April Showers Bring May Flowers

April 27, 2015

Dear Parents,

Will April showers bring May flowers? I certainly hope so, however for my yard it will most likely bring a bumper crop of weeds. In any event, I am so thankful for the rain of the last few days. We need every precious drop of moisture to help with the drought conditions.

Math

How many squares can you make
with 32 craft sticks??

Division was our focus this week in math. Students are doing a fantastic job!! Students spent some time this week working with manipulatives to physically take a whole and divide it into groups (parts). We also drew pictures to depict division. "When in doubt, draw it out" is a common saying in Room 5.

Through all our work with multiplication last week and division this week students have begun to notice the relationship between the two operations. Again using manipulatives (cubes), students took 12 (whole) cubes and divided them into 4 groups (parts), discovering each group had 3 cubes. Next they took the 12 cubes and divided them into 3 groups, discovering each group had 4 cubes. As students broke the whole (12) into groups we discussed the multiplication facts involved. Students wrote the division and multiplication facts that went with the activity--12 divided by 4 = 3, 12 divided by 3 = 4, 4 X 3 = 12, and 3 X 4 = 12.

Finally in math we worked on work problems involving multiplication and division. We continue to use the same steps to solve word problems--read the problem, circle the question, flip the question into an answer statement, reread the problem--underlining important information, decide how to solve the problem, solve, and finally check. We spend a lot of time solving word problems, which can be challenging but the students of Room 5 are becoming masters. I'm so proud of my math students.

Homework

Mon. IXL T.2 Identify 3-Dimensional Shapes

Tues. IXL T.5 Count Edges, Vertices, and Faces

Wed. IXL T.7 Compare Edges, Vertices, and Faces

Thurs. No Homework

Writing

Peer Revising and Editing

Peer Revising and Editing

The writers of Room 5 have been working on their persuasive writing pieces. Students completed their rough drafts and spent time doing self revising and editing and working with their writing partner to complete some peer revising and editing. I have started meeting with students and I must say these pieces are quite persuasive. Just a "heads up", I see a lot of requests for puppies, kittens, and video games coming your way!! You've been warned!!

Language
In language we have been working on dictionary skills, specifically guide words. Last week we worked a lot on alphabetical order. With students putting lists of words with the same first few letters (cattle, came, cats, cape) in alphabetical order. This week we looked at the words at the top of a dictionary page (guide words). Students are learning that guide words are the first and last words on a dictionary page and help "guide" us to find words in the dictionary. We did a physical activity with students holding cards with a word on them. Students holding the big cards were guide words and students holding smaller cards were entry word. To figure out which entry words would be found on the same page with the guide words, students had to put themselves in alphbetical order according to the word on their card. Once in alphabetical order students could clearly see that the students holding word cards that came between the two guide word cards would be on the same page.

I am pleased to announce that students are using the IXL program (the same program we use for Math) for Language. We are currently on a 30 day trial but it looks like Mrs. Mackedon will be purchasing it for use next year. We used it to practice guidewords and capitalization this past week. I felt it was a great way to practice skills and students enjoyed using the familiar format.

Projects

Measuing our radish plants.

Our Plant Project is moving right along. Students having been observing daily and writing weekly about the changes they are seeing in the radish plants that they planted as seeds last week. Each student planted 6 seeds (2 under each condition--sunlight and water, sunlight and no water, and water and no sunlight). It has been interesting to see the how seeds grow or not grow under these conditions.  

Comparing bean seeds water
soaked versus not soaked.

As we are observing our radish seeds this week, we started to think about what we feed our plants and how plants might grow if they were "watered" with a liquid other than water. This idea has led us to our next plant experiment--growing bean seeds using different liquids. Students came up with a wide variety of ideas, everything from milk to vinegar. On Monday we put the the bean seeds in a wet paper towel in a baggie to get them ready to plant on Thursday. This week we will start them on their feeding schedule. It will be interesting to see what happens. We will definitely keep you posted.

As much as I have enjoyed the much needed rain, I am happy to see the last week in April will be filled with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures. With the warmer weather please be sure that your child brings a water bottle to school. I know our week will be great, here's wishing you the same.

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield

Here's some Reading information from Mrs. Jackson...

April 27-30

Fabulous 2nd Grade Families-

This week we continue to work hard to finish off our year.  We truly only have 3 more weeks of “nose to the grindstone” focused time with each other.  We are diligently reading, enjoying, discussing and finishing as many books as we can together.  

Your child should be bringing home chapter books nightly with at least 10 pages of reading.  Thank you so much for taking the time to sign their nightly reading homework.  As I mentioned last week, the sharing and quality of our discussions has risen greatly.  It has been so much fun to see the energy and excitement over the same reading we’ve all done the night before.  

We will be studying a new poem this week as one of our Daily Five rotations working on our Spelling and Handwriting as well as working on Word Work at our level and typing stories of our choice on the computers.  

Our year is ending quickly and furiously.  Please remember to practice fluency with your child at home if they are still working on this skill.  

Have a wonderful week!  Hasn’t the rain been such an amazing surprise!  More this week?  I hope so!