February 25 - March 1

Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed the mid-winter break!

The students are working on two new units of study for reading and writing.
In reading we have started a new unit called Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power. 
We will focus on these four main components of the unit: Reading with fluency, Understanding Literary Language, Meeting the challenges of longer books, and Setting Reading goals.

We began the unit this week focusing on making our reading sound fluent. We practiced reading passages out loud and in our heads. In our reading groups, we have began reader's theater pieces.
Reader's theaters are similar to a play. Each student will be practicing their readers theater in class and at home.

In writing, we began a new unit on opinion writing, Writing About Reading. In this unit we have started with studying a favorite book character, Mercy Watson. Together we wrote a letter to send to another class about one of our favorite Mercy books. Students focused their first attempt at letter writing on one of their favorite characters. Students will get to send their letters to another student after a few more days of writing.

In phonics, we are working on short and long o, we have discussed the CVC, CVCE and CVVC words. We also practiced long and short vowels on the computer using i-ready.

In math, we are near the end of Unit 5. This week we have learned another way to add using the change to more model using thermometers. The students worked on a two day open response and they solved an involving adding two digit numbers. A study guide was sent home Tuesday. On Thursday we will review the study guide. We will have the test Friday, March 1st. A family letter for Unit 6 will come home early next week, we will start Unit 6 on Monday.

In Social Studies, next week we are beginning a new unit about the history of Walled Lake. We will discuss how time lines work and begin to learn about the history of Walled Lake including the amusement park that used to be near the lake. We will learn how and why the park closed. We will also debate the idea of having the park re-open. During the unit students will choose sides and have to give reasons for their opinion on why we should or should not reopen the park!

On Friday I will send home another Scholastic book order for you to look at with your child! Ordering on line is very easy or you may send in a check with your child's order. Book orders are due on March 15.

Students will attend an assembly on Friday to hear about March is reading month!! Mrs. Russel will tell us about her reading challenge for the students, please look for information to come home on Friday!

Upcoming events:
March 22nd half day of school
March 28th Second grade musical (watch for my updates on time of performance)

Valentine's day hats!

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Happy Valentine's day from Mrs. Scheck's second grade class!

Valentine's day craft with our k buddies

We made heart shaped sun catchers today with our kindergarten buddies from Mrs. Megyesi's class to celebrate friendship on Valentine's day!

Week of February 11-15

Hello families!
We have had a busy couple of weeks between our field trip, an ice day and a half day!
Thank you for all the parents volunteers who came with us on our field trip this past Monday, we had a great time! Be sure to check out the pictures on this blog.

This week we will begin a new unit of study in reading called Bigger Books Mean Amping up Reading Power. We will begin the unit with a shared reading book called Happy Like Soccer by Maribeth Boelts. We will use the book to focus on comprehension strategies such as: retelling, vocabulary, fluency, and word solving. This book will give us a nice spring board into our new unit of reading!

In Phonics we are working on long a using vowel teams: ai, ay and a_e. We will sort the words with those spelling patterns with short a (CVC) patterns.

In writing, we will wrap up non-fiction teaching books and get ready to share them with our second grade partners. The books will go into a portfolio for our next year's teacher after they are shared. We will then begin a new unit of opinion writing! Students will learn how to select a book they love and how to convince another person they will want to read the book to.

We are about half way through Unit 5 in math. This week students learned how to make arrays, practice telling time and used geo-boards to make different shapes. We will learn next how to use an open number line to solve two digit addition problems, change to more number stories and a part-part total diagram.  Expect home links on Monday and Wednesday this coming week!

We will celebrate Valentine's day on Friday, February 15th. Please keep your child's cards at home until Friday. I do not have storage in the room to hold onto your child's cards. We will have our party at 2:00 on Friday. We are making valentine bags in the room to hold our cards. We will also make a craft on Thursday with a parent volunteer! If you have any questions, please email me!

Mid-winter break begins on February 18-22. We will not have school for that week. Please read and work on i-ready lessons on at home for extra practice! Your child's login and password are printed on the front of his or her assignment notebook. the website for is www.i-ready.com (using a laptop or regular computer).

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Scheck

Outdoor Center field trip

We had a great time on Monday! We went to the Walled Lake Outdoor Center and learned about Severe Weather, Hibernation, Seeds and Birds. We spent time outside exploring and looking for nests, noticing the weather and putting our "animals" into homes we built.
It was a great day of learning and having fun!
Thank you to our chaperones for braving the weather and coming with us!