.