Fabulous February Continues

                                                                                                             February 15, 2016

Dear Parents,

I sure hope that everyone had a wonderful long weekend.  Mine was very packed with visits from my older sons, Valentine's Day, and my husband's birthday.  It was certainly very SWEET!

Math

Waiting to solve the equation.

Students working on solving equations. 

Calling in a "coach".

Students have continued to work on adding and subtracting with renaming within 1,000.  This past week students focused on the branch method.  Students picked up on this strategy quickly.  Above are pictures of part of our review on Thursday--we did a Branch Method Relay.  Students had a fantastic time racing against eachother to complete their equation.  After each team completed their equation we went back into the classroom to correct the work.  We were able to identify errors and celebrate correct answers.

This week we are focusing on Partial Sums and Differences.  The students should be familiar with this strategy and have applied it previously with addition and subtraction.  Here are some examples of homework this week.

Partial Sums with Renaming

Example:

     2 6 4                           1.  Add the hundreds place.

    +  3 7                           2.  Add the tens place.

   2 0 0 + 0 =     2 0 0       3.  Add the ones place.

      6 0 + 3 0 =     9 0       4.  Add all partial sums.

         4 + 7 =     + 1 1      

                       200 + 100 + 1 = 301

Partial Differences With Renaming

Example:

     2 6 4                           1.  Subtract the hundreds place.

    -   3 7                           2.  Subtract the tens place.

   2 0 0 - 0 =     2 0 0        3.  Subtract the ones place (watch out for negative numbers).

      6 0 - 3 0 =  + 3 0        4.  Add partial differences but subtract any negative numbers.

                        2 3 0

         4 - 7 =     -    3       

                       2 2  7                    200 + 30 - 3 = 227

Here is what we will be working on for homework this week:

Tuesday	Worksheet: Partial Sums
Wednesday	Worksheet: Partial Differences
Thursday	Worksheet: Partial Sums and Differences in Word Problems

Language
In Language students are working on identifying the subject and predicate in simple sentences.  We have also worked on making simple sentences more complex by adding adjectives, adverbs, where, and when.  We will continue this work this coming week.
The cows eat grass.
The brown cows eat green grass.
Down in the meadow the brown cows eat green grass everyday.
Writing/Projects
Our writing and projects will be joining together this week.  Students have been working on writing their rough drafts of their animal research reports.  By the end of the week students should be working on the final copy of their animal reports.  

Since our project work has focused on geography and maps, students will be creating maps of where their animal comes from.  Within the partnerships one student will create a physical map and the other will create a political map.

Special Note
Our class brought in the most money for "Money for Maverick".  The student council will be taking us for our treat at Maverick on Wednesday, February 17th. We will walk over after lunch for our treat.  No extra money is needed as the student council is paying for our treat!

It will be a short but busy week!!

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield

Here is some reading information from Mrs. Loop...

Hello Second Grade Families,

Last week all 1st and 2nd grade students at Oasis Academy wrote reasons that they love reading on pink post-it notes and they were placed in the shape of a heart in the hallway for all to see and read.  Stop by and read the many reasons that all 42 first graders, 40 second graders, Mrs. Rowlett, Mrs. Garcia, Mrs. Bloomfield, and myself wrote about why we love reading.  This heart is on the wall near Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Bloomfield’s classrooms.

This week many second graders will have new reading books that they will begin.  Please plan on having your child read aloud to you each night.  Even though your child is a reader now they still need to practice reading aloud to someone so they get fluency practice.  Due to us only having three days of school this week there will not be any spelling words for the week. ~Katy Loop