Reminders and Notes

What’s happening in Second Grade

What are we learning

Ms. Mangun's Memos

Proch's Place

Important Dates:

October 13 – Field Day 1-3pm

                  – 1st Qtr. Interims sent home

October 16 – SCA Leader elections

October 17 – SCA Class Rep. Election

                 – 2nd grade Maps Presentation

                  – PTO Fall Festival (See PTO flyer)

October 21 – Parent Coffee with the principals

October 27 - 31 – Red Ribbon Week (More TBA)

October 28 – START/SIGNET Open House, 7-7:30pm

October 31 – PTO Crazy Sock Day

* Notice, Date change:

November 3 – Conference Day (see individual teachers about times and availability)

November 4th – Teacher Workday (No School)

November 5th – Picture Retake Day

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Reminders and Notes

Homework: Please help your child bring their homework folder/binder and agenda book back to school everyday.  Important papers and communication will be sent daily.  Please assist your child in completing and remind them to turn in all homework assignments on the due date. Refer to the homework sheet/agenda book each night. 

Field Day: Field Day is here!  On Monday, October 13th please help your child to choose appropriate clothing to be outside for several hours participating in Field Day.  Students need athletic shoes and may wish to bring a water bottle to bring outside and carry from event to event.  Parent volunteers that are signed up to help out, please report to Nancy Arena or your designated spot at your assigned time.  We appreciate all your help to make this day possible!

What’s happening in Second Grade?

On Friday, October 17th Chris Rodzevik, a PE staff member, will conduct a presentation to the Second Grade students on Geography.  She and her husband are boat captains and they have navigated the seas with maps, for years.  We are very excited for her to come share her wealth of knowledge with us and make this Social Studies unit come alive!

What are we learning (current concepts)?

(Essential questions/concepts you can discuss with your child.)

Language Arts

-What are the 3 types of sentences?

-What are the steps of the writing process?

-Pre-reading, during reading, and post- reading strategies (examples: predicting events, recording facts/retell events in the story, decoding words by the sounds/letters)

 Math

- Practice doubles facts. (ex. 2+2=4, 10+10=20)

- Create and solve story problems. Decide which operation to use in the problem.  Write an equation.

 Social Studies - (Geography)

- What is the difference between a map/globe?

-What parts are included when making a map?

- Locate the 7 continents, 4 oceans, and equator on a map of the world. 

- Locate the major rivers, lakes, and mountains on a map of the USA. (ex. 5 Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Appalachian Mountains)

What’s coming up (future concepts)?

(Essential questions and concepts you can discuss with your child.)      

Language Arts

- Identify and explain: Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives within sentences.

- Read a fiction story.  What is the problem and solution?

Math

- Identify solid geometric figures around the house/outside. (ex. sphere, cube, rectangular solid)

- Trace your finger along the edge, base and face of the shape.

    Social Studies - (Economics)

-What is a situation where there is a scarcity? (ex. not enough resources for all to have an equal share)

-Identify consumers and producers in the community. (ex. consumer= shopper, producer= shop owner)

- What are examples of the three types of resources? (Natural, Human, Capital)

  Ms. Mangan’s Memos

We have been very busy in second grade! In Language Arts we have been working on writing complete sentences, including a naming part and a telling part, having an uppercase letter at the beginning and correct punctuation at the end of our sentences. We have also begun writing workshop. The students have edited their first piece of writing that they will share with the class, as well as, created many other pieces to re-visit in their writer’s workshop folders.

Math- We have finished unit one of math investigations. The students are experts on writing equations and showing their work in a story problem! As we continue to work on “Today’s Number” each morning I have noticed that each student is working hard on developing number strings using both subtraction and addition. In the upcoming weeks we will be working on geometry. Keep an eye on all of the shapes that you see around you each day!

Science- October 1^st we began our daily weather journal! The students are paying close attention to the clouds, temperature and weather words that describe the weather outside each day. Some students are even looking up the temperature at home before they come to school!

Thank you to the volunteers that have donated their time in school and at home to help us in the classroom! I look forward to working with you throughout the rest of the school year!

Mrs. Proch’s Place

Thank you for your support at home reviewing for the Citizenship and Communities Unit Assessments!  Students are learning test-taking strategies as we move through each assessment and made a HUGE improvement from the first test to the second test to truly show how much they have learned in Social Studies.  I look forward to viewing students’ creative ways to show their learning about our Geography Unit in their Maps Projects, due on October 24th.  We will display them in the library for everyone at school to enjoy!

          We are struggling as a class in one area in particular.  I am working with them during Writing Workshop as well as Core Extension in these areas.  However, please work with your child on the 3 types of sentences and their corresponding beginning capital letter and ending punctuation for each complete thought. These types of sentences are as follows: declarative (makes a statement and ends with a period), interrogative (asks a question and ends with a question mark), exclamatory (shows strong feelings and ends with an exclamation point). More exposure to the content = stronger connections and more learning!   

          In Guided Reading students are working on their individual reading goals and choosing books on their reading level.  Now that every group has started their first book, we can really begin transforming into Fluent Readers. Students should be working on their reading goal EVERY time they read.  Ask your child what their Reading Goal is! 

          We had our first Author Celebration at the end of September where we chose 1 piece of writing, edited and revised it a bit, and fancied up our piece to “send out to the world.” Then we each rang a bell as we announced, “I am a writer!” and enjoyed a healthy snack to celebrate the moment.  Through out the rest of the school year, look for these events to get grander each time we celebrate.  We will be inviting parents to come in to the classroom more than once!

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What’s happening in Ms. Hawkins’ class?   

I would like to applaud the students on how well that they are doing with the Word Study homework.  I enjoy reading the sentences, riddles, and stories that they are writing.  I also enjoy seeing the awesome illustrations and pictures that the children are developing using their words.  Keep up the great job!

The children are currently writing a short composition on fall. This “Fall Writing” will contain the three types of sentences:  declarative (telling), interrogative (asking) and exclamatory (excitement).  The children have been introduced to the Writing Process:  prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.  The students are utilizing their Writer’s Workshop folders to complete this piece.  Each section of this folder provides supportive tips and/or tools to help the students to become more responsible writers.

The students have created beautiful, fall themed tissue papered scenes.  These colorful pictures will accompany the “Fall Writing” in the hallway. 

We had our first class store today!  The children definitely deserved this special treat. Thank you for all of your classroom donations, and a HUGE thanks to all of the parents that have been helping within the classroom.  The children and I truly appreciate all that you do!

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A little news from Mrs. Louderback   

     Thank you for your support in reviewing for our communities test.  The class did a great job!  Ask your child about his/her part of our community mural … every “artist” enjoyed this activity as groups discussed and reviewed key elements of communities.  A big thanks to Mrs. Harmon for supervising the completion of the mural!  We are displaying it in the second grade hall for all to enjoy.

      The class is doing excellent work with their spelling homework and tests.  They do, however, need to practice the various sentence types we have learned in class.  So, when completing sentences at home please include the following:  declarative (makes a statement and ends with a period), interrogative (asks a question and ends with a question mark), exclamatory (shows strong feelings and ends with an exclamation point).  On the Friday spelling test, the students are required to write one of each with a spelling word used correctly.  In addition, they should use correct capitalization.  Thank you for reinforcing these skills at home!

      We have been practicing strategies to use when solving story problems.  Students are identifying the given information to help them understand what the problem is asking them to figure out.  They are then identifying the specific mathematics used (such as using known number combinations or breaking numbers apart).  Continuing progress is being made in recording strategies and equations.  Your thoroughness with math homework is definitely building confidence! 

Look for more news next month!