Welcome November

Dear Parents,

Halloween at Oasis was amazing!!!  The students were adorable and wore a wide variety of costumes.  The Halloween Parade gave every student a chance to walk through each classroom so that their costume could be seen by everyone.  Mrs. Hyde organized an outstanding party that included four different centers manned by Mrs. Peel, Mrs. Christiansen, and Mrs. Goings.  Mrs. Payne and Mrs. Sorensen bounced in and out of our class doing whatever was needed and the Lewallen Family came in to check out all the action.  In addition to the centers, tons of food was provided by many different parents. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

Last week Domino's Pizza coupons went home.  Those coupons can be used on Monday, November 3rd and Oasis will recieve 20 % of your purchase.  So, if you are undecided about what to have for dinner on Monday; perhaps Domino's is the answer.  

The 1st and 2nd grade Parent Teacher Conferences are almost over.  I really appreciate the time to sit down and discuss your child's progress and create "Action Plans" for students. Those "Action Plans" have already started or will be started this week to continue to support your child in their "learning journey".  Mrs.  Jackson and myself have just a few more conferences unitl we finish.  We should be done by this Friday!!

Here's what has been going on in Room 5.

Math
In Math we worked on the Partial Sum strategy to help students add 2 and 3 digit numbers.  In this strategy, students start with the biggest place value adding each column separately.  These separate calculations (the partial sums) are then added together to form the total sum.  At this point the the calculation is basically an expanded form number, which students are able to quickly identify.                                                                                                        

2	6	3
+  4	2	5
6	0	0
	8	0
		8
6	8	8

The reason that we are so focused with teaching strategies to add and subtract multi-digit numbers is two-fold.  First it gives students the ability to be flexible in their number sense, which will help them as they work with larger numbers and more complex problems.  Secondly, as we move to working with the standard algorithms having multiple strategies to use gives students more "tools"  to help them solve problems.

Here's the Math Homework for this week...

Mon.	Worksheet with 2-Digit Partial Differences
Tues	Worksheet with 3-Digit Partial Differences
Wed.	Worksheet with Partial Difference in Word Problems
Thurs.	Review Sheet Partial Sums and Differences

Language
In Language we are learning about adjectives.  Students are learning that adjectives are words that describe nouns and that adjectives can fall into several different categories (color, amount, size, shape, texture, etc.).  We will continue practicing our work with adjectives this week.

Writing
In honor of Halloween and in order to reinforce our work with adjectives, students are writing a description of a monster they have created.  We have worked on the prewriting and rough drafts this week and will revise/edit and complete final copies this week.  Look for the student monsters to be displayed in our hallway soon!!

Projects
As we move from one project to another, this past week has been a nice break.  We celebrated the completion of our "Then and Now" and Nevada Day with a pioneer stew and cornbread snack on Wednesday.  Over the week students have been using their Chrome Books to research information about Nevada.  They have filled in a note taker with information about state symbols, population, land forms, and bodies of water.  We will continue to explore the state of Nevada and move onto students creating a 51st state.  This next project will be a project that students work on individually.  I can't wait to see what the students come up with--they certainly always AMAZE me!!

Just a reminder that the month of November goes very quickly.  Please take the time to check out the Blog weekly.  Even though the month of November is new, with the many holidays--Veteran's Day (Tuesday, November 11th) and the Thanksgiving Holiday (Wednesday, November 26--Sunday, November 30th), students are only in school a total of 13 days in November.  

Looking forward to another busy week in Room 5!!

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield

Some Reading information from Mrs. Jackson!!

2nd Grade Blog

November 3-6

We had so much fun last week!  The Halloween decorations have now been put away and we are heading into November. This month will be a short one due to Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving.  Both of these weeks will be short weeks.  I have had so much fun getting to know all of you during parent conferences.  I am excited to add a few new things into our classroom after hearing parent feedback.  

Our focus in our Reading during this quarter is on Non Fiction text.  We will be discussing various text features each day.  During our Daily Five Read to Self time, students will be reading non fiction text searching for certain text features.  When they are participating in listening to Reading, they will listen to Non-Fiction text.  Also, when they are Working on Writing, they will be trying out non-fiction writing using some text features in this daily writing.  

Students working with me during their small group Guided Reading time will spend  time working with Non-Fiction books and Reading Comprehension passages that focus on each of these Text Features. Some of the text features that we will specifically be focusing on include: glossaries, tables of contents, illustrations, charts, signs, headings, titles, pictures, bold print, captions and labels. Our word family this week is -ail.  I will be sending you an e-mail with the Spelling lists just in case they’re not making their way home.

I look forward to spending time with the rest of you during parent conferences this week.  A big thanks once again to Mrs. Dodge, Mr. Henning, Mrs. Goings and Mrs. Hyde for enhancing our learning each week.

Thanks again,

Kristen Jackson