Mrs. Bloomfield's Second Grade : Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All!!

December 18, 2017

Dear Second Grade Families,

We are down to the last 4 days before Christmas Break!! I know that everybody has busy households as we finish all our Christmas preparations, yet stay caught up with our day to day activities. Easier said than done--but try very hard to enjoy some peace within this busy time of year.

Last week was very rough!! We had many students down with the flu! Miss Garcia and myself are hoping that everyone is healthy and stays healthy for our final week of school before vacation.

Math

Last week we started some work in geometry. Our focus was categorizing 3-dimensional shapes. We worked on this in whole group as students suggested different ways to sort the solids. Students came up with many different ideas such as color, shape, and size. Eventually student sorted them by solids with curved faces and solids with flat faces.

During the week students also made 3-dimensional shapes. We are focusing on identifying the 3-dimensional shapes by name (sphere, cube, cone, retangular solid, triangular solid, pyramid, and cylinder. Students are describing the 3-dimensional shapes by talking about their edges, vertices, and faces. Students spent time constructing 3-D shapes using toothpicks and raisins.

Here’s our math homework for the week.

Monday	IXL U.2 Select 3-Dimensional Shapes
Tuesday	IXL U.3 Count Vertices, Edges, and Faces
Wednesday	IXL U.4 Compare Vertices, Edges, and Faces
Thursday	No Homework--Happy Christmas Vacation

Language

Our work with adverbs is continuing! Students are getting much better at identifying adverbs and sorting them by if they tell--How, When, or Where.

Writing

We are finishing up our Gift to the World pieces. Your children have amazed us with their thoughtful gifts that they would like to give to special people.

Projects

In projects this week students took the knowledge they have gained about the properties of solids, liquids, and gases. Students watched and discussed a short science video on properties. They were given the scenario of being stranded on “Desert Island” and having to make a hat to protect them from the sun. Students were given the following items to create a hat-- a paper plate, a paper bag, 3 feet of yarn, a 12 X 12 sheet of foil, a rubber band, and 2 clothes pins. Students got very creative about using the material and considering the properties of those materials to create a hat that would protect them on a Desert Island.