It was really nice to get back into a "normal" routine this week. The kids worked really hard, but as a whole we are really having to work on following directions in a timely manner and decreasing talking.
This week we introduced the concept of setting using the story Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book. We also began working on a long unit of adjectives. Our robust vocabulary words were cozy, enchanting, thrilled, review, instead, and celebrate. We added three new hunks and chunks to our Phonics Dance board - kn, wr, and ph.
Next week we will continue with setting. We will read Annie's Gifts, a realistic fiction story about a girl who has a special talent. Robust vocabulary words will be stomped, sipped, entertain, except, carefree, and screeching. We will continue with adjectives, specifically adjectives that pertain to the senses. Spelling words will have the short e sound spelled ea. Words are:
heavy, steady, bread, sweat, head, thread, breath, ready, meant, health, meadow, instead, breakfast, treasure, feather, still, learn, should, America, world
Challenge list:
meadow, instead, breakfast, treasure, feather, ahead, healthy, heaven, weather, thread, ready, weapon, sweater, headline, steady, still, learn, should, America, world
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - computer
Tuesday - art
Wednesday - music
Thursday - gym
Friday - library
Next Friday is our Happy Hearts Valentine's Day party. Specific information about this party is coming home in your child's traveling folder this weekend, so be sure to check for it.
The week after next we will be doing president reports using an idea from Miss Murphy. Each student will need a clean metal can with the label removed. Anything the size of a soup can or larger will work. We will need a total of 39 cans, and if you are willing to send in extras it would be greatly appreciated. We will need them by Monday, February 13th.
Enjoy the weekend, and don't forget to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Um, where is all the snow?!
We sure have been busy the past two weeks! Not only did we complete our mid-year reading assessment, but we also managed to squeeze in a few grammar skills and a readers theater performance as well!
Our story for the last two weeks was called A Birthday Mystery. We reviewed high-frequency words from the previous four weeks. Robust vocabulary words were bewildered, evasive, mull, and startle. I continue to be impressed each week and how well the students can incorporate these words into their everyday vocabulary. It's so fun to hear them speak like little adults, and it makes them sound and feel so smart! We finished up possessive nouns and also learned about pronouns. Ask your second grader to do the pronoun chant for you and to give you some examples of pronouns. We are also squeezing writing in whenever we get a chance, and our focus right now is on writing a paragraph using a topic sentence. We are really working hard to keep our writing on topic and give as many details as we can to support the topic sentence.
Next week we will be back on track with a regular schedule. We will begin lesson 16, which is a story called Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book. This story is realistic fiction - see if your second grader can explain what that means. Our focus skill will be setting. We will expand on what the students learned in first grade - that setting means where the story takes place - by adding in a when component as well. We will also be learning how to make our identification of a story's setting more specific than just "inside" or "outside." We will no longer have high-frequency words as a skill or assessment each week. Instead our quantity of robust vocabulary words will increase from four to six. The words will now appear in the story each week, just as the high-frequency words did in the past. The students will continue to be exposed to the words on a daily basis through our vocabulary lessons and now through the reading of the story as well. I suspect that there may be some difficulty transitioning to an increase in the number of words for the first week or two, but please be patient. Your second grader will catch on soon! The words for next week are cozy, enchanting, instead, thrilled, review, and celebrate. Our grammar skill will be adjectives, which will be our focus for the next five weeks of language arts lessons. We will continue to work on writing paragraphs using topic sentences. Spelling words next week have the kn, wr, ph, and ough spelling patterns. Words are:
knot, wrong, know, wreck, graph, wrap, tough, knife, phone, laugh, elephant, photograph, handwriting, knuckle, enough, letter, mother, answer, found, study
Challenge list:
Oops, I left this list at school. Will update this weekend with the list. Sorry!
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - art
Tuesday - music
Wednesday - gym
Thursday - library
Friday - music
Enjoy the weekend!
