Thanksgiving is just around the corner!!

                                                                              November 16, 2015
Dear Bighorn Families,

Although it is hard to believe, the holiday season is almost upon us.  As we go from Halloween into Thanksgiving and then onto Christmas it can be such a busy time!! This is a time to enjoy special family traditions and celebrations but at the same time balance work and school obligations.  At this exciting time of year it is important to remember that home and school routines are very important to maintain.  

Here's a bit about last week...  
  
Math
We finished up our unit on graphing this week.  While the formal teaching of graphs has been completed, our work with graphs will continue in using them to graph data in projects and occasionally through a review on graphs.

Our new work in math is our money unit.  This week we focused on reviewing coins, their values, and counting on by pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars.  Students also got practice using coins to make a target money amount.  For example the money amount is 42 cents, here are some of the ways students made it.
...4 dimes and 2 pennies
...1 quarter, 1 dime, 1 nickel, and 2 pennies
...8 nickels and 2 pennies
...1 quarter, 3 nickels, and 2 pennies
It was interesting to see the different ways students made the target money amount.  Our work with money will continue this week with money amounts that include dollar amounts.

Here's the homework for the week...

Mon.  IXL P.3 Count Pennies, Nickels, and Dimes

Tues.  IXL P.4-Count Money Up to One Dollar
Wed.  Homework Page
Thurs.  IXL P.7 Equivalent Coins

Writing
In writing students are continuing to work on opinion/persuasive piece.  The purpose is to have students make a statement, state an opinion or take a stand to persuade, give reasons that support that statement, give examples or explain the reasons, and finally restate their statement.  

On Monday and Tuesday we practiced this format orally with "Would you rather questions", like--Would you rather have super strength or be able to fly?  On Thursday students partnered up, selected a question, and used a "flee map" to put their ideas down in pre-writing.  
 

Language
Our work in language continued with adverbs.  We got in a final review on Monday and Tuesday and assessed on adverbs on Thursday.

We also spent some time in language/writing looking at a friendly letter format.  Our main focus was naming the parts of the friendly letter--heading, greeting, body, closing, signature.  Students also paid close attention to the proper location of commas in the friendly letter--in the date, after the greeting, and after the closing.  This work will be practiced more this coming week in writing as well as language.

Projects
We completed our work with exploring changing solids using heat and cooling.  Students heated crayons in a crockpot, poured the liquid wax into molds, placed molds in the freezer and enjoyed their new solid!  Students got to discuss and write about the changes in matter that occurred.  We also discussed whether this was a reversible or irreversible change.  This week students will partner and pick their own form of matter to observe changes as it is heated and cooled. I wonder what the Scientists of Room 17 will discover?

Check out the great typing posture and finger placement on the home row!

As students are working more with their chrome books to type documents, I am seeing a need for students to learn some keyboarding skills.  This week students started using typingclub.com to work on keyboarding skills.  We will use this program twice a week to familiarize students with the keyboard--posture, finger placement, and the home row.  As students move through lessons they will also work on speed and accuracy.  So far students have been enjoying this program.  

Looking forward to a busy and productive week!!

Sincerely,

Anne Bloomfield

Reading information from Mrs. Loop...

News from Mrs. Loop

All of my second graders are progressing nicely with their reading.  Students are beginning to bring home comprehension questions to answer with their assigned book.  One of the second grade standards states that students need to be able to answer questions about what they have read.  Students should be able to answer their questions quickly and they need to restate their question and answer in a complete sentence.  They should not begin their answer with the word because.  Continue to have your child practice reading aloud to you and continue to have them work on their reading fluency as well.