Week of September 25-29

Hello families!

This week in Second Grade we have been working hard all week!

In reading this week we read the book Library Mouse. In the story the main character, Sam, takes charge of his learning by writing stories. First he reads a lot of books, then he realizes he can be an author too. Next he write and shares his stories with the kids in the library and lastly he teaches the kids that they are authors also.We read the book a few times and learned a new vocabulary word:biography.  We also wrote reflections about the story in class.

In writing this week we have begun to write for longer periods of time. We are working on writing small moments. We learned that writers stretch out a small moment, zooming in on one part.  We read the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. The author gives us a great example with all the details in the story. We tried putting more details and precise words into our stories. We learned writers make their stories more interesting by making their characters move and talk. We tried using quotation marks in our writing.

For phonics this week we learned about the short vowels and compared them to the long vowels. We practice word patterns. We took an assessment of the words we learned last year. The assessment will be used to help build our word wall in class.

In math this week, we introduced the quarter and counted coins. We played the penny-nickel-dime exchange game. We also reviewed odd and even numbers. We practiced making odd and even numbers on a double ten frame.

We have been learning about communities in Social Studies. This week we discussed that we belong to many groups within a community such as: school, home, sports teams, church, girl scouts, boy scouts, etc.

Next week: we will continue to work on reviewing the concepts learned in First Grade in math. We will work on writing a retelling after reading a story together, we will continue to learn more about communities, we will learn about compound words!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Scheck

Week of September 18-22

Dear families,

This has been a busy and fun week in Second Grade!

We read the book Enemy Pie this week. We discussed connections to the story from our own lives. Readers make connections when they read. Sometimes the connection is to yourself, to another story or to the world. We were able to connect this book to a book from last week Pink Tiara Cookies for Three. Both stories are about friendship and kindness. We learned the vocabulary word gullible. We put the new vocabulary word in our notebooks.

For Phonics this week we reviewed the "r blends" br, gr, tr and fr. I am still assessing the high frequency words and we will be adding them to our word wall soon!

In writing we have begun our small moments writing unit. We worked on generating ideas for stories and wrote a list of topics. We will work on stretching out a small moment and adding details today.

In math we have worked on number patterns, number grid puzzles and coins. Coin counting practice is a great way to solidify counting with ones, fives and tens. Give your child a handful of change and let him or her find the total... they can add it to their bank or spend it on a treat for fun!
We reviewed the concept of equivalent numbers. We practiced making equivalent numbers in our math journal.
If you have not tried out the Everyday Math website and played games, try to log in this weekend and let your student practice math skills through games.

We have begun our Social Studies unit on Communities. We discussed "what is a community" and listed the four different ways we use communities: work, play, school and living.

Next week is Picture day on Tuesday, September 26th! A flyer went home explaining the process for ordering pictures.
I am sending home a book order tonight. The book order is a great way to buy books from school and help our class earn FREE BOOKS! Parents can order books online or send in a check or money order payable to Scholastic Books. I will need the book orders by Friday, September 29th.
There is also a half day on Wednesday, September 27th, school is dismissed at 12:09 p.m. Please let me know in writing of your child's plan for that day.

We are having a great time here in Room 105!
Have a good weekend,
Mrs. Scheck

Potato chip challenge and barbecue won!

Second week of Second grade!

Dear families,

We are off to a great second week of school in Room 105!

We have been working hard in reading workshop. We have learned how to use our classroom library. We have selected books based on interest. Reading a sneak peek on the book and read a few pages to help get familiar with a book, helps us decide. We will also discuss how readers read more in second grade, building their stamina from 20 minutes up to 25-30 minutes.

This week we are reading The Potato Chip Champ and The Juice Box Bully both books are written by Maria Desmondy. We are continue to work on kindness. Tomorrow we will have a potato chip taste test and graph results as part of our "Friday Fun!" We will write ways to be a friend and to be kind.

We have begun writing workshop! Second graders begin writing "small moments." We will continue to build stamina writing for longer periods of time each week.

In math, we have learned how to use math tools and reviewed counting coins! I introduced the nickel yesterday. Many students came in Thursday morning knowing who was on the nickel!  We played several fun math games to help us review skills from last year. Today we will begin scrolling and trying to reach the number 1000 on our scrolls over the next few weeks.

I was so happy to meet many parents last night. If you missed coming to Curriculum Night, I am sending home all the information today. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

I hope to post pictures soon, when I have received back the photo release forms from everyone.

Thank you,
Mrs. Scheck

First week of Second Grade

Dear families,

We are off to a great start in Second Grade!

This week we have been getting to know each. Here are few fun things we have been working on this week...

We read the book You're Finally Here! and we each made a funny book and wrote about the fun things we did before school started.  We made the bunny character from the story and will display them for curriculum night!

We also talked about what skills we want to build upon this year that we began from last year. We talked about interests outside of school too! Students made themselves into a Lego person and wrote about the skill they want to build. We hung them outside our door.

We have been reading about kindness all week. We read two books by Maria Desmondy: Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun and Pink Tiara Cookies for Three. We discussed the theme in each book- being kind and having empathy for others. We learned empathy is when you can put yourself in someone else's shoes or imagine how they would feel. We will return to these books all year to talk about how to treat others.

We began math yesterday and learned the number of the day routine. We used white board to practice different ways to make the number (spell, tally marks, use coins, an addition problem, a subtraction problem). Today we will take a beginning of the year assessment to see what skills students need to firm up from last year. This assessment will stay in the classroom. Next week we will begin using math journals and start regular math lessons.

We will have a short spelling assessment which reviews the "popcorn words" from last year. We will talk more about spelling next week at Curriculum Night, which is Wednesday, September 13th at 6:30-7:15! I hope you will be able to join me that night to hear all about Second Grade!

I am truly enjoying getting to know each and every child in my class this year. I told the students they are "My Kids" when we are here and everyone seems to be adjusting very well to the new school year!

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Scheck