Our story for the last two weeks was called A Birthday Mystery. We reviewed high-frequency words from the previous four weeks. Robust vocabulary words were bewildered, evasive, mull, and startle. I continue to be impressed each week and how well the students can incorporate these words into their everyday vocabulary. It's so fun to hear them speak like little adults, and it makes them sound and feel so smart! We finished up possessive nouns and also learned about pronouns. Ask your second grader to do the pronoun chant for you and to give you some examples of pronouns. We are also squeezing writing in whenever we get a chance, and our focus right now is on writing a paragraph using a topic sentence. We are really working hard to keep our writing on topic and give as many details as we can to support the topic sentence.
Next week we will be back on track with a regular schedule. We will begin lesson 16, which is a story called Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book. This story is realistic fiction - see if your second grader can explain what that means. Our focus skill will be setting. We will expand on what the students learned in first grade - that setting means where the story takes place - by adding in a when component as well. We will also be learning how to make our identification of a story's setting more specific than just "inside" or "outside." We will no longer have high-frequency words as a skill or assessment each week. Instead our quantity of robust vocabulary words will increase from four to six. The words will now appear in the story each week, just as the high-frequency words did in the past. The students will continue to be exposed to the words on a daily basis through our vocabulary lessons and now through the reading of the story as well. I suspect that there may be some difficulty transitioning to an increase in the number of words for the first week or two, but please be patient. Your second grader will catch on soon! The words for next week are cozy, enchanting, instead, thrilled, review, and celebrate. Our grammar skill will be adjectives, which will be our focus for the next five weeks of language arts lessons. We will continue to work on writing paragraphs using topic sentences. Spelling words next week have the kn, wr, ph, and ough spelling patterns. Words are:
knot, wrong, know, wreck, graph, wrap, tough, knife, phone, laugh, elephant, photograph, handwriting, knuckle, enough, letter, mother, answer, found, study
Challenge list:
Oops, I left this list at school. Will update this weekend with the list. Sorry!
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - art
Tuesday - music
Wednesday - gym
Thursday - library
Friday - music
Enjoy the weekend!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Just a Reminder
This week's post is a reminder to make sure you are checking my website weekly if you are not receiving paper copies of each week's posting. If would like to receive paper copies of each posting, please let me know - jot a note in your child's assignment book this weekend.
This week we began lesson 15. We are reading a story called A Birthday Mystery, which is a Reader's Theater. We also took advantage of the days when everyone was present to complete some mid-year testing. Due to this testing, we will be continuing with lesson 15 next week as well.
We are reviewing past high frequency words in lesson 15. Vocabulary words are bewildered, evasive, mull, and startle. We are working with plural possessive nouns this week and will be introducing pronouns next week. We are writing paragraphs in our journals using a topic sentence, and they are coming along so nicely! Ask your second grader to bring his/her journal home and share some of the stories with you! There will be no spelling test next week.
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - gym
Wednesday - library
Thursday - music
Friday - computer
Enjoy your weekend! :)
This week we began lesson 15. We are reading a story called A Birthday Mystery, which is a Reader's Theater. We also took advantage of the days when everyone was present to complete some mid-year testing. Due to this testing, we will be continuing with lesson 15 next week as well.
We are reviewing past high frequency words in lesson 15. Vocabulary words are bewildered, evasive, mull, and startle. We are working with plural possessive nouns this week and will be introducing pronouns next week. We are writing paragraphs in our journals using a topic sentence, and they are coming along so nicely! Ask your second grader to bring his/her journal home and share some of the stories with you! There will be no spelling test next week.
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - gym
Wednesday - library
Thursday - music
Friday - computer
Enjoy your weekend! :)
Thursday, January 12, 2012
We're Halfway Done!
Well, we are about halfway through the school year! I'm really proud of how far the kids have come in the past few months. Progress is good, and I am excited to see what the rest of the year brings!
This week we read a story called Rain Forest Babies. It was a nonfiction selection, and the kids were able to learn a number of facts about several different animals that live in the rain forest - the elephant, the tiger, the poison frog, the macaw, the kangaroo, and the sugar glider. We even got to see a real sugar glider on Friday thanks to Anna from Mrs. Schulte's class. So cool! The kids are in the process of working on fact books that highlight some of the information they learned from this story. They are looking good and should be in the hallway sometime next week.
We finished up our discussion of fiction and nonfiction. We still tend to confuse the two sometimes, but it is a skill we will continue to work on throughout the year. Our high frequency words for the week were care, interesting, father, thumb, touch, and sweat. Robust vocabulary words were adorable, assortment, habitat, and immense. Our grammar skill for the week was singular possessive nouns. This tends to be a pretty tricky skill for second graders, but I know they will learn more about it next year.
Next week and the following week will be an assortment (like how I used a vocabulary word there?) of different activities. We have some mid-year testing to complete, but I'm unsure as to exactly when that will take place. It is much easier for me to give these tests on days where no students are absent, so we will just be playing it by ear until we can get through the whole test. It is lengthy, but we will split it up into several small parts to be completed over a few days.
Also during the next two weeks we will be reading a story called A Birthday Mystery. It is a Reader's Theater, and the students will be performing at the end of the lesson. We will review both author's purpose and fiction/nonfiction. High frequency words will be a review of the words we have had over the past four weeks. Robust vocabulary words will be bewildered, evasive, mull, and startle. Our grammar skills will be plural possessive nouns and pronouns. Spelling words will be a review.
Words are:
wish, catch, very, huge, shadow, sandwich, nobody, celebrate, surprise, learn, change, off, play, spell, air, away, animal, house, paint, page
Challenge list:
sandwich, celebrate, surprise, imagine, gentle, perfect, birthday, twenty, shadow, chimney, change, off, play, spell, air, away, animal, house, paint, page
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - no school (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)
Tuesday - library
Wednesday - music
Thursday - computer
Friday - art
A big thank you to all of the parents who attended our awards assembly on Friday. The kids did such a great job all semester, and I am so proud of them! It's always great to see the parents supporting their achievements as well.
Enjoy the long weekend!
This week we read a story called Rain Forest Babies. It was a nonfiction selection, and the kids were able to learn a number of facts about several different animals that live in the rain forest - the elephant, the tiger, the poison frog, the macaw, the kangaroo, and the sugar glider. We even got to see a real sugar glider on Friday thanks to Anna from Mrs. Schulte's class. So cool! The kids are in the process of working on fact books that highlight some of the information they learned from this story. They are looking good and should be in the hallway sometime next week.
We finished up our discussion of fiction and nonfiction. We still tend to confuse the two sometimes, but it is a skill we will continue to work on throughout the year. Our high frequency words for the week were care, interesting, father, thumb, touch, and sweat. Robust vocabulary words were adorable, assortment, habitat, and immense. Our grammar skill for the week was singular possessive nouns. This tends to be a pretty tricky skill for second graders, but I know they will learn more about it next year.
Next week and the following week will be an assortment (like how I used a vocabulary word there?) of different activities. We have some mid-year testing to complete, but I'm unsure as to exactly when that will take place. It is much easier for me to give these tests on days where no students are absent, so we will just be playing it by ear until we can get through the whole test. It is lengthy, but we will split it up into several small parts to be completed over a few days.
Also during the next two weeks we will be reading a story called A Birthday Mystery. It is a Reader's Theater, and the students will be performing at the end of the lesson. We will review both author's purpose and fiction/nonfiction. High frequency words will be a review of the words we have had over the past four weeks. Robust vocabulary words will be bewildered, evasive, mull, and startle. Our grammar skills will be plural possessive nouns and pronouns. Spelling words will be a review.
Words are:
wish, catch, very, huge, shadow, sandwich, nobody, celebrate, surprise, learn, change, off, play, spell, air, away, animal, house, paint, page
Challenge list:
sandwich, celebrate, surprise, imagine, gentle, perfect, birthday, twenty, shadow, chimney, change, off, play, spell, air, away, animal, house, paint, page
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - no school (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)
Tuesday - library
Wednesday - music
Thursday - computer
Friday - art
A big thank you to all of the parents who attended our awards assembly on Friday. The kids did such a great job all semester, and I am so proud of them! It's always great to see the parents supporting their achievements as well.
Enjoy the long weekend!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday. It's hard to believe how quickly the breaks go!
We jumped right in this week, especially since it was only a four-day week. We read a story called Big Bushy Mustache. Though we have been talking about the differences between fiction and nonfiction all year, it was a main focus this week. We know a song about fiction stories and a chant about nonfiction stories. We found both kinds of books in our classroom library, and we sorted some of the stories we have read so far this year. High frequency words for this week were above, shoes, tough, wash, wear, woman, and young. Robust vocabulary words were route, semblance, distraught, and improvise. We began talking about singular possessive nouns in language. We discussed the difference between using an apostrophe to show ownership and just an s to make a word mean more than one.
Next week we will be reading Rainforest Babies. We will continue to focus on identifying stories as fiction or nonfiction. We will be completing a fact book with information about each of the baby animals we will read about. High frequency words will be care, father, interesting, thumb, touch, and sweat. Robust vocabulary words will be adorable, assortment, habitat, and immense. We will continue singular possessive nouns, which I am hoping to wrap up toward the middle of the week. At that point we will begin looking at plural possessive nouns. Spelling words for next week will have the r-controlled vowel spelling patterns spelled ir, ur, er, or ear. Remember that there are three options for spelling lists, so check the list in your child's traveling folder to confirm which words you should be studying. Words are:
fur, shirt, burn, stir, bird, turn, herd, third, learn, search, perfect, birthday, purple, circus, surprise, try, kind, hand, picture, again
Challenge list:
perfect, birthday, purple, circus, surprise, birdhouse, person, flower, stirring, burned, thirty, dirty, plural, monster, search, try, kind, hand, picture, again
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - computer
Wednesday - art
Thursday - music
Friday - gym
Stay warm this weekend!
We jumped right in this week, especially since it was only a four-day week. We read a story called Big Bushy Mustache. Though we have been talking about the differences between fiction and nonfiction all year, it was a main focus this week. We know a song about fiction stories and a chant about nonfiction stories. We found both kinds of books in our classroom library, and we sorted some of the stories we have read so far this year. High frequency words for this week were above, shoes, tough, wash, wear, woman, and young. Robust vocabulary words were route, semblance, distraught, and improvise. We began talking about singular possessive nouns in language. We discussed the difference between using an apostrophe to show ownership and just an s to make a word mean more than one.
Next week we will be reading Rainforest Babies. We will continue to focus on identifying stories as fiction or nonfiction. We will be completing a fact book with information about each of the baby animals we will read about. High frequency words will be care, father, interesting, thumb, touch, and sweat. Robust vocabulary words will be adorable, assortment, habitat, and immense. We will continue singular possessive nouns, which I am hoping to wrap up toward the middle of the week. At that point we will begin looking at plural possessive nouns. Spelling words for next week will have the r-controlled vowel spelling patterns spelled ir, ur, er, or ear. Remember that there are three options for spelling lists, so check the list in your child's traveling folder to confirm which words you should be studying. Words are:
fur, shirt, burn, stir, bird, turn, herd, third, learn, search, perfect, birthday, purple, circus, surprise, try, kind, hand, picture, again
Challenge list:
perfect, birthday, purple, circus, surprise, birdhouse, person, flower, stirring, burned, thirty, dirty, plural, monster, search, try, kind, hand, picture, again
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - computer
Wednesday - art
Thursday - music
Friday - gym
Stay warm this weekend!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The End is Near...
As we approach our holiday break (which FINALLY begins next week), we have been really busy trying to finish up with "business" so we can have some fun next week.
This week we read a nonfiction story called At Play: Long Ago and Today. This was a longer story with a lot of details, so it proved a little more difficult than some of the stories we have read in the past. This is the first of the longer, more difficult stories. Expectations are increasing as we look forward to third grade! We continued with author's purpose this week. We completed three separate writing assignments that addressed each of the three main purposes (persuade, inform, and entertain). Students began with an paragraph written to inform - they wrote a paragraph full of facts about a bag of M&Ms I gave them (size, shape, colors, how many, etc.) Then they wrote a persuasive paragraph about why you should buy them a bag of M&Ms. Finally we wrapped up with an entertaining story about an M&M. They turned out really nicely! High-frequency words for the week were board, cook, enjoy, imagine, favorite, popular, year, and expensive. Robust vocabulary words were recreation, leisurely, archaic, and ramble. I was worried about these words because it seemed at the beginning of the week that these words were all brand new to the students. BUT we used them like crazy all week long, and by the end of the week I think the students really had a good idea of what they mean and how to use them correctly. We wrapped up abbreviations at the beginning of the week and didn't begin a new grammar skill. This week was supposed to be singular possessive nouns, but I know that this is a very difficult concept for second graders so I decided to push it off until after break. Hopefully we will have fresh minds at that point! We finished up our snowman stories, and we wrote letters to Santa. Our letters to Santa were not your typical Santa letter, though. Students were asked to write a letter to Santa persuading him to put them on either the nice list or the naughty list. They had to list reasons justifying why they belong on the list they chose. Some of them were pretty convincing! We will have Mr. Rethman judge our letters, and he will choose the top three most convincing letters in the entire second grade. Those letters will be read on the announcements next week! Stay tuned for winners...
This week we also made our holiday craft. We used bricks to make snowmen, and boy are they cute! I really meant to take some pictures while the kids were painting, and I completely forgot. So sorry! I'll try to get some of the kids with their finished projects and post them next week.
Next week we will be enjoying several activities that have to do with The Polar Express. We will be reading the book, watching the movie, enjoying hot chocolate, and more. Students will be allowed to wear their pajamas to school on Tuesday - the day we watch the movie. Students will complete a sequencing activity as well as an activity detailing all of the story elements (characters, setting, plot). A BIG thank you to the parents who have already sent in some of the supplies we will need for these activities. We still need a few items, and any donations are greatly appreciated.
We did manage to fill up all of the slots for donations for our Winterfest party on Wednesday. We will be snacking and having a small gift exchange. If your child is choosing to participate in the gift exchange, please remember the limit is $5.00. Boys should buy for boys and girls should buy for girls. Please make sure your child's gift is something ANY boy or girl in the class will like - do not buy for one specific student. We will be playing a game to determine who gets each gift.
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - library
Tuesday - music
Wednesday - computer
Enjoy your weekend - it's the last one before Christmas!!!
This week we read a nonfiction story called At Play: Long Ago and Today. This was a longer story with a lot of details, so it proved a little more difficult than some of the stories we have read in the past. This is the first of the longer, more difficult stories. Expectations are increasing as we look forward to third grade! We continued with author's purpose this week. We completed three separate writing assignments that addressed each of the three main purposes (persuade, inform, and entertain). Students began with an paragraph written to inform - they wrote a paragraph full of facts about a bag of M&Ms I gave them (size, shape, colors, how many, etc.) Then they wrote a persuasive paragraph about why you should buy them a bag of M&Ms. Finally we wrapped up with an entertaining story about an M&M. They turned out really nicely! High-frequency words for the week were board, cook, enjoy, imagine, favorite, popular, year, and expensive. Robust vocabulary words were recreation, leisurely, archaic, and ramble. I was worried about these words because it seemed at the beginning of the week that these words were all brand new to the students. BUT we used them like crazy all week long, and by the end of the week I think the students really had a good idea of what they mean and how to use them correctly. We wrapped up abbreviations at the beginning of the week and didn't begin a new grammar skill. This week was supposed to be singular possessive nouns, but I know that this is a very difficult concept for second graders so I decided to push it off until after break. Hopefully we will have fresh minds at that point! We finished up our snowman stories, and we wrote letters to Santa. Our letters to Santa were not your typical Santa letter, though. Students were asked to write a letter to Santa persuading him to put them on either the nice list or the naughty list. They had to list reasons justifying why they belong on the list they chose. Some of them were pretty convincing! We will have Mr. Rethman judge our letters, and he will choose the top three most convincing letters in the entire second grade. Those letters will be read on the announcements next week! Stay tuned for winners...
This week we also made our holiday craft. We used bricks to make snowmen, and boy are they cute! I really meant to take some pictures while the kids were painting, and I completely forgot. So sorry! I'll try to get some of the kids with their finished projects and post them next week.
Next week we will be enjoying several activities that have to do with The Polar Express. We will be reading the book, watching the movie, enjoying hot chocolate, and more. Students will be allowed to wear their pajamas to school on Tuesday - the day we watch the movie. Students will complete a sequencing activity as well as an activity detailing all of the story elements (characters, setting, plot). A BIG thank you to the parents who have already sent in some of the supplies we will need for these activities. We still need a few items, and any donations are greatly appreciated.
We did manage to fill up all of the slots for donations for our Winterfest party on Wednesday. We will be snacking and having a small gift exchange. If your child is choosing to participate in the gift exchange, please remember the limit is $5.00. Boys should buy for boys and girls should buy for girls. Please make sure your child's gift is something ANY boy or girl in the class will like - do not buy for one specific student. We will be playing a game to determine who gets each gift.
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - library
Tuesday - music
Wednesday - computer
Enjoy your weekend - it's the last one before Christmas!!!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
We've Been Busy Little Elves
Whew, what a week! Things were a little out of the ordinary for a few days, but we survived. Mrs. Lawniczak had a few meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we had subs for a little while each of those mornings. We also visited the Santa Shop on Wednesday morning.
This week we were reading a story called Jamaica Louise James. We started talking about author's purpose and thought a lot about why different texts may have been written. We learned that the three main purposes spell P.I.E. (persuade, inform, and entertain). Ask your second grader to give you examples of each. When your second grader reads for his/her reading log next week, ask what they think the purpose of each text may be. Persuade is the hardest, so look for examples in newspapers and magazines (such as advertisements). High-frequency words for this week were draw, question, picture, minute, sure, especially, bought, and worry. Robust vocabulary words were renowned, kin, original, and adorn. We did really well with the word adorn - ask your second grader how Jamaica adorned the subway walls in the story. Ask how some of the second grader teachers adorned their classrooms, and discuss the various ways you may have adorned your house for the holidays. Our grammar skill this week was abbreviations. We learned that most abbreviations begin with capital letters, and they all end with a period. We focused on abbreviations for days, months, titles, and locations (street, road, etc.). We wrote snowman stories.
Next week we will read a nonfiction selection called At Play:Long Ago and Today. This story details many ways that toys, games, and recreational activities have changed from long ago to today. It is a more difficult story than we have been reading so far this year, but the students usually seem to like it. We will continue with author's purpose. High-frequency words will be imagine, favorite, year, enjoy, cook, board, popular, and expensive. Robust vocabulary words will be recreation, leisurely, ramble, and archaic. Our grammar skill will be possessive nouns. We will finishing our snowman stories and beginning letters to Santa. In these letters we will be practicing our persuasive writing and explaining whether we think we should be on the naughty or nice list and why. This writing assignment will be part of a contest! Spelling words for next week will have the long e sound at the end of the word and will be spelled with a y or ey at the end. Please note that we now have three different spelling lists between the two classes. Your child's list may vary from week to week. Please check the list in your child's folder on Friday for confirmation of which list your second grader should study for the week. Words are:
very, messy, lady, happy, key, baby, money, funny, candy, sunny, chimney, nobody, breezy, twenty, keyhole, ask, went, men, read, need
Challenge list:
chimney, nobody, breezy, twenty, keyhole, activity, absolutely, monkey, family, anybody, probably, eighty, mystery, everything, crybaby, ask, went, men, read, need
Also note that reading logs are due early this month - December 20th. Your second grader only needs to read 200 minutes for the month of December. I will not accept late logs after break.
Next week we will be working on a holiday craft. If you would be willing to help prepare materials in advance, please let me know. You can do it at home - I just need someone to cut pipe cleaners and squares/strips of fabric so they are ready to go for the kids on Thursday. Let me know if you can help us out!
I think we have all of the drink carriers we will need for the week before the break. A big thank you to everyone who donated!
Our holiday party is scheduled for Wednesday, December 22nd at 2:30. At some point next week I will be sending home a list of what everyone signed up to bring.
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - computer
Wednesday - art
Thursday - music
Friday - gym
This week we were reading a story called Jamaica Louise James. We started talking about author's purpose and thought a lot about why different texts may have been written. We learned that the three main purposes spell P.I.E. (persuade, inform, and entertain). Ask your second grader to give you examples of each. When your second grader reads for his/her reading log next week, ask what they think the purpose of each text may be. Persuade is the hardest, so look for examples in newspapers and magazines (such as advertisements). High-frequency words for this week were draw, question, picture, minute, sure, especially, bought, and worry. Robust vocabulary words were renowned, kin, original, and adorn. We did really well with the word adorn - ask your second grader how Jamaica adorned the subway walls in the story. Ask how some of the second grader teachers adorned their classrooms, and discuss the various ways you may have adorned your house for the holidays. Our grammar skill this week was abbreviations. We learned that most abbreviations begin with capital letters, and they all end with a period. We focused on abbreviations for days, months, titles, and locations (street, road, etc.). We wrote snowman stories.
Next week we will read a nonfiction selection called At Play:Long Ago and Today. This story details many ways that toys, games, and recreational activities have changed from long ago to today. It is a more difficult story than we have been reading so far this year, but the students usually seem to like it. We will continue with author's purpose. High-frequency words will be imagine, favorite, year, enjoy, cook, board, popular, and expensive. Robust vocabulary words will be recreation, leisurely, ramble, and archaic. Our grammar skill will be possessive nouns. We will finishing our snowman stories and beginning letters to Santa. In these letters we will be practicing our persuasive writing and explaining whether we think we should be on the naughty or nice list and why. This writing assignment will be part of a contest! Spelling words for next week will have the long e sound at the end of the word and will be spelled with a y or ey at the end. Please note that we now have three different spelling lists between the two classes. Your child's list may vary from week to week. Please check the list in your child's folder on Friday for confirmation of which list your second grader should study for the week. Words are:
very, messy, lady, happy, key, baby, money, funny, candy, sunny, chimney, nobody, breezy, twenty, keyhole, ask, went, men, read, need
Challenge list:
chimney, nobody, breezy, twenty, keyhole, activity, absolutely, monkey, family, anybody, probably, eighty, mystery, everything, crybaby, ask, went, men, read, need
Also note that reading logs are due early this month - December 20th. Your second grader only needs to read 200 minutes for the month of December. I will not accept late logs after break.
Next week we will be working on a holiday craft. If you would be willing to help prepare materials in advance, please let me know. You can do it at home - I just need someone to cut pipe cleaners and squares/strips of fabric so they are ready to go for the kids on Thursday. Let me know if you can help us out!
I think we have all of the drink carriers we will need for the week before the break. A big thank you to everyone who donated!
Our holiday party is scheduled for Wednesday, December 22nd at 2:30. At some point next week I will be sending home a list of what everyone signed up to bring.
Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - computer
Wednesday - art
Thursday - music
Friday - gym
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