Dear Parents and Guardians, 

Happy Thanksgiving Break! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your families! In math this week, students learned how to count back to subtract on an open number line. To do this strategy, the bigger number in the equation gets placed on the right hand side of the number line. Then, students looked at the second number in the equation and identified the 10’s and 1’s places. Whatever number is in the 10’s place, you make that many -10 jumps. Whichever number is in the 1’s place, you make that many -1 jumps, then you land on your final answer. Then we learned how to add up to subtract. For this strategy, you begin with the smaller number in the equation and put it on the left hand side. Then you make jumps of +10 and +1 to land on the bigger number in the equation. Then, to get your final answer, you count the 10’s and 1’s jumps you made. In writing, we set goals for ourselves to help us complete parts of our nonfiction minibooks. For example, if students needed to finish a rough draft, begin a final copy, make final copy pictures, or begin brainstorming a new nonfiction minibook topic. Lastly, we wrote about our week in our Nothing Books. In our Superkids Word Work Books, students learned about antonyms. An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word. For example, the antonym for open is closed. In reading, students continued learning about how a book is supposed to go by looking at the table of contents and the purpose of it, and also how it helps us find where specific information in the book is. Lastly, students read about Thanksgiving, and answered comprehension questions after reading. In spelling, we got our new spelling words, and used our spelling activities to help us begin practicing them! In religion, we learned about the Bible Stories: The Appointment of 70 Elders, The 12 Spies, The Poisonous Serpents, and Balak and Balaam. In social studies, we finished our Mayflower Booklet and learned all about how the Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower and their life in the New World. 

Another week has come and gone in second grade! I just want to begin by saying your students have been absolutely AMAZING with their substitutes while I have been out with the flu! I am so proud of them for not only behaving but being so helpful to the new faces who came in to teach in our room while I was out. In math this week, students continued to learn how to add more than two, two-digit numbers. They were able to add three and even four two-digit numbers at a time. Just like the normal up and down strategy, they began by adding in the ones place, regrouped if they needed to, and then added the tens place to get their final answer. Then, students got a chance to practice all of the strategies that we learned so far in the addition portion of our unit. Then, they spent some time solving one and two-step word problems using any of the taught strategies so far to solve them. Then, we started our subtraction portion of the unit! We began by learning how to subtract tens and ones places on a hundreds chart. We look to the bigger number in the equation, and find it on the hundreds chart. Then we look to the tens place of the second number of the equation and move up that amount of spaces. Then, we look to that numbers ones places, and move to the left that many spaces. In writing this week, we continued with our nonfiction writing unit. After coming up with a list of ideas, and planning a story with those ideas, we learned how to elaborate with specific details. This allows a reader to really picture in their mind what you are trying to teach them. Next, we learned about text features, and how to add them into their nonfiction books. We learned about bolded texts, labels, tables of contexts, and glossaries. Lastly, we wrote all about our week in our Nothing Books. In our Superkids Word Work Books, students continued to learn about the sounds “ou'' and “ow” make within words. Students also listened to another Superkids Story, and answered comprehension questions about the reading. In reading, we also learned about thick and thin questions. Thick questions are questions that need to be answered using more than one word, where thin questions can be answered with a single word. We then looked at more nonfiction books and identified what the book was trying to teach us as its reader. We also looked at the parts of the books and learned how the book is supposed to go by looking at the table of contents and the purpose of it, and also how it helps us find where specific information in the book is. Lastly, students read about tigers, and answered comprehension questions after reading. In spelling, we continued practicing our spelling words with our spelling activities., and took our spelling test. In religion, our youth minister came in and taught us a lesson. We also learned about the Bible Stories: The Day of Atonement, and The Holiness Code and Law of Love, The Priesthood, The Nazarite Vow, and Leaving Sinai. In our second grade religion books, we learned about How the Holy Spirit Helps Us. In science this week, we watched Mystery Doug! Doug answered “Can Trees Talk to Eachother?” In our Properties of Matter unit, we learned about the different poles of a magnet, and we reviewed the physical properties of matter, and finished our unit! In social studies, we began our Mayflower Booklet and learned all about how the Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower.

