Let the Second Quarter Begin...

We had a fun week this week.  It is always a good time when we get to have themed dress up days!  We didn't end up getting to accomplish everything I had hoped to this week.  It seemed like we had some conflicts that popped up here and there (mostly issues with completing assignments before grades had to be turned in and starting to get ready for conferences), so we are going to continue some of this week's focus skills into the first part of next week.

Our story this week is Gus and Grandpa and the Two-Wheeled Bike.  We are still working on making predictions before and during our reading.  Have your second grader do a picture walk before reading at night, or read the back cover of a chapter book before beginning to read, and then have your child make predictions as to what they think the story might be about.  Stop periodically while reading and confirm if their predictions were correct, and use what  they have learned about the story so far to make additional predictions.  High frequency words for this lesson are coming, curve, idea, knee, laughed, million, and world.  You should hear some of the sentences the kids can come up with using several of these words at once - they are hilarious!  Robust vocabulary words are romp, jubilant, defeated, and master.  We've been acting the words out this week, and the kids are getting really good at demonstrating their understanding of these words.  Ask them to demonstrate at home for you, or ask your child to name situations in which they might feel jubilant or defeated (ask about their report cards!).  Discuss with your child various tasks that they would like to master, and when and why they want to be able to do those tasks well.  We are focusing on singular and plural nouns in language.  Have your child point out examples of nouns for you, and ask if they are singular or plural.  We will continue with these skills through next Tuesday, when we will wrap up all of our assessments from lesson 7.

Beginning next Wednesday, we will switch to lesson 8.  We will read The Great Ball Game.  Our focus skill will shift to plot (beginning, middle, and end).  High frequency words will be ago, accept, though, clear, half, and fair.  Robust vocabulary words will be feud, superior, refuse, and insult.  We will continue discussing nouns, and we will explore the difference between common and proper nouns.  Spelling words will have the -ar spelling pattern.  Words will be:
car, art, barn, start, farm, card, yarn, part, dark, hard, boy, follow, came, want, show

We will NOT have a spelling test next Thursday.  I am still sending the list of new words home this Friday, but you will have two weeks to study.  Spelling test for lesson 8 will be on Thursday, November 10th!  The students have no school on the 9th due to conferences, so they can spend ALL day studying (haha!).

Speaking of conferences, many parents have not yet returned their confirmation of your conference time.  These are due on Monday.  Please check your calendars and let me know if you will be able to attend your designated time slot or not.  I do still have one or two time slots open on Tuesday and a few on Wednesday afternoon if anyone needs to reschedule.  Please note that we are trying something new with conferences this year.  We are attempting to switch to a more student-led conference meeting, with your child doing a lot of the talking and explaining their strengths and weaknesses.  For this reason, it is very important that you BRING YOUR CHILD WITH YOU TO CONFERENCES.  The students will be sharing their part for the first 5-10 minutes, and then we will have to last 10-15 minutes to speak privately if necessary.  This is a building-wide change, and we appreciate your patience and support through the change.  We do plan to send a feedback form home after conferences are over so we can hear your thoughts about the new format.

A big thank you goes out to all of the parents who helped out with our Fall Festival party.  This includes parents who sent in snacks and those who were in the classroom to help.  We couldn't have had a successful party without any of you!  The party was a good time.  I will be posting pictures as soon as I can - check back next week.

Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - gym
Tuesday - library
Wednesday - music
Thursday - computer
Friday - art

Enjoy the weekend - try to stay warm, especially on Saturday!