Welcome October

                                                                                                         October 5, 2015

Dear Second Grade Families,

What a strange weather week!!  I'm so happy that we had a little "fall" in the air with cooler temperatures and the lovely rain on Thursday.  With the cooler weather please remember to send your child to school with a light jacket or sweatshirt.

Picture day is this week!  An email was sent out last week with the picture order form if you would like to purchase pictures.  Room 17 will have pictures taken on Wednesday, October 7th at 10:30 AM.  If you would to purchase pictures, please send the form with the money on Wednesday.

Math 
Our work in math this week continued to focus on word problems.  During this week our focus was on comparison word problems.  Although you can use a number bond to solve this kind of problem, students were shown how to use a bar model to solve this kind of problem.

Comparison Word Problems
There are 12 cherries and 5 pears.  How many more cherries than pears are there?

C = cherry

P = pear

C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C
P	P	P	P	P

Equation:  12 -- 5 =   7                or                 5 +  7 = 12
Answer Sentence:  There are 7 more cherries than pears.

Another BIG part of our work in math was reviewing mental math.  This is another concept that will carry into next week.  In mental math we have been working on adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers without renaming.  If the problem is 34 + 25 = ?, students are breaking each 2-digit number into tens and ones.  So 34 + 25 = ? would look like 30 + 20 = 50 and 4 + 5 = 9.  This all comes together to show that 34 + 25 = 59.  Students are learning a branching method, which really helps students to build a deeper understanding of what it takes to add and subtract.  This is very important to lay the foundation for more difficult problems that students will encounter in the future.  
Here's what the "branching" method looks like...
                 Addition                                                             Subtraction
                 67  +  32  =                                                            67  --  32  =      
             60    7   30   2    Break down the tens and ones.   60   7   30   2        
         (60 + 30) + (7 + 2)  Combine tens and ones.         (60 -- 30) + (7 -- 2)                             
                  90  + 9 = 99                                                            30  +  5  =  35                                                                                                                           
It is very exciting to see students starting to develp the ability to break down numbers and quickly add them in their heads.  Again this is another concept that will be be practiced throughout the year. 

Homework for the week...
Mon.   Worksheet
Tues.  IXL G.2 Adding a Single and Double Digit Number

Wed.   Worksheet  Open Number Line

Thurs. Worksheet Open Number Line

Language
Our work with verbs continued this week.  The focus was looking at irregular past tense verb forms.  Irregular verbs are the verbs that you do not add "ed" to the end to form the past tense.  Here are some examples....

          Present                                       Past
          run                                               ran
          win                                               won
          buy                                              bought
          go                                                went
          hit                                                hit
Students are working on identifying and spelling the irregular past tense verbs.

Writing

Orally sharing "Absolutely True" stories.

In writing we have started a new narrative writing project.  Our writing is based on the book, Gooney Bird Greene, which has been a past read aloud.  In the book, Gooney Bird tells "absolutely true" stories about her life.  In this writing project students are sharing "absolutely true" stories about their lives.  So far we have completed a prewriting notetaker called a "quick sketch" to get our ideas down.  Students have also orally told their "absolutely true" stories to other students.

Projects

The Scientists of Room 17

Exploring matter

The students of Room 17 are now Scientists!!  We started our new project--Everything Matters.  During this project students will be learning the Scientific Method and exploring the 3 forms of matter--solid, liquid, and gas.  We started the project with students using their senses to explore various substances.  As good scientists, the students took notes (listed describing words) on each substance and made predictions about the identity of the substance.

What do you think is in the bag?

Busy Scientists taking notes.

Explore, explore, then explore some more!

We are coming to the end of the quarter, which I cannot believe!!  Students will be working on end of quarter assessments in all academic areas over the next 2 weeks.  By next week we will begin putting out the schedule to sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences which will begin Friday, October 23rd.

Wishing you all a fantastic week!!

Sincerely,

Anne Bloomfield

Here's some reading information from Mrs. Loop...

Hello Second Grade Families,

I am continuing report card assessments this week as the end of the grading period is fast approaching!  This means that once again your child will not be coming home with an assigned reading book to read over the weekend.  This of course does not mean that your child can take the weekend off from reading.  Please have them write down what they chose to read for their expected 20 minutes of reading over the weekend or email me what they read.  Hopefully you are finding your second grader choosing to read more during their free time.  Fluency is assessed every Wednesday so encourage your child to practice their reading fluency nightly.  Reading aloud 100 words in one minute is a challenge for many.  This week’s spelling words will be part of the “-ice” word family.  Please have your child tell you aloud how to spell them while you are driving in the car and have them practice writing them when you are home.

Happy Reading,

Katy Loop