Parents:
Please have students return their Nothing Books to school on Mondays for me to hold onto! If students took their Mayflower Packet home by accident, please have them return it to school! We have extended our annual food drive until the end of the month! If you have any non-perishable items please think about donating them to those that are in need! 

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I just want to begin by saying thank you to our veterans and their families for their service! We had another great week here in second grade which started in summer like temperatures, and then cooled down back to fall. In math this week, students began reviewing taught strategies. We reviewed adding using models, partial sums, break apart, and adding more than one 2-digit number. In writing, we began our brand new nonfiction writing unit! In this unit, students are going to be writing “how to” books, which allow them to teach someone how to do something. This will be in the form of their own “nonfiction text.” We began by learning the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Then, we brainstormed a list of ideas of things that we could teach someone how to do. For example, how to bake a cake, play a certain sport, or even a certain board or video game. Then, students began to organize, and plan out the pages of their nonfiction minibooks. Lastly, we wrote about our week in our Nothing Books. In our Superkids Word Work Books, students learned about the sounds “ou'' and “ow” make within words. Students also listened to a Superkids Story, and answered comprehension questions about the reading. In reading, we also began our new unit, which again, is nonfiction. We learned that nonfiction books can be about a lot of different things. For example, animals, specific places, specific people, and so much more. We also learned how to notice different parts of a nonfiction book, and how they differ from a fictional book. Lastly, students read all about chimpanzees, and answered specific comprehension questions about the reading. In spelling, we got our brand new spelling words, and began practicing them with our spelling activities. In religion, we learned about the Bible Stories: Manna and Quails,  The Ten Commandments, The Golden Calf, Moses’ Shining Face, The Day of Atonement, and The Holiness Code and Law of Love. In our second grade religion books, we learned about how Jesus Leads Us to His Peace. In science this week, we watched Mystery Doug! Doug answered “What’s the longest anyone has stayed awake?” In our Properties of Matter unit, we began learning about transparency of matter, and magnetic attraction. In social studies, we completed a Veteran’s Day Reading, and created a Veteran’s Day Minibook about what we learned. 

Parents:
Please have students return their Nothing Books to school on Mondays for me to hold onto! We have extended our annual food drive until the end of the month! If you have any non-perishable items please think about donating them to those that are in need! 

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

We had such a great week here in second grade! I just wanted to let you know that I am so proud of our class! While I was out on Monday, they were EXCELLENT for our substitute! In math this week, we started our week with Halloween themed math activities to celebrate the holiday! Then, we began working on solving one and two-step addition word problems. We worked on this for two days, because I wanted students to understand the process of looking at the word problem, identifying how many numbers are in it (2 is a one step, 3 is a 2-step), underlining the question, and boxing the key word which lets them know if it is addition or subtraction. Then, we reviewed all of the strategies we learned for 2-digit addition thus far and made constructive arguments as to why the strategy they used to solve and answer to the question was correct. Lastly, we made Place Value Turkeys for our classroom! For this, we rolled a dice two times to make a tens place and a ones place. Then we made the number in standard, written, and expanded forms. In writing, for Halloween, students wrote about what I should be for Halloween and why. Next, students worked all week on finishing rough drafts and final copies of their small moment stories because we are moving on to our next unit next week! Lastly, we wrote all about our week in our Nothing Books! In reading, worked in our Superkids Word Work Books. This week we discussed what a comma is, why we use it, and when we use it. Then, students read a Halloween story, and completed a Beginning, Middle, and End Worksheet. Next, we learned all about what story elements are, and how to identify them in a story. We modeled this with Hey! That’s MY Monster by Amanda Noll. Then, students completed the Story Elements Worksheet. After that, students learned about how to identify the problem, solution, and the events in a book. For this students listened to a story in their Superkids Book. Then, they completed a Problem, Solution, and Events Worksheet. Lastly, students completed a Freddy Frog Reading Comprehension Worksheet. In spelling, we  continued to use spelling activities to help us practice our spelling words, and then we took our spelling test. In religion, we learned about the Bible Stories: The Call of Moses, Moses and Aaron Meet with Pharaoh, The Passover, Crossing the Red Sea, Manna and Quails, and The Ten Commandments. In our second grade religion books, we discussed how Our Friend Jesus Forgives Us. In science this week, we watched Mystery Doug! Doug answered “What’s the biggest shark that ever lives?” We continued learning about natural living matter, non-living natural matter, and manmade matter and their three states; solids, liquids, and gasses. We conducted an online experiment with pumpkins and tied this into if the pumpkin was natural or manmade matter, describing the inside and outside of a pumpkin using our scientific vocabulary that we used from the unit thus far. In social studies, we discussed The Day of the Dead!

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Can you believe we’re almost through the month of October!? Time is flying by! In math this week, we learned about the up and down strategy. This is the strategy you all and myself learned in school. It is set up, up and down, and you begin by adding in the ones place, this way if you have to regroup, you can do so before you add the tens place. Then finally, you add the tens place, and you get your final answer. We also learned about the compensation strategy. This is NOT one of my favorite strategies, I honestly think it confuses students, but our workbooks use it so I wanted to give them an opportunity to try out the strategy in case they personally like it. The compensation strategy wants the student to use mental math to make an addition problem easier by getting a 5 or a 0 in the ones place of one of the two-digit numbers. For example, if you have the equation 28 + 15, they want you to add 2 to 28 and take away 2 from 15, balancing the equation, but to make it 30 + 13. Next, we reviewed all of the strategies we learned for 2-digit addition thus far. Lastly, we had Halloween themed math stations! In writing this week, students continued to revise with intent. This means they went through and corrected their sentences making sure they began with a capital letter and ended with punctuation, but really made sure that they wrote all the details in their story to make sure the reader can picture it in their minds as they read it. Students continued to make final copies of their small moment stories that they are very excited for me to share with you at conferences next week! Lastly we wrote all about our week in our Nothing Books. In reading, worked in our Superkids Word Work Books. This week we discussed how “er” and how the sound can find itself in words that aren't spelled with an “er”. For example, the word “collar,” sounds like it would end in an “er.” d and last. Students then listened to a Superkids Story and completed multiple choice and opened ended questions about it. Next, students learned about the 4 W’s, with the 4 W’s Worksheet. The 4 W’s are the who, what, when, and where of a story. I modeled this with students with the book: How I Met My Monster by R.L. Stine, identifying those 4 W’s before students chose an independent reading book to find the 4 W’s of their own within their book. Lastly, to keep with our Halloween theme, students listened to The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano, and the students completed a Beginning, Middle, and End Candy Corn Worksheet. In spelling, we got our new spelling words! We then used our spelling activities to help us practice our spelling words.  In religion, we learned about the Bible Stories: Joseph and His Brothers in Egypt, The Call of Moses, and Moses and Aaron Meet with Pharaoh. In our second grade religion books, we discussed how Jesus Calls Us to Live in Love. In science this week, we watched Mystery Doug! Doug answered “How do they make imaginary movie characters look so real?” We continued learning about natural living matter, non-living natural matter, and manmade matter and their three states; solids, liquids, and gasses. We conducted an experiment with pumpkins and tied this into if the pumpkin was natural or manmade matter. We also gutted the pumpkin and looked at the insides of it, and decided what parts were solids and liquids.In social studies, we discussed the History of Halloween from National Geographic Kids!

Reminders for next week:
10/29: Trunk or Treat- 5:15pm-8:15pm
11/1: All School Mass- 8:45am
11/2: Early Dismissal @ 12:30pm
11/2-11/3: School Conferences 
11/4: School Picture Retakes

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Fall weather has definitely made its way in! We were busy celebrating it in second grade this week! In math, we reviewed the break apart strategy. The break apart strategy makes students break apart both two-digit numbers into their tens and ones places. Then, you add the tens places of both numbers together, then the ones places of both numbers, and then the sum of the tens and ones places to get a final sum. We also learned about the partial sums strategy. The only difference between this strategy and the break apart strategy is the set up of the numbers. Instead of the numbers being written side to side like the break apart strategy, they are written up and down. This allows students to better line up the tens place and the ones place. With this strategy students add the tens places of both numbers together, then the ones places of both numbers, and then the sum of the tens and ones places to get a final sum. Lastly, this week we learned about the up and down strategy. For this strategy, you add the ones place first (in case you need to regroup) and then the tens place. This is the “normal” way that me and you learned to add when we were all in school! In writing this week, we continued to set goals for what we wanted to achieve and get done for that day. Our students got A LOT of writing done with this strategy! Some of them have more than ten final copies of stories done! Students then learned how to revise with intent. This means they went through and corrected their sentences making sure they began with a capital letter and ended with punctuation, but really made sure that they wrote all the details in their story to make sure the reader can picture it in their minds as they read it. We also learned how to add specific details such as onomatopoeia, hooks, and action from model texts to our own small moment stories. Lastly, we wrote all about our week in our Nothing Books. In reading, worked in our Superkids Word Work Books. This week we discussed how to add “ing” and “ed” to base words. We learned that if the base word ends in an “e” you have to drop it to add “ing” or just add the “d” for the “ed” ending. This week students also learned what sequencing a story is. Students learned that when sequencing, you need to identify what happened first, second, third and last. We modeled this as a class with Boo Stew by Donna L. Washington. Then, students listened to a Superkids Story and completed a S’mores Sequencing Worksheet about it. Then, students learned about what dialogue is and how to identify it in a story. With their independent reading books, students then completed a Dialogue Worksheet. Lastly, students listened to Crunch and Crack, Oink and Whack! by Brian R. Cleary. Then, they completed an Onomatopoeia Challenge. In spelling, we continued using spelling activities to help us practice our spelling words. We also took our spelling test! In religion, our Youth Minister came in and finished up college care packages with our students. Then, Mrs. Keating, our school guidance counselor came in and discussed the mood meter with our students! In religion this week we learned about the Bible Stories: Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams and Joseph's Brothers in Egypt. In our second grade religion books, we discussed how We Give Love to Others. In science this week, we watched Mystery Doug! Doug answered “What is the biggest spider in the world?” We continued learning about natural living matter, non-living natural matter, and manmade matter and their three states; solids, liquids, and gasses. We conducted an experiment with an ice cube to model these three states of changing matter so students could visually see these changes! In social studies, we discussed different types of bats and real life mummies from National Geographic Kids!

Reminders for next week:
10/28: School Boo Bash
10/29: Trunk or Treat- 5:15pm-8:15pm

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

For a short week, we sure were busy! In math, we started our brand new math unit! This math unit is adding and subtracting two-digit numbers using different strategies! Students will be given four to five different strategies to help them add and subtract. Students do not have to be an expert at every single one! What our unit does is introduce all of these strategies so students can use two to three of them, to help them solve and feel comfortable doing so. To begin this unit, we learned how to add on a hundreds chart. For this strategy, we began by finding the bigger number in the equation. Then, we looked at the smaller number in the equation, and identified its tens and ones places. After identifying the place values, you move down whatever number was in the tens place, and to the right for whatever number is in the ones place. For example, for the equation 25 + 14, you would draw a circle around 25, then move down one space because there is a 1 in the tens place and to the right 4 spaces because there is a 4 in the ones place. Then, we learned how to add two-digit numbers on an open number line. We put the bigger number on the left hand side, looked at the second number in the equation, made the number of tens jumps of the number in the tens place, and then made however many jumps of the number in the ones place. For example, for the equation 25 + 14, you would put 25 on the left hand side. Then identify the tens and ones in 14. Make 1 jump of ten because of the tens place in 14, and then 4 jumps of plus 1. Then, students will land on their final answer. Finally we worked on the break apart strategy. The break apart strategy makes students break apart both two-digit numbers into their tens and ones places. Then, you add the tens places of both numbers together, then the ones places of both numbers, and then the sum of the tens and ones places to get a final sum. For example, for 25 + 14, 25 would be broken into 20 and 5, 14 would be broken into 10 and 4. You would add the tens, 20 + 10= 20, then the ones places 5 + 4= 9, then add the sums 20 + 9= 29. In writing this week, we worked on a Dot Day activity! We made our own dots, and wrote all about our dots and why we made them the way that we did. For our narrative writing unit, we looked at our small moment stories, found errors, and rewrote our stories like detectives fixing them to make them perfect! Next, we made goals for ourselves. We set goals for what we wanted to achieve and get done for that day. For example, “I want to finish a story, or brainstorm a brand new one.” Lastly, we wrote all about our week in our Nothing Books. In reading, we worked in our Superkids Word Work Books. This week we discussed “s” v. “es”, we learned about what makes words rhyme, and how to break a word apart into syllables! We also continued to talk about Author’s Lesson. Author’s Lesson allows students to describe what the author is trying to teach you from the story. We read Be Kind, by Pat Zietlow Miller, which allowed students to see how to complete the Author’s Lesson Worksheet. Then students completed their own Author’s Lesson Worksheet using their own independent reading books. We then moved on to Beginning, Middle, and End Strategy. This allows students to read a short story, and identify the beginning, middle, and end of it using a worksheet! In spelling, we got our brand new spelling words, and began using spelling activities to help us practice them! In religion this week we learned about the Bible Stories: Jacob Wrestles an Angel, Jacob Leaves Laban’s Land, Jacob and Esau Meet Again, and Joseph Interprets Dreams. In our second grade religion books, we discussed how Jesus Shows us How to Love Others. In science this week, we watched Mystery Doug! Doug answered “Why do some people get head lice?” We continued learning about natural living matter, non-living natural matter, and manmade matter and their three states; solids, liquids, and gasses. In social studies, we continued talking about Hispanic Heritage Month! This week students read the story Pablo’s Tree by Pat Mora. 

Reminders for next week:
10/16: Open House from 1-3pm
10/19: 8th Grade Chipotle Fundraiser

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

We had another amazing week in second grade! I am so proud of these students! They have been working so hard and learning so many new skills! In math this week, we finished our unit by learning how to problem solve using models. We reviewed for our first math test, and then took our test! Students did an AWESOME job! Lastly, we made a Halloween Haunted House Craft for our classroom line! In writing this week we learned all about how to end our small moment stories. We learned that writers simply do not just write “the end” when they have nothing else to say in their story. They slowly wind their stories down so the ending is not sudden or abrupt. We also looked at our finished small moment stories and became detectives, looking for incorrect spelling words, capital letters, and punctuation. If we found any of these in our stories we made corrections. Then, we rewrote our small moment stories after making those corrections on final copy paper! Lastly, we wrote all about our week in our Nothing Books. In reading, we worked in our Superkids Word Work Books. This week we discussed ee, ie, and y words and discussed the ways “e” can sound in a word. For example, the “y” in the word “fry” makes the long “e” sound. We also learned about what an adjective is and how to identify them in given sentences. We have also continued discussing reading strategies to help us become even better readers. One of those strategies was describing character traits. This allowed students to describe a character using a word, but then using evidence from their text to describe why that character is that trait. For example, “Junie B. Jones is sneaky because she hid from her teacher so she wouldn’t have to take the bus home from school.” We used a book called The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill to model and do our class example together! We also talked about Author’s Lesson. Author’s Lesson allows students to describe what the author is trying to teach you from the story. For example, in The Recess Queen, the author's message was about how to be a kind friend. In spelling this week, we continued to practice our spelling words using spelling activities. Students also took their spelling test! In religion this week, our Youth Minister Mr. Tome came in and continued making college care packages with our students. We also learned about the Bible Stories: Jacob’s Dream, and Jacob Meets Rachel and Leah. In our second grade religion books, we discussed how God Speaks to Us. In science this week, we watched Mystery Doug! Doug answered “How do some people get so good at sports?” We continued learning about natural living matter, non-living natural matter, and manmade matter. However, we took it a step further by sorting items into the three states of matter: solids, liquids, and gasses. In social studies, we continued talking about Hispanic Heritage Month! This week students read the story Manana Iguana by Ann Paul. 

Reminders for next week:
10/10: No School- Fall Break
10/11: Drama Club Auditions (3pm)- Grades 2-4 

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We had a very busy week here in second grade! In math this week, students learned how to problem solve using constructive arguments. This means that when given a problem, they can argue why their answer is correct, and the steps they took to solve it using a specific strategy. We also learned about even and odd numbers and what makes them even or odd. For example, if a number can be broken down into equal groups, the number is even, if it can not, the number is odd. In addition, when looking at two-digit numbers, students learned to look in the ones place of that number to determine if it is odd or even. Lastly, we looked at arrays, and how they help us find totals. Lastly, students learned how to make their own arrays to find totals. In writing, for our small moment story unit, students learned how to tell a story across their fingers when planning a small moment story to write. We learned that the thumb is the beginning where students can identify the small moment story, characters, day, and possibly even the time of day. The pointer finger is the first thing that happens, the middle finger is what happens second, the ring finger is what happens third, and the pinky finger is what happens last/ the end of their story. We also learned how to add precise details to the stories we have already written. For example, if we had a sentence like: “at the beach I ran into the water,” we could add precise details by making it something like this: “at the beach I ran into the clear, blue, refreshing water.” Lastly, we wrote all about our week in our Nothing Books. In reading, we worked in our Superkids Word Work Books. This week we discussed “le” and “ng” words, words with double consonants, like the word “puddle,” and what nouns and verbs are, and how to identify them in given sentences. We have also continued discussing reading strategies to help us become even better readers. One of those strategies was the 5 Finger Retell. This allowed students to describe the setting on the thumb of their hand, characters on their pointer finger, the problem on the middle finger, events that occurred on the ring finger, and lastly the solution on the pinky finger. Another strategy we dove into was the 6 Reading Strategies Worksheet. This worksheet gave students 6 strategies to use to help them figure out an unknown word while they are reading. Those are: using picture clues, identifying all the sounds in the word, chunking out the word, blending the sounds within the word together, look at the vowels to see if they are long or short, and lastly, reading on in the sentence and looking for context clues to help them figure out the word. In spelling this week, we got out new spelling words and began using our spelling activities to help us practice our spelling words! In religion this week, we learned about the Bible Stories: The Covenant with Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Jacob’s Dream, and Jacob Meets Rachel and Leah. In our second grade religion books, we discussed how God Speaks to Us. In science this week, we watched Mystery Doug! Doug answered “Why do whales sing?” We continued learning about natural living matter, non-living natural matter, and manmade matter. This week we broke matter down into different types of materials, and students needed to identify objects used to make those materials, and sort them into the correct category. In social studies, we continued talking about Hispanic Heritage Month! This week students learned about The Biblioburro (The donkey library). It is a traveling library that distributes books to patrons from the backs of two donkeys, Alfa and Beto. The program was created in La Gloria, Colombia, by Luis Soriano. We discussed how our library differs from the Biblioburro. To put this into perspective, we read Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown. 

Reminders for next week:
10/3- 10/5: School Book Fair
10/4: All School Mass
10/6: No School- Teacher